The Harvesting Begins

As you can see from the picture I tipped the first of the tub grown spuds today. They were the variety 'Orla' planted back on the 6th of April. From 3 seed potatoes I got just over 3.5 kilos of wonderful looking spuds. We will be eating some tonight to see how they taste, but they are blemish free and look brilliant. I have also started tearing out the strawberries, the ones we had were really tasty but not really a big enough crop to warrant the space they have taken up in the raised bed. I harvested the shallots today too, they look really good and are laid out to dry in the barn prior to storing. They went in at the end of March and have done really well as have the Red Baron Onions. I have taken some out of the ground as they seemed to want to come out themselves but have put them in to the barn to dry off for storage, I think they would just rot if I left them on the top of the soil as advised. Still picking masses of courgettes in three colours, and have today made courgette pickle as sold in a famous San Fransisco Burger Bar!

I checked the hens yesterday and all the lice have gone, they all got another session with the louse powder and the house got another deep clean. After a week on extra protein feeds and liquid poultry tonic drink they all look better and Daisy is back to her previous form. She is single handedly ensuring that Trinny and Susannah never get any good treats, except when I sneak some in for them. This will all calm down soon, it is just good to see Daisy back to her usual bossy self.

The doves are spending longer and longer in and around the cote, it is lovely to see them looking so relaxed. Lily is still a home bird and after she has fed gets into the comfortable surroundings of the cote and sleeps! I had been wondering where they spent the night and discovered that they roost at the gable end of the house away from the weather just under the eaves on the electricity apparatus and wires.

Other than that all quiet here, Sam gets back from the Dunlin Field Oil Rig on Monday, the rig is some 150 miles North of Orkney. He rang the other day to say that as he was swinging on a rope high above the sea, two enormous whales swam by. Next weekend is someones 60th birthday so as we have friends coming from Germany I may not be blogging. What to get a 60 year old who claims he has everything? Well don't tell him but I have got him a Wattson!

A Wattson is a wonderful device, as stylish as an iPod and as useful as a, well as a jolly useful thing. It recently won an award in Stuff Magazine Top Ten Cool Stuff of the Year. It is a state of the art device for telling you how much power you are using and how much it is costing, it even lights up red if you are using too much but stays a nice gentle blue if things are OK. It claims to be able to reduce bills by 25% as you begin to get obsessive about switching things off, my Ganga would have loved one. I have an awful feeling that I am going to be sitting watching TV when the Wattson appears to tell me just how much it is costing to watch rubbish. Perhaps a bad move on my part but socks did not seem to cut the mustard for this particular birthday!

No rain today and after the deluge yesterday when we had 10mm in 15 minutes that is a blessing, off to do more digging!