And the next pallet....

Becomes a gate.... I am now off to find more scrap.

Crate expec... sorry

The Blackberry people were less than helpful. I am forced to send myself pictures for processing. Anyway, the crate has been converted and is now filling up with wood for the winter.
Worth the effort for a saving of £99 or thereabouts...

Pending a temperamental Blackberry...

I was going to post a selection of pictures of my recent skip diving success.. A lovely big pine crate, soon to be a wood store and dragged manfully a mile up the hill. However, I took pictures with the Blackberry and it refuses to relinquish them to the computer. I shall have to ring Holland and ask them how I do it...


The crowded houses that are the raised beds are largely managing themselves. There is a man in America who advocates 'Square Foot Gardening' and who will sell you his plans for distributing veg in foot square sections. I have developed 'Square Yard Gardening' and would be pleased to send my plans for nothing on request...
The Courgettes have been covered in Thunder bugs. Initially anxious, I checked them out and discovered that they are mostly benign. Pollen hunting, the worst they can do is burrow through the yellow flower. Here are a host of them in a thistle.

Thunder bugs are famous for collecting on your washing as it dries and have gained a reputation for presaging storms. I suggest it may be that those of us rushing out to collect the clothes as the rumbling starts put two and two together. They had been there all along. Only the observer effect links bugs and borborygmi

This one meets a sticky end in the jaws of a very fetching emerald green spider..

Meanwhile, in another part of the garden.. the Khol Rabi and Beetroot are nearly done and Alpine strawberries promise more for next year.

Dill, Fennel and Tomatoes all doing well thanks to Blood Fish and Bone. Lovely!

.. and the Goldfinch have discovered that swivelling downwards to the thistle seed is better than sitting and stretching up...