What happened to May – and June – and half of July?

I did say that my blog posts might be rather random and they certainly are!

Below, in italics, are two attempts to write Blog entries which didn’t get finished or published.

So, where are we? Well, Broad Beans have come and gone – mostly in the freezer. Had some with the Toad-in-the hole for dinner this evening and they were very good. Strawberries are all over – very poor crop. Raspberries are still going strong and we don’t really know what to do with them all. The hens are helping out as they love them! Jam made, many frozen. Rhubarb and Raspberry crumble tomorrow and some puree on the go. Gooseberries went into pies and pudding recipes, some wonderful ice cream and the rest in the freezer. Red and Black Currants are looking good and should be picked in the next week or so. Had a good few Loganberries this year too. Courgettes are daily. Mange Tout, Snap Peas are not too bad. Peas will start to be picked in the next day or two. Potatoes are OK but couldn’t keep them wet enough in May for there to be a great crop. Carrots are looking good and the Kale is excellent. Cabbages soon too. A very good garlic crop is drying in the garage, and the onions and shallots will be ready to harvest when they have dried out from the rain over the last few days.

The whole garden has been weeded and tidied once and I’m now well into the second pass. The weather is helping now by encouraging the weeds to grow again!

As we are supporting a family member we are now self-isolating again for the whole of July. We did venture out to Sutton Hoo a couple of weeks ago. It was very quiet. Apart from essential trips to get food for ourselves, the hens and for the bird feeders we haven’t really been anywhere much. Looking forward to August when we can see all the family again.

As I’m writing this the Government have announced further easing of restrictions so we may be able to start up the Table Tennis Club again soon.

Daily walks continue with over 100 consecutive days walked by the end of June!! It has been noticeable that the number of local walkers and cyclists has reduced significantly since the restrictions have been eased. Social distancing doesn’t seem so prominent now either!

Guess you are all bored with this now, so here are a few photos from our daily walks around Long Thurlow.

051497 Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, Hundred Lane, Long Thurlow Area, Suffolk

051501 Stormy Skies, Sheepgate Lane, Long Thurlow Area, Suffolk

051541 Insects on Hogweed Flowers, Kiln Lane, Long Thurlow Area, Suffolk

051555 Path between Ashfield Hill & Badwell Ash Pits, Long Thurlow Area, Suffolk

051606 Poppy, Long Thurlow Area, Suffolk

That’s it for now. Who knows I may write again soon , or it may be a while. For those who do read this, thank you. As always your comments are welcome.

Well I did start to write a Blog entry in mid-May as you will see below but events have rather overtaken me . Well, actually, it is the lack of events as most of my time has been spent in the garden – morn ’til night! Never had to do so much watering in May before. Of course daily walks, and family Zoom meetings continued too as well as the odd “Click and Collect” adventure. We did have a Saturday of May Mayhem when all the family and a friend from New Zealand had a Zoom day of making various things like a Maypole, birthday cards, paper WW2 planes and, of course, a quiz.

I have left the original blog entry here as, having gone to the effort of writing it,

So here we are almost in mid-May and still “locked down” in Long Thurlow, as is everywhere else. Could be worse as we have some lovely walks locally and a good sized garden to play in.

All the back garden has now been weeded and tidied and the weeds are happily growing again waiting for me to remove them again! The front borders weeding project is abut one-third of the way through and is a rather bigger task than I first thought.

All the remaining vegetable seeds have been set – Runner, Dwarf and Bolotti beans, Courgettes, Marrows etc. and the Sweetcorn. The Bed Bed has mostly been sown and seedlings already showing through. Peas still have to go out into the garden from the greenhouse but the weather needs to warm up a bit before they can be planted.

The little girl next door came down the Lane next to ours today with her Mum looking for the centre of the earth, which is a long way down she said. She wants to find it it as the dinosaurs live there, and they will eat all the virus up apparently! A 4 year-olds take on the Coronavirus solution!