Midsummer's Day

Sunday 21st June
It's Father's Day today and Peter spent a lovely afternoon down on the plot! The sun was shining, the kettle was on and the paper was waiting to be read. No really, he worked hard picking loads of fruit and pulling out all the weeds next to the fruit bushes. We brought Baxter with us today - Dave and Di's Staffordshire terrier. He behaved very well once we found him a place where he couldn't damage any of the crops, and there was a bit of shade.
The gooseberries on the established bush were ripening fast and swelling despite the lack of rain. The blackcurrants were as big as small grapes - much bigger than the ones in the garden and with very few pests, and there were a few redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries ready as well. We once dreamed of having a garden full of fruit bushes, well now we have it.
I busied myself planting some cosmos and lupin plants which Di had been looking after for me while I was away. She's done a great job, planting them all up into pots - they look very healthy. I took the opportunity of putting down slug pellets, as I know the slugs like lupins. I also did loads of weeding, but I don't want this to turn into a weeding blog!
We picked our very first potatoes today. There was still another picking of asparagus left and some more broad beans. It's a real treat to be able to eat vegetables fresh from the plot.