Courgette city

My two courgette plants have really blossomed into benign monsters, and I've had the pleasure of eating my own courgettes for a fortnight or so now. However, I get too enthusiastic and pick them when they're a bit tiny! Check out these babies:



I took my camera to the plot yesterday. The courgettes are truly impressive.




There has been so much wind, though! All my tomato plants were blown down (thankfully not too badly damaged, they are thriving, as well), and the huge courgette leaves had been functioning as sails in the wind. This one is just about ready for take-off; the roots have been pulled out!

Sweet pea

I've been having an absolutely awful time at work, with deadline after murderous deadline, but I believe I have now met them all - phew! It didn't help that I was feeling rather tired and run down, but only two more weeks to go and it's all over.

Last weekend, my parents came to visit. Along with a huge amount of food and other goodies, they brought us a gift from the Provence, where they had just had a sunfilled walking holiday:



I do love my peppers, so when my mum saw this lovely colourful tea towel, she thought of me! It is now brightening up our kitchen corridor.

But let's take a closer look:


Okay, you may think that that is a rather pathetic selection of sweet peas, so small that they have to be held up by a hair scrunchie. However, I would have you know that these are the first product of my hand-sown organic sweet peas! I am very excited about them, and I learnt on Gardeners' World last Friday that the more you pick them, the more flowers grow!

My mum was rather invaluable as far as help and advice with regard to the plot was concerned. It was nice to have someone more enthusiastic (and hardworking) than myself around! She of course came with a selection of plants, and picked up a few more along the way. This nicotiana (very strong-smelling at night) we bought at the local organic market for 50p, and it's already coming into flower a week later:


More pictures of the plot, which is now thriving, will follow soon!

Plot developments

Earlier in the week, we had our friends Evert and Anouk over for dinner. The plan was to go punting, but unfortunately it had rained extremely heavily the day before, and the river level was too high to go out. Never mind, we just had a picnic in the gardens instead, and a most civilised affair it was, too!

I was feeling very pleased, because I had made a salad out of the first lettuce yield of the crop. Look at all that goodness!


We had lots of other exciting goodies, such as these tiger-striped tomatoes:


Here we are enjoying it all:


This evening, I was emptying my compost bin, when I noticed a development so exciting, I had to go back for my camera, so that I could record it for posterity.

My initial thought was, 'Ah, a flower on the courgette!'


But WAIT! That is not just a flower, that is ... a mini-courgette! My first real-life courgette! Woohooo!


This all reminds me vividly of last summer. I had a courgette plant then, which I was even more excited about then than I am now. I was monitoring it extremely closely, and you should have been there to experience my joy when it produced its first, amazingly beautiful flower. Unfortunately, that was to be about the extent of it, thanks to the worst summer I've ever lived through! We are already ahead of last summer!