Grinning grandsons

Well, they're trying their best at grinning... but when you're two front teeth short of a mouthful (Connor on right,), and trying to look scarily funny (Sammy on left) it doesn't always work out right. Here we are having a picnic in the greenhouse while a rain cloud passes by (click image to enlarge).

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon on the allotment. They amused themselves castle building, which involved carrying most of what had been constructed at the back of the plot last time they were there through to the front to start again. My only involvement was keeping an eye on them, particularly when they raided the shed looking for inspiration... out came the stool. Gave them a 'no' when Connor came struggling past the chicken barrier pulling thirty feet of tubing, threatening to lay everything flat if he dragged it over the raised beds. Sure it took me more effort than he'd used to get it all back!

So while they amused themselves I did the usual daily chicken maintenance and then at last got down to pulling up the the grass sprouting around the edges of some raised beds. Wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it might be... and boy, did it look much better when I'd finished!

I've included below the maximum/minimum temperatures I've been recording, this graph shows the April results (click to enlarge). My readings for overnight temperatures look spot on, but the daytime figures are way out. Yes, we did have a month with much higher temperatures than normal, but not that high. Still struggling to get the outside sensor in the right environment. My Heath Robinson attempt at a Stevenson screen just isn't up to the job... although it protects the sensor from wind and reflects the sun there's not enough air passing through to keep it cool when the sun's shining. So another project gets the green light... I'm going to attempt a more professional version as per the plans here. The usual rules apply... more than thirty minutes to build and there's a risk of boredom setting in, get away with as little cost as possible. So I've bought the pot trays and hope to get away with using some wooden dowels I've already got plus a bit of glue. I'll let you know how it turns out provided it's not too humiliating!