I'd never even heard of this book...

but as part of my continuing fascination with pointless quizzes;

You're Love in the Time of Cholera!

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff could get you killed.


Take the Blue Pyramid Book Quiz

Carlins revisited

The Carlins, started in March have reached the end of their cycle. The pods are turning paper thin, the seeds are drying, the vines are dying. Time to harvest.



I'm really pleased with the way they've turned out. The plants are hardy and vigorous, these have survived some poor treatment and indifferent weather to produce a good crop. Although they are really grown as a dried pulse for winter use fresh peas taken young are perfectly acceptable and make a pleasant addition to the early summer vegetables. They are prolific croppers, appear to be immune to pea moth (or lucky) and the dry pods don't shatter, a useful attribute that leads to a less frustrating harvesting experience.



With as many as nine peas to a pod it is a rewarding task to sit and shell them for an hour. These will dry now for a few more days before being packed away for winter soups and a dish of Carlins next spring.

I'll have some seed to spare so the first three people in the EU to mail me at catofstripes [at] gmail [dot] com with their snail mail address will receive small packs (25 seeds) of peas so they can try them next year. I'd like to send the seeds further afield but think that they might fall foul of Customs regulations. It would be a pity to waste them.

Dinner by Candlelight

No blog for a while, I've had my son over to stay for a few days and we've been making the most of our time away from the computer.

The weather has now taken a turn for the miserable, there'll be no more dining out late for another 10 days if the long range forecast is to be believed and wind and rain are hampering our efforts to get the last of the potatoes in. Which is a pity because this was going to be the time set aside for doing summer holiday things like going to the beach as a light relief from everyday tasks.

Oh well, there are sloes to harvest before the birds take them all, grass to cut, chutneys to make, ginger beer to brew and blackberries enough to bathe in. It won't be so bad!

Hot

It's been incredibly hot today. The Meteo says there will be storms but wave after wave of thin clouds roll over, blanking the sun for half an hour and then they pass away again, leaving breathless heat behind them.

The last few years have worried us a bit, each summer seems to have fewer and fewer examples of wildlife on the farm. This year we have only one pair of breeding swallows, hardly any butterflies and a much reduced range of dragonflies. There are no fish in the pond, although that might have something to do with a heron that's been hanging around. I've seen no hares, not even any feral cats.

So it was good to see this Jersey Tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) on the mint today along with a huge selection of variously coloured-bottom flies, wasps and bees. We had one the first year but hadn't seen one since. We saw a few early butterflies, Brimstone and Orange Tip but hardly any Peacocks, Red Admirals or Fritillaries which are usually abundant. There have even barely been any Cabbage White butterflies although there are signs we've had at least two in the vicinity because here is the evidence.



I went out this morning to continue digging potatoes but when I reached the patch discovered the first unmistakeable signs of blight on the tomatoes. We've only managed to take half a dozen ripe fruit from the patch so far and there are literally tens of kilos of green tomatoes waiting to ripen. It put me into a bit of a flurry.

First of all I went out to buy some more bordeaux mixture thinking I would spray again, even though it's barely 10 days since the last dose. Then I thought I would remove some of the foliage so that the spray could penetrate better. Finally, I decided that I would just denude the plants severely so that the sun can reach the fruit. Spraying our food with poison just wasn't appealing enough and there was no guarantee that the spray would stop the blight once it had started anyway, particularly since the expected storms would probably wash all the new fungicide away almost immediately.

Once I had reconciled myself to the thought that there would be no second harvest it seemed the most sensible option. I hope the tomatoes ripen quickly now.

Heritage Junk Food

Crisps made from Highland Burgundy Red and Salad Blue potatoes.

A poor sense of humour...

I think I've apologised for my poor sense of humour on the blogs before but this made me laugh.*

Worral Thompson cocks it up.

Let's all forage safely out there!

*it will also be the straw that stirs the teacup before my pride takes a karmic fall, just you wait and see.

Fingers crossed for the tomato harvest

I'm hesitant even to talk about our tomato crop. So far we've managed to avoid getting blight and the fruits are swelling. I've managed to harvest two ripe tomatoes so far, both from plants in containers, one by the back door and one from the plants in mini polytunnel. The main crop in the field is growing well, with a little sun it won't be long before we can start picking.

And it's breath holding time because for several years now we've had no tomatoes at all from plants grown in the open. Blight has destroyed our entire harvest. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever have a tomato glut again and I miss it.

The weather, which has been warm and dry, has just taken a turn into stormy rain. Humidity is up and the wind is from the west. We need the rain for all the plants which have been parched for a week but for the tomatoes this has come at just the wrong moment.

The blue splodges on the leaves in the picture are Bordeaux mixture sprayed on as a prophylactic measure to stop the blight spores from getting hold but it's still a poison and I'm reluctant to keep using it, particularly as we need to eat the produce. Its effectiveness only lasts for a couple of weeks at a time - less in wet weather.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us.