A month of fun and things..

Well, it's been exactly one month since we last posted about that delicious green pepper.

Amy is back studying again now and I go back to Uni on the 3rd October. Despite not blogging, we've been keeping up with 'Our good life' and the tomatoes just keep coming, the apples are almost ready for eating, the runner beans won't stop running and we're enjoying gluts of delicious produce aswell as sharing it with friends and family too.

Today brought a momentous occasion. Despite having the Bantam girls for several months now, until today we have been eggless. But only moments ago came the groundbreaking discovery...

It's very small but very perfectly formed. We think it Barbara, but we can't be sure yet. We'll be watching carefully these next few days to see who is making all those right signs.

Anyway, you might be wondering what else we have been up too. Well we've started a radical health plan, we are visiting the gym daily, and we've made radical changes to our eating habits which have been conducted with immediate effect.

We're making big plans for next year already, including upscaling our operation to cover a wider range of all things good. We are far from where we want to be in the long term, but these little strides make it seem like a realistic aim to have.

Well, we hope to blog more frequently this month. We've missed reading your blogs, but it's been nice to have a break. Dare I say it, but with Christmas now only around the corner we are already starting to buy, make and think of presents and puddings ready for the big day.

Thanks for reading the blog, we won't abandon you again!

Martin and Amy

Beautiful..

Today saw the harvest of the first ripe tomato. This is from a variety simply called 'Orange Cherry'.

Hopefully this is the first of many, a whole vine were ripening in the sun this afternoon...

It was sweet and delicious! It was only small but we had half each. Not quite enough for tea.

Talking of meals though, we have had plenty of food from our own garden to eat. We had an entirely self produced curry (minus the sauce) the other day. We also had cottage pie with home grown new potatoes, spinach and runner beans. Sunday Lunch was completed with the daily harvest too!

Enjoy the weekend!

Martin

Autumn August and the Alphabet

Well, a belated welcome to August. What has the weather been like? It's absolutely piping hot, very muggy and until today there has been absolute drought.

The water butts have been empty, and I've had to sinfully use a hosepipe to water the veggies. Thank goodness for today's drizzle of rain, first of all it will save me some time watering the plants and secondly those butts will fill back up and secure us a few weeks worth of useage.

I was reading another blog called The Compost Bin. They are doing an Alphabet August, where each of their blog posts must start with the next letter in the alphabet. Obviously we start today with A.

I wanted to write a post about the misconsception that people have regards Autumn and August. I have to admit then when I was younger, my friends and I all believed that August was the start of Autumn. Ok, the first two graphemes A and U are the same, but that is where it ends in reality. Everywhere you look you can still see summer. The fruit is still ripening, the sun is shining and the school holiday's have just begun for youngsters across the country. The leaves aren't turning brown just yet, and although the night's are beginning to draw in slightly, we can still be out in the garden until about 9pm.

We need not fear quite just yet about those long winter evenings, although we should be planning or have planned for them. We bought some winter brassica seedlings today to put in to our new garden share plot, we should have some fresh vegetables in early February through to April whilst the main growing season crops are yet to begin to grow.

On the other hand it is understandable why people think August is the beginning of Autumn. Next month we will be embraced with Christmas goods beginning to fill the shops. I know that the stock room at the place where I work already has 2012 calendars, seasonal chocolate selections, cards and gift wrap waiting to find their way on to the shelves. Many people will see September as the beginning of the indulgence in to the winter season, and we've only just enjoyed June and July's sun, so logically August is Autumn.

Christmas already..? seems like only yesterday we celebrated Christmas in Disneyland.

I feel that this misconception regards when our seasons begin and end is down to globalised firms who shove our faces with Christmas in September and Easter in January. No wonder we're all out of sync.

I don't know about you, but I recon the best people to ask about the seasons are gardeners. We know when to plant, protect, sow and grow in order to make sure we have full bellies all year round.

Tomorrow's post will start with the letter B!

Martin