Monday 2 May 2016

May bank holiday weekend


It's a very rare ocassion that I have my 3 boys together in the same room but we managed it this weekend :-) Middle son (with beard) got a selfie stick in a Secret Santa exchange and we had great fun playing with it.  This was the one sensible photo!!


The weather has been incredibly mixed with rain/hailstones/wind/sun all in the space of 10 minutes!  The girls don't seem to mind and love trashing free ranging in the top raised part of the garden.  See how they've managed to avoid eating the dandelions and go for the good stuff!


Stuff just keeps popping up in the polytunnel but I'm delighted my heirloom pumpkins have sprouted.  They're a French variety called Rouge vif d'Etampes.  I'm hoping they grow to full size and I can save seeds for next year too.  Finally my outside peas are starting to push up so looks like it might be warming up enough to start planting my raised beds at the front.


BUT my 6 tomato plants died :-(  They were Homebase ones and looked healthy enough but didn't have a huge rootball.  I planted them anyway but one by one they all died. So I took them back and got a refund! Dunno if I'll plant more yet.


We took a wee trip out in the campervan to Loch Katrine where you can sail on an old steamship (we didn't) walk or cycle round the loch and take in the scenery.  Sadly the weather was awful and we got soaked several times but well worth a visit.
 

As usual we went off the tourist trail and climbed up some of the hilly trails.  We had the dogs with us.  They're good at finding wee paths we can follow.  The hills were covered with heather and blaeberries I don't think I've seen such a large amount in one place! Every direction I turned there were thousands. Sadly not quite ready for picking yet but I'm hoping to persuade OH to go back in a few weeks ;-)


You can just make out the unripe red/pink berries in this pic

Back to work tomorrow and this is a 4 day week for me.  I'm not enjoying job sharing, for many reasons but only 8 weeks to go until the summer holidays.  Woohoo!!

5 comments:

  1. As a French resident I can thoroughly recommend your pumpkin variety. Tasty, colourful and good keepers as well. Make delicious soup and also eaten roasted. Bon appetit - in advance! Helen in France

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    1. Ooo, thanks for letting me know that! :-)

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    2. If you can grow butternut squash they have a better flavour than pumpkins, are smaller and will keep if stored on the 'bottoms' in the cool and dark until March or April after their harvest.

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    3. Yes, also growing butternut squash so will be trying to store them. Thanks for the tip!

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  2. That's a lovely photo of you and your boys :-)

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