My little corner of Southern England enjoyed bright blue skies and hot sunshine all day today.  It was wonderful and as I had a day at home, mainly gardening, I was able to enjoy it all.

Scrambled eggs, spinach and cherry tomatoes for breakfast and off I went in to the garden for just about the entire day.The first thing I do on such a day as today is to water, slowly, letting the plants have plenty of water while giving me time to have a good look at the previous day’s growth or slug attack.  I started working in the sunny beds but it was so warm, even at 9 am, that I swapped to work in the shade while it was there.  The entire vegetable patch is bathed in sunshine by about 10 am and stays that way all day.
The spinach and radishes are ready for picking which is always exciting.  Shame I forgot to actually pick them at lunch time though !

The broad beans are coming along well and the peas are growing incredibly quickly.

They almost grow while I watch them so the pea sticks are in now to give them support. Most of the bean bed is doing very well.  The climbing French beans and the dwarf French beans had a really good germination rate and are growing well.   Unlike the runner beans which managed to produce one stunted little plant out of a whole packet! The Heligan Vegetable Bible suggests soaking the beans in warm water for 18 hours before sowing.  I soaked mine for about 8 hours which I am hoping helps. I weeded ALL my vegetable beds today and sowed 8 packets of seeds. It was thirsty but very satisfying work. Lunch was very easy.  I roasted a chicken, baked potatoes and made a salad.  I like to have cooked chicken in the fridge for quick and easy mid week suppers so despite the heat and my enthusiasm for being outside, I did manage to roast the chicken.   It was very tasty with the added bonus of just a little clearing up afterwards.

As well as the vegetables I needed to make a start on the planting out the 105 flower seedlings Sarah Raven sent me a couple of weeks ago so it was a very busy day in the garden.   It is Harvey’s birthday on Tuesday and he was slightly anxious that this year, our nearly sugar free home may not produce a birthday cake.  Shop bought cakes are not the thing at all on a birthday so he made his own, almost entirely alone.  He made cup cakes and they turned out really well. Once they were cooled and butter iced, he set about decorating them with great gusto.   No pot of glitter or sprinkles went unused.

As my had-just-been-cleaned-ready-for-the-week-ahead kitchen disappeared beneath a cloud of fairy dust (you may call it glitter) I felt proud of the little fella for having a go.  He has never made cup cakes before but now he has and they are really good.  We had to try them to make sure they were fit for purpose.  They were but are now packed away ready for the big day on Tuesday.

And I am finding fairy dust everywhere.