It’s that time of the year when the garden has exploded after the freshness of spring and the weather is starting to warm up. It is not too hot yet, and the sun doesn’t burn you too badly if you forget your hat.

The last couple of weeks have felt a little different with the wind blowing strongly and yet it hasn’t been cold. There is a propensity for an irregular shower or two but not enough to stop working or sitting in the garden. That said, the early morning sunshine alongside the local feathered choir is a real pick me up when you have an early start.

The greenhouse is now slowly producing some healthy plants and those already planted are gradually strengthening enough to produce fruit of one kind or another. A new strawberry is available each day in the hanging pots, just waiting to be consumed by an expectant gardener.

The winter experiment with vegetables was a definite success, in the respect that almost everything grew. We even ate the majority of the broccoli and some of the spring greens. But we didn’t consume them all at the right time and the dry weather has caused most of them  to bolt all of a sudden and become inedible. My careful nurturing of various green brassicas has proven worthless except as food for the slug population who will consume them readily on the compost heap.

Our crop of leeks has become woody to the extent that cutting them up requires a chainsaw. I literally couldn’t chop them with a sharp knife. I quickly realised that my freshly picked vegetable accompaniment was actually better as an architectural looking window dressing (see above).

That was until I read about leek scapes. If you haven’t heard of them – they are the allium like flower bulbs that grow on top of the leeks when they bolt. I had carefully composted them before I read they are an excellent food accompaniment. Quickly recovering them from the compost heap I washed them carefully to avoid any unfriendly bacteria. I will add them to my pasta masterpiece I thought.

They looked impressive having been lightly steamed, and they tasted unique. A little like asparagus crossed with an onion. My better half was not so keen and I found the chewed ends of several left on the side of the plate as I got rid of the waste. A learning experience I think.

I Have Created Fire- But Someone Is Not Impressed In the Distance

This year I invested in a fire pit for the patio. For years I have promised myself that the reason that I don’t sit outside at night more is that I don’t have a fire pit. Well I corrected that omission and surprisingly enough it has made no difference.

However, I actually used it for the first time tonight.

Seeing the weather was a bit windy but reasonably sunny, I collected a pile of dry wood and set fire to it in the pit. A smug feeling of satisfaction filled my head.

Then the dark clouds arrived within two minutes and the wind start blowing much stronger. Bravely, I fought on against the elements, determined to use my investment.

Thirty minutes later, we made a move back in defeated.

Do I consign this to the same category as the rowing machine that doesn’t row itself or the mandolin that hides itself in the kitchen cabinet?

I will give it another go, when the weather improves and the wind drops. Maybe it will keep us warm when we next watch the unicorn walking through the garden.

Favourite Food For A New Guest

Speaking about unlikely visitors to the garden we have experienced two such occurrences this week.

Firstly, we watched one night while three badgers consumed the seed that had fallen beneath the bird feeder. They have also made themselves comfortable in the vegetable garden, digging some fairly large holes in the middle of the plot.

Then as I pulled into the drive one evening a muntjac deer ran across in front of me and into the hedge. I stopped the car to investigate and it raced across the orchard area and into the thick cover next door.

Since then we have seen it a couple more times and it appears to have made itself at home somewhere. I just hope it doesn’t decide to feast on our garden.

Click this link to see and hear a muntjac deer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWLYfasFEOc

What Lies Beneath - Waiting to Burst Out

Last week my guest editor described a hairy invasion in the garden. The squirrel population had gone wild, leaving plenty of opportunity for him to indulge.

The squirrel contest had already started and our two chief squirrel hunters were sorting out their tactics and planning their next meal.

Well, the 15 hairy invaders have now dwindled to 11, and much fewer have stayed in the garden at one time. The contest is now in full swing and the level of garden stalking has risen off the scale. I have also been made aware of the presence of local white squirrels.

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/news/bath-news/incredibly-rare-white-squirrel-thought-79910

These are pretty rare and very strange looking.

Poppies Spring Up Amongst the Other Flowers

My guest editor quickly got to grips with the cover provided by the tree that had broken in the high winds. Apart from the squirrels, he kept trying to snatch everything else in the garden that strayed in that direction.

So last weekend I cut the smaller branches off the fallen branch and trimmed it back so his cover was gone.

At first he sulked a lot.

Then he walked up and down to let me know he was unhappy.

Finally, he went and found another spot to ambush things in the long grass and nettles. He has always found a way to adapt to any circumstance. He is not a cat hunter for no reason.

Spot The Escapee

When cutting the grass and removing the tree cover I quickly became aware of just how many frogs were hiding in the grass. When I say there were thousands that seems like an exaggeration, but there were literally thousands of tiny black and brown frogs hopping through the grass.

They are so small that even the lawnmower passes over them, leaving them unscathed. They can also really shift, so in riding around slowly on the mower I could almost see a wave of frogs parting to let me pass. This photo doesn’t really do them justice but gives you an idea of the type of frog we are seeing. This year seems to be a bumper year for frogs, probably due to the fact that the weather has been good, there was no unexpected late frost and the grass has grown long with neglect.

These frogs will be good food for various things but not least herons. At one stage my better half saw four herons flying over together – landing next door - since when we have regularly seen them hovering around the local ponds and calling to each other.

Something Much Nicer Than Eyeballs

I mentioned earlier that one or two of the squirrel invaders have made it into the house. While working on Sunday I was alerted to a strange crunching sound coming from outside the study. As I leaned out of the door to identify the noise, I came across Charlie eating the head of one such poor individual.

“That is disgusting”, I said to him and went over to take it off him.

As I came back from depositing the carcass somewhere sensible, I spied two presents that I had not seen previously. He had left me the eyeballs to see me through the day. Obviously squirrel eyeballs don’t taste good – not that I have ever tried them!

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For the final section of this blog I will hand back to the guest editor from last week. He has a certain quirky way with words that is unmistakable.

There is No Hiding This Beauty

There is no greater pleasure than presenting my human colleagues with a gift.

In the morning, I can often be found waiting for the big fat human to sit down with his bowl of food in front of the screen that moves and talks. Once positioned I can shuffle up alongside the chair and then bam!! I leap onto his nice fresh cotton clothes with my lovely muddy paws.

Sometimes he will hand me off before I land. But sometimes I can make a real impression sufficient that he has to go and change his clothes.

Usually I will try to provide this present when he has taken my latest catch off me and hidden it somewhere. Believe me, if you waited by a hole in the ground for several hours to catch something, only to have a human you thought was your friend force you to give it up, then you would provide such gifts as these.

But once I have presented my latest catch, I can often struggle to keep it under my control. The humans will grab me and hold me away from it, they will shut me in a room or they will use a glass to trap my gift.

On Sunday, I found a new fun way to surprise them. I presented the gift as usual, in this case a fairly small vole.  Then I poked it to make sure it ran away very quickly across the large room with the wooden floor and hid somewhere.

It was great. The two humans then spent ages lifting furniture in the room looking for something the size of a cotton wool bud hiding somewhere underneath. They locked me out while they did it, but I looked in through the window and saw the big fat human lifting up a large cabinet while the scrawny one pushed cardboard underneath to enable them to hold it off the floor and look for the tiny stow away.

This went on for the best part of an hour. Oh how Tango and I laughed as we recounted this story later. They never found it, or at least I ate it later but I didn’t tell them.

Having spent a lot of time in the car recently and listened continuously to a small collection of records, I thought one of them might just be worth sharing this weekend.

With the events of the various terror attacks and then the awful fire in London, this video seems to express the feelings that so many will be feeling at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatr_2MstrI

Have a great weekend!

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