The Borage in the edible garden is dropping its lovely blue flowers onto the curly purple lettuce.
The bees love the Eryngium which is a cloud of buzzing blue this year. 
We were given a little chili plant earlier in the season, (another allotmenteer gift) and it is doing really well in the poly tunnel. I will have to ask for advice on when to harvest.
I first made Cloth Kitty about 40 years ago and am now revamping her for the younger LiveWires. This is her in one of the outfits I made then and today I made her a lovely dressing gown. I’ll show you the new outfits as I get them done. They are very fiddly. I need to mend a little hole in her head too. I’m told LiveWire no 5’s favourite colour is red so I plan on embroidering a little red bow.
I had a sudden fancy for some Choc Chip Cookies this afternoon – they don’t take long to make. I added some chopped up crystallised ginger which made them super delicious!
There were just enough Purple Mange Tout at the allotment for us to harvest this evening and a baby courgette all of which I added to our mixed veggies risotto for supper – healthy and delicious!
Things are growing!
Purple Mange Tout pods and flowers
Courgettes, Pumpkins, Squash and Marigolds
Several of my friends are in a wonderful singing group called Femmes de La Mer and, as the name suggests, they sing songs of the sea, shanties and others. They did a concert in the wonderful setting of The Minack Theatre last night and here is one of my favourite pieces. I’ll be seeing them next week at another outdoor venue. Do click on the link, you’ll love it I’m sure, though I’m not sure if it will work if you aren’t on Facebook. Please let me know as I will try another way to share.
Femmes de la Mer at The Minack 19:6:2021
The Purple Tepee Beans in the allotment poly tunnel have sprouted. Hooray!
The sun shining through the engraved glass on the front door this evening threw this pattern on the wall.
We had nothing much more than carrots in the fridge so I looked up carrots on BBC Good Food and found Carrot Biryani so that’s what I made and it was truly delicious.
Much has gone over in the garden but the Kaffir Lilies are looking lovely.
This striking Geranium was a present from dear friends a couple of years ago and serendipitously, just as I went to get the photo for them, in flew a bee!
We harvested our first Sweet Corn today, steamed them and ate them just as they are with lots of salty butter melted over them – fabulous!
Our walk each morning around part of the Great Flat Lode sees us dodging stray brambles (I take my pruners most days) rampant Bracken encroaching onto the paths and various brown items. This one turned out to be most benign, a Common Toad whose scientific name is the delightful Bufo Bufo.
We visited some very dear friends this afternoon and took a big bouquet of flowers from our garden. At the end of a lovely afternoon, we left with much produce from their garden.
The phone rang this morning and it was our local nursery to say that our baby veg plants were ready to be collected so we went out! It was actually quite exciting to go out in the car for a ten minute ride each way, constantly on the alert to be stopped by the police who are doing a great job of encouraging people to stay at home. We were ready with our explanation for our journey – collecting food. We hoped they would understand that it would be all food in a few weeks/months and that would be that. We weren’t stopped!
Here then are one of the lanes we travelled along, one of the lettuces that I planted this afternoon and one of my favourites, Camassia flowers.
Ten of my scrub bags were collected this afternoon. I have saved one for the young woman that I used to teach who is a Nurse in Yorkshire. She and her husband, both nurses, have taken the huge decision to send their two boys to live with their Grandparents for the duration as S and her husband are so frightened of taking the virus home. I can’t find words to describe how that makes me feel. People use the word heroic to describe our frontline carers – that’s a truly heroic thing to do and my heart goes out to them all.
It is so lovely, on this April morning, to see the new green shoots everywhere. Despite the cold it seems that Spring has sprung. 
I love how raindrops collect inside the new Lupin leaves. Zoom in on this one. It is truly beautiful.
We have taken advantage of the sunshine to plant some seeds in the hope that they will germinate while we are away.
Nigella, Cornflowers and Night Scented Stock seeds planted
This seems an appropriate poem for today, April Morning by Sara Teasdale. I especially like the last two lines in the first stanza.
I went out on an April morning
All alone, for my heart was high,
I was a child of the shining meadow,
I was a sister of the sky.There in the windy flood of morning
Longing lifted its weight from me,
Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,
Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.
1 We have a new raised bed just outside the kitchen where I am growing edible flowers and small salad leaves. So far the Rocket and Pak Choi have sprouted, the Nasturtiums are doing well and the Violas are pretty – I did buy them as flowering plants..
The new raised bed for edibles
2 The front garden is full of colour and is lovely as you approach the house……….
Colourful patch in the front garden
3 ………… and the best thing is that it all smells divine too. The Wallflowers are really strong, the Bluebells have a quite heady scent when all together and the Clematis Montana Elizabeth smells a bit vanillary. I wish you could share in the sensory delight!
Clematis Montana Elizabeth
1 This morning I arranged all the knitting we have done so far for Wool Against Weapons, into a big Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo in the front garden. We still have more pieces to add so the final one will be even bigger and better!
CND logo in pink wool
2 I visited our neighbour and her sister at their patch at the local allotments this afternoon. There is a lovely Welcome sign and theirs must be the best Garden Shed in the business!
Welcome to Plot 7
The best garden shed ever
3 Later, S brought us some newly dug potatoes which were just delicious and tasted like potatoes used to taste when we were little!
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