Alpacas and bicycles

My muesli contained alpine strawberries (or alpaca strawberries as the girlie called them :o) ) from the garden yesterday morning.  They were absolutely delicious, such a strong strawberry hit mmmmm! I make my own muesli - the big blobs are banana - just in case you were wondering....

Here's my new baby!  I got my lovely new bike for my birthday last week and although I'd ridden it up and down the street to test it out, I hadn't given it a proper outing until yesterday.  I loaded it up with squashes and sweetcorn and toddled off to the plot.  It was fab, I loved it!

The normal strawberries on the plot were looking great, there were loads of them and some were well on the way to being ripe too.  Unfortunately for us the only one that was actually ripe enough to eat was on the girlie's patch which meant we didn't get a look in!  I've been back today though to pick elderflowers and managed to pick 6 that had ripened since yesterday.

Our job for yesterday was to sort the beds out for the squashes, this one had four Turks Turban and four Uchiki Kuri.  Around the edge you can see my darling step-over apple trees and the big tall weed thing in the middle is a massive lilac poppy.  We also planted 5 butternut squash (metro), sweetcorn (together in another bed) and 2 courgette - Jemmer and Romano in yet another. All in all a busy day at the plot and then we cycled home in the rain!!

These are the baby apples I thinned from the step-overs.  They were very happy and have produced loads and loads.  What can I do with them?  I'll have to look up a recipe or two.  Can I use them like crab apples?  It'd be a shame to waste them.

The gooseberries got a good picking too (aarrggh, prickly devils!).  As I said earlier I went back today to pick some elderflower to go with them. 

I had decided to change the way I go about digging up the spuds this year.  I've only sown first and second earlies and haven't bothered with main as these always become totally slug damaged and scabby on my plot.  Also rather than waiting for the spuds to be ready with lots of babies, but then not getting through very many baby new potatoes before they become big new potatoes - this year I thought I would start digging them up as soon as they flower.  Which I did (or rather hubby did).  This is all we got, but blimey they were gorgeous! Boiled with fresh mint, and seasoned with salt, pepper and a little blob of butter.  We ate them just like this - yum!

Lastly an open rose flower with two buds.  I thought this was beautiful and it smells really strongly too.