Anybody building an ark out there?

This was last week but I thought id post it anyway!!

Thursday 12 July
Well it's been truly British weather this week.  I had planned a night out with my sister to go and see a fire art installation at Stonehenge.   I was really looking forward to getting close up and personal with those ancient monoliths. 

I'm so upset that I missed this

It didn't start well, not only was it raining, and had been torrential all week, Lottie was teething and Holly just wouldn't stay in bed. 

torrential downpour drowning my plants!

Just as we had got both children in their own beds and quiet.  Bridget checked her email only to find out it had been cancelled due to high winds and biblical weather. 

We did the only thing sensible in the situation and opened a bottle of wine. 

The next morning we ventured into my garden to check the condition of the gooseberries. Bridget loves them,  (can she really be my sister?) so Holly showed her where they were and warned they they were spiky and couldn't understand why she couldn't eat them straight from the bush.  We sent Aunts Boo on her way with a bag full of ripe  goosegogs with the hope of seeing her next Friday at RaRa's. 

watch out they're prickly!

Not much has been going on in my garden work wise as its been so wet. Apart from feeding my hot bin and lifting some pots. My Casablanca potatoes were a great disappointment with only four pots in the bag, that's one less than I put in!!  But my Anya's have been great and very delicious, fabulously nutty and with a lovely bite to them. 

Anya Potatoes waiting to be eaten

Since all that rain two weeks ago it's suddenly turned glorious, it almost makes it worth it!  On Friday we hightailed it to Wales to see my mom(RaRa to the girls) armed with rhubarb, goosegogs and some beautiful Mayan Gold pots, beautiful golden flesh, but watch out they boil very quickly so you want to be careful that they don't turn to mush.   There we spent two heady days on the beach splashing in rockpools, eating ice cream and I saw my first starfish! 

happy days

not just a red bucket, there is a starfish in there

Back in the garden I've taken advantage of the sunshine by purging the weeds and finally trimming the hedge, though I've only managed to give it the sides of the short back and sides as I can't reach the top without a ladder. 

clear space for planting the sunflowers

But most of all I'm very excited that tomorrow I get to go to Wisley to do a summer fruit shrub pruning course. I'll report back after the course when I've hacked, I mean pruned my currants.