Burn Baby Burn (by sarah)

A few weeks ago we helped Barbara with a 'bonfire' these are regular occurances and are designed to get rid of the stuff thats too smokey to burn on the fire and too woody to compost. It was a very smokey affair.

I wanted to get a photo of Barbara jumping up and down on top of the fire to 'get it going' but alas she was too quick and by the time I'd got the camera she had climbed down again!

FLOOD!!!! (by sarah)

No this time it isn't part of the curse instead it was a bit of bad luck for peeps upstream of us. The dam of their lake broke and a huge surge of water came down the stream that runs through the garden here! This was in the afternoon of the 13th of Jan 2007.

We weren't actually here to witness this but a neighbour took some photos - we were quiet starteled when we saw them!

This is the stone bridge by the water cress pond, there is normally a little statue of a boy called Gilbert residing in here. He was missing after the flood but once the water level went down it turned out he'd just been knocked off his plinth!

Our compost heap is now responsible for phosphate and nitrate contamination of the water courses! Yep thats it half submerged there.

Beleive it or not there is a tunnel that thestream flows through just under the road there - it is completely below the water line meaning water had to have come over the road!

As you can see compared to our little trickle this was something else! Poor Barbara had not long planted out a load of iris and rushes along the stream which all got washed away 🙁

Fungus (by sarah)

Look what we have groing on a tree along the drive way - I think it is actually a space ship of some strange alien race! Wonder if its edible? Actually maybe it is the the alien - look its a mouth - it even has a tongue! I hope its not damaging the poor tree especially as I think its one of the fruit trees! It now has sinister black fringing which I assume are the spores.

Of Green Fingers and Stinging Nettles (by sarah)

Today I finally got time to tie those blasted tomatoe plants up - maybe now the tomatos will rippen and we will have yummy! To my suprise there were quiet alot of tomatoes - they are supposed to be cherry tomatos so I'm not expecting anything huge! They are growing in grow bags just outside our house in the sort of gully thing before the flower bed. They took quiet a lot of tying back with a few causulties along the way 🙁 Including my hand! There was a damn great big stinger lurking in amoungst them so there I was grabbing great big hundfulls of tomato plant when wam bam thankyou mam! White blotches and red skin all over my fingers 🙁 They are still tingling now! I've ended up using most of our ball of string to tie them up with and it was no mean feat I can tell you! I did actually end up with green fingers from this escapade too! Hence the title of the post.

Also my tip for today would be - do not grow things on the compost heap no matter what a good idea it is or how good the flipping crop of squashes is! Al's aunt is growing all manner of squashes from yellow couregettes to pumpkins on the compost heap - and the crop yeild is fantastic - BUT

a) the friuts are going rotten quicker as they are touching the compost/trying to grow into the compost!

b) getting to the stream to fill up the water can is a night mare - I ended up sliding down the muddy bank into the water today 🙁

c) compost heaps that get wet ooz a noxious brown liquid that sqielches out under foot - this is not good when wearing sandles!

d) being short I have to climb onto the heap to water the plants - I dont like doing this for two reasons - climbing still hurts slightly and the compost heap is smelly unstable!

Veggy plot is a bit over grown but not too bad considering the amount of time I'm finding to actually tend it! And the kittens keep eating all the herbs!

Carrots and Parsnips (by sarah)

Oops fogot to post - it was a few days ago now! (actually I then forgot to post it again so it was ages ago!)

I picked our first corrots ages ago but never posted about them! We had them in stir fry and they looked the way I remember carrots looking:)

Today I did some more weeding of the veggi plot, including culling some of the spinach which is almost taller than me! I picked our first parsnips 🙂

Once I started to prepear them I realised I was dealing with Monster Parsnips and that the Wiggly Pets would have to be involved!

The parsley is doing really well but the garlicks have bit the dust 🙁 I need to clear more of the plot for the globe artichokes wwhich are still sizzling in the propergator!