Some serious dustbathing

. . . and a while longer

Life continues fairly hectic at the moment, what with work and worries about my mother-in-law. However, we hope things will settle down where she is concerned, for the time being, at least. I continue to hope for 'normality' and the chance to settle into something of a regular routine.

Needless to say, I've not done much in the garden lately, but the tomatoes I raised from seed earlier in the year and planted on the front doorstep are still doing well. It is a sunny spot and I planted them in a larger than usual grow bag, with collars to provide extra compost and moisture.



Hubby and I managed to see Joan Baez in Brighton last night, which was a wonderful and uplifting experience. There was something of a hill-billy sound to many of the songs, with fiddles and banjos being played by her band and some wonderful old-time acapella singing, too.

It's been a while

Someone asked if I was OK as I haven't been blogging lately and I notice a few people are still checking to see if I've had anything to say. Well, in case you are wondering, let me assure you that I'm fine. Life is good and I've been quite busy, that's all. I am meaning to tell you about some of what I've been up to and write a bit about our garden and chickens soon. I will try to write a little more in the next week, but we have invited quite a few people to a party in just over a week, so there is a lot to do.

Beans and peas

As I was saying, things are growing quite well in the garden at the moment.

The broad beans are nearly over now, with just a few pods left to pick. They were a bit disappointing as we've only had one decent meal from them. Partly the rows are shorter than last year because this year's bed is smaller, but also there were a few gaps in the rows and I didn't plant any spares. The pods weren't all full, either, which may mean their weren't enough bees about to pollinate all the flowers earlier in the year.



















Hubby's runner beans got off to a slow start, but now seem to be doing nicely.




















His peas are looking good, too, although the second row isn't coming along too well, possibly because they are shaded by the first row, and now the ash is in full leaf it is shading that bed quite a lot.
I've also planted two different varieties of French bean, which haven't been in long, but look OK so far.

Who set the hens off?

I happened to have the camera handy when the chickens started this noise the other day. I guess something startled them, but I'm not entirely sure. Whatever the reason, it struck me as rather amusing.



I'll have to remember not to say anything when making videos in future.