Another day spent productively in the garden, a lovely walk apart from the ending, some healthy food and some not!

I began with a juice; orange, half a lemon, half a beetroot, 3 celery sticks, 3 Swiss chard leaves, a carrot and an apple. This tasted really good. We had lunch out in the garden of our village pub,  The Milkhouse.

It seems like another lifetime ago that I used to stand at the village school to collect Lara or Harvey.The weather seemed comfortable today for the first time in weeks as it was not too hot.   I enjoyed a lager and lime (or 2) which is refreshing and served very cold here, just how I like it.
In the garden is a huge pizza oven.  I ordered the ‘Plucky Hen’.
Whole fresh anchovies on it.We had two rocket based side salads too.  It was very good.  I also ate some skinny fries and we had a Magnum ice cream on the way home.
In the afternoon the Little Fella and I had a lovely walk over the road.  We were intrigued/anxious to see what was being built. We found some Kentish cobnuts but decided they were a bit too hard to eat. It was lovely to walk and not be too hot. Harvey and Milton fought over sticks for about half an hour, which is one of their favourite games. It is so green in the woods at this time of year. Thirsty work boys? Last week we had seen diggers here and this is what they were erecting.  A huge horrible fence slicing though these lovely woods.  The amount of land they have cleared here is wide enough for a road.  I was very worried that we wouldn’t be able to complete our usual circuit, which would have really upset me as I have been walking over here for more than 10 years. We kept going until we came to another fence.  Somedays it may be tempting to lock him up but not today. It seems that they are putting gates in to keep the footpath open which is a relief but I remain very disappointed by this ugliness.  I much preferred the natural green landscape. Happy we can continue to cross this little bridge we have all been over so many times before. NB builders! This is how I prefer my woodland to look. I took this photo because our yellow dog, Dylan, was lagging behind.  Milton always walks close by us but Dylan usually wanders off.  He comes back regularly to check us but then runs off again, exploring and always optimistic that today may be the day he can catch that damn squirrel.  Today though he was walking behind us most of the time and when I took this picture he was standing still so we were waiting.  Sadly he then had a massive fit which was very frightening and upsetting.  Harvey was brilliant and ran all the way home to get help.  Dylan came round from his fit,  seemed happy to walk home and is now resting.  The vet suggested we leave him to settle at home tonight in a dark and quiet room and I will take him in tomorrow to see if they can work out why he had a fit.  We are all hoping it is something that can be controlled as he has  had a small turn before but this was a full on fit which lasted about 5 minutes.  I really thought his time had come. To end on a more cheery note, here is a look at the part of my garden I love the most.  This is the large flower bed next to the veggie patch.  The crocosmia are massive this year – they must love the sunshine. It does mean they obscure the shorter flowers behind. The peas had to go today. I consider these to be a personal failure as there were so many healthy pea pods but I didn’t pick them in time and then I didn’t water them enough so the plants turned silvery and covered in fine ‘dust’ which can happen during a prolonged dry and hot spell such as we have had.  But if I had picked them all and frozen them, I would have plenty to enjoy but I was trying to have a constant source of fresh.  I will do things differently next year and put this one down to inexperience of having such a large crop.

So the pea and bean bed just has the remaining broad beans in it which toppled over as I didn’t put supports in – another lesson learnt for next year!

I am proud of this lettuce.  It is perfect and is to be enjoyed at a special dinner on Friday. This is the new area (reclaimed from a flower bed) full of potatoes with celery in the trench. I have raspberries, blueberries and blackcurrants in the fruit cage.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine and okra in the greenhouse. Carrots, red spring onions (just sown today), Swisss chard, a triffid and some spinach. Oregano, thyme, dill, khol rabi, beetroot, something unidentified, red and white spring onions. 2 types of courgette which both look identical and sweet potatoes. 3 types of lettuce plus today I removed and sowed more rocket, mizuna and mustard giant red. Last but not least, Kath’s raspberries which the birds got more of than I did this year.

So there is a little tour of the veggie patch.  I am pleased with this weekend’s efforts and feel on top of it all again.  I will let you know how I get on at the vets tomorrow.