Spot Weeding

The weather has been very accommodating, heavy showers then a day or two of a dry spell and more showers. Even at night the air temperature is 17+ degrees C and in the day in the mid to high twenties. This has caused the plants to shoot up. That suits me. The strong leafy plants tend to crowd out the weeds. It is only the Onions that suffer since they offer no shade which lets the weeds get established.

At this time of the season I just spot weed and push the hoe about where I can. Any weed that shows flowers is allowed a few days in the sun and is then yanked out. My hope is that the plant has expended a lot of energy growing put out flowers for the bees and other insects and pulling them whilst in flower means they do not set seed. If they have not set seed they can go in the compost.

I friend of mine, Alan, was after a few seedlings to replace the Sprouting Broccoli that had failed. I only had Sprouts but that was deemed an acceptable alternative. We had a tour of the plot and bagged a couple of handfuls of what ever was ripe. He went away with a big basket of fresh veg. His missus, Julia, will make something fantastic. She is a great cook. It will be all that WI training. On the way back we had to drop in at The Railway, where payment was made, in the form of a couple of pints of Guinness. I was such a pleasant evening we sat outside and talked of "cabbages and kings" and other such nonsense over our pints.

The Parsnips have been a disaster. No more than a dozen have germinated and the speed they are growing they will look like mini-veg on Christmas dinner plate. The Carrots are doing nicely. There is a green fuzz in the rows where the seedlings are growing and the weather is perfect for them. I have been round the leaders of the pumpkin and cut off the growing tips. This will force the plant to fill out the fruits. One of the pumpkins is already bigger than a football. Broad Beans are ready to crop as are some of the Peas. The climbing French Beans have some pods but they look lumpy rather than smooth. Perhaps I have left them too long on the vine. The early cabbages have been eaten by baby slugs so I will have them out shortly and plant out some of the Brussel Sprout seedlings in there place. The successional sowing cabbage has work quite well in the patch except for the cauli's They all came together and went to seed between my visits.

H has had a triumph with her first attempt at jam making. The Blackcurrant set just right and is just the right balance of sweet and acid. The Redcurrants from Gloria have made a very nice jelly. We had some with the Bacon for tea tonight. The blackcurrants came from our garden and made twenty jars of jam and enough left over to make some Cassis. Mum was clearing out under the stairs and found some part bottles of Cognac left over from parties years ago. I do not like spirits but made into Cassis it is a different matter.

We went to Manchester on Saturday to our dear friend Jill's birthday. The big four oh. It was a smashing evening. We saw folks we had not seen for a long while. They were all amazed at Miss L. Some one them had not seen Miss L since we left Manchester when she was eight. Jill's dad, Charlie, who is a lovely chap, kept referring to Miss L as his super model friend which Lucy liked a lot. There was a young chap, Adam, who sang along to a backing tape. He was fantastic. He sung songs of Dean Martin, Sinatra and Matt Munroe and swing interpretations of more modern tunes. H was all agog because he sung Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me"for her. Ella Fitzgerald did the most well know version. The tune was also used in film the same name with a young Tom Berenger in the lead who is also one of H's favorites.

I have a trip to London this week and I go on holidays next weekend so there will be a lot to do. I have made a list. I only hope I can tick most of it off before I leave.