Choke's on me

With the help of sandy soil and plenty of mulch, I successfully nursed 15 of my 16 artichoke plants through their first winter outdoors. I have four different varieties and am well on my way to cornering the local market with jars of carciofi grigliati - which won't be difficult as no-one else grows them and Valerie and I probably constitute the whole market. The arrival of the first bud, along with the first nose of asparagus, has to be one of the highlights of the year, which I guess sums up my lifestyle these days?

it has been awhile..

and I have eventually managed to upload my photos for you! Thrown a couple in for luck. The plot os coming on well - the sweetcorn and courgettes are in the cold frame and will be planted out next weekend - Grampy is casting a careful eye over it all (i.e. has reinstalled the frost protection around the beans! I am assuming to protect them from the wind but we all know what happens when you assume things .......!)

Any how book me into the guest bedroom - my only concern is will it hold everyone on the coach trip and is there an en-suite.

Al lotment and I (although he doesn't know it yet) are scamming Syksey's idea and running the ERM Oxford veg show - be sure to send over your most random shaped veg as an entry!

Seriously it is starting to look really good Stan - I can imagine the hard work you are putting into it.

Ta ra

Chesh

Flashing blade

With the 'Northern Scot' portraying Elgin as a lawless and violent place, what with all those teenage girls biting policeman and people pushing and shouting at each other, it pays to be able to defend yourself in the event that hordes of city dwellers bring their disorder to our peaceful neck of the woods. My weapons of choice are the scythe and machete. A by-product of having these useful deterrents is that we can tackle the regiments of nettles, ground elder, sweet cicely and friends threatening to advance up the slope now that it is not held back by heavily armed sheep. So the old stock fence is gone, opening up stingless access to the burn to allow you to sit on the new rock staircase and cleanse and soothe your extremities in the sweltering heat*. The plot now looks bigger still. I've got grand plans for this area but they're being kept under wraps for now although using the leftover barbed wire to build a security bunker to keep the miscreants at bay has been ruled out for the time being.

* Midge repellent not supplied.

Hot Hot Hot!

You'll be pleased to hear I toasted the royal couple by bringing out my old yellow shorts. Not a cloud here all weekend and more wall-to-wall sunshine forecast this week. I guess we will pay once the Scottish "summer" kicks in. Got loads done these past two long weekends and the lure of part-time working grows ever stronger. We now have a new promontory created by our building contractor from an area which was probably the old farm tip - rubble, scrap metal, timber, that sort of thing - really should have got an environmental consultant in to look at it but buried instead. Capping followed by phytoremediation, I think you'd call it. This area provides a great new viewpoint over the veg plot, orchard and slope. We had previously written it off as unusable but it now looks a good place for the polytunnel. You'll see the tall peas are ready to be wedded to their supports, potatoes are earthed up against the run of frosts while celeriac is sheltering in that fleece tunnel. Fruit garden is watered and mulched in anticipation of further drought. The house foundations are complete and we now await the joiners scheduled to arrive in about three weeks. That's me, what have you all been doing?

To let...

You've probably heard of the design concept of "garden rooms". Well, having kitted out the plot lounge and recently the kitchen, we have now fully spruced up the guest room. Comes complete with guest book where you can sign your name in the earth.

That's about the size of it...

Apparently, houses always look smaller than you expect at this stage. The main house is 12.5 x 4.5m. And to think we were considering chopping a metre off the far end and both porches to save money! Out came the measuring tapes to show that in fact the lounge is bigger than our current lounge or indeed the one we had in Oxford. I am stood in the ample kitchen diner while Valerie is probably in the shower. From here, I will be able to mull over the supper menu with a view of the potential seasonal ingredients stretching out to the south. Looking behind us from upstairs, we will be able to see the distant alluring snow-capped northwest highlands - believe me they are just about visible in the far left of this picture - which appear through the murk about three times a year, threatening to divert one's passions away from the critical task at this time of year of weeding that onion patch.

Pistils at dawn

There's only one surefire way to keep on top of the weeds in the onion patch. Yes, camp there -with a hoe at your bedside. We experienced a bit of a barbecue spring last weekend - my Met Office approved thermometer was saying 24 degrees* on Sunday. Last year's rarely disturbed charcoals were dusted down and a long-awaited bottle of Prosecco polished to off to celebrate start of construction. And after a shocking night's sleep on a hard floor, what better way to start the day than watch the sun rise through the ash trees during a dawn raid on the hairy bittercress.

*Bitterly cold winds since mind, poor seedlings!