First strawberries

Munched into my first strawberries this week, example shown here (click to enlarge). They're early since I'm growing them in the greenhouse. Thought I'd have a bug free crop until I observed a woodlice burrowing into one plump red orb. Some of my strawberries are very dark red when ripe, never seen them that colour, but they were delicious with yoghurt.

Feel I'm making real progress with the additional early morning visits to the plot. Weeds are almost under control and planted out some of the vegetable seedlings started in the greenhouse... seems to work well. Even started constructing a pea/bean support frame on the back plot.

The tomatoes are also going really well. Aiming to grow those in the greenhouse too... allotment grown tomatoes are a million times sweeter and tastier than the supermarket version, but my crops have been really disappointing over the last couple of years. The first tomato flower appeared this week as shown below.

Slapped some more paint on during the week to finish the hall ceiling with a second coat. At last getting to grips with the contortionist ladder. Look forward to getting down to doing the walls next weekend.

Unbelievably, I'm the holder of all three cups... tennis, squash and pub games! The first and last time that happened was immediately after I bought the silverware for £1.99 from a charity shop. Unfortunately when I say 'holder' I mean it in a mental rather than physical way... son David has taken to not bothering to bring two of the cups to matches thinking he'll save himself the trouble of carrying them home again! So no photograph to celebrate.

Visited the garden show at Woodgreen Animal Shelter with Linda, Becky and Beth on Sunday. Really enjoyable... it took us all day to wander around in the sunshine looking at the stalls and exhibits, following a set path insisted on by the family version of Hermann Göring in the form of daughter Becky, who insisted we only look on the right hand side on the first round, returning to view only the left hand side on the way back. Beth bought a pink imitation coconut matting parasol, so bright you could see it from the other side of Cambridgeshire!

Yesterday started writing a history of allotments in England, aiming to make it a more in depth and interesting version than some of the drier text you can find on other sites. First of next three chemotherapy sessions meant I had to take it easy in the afternoon, though sitting indoors on a hot sunny day went against the grain. After several hours of research had only just started to put fingers to keyboard, and I've still gots hours more investigation and editing... so should be ready some time before end of the year given the amount of spare time I've got at present!