This Week at The Whitelees

Red Admiral sunning itself early this morning on the east wall of Whitelees.

I was going to start by saying that it's been a quiet old week here at Whitelees, but then I thought that might sound a little to much like Garrison Keillor. It has however been a week that whizzes by before I can even draw breath. Man!

We've had some beautiful warm weather. So warm in fact that I've had to get out there and water the garden. In addition to this blossom end rot on the tomatoes. A sure sign of patchy watering. I've seen some fruit and blossom dropping from the beans and tomatoes, a sign that things are far too dry. I sure hope I don't get any further blossom end rot on my tomatoes. I have been really plagued with that in the past. So frequent watering to prevent blossom end rot and blossom/fruit dropping off.

These are examples where the fruit and or blossom drops off because of lack of water .
Runner beans - See the stalks with no flowers at the ends?
Tomatoes - same thing.

Incidently, congratulations to my cousin Susan who has harvested her first tomato. Mine that haven't dropped off or have rot are still too green and bullet like.

There is one thing that is doing well in the heat (It's not really that hot by continental standards. Its only been in the high 80's but that is very hot for Scotland!) My corn!

You can see that is has perked up a bit since I last showed it to you.
The corn looking better is making me feel better about the infant beans and tomatoes dropping off the vines in the warm weather. It looks like I may even have some cobs on this one! Woo hoo!
Here is one more thing that has annoyed me in the Whitelees garden this week. Remember that pumpkin plant I purchased from the lifestyle store/garden centre. Well not only did it turn out not to be a pumpkin. It was a courgette (zucchini). This week I have discovered that it is a MINI-courgette plant. Producing little bitty miniature courgettes. Aarrgh! Pumpkin from SEED next year! Here are the courgettes right next to my keys so you can see the scale properly. What the heck is the purpose of mini-vegetables? Granted the plants are a bit smaller but you've got to tend them just the same as full sized plants. The vegetables are too small to use. Is it a cuteness thing?

The wild raspberries are ready to be picked. I have taken a photo of them to illustrate how ready the wild raspberries near our place are. I noticed them yesterday evening as I walked the quarter mile up to the neighbours to deliver some sweet peas. I have to pick sweet peas almost every day now so that they'll continue to produce.

Its turning into a sweet pea jungle!

The lettuces are doing well. Lolla Rossa is doing a bit better than the Little Gem which had sparse germination too. I see that the Lolla Rossa could do with a bit of weeding. Will do that right after breakfast.

While I am sitting here writing up this blog, the rest of the family is still asleep. Polly is patiently waiting by my chair for her breakfast and the blackbirds (member of the thrush family over here in the UK and Europe) are clearing my cherry tree in the front garden of all cherries. I have yet to have a single ripe cherry from this tree as the blackbirds get every single one every year. I guess if I could be bothered, I would put a net over the tree (Lazy Gardener!).

The swallows that I was so worried about after we had denied them their nest sites by modernising the cottages have built nests. Yesterday I noticed that a swallow was taking fluffy things into the newest nest in the roof peak above our bedroom window.

When I mentioned this to The Man of the Place, he said that the swallows had built a nest on the other side of the house too. I went around this morning to check. Sure enough. There was another swallow nest. It was obvious that this one had already been home to a brood of chicks by the amount of guano on the roof. It seems that all the swallows are preparing to start their second batch. Go swallows go! There are more than enough flying insects around at the moment for them to eat.