Whilst described by my Field Guide as ” one of the more common European hawkmoths”, I don’t remember ever seeing one before. This dead specimen was on the floor of one of our greenhouses. I’ll have to keep a watch out for the caterpillars because they can be voracious eaters of both the plants and…… Continue reading Elephant Hawkmoth
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Tomatoes – How many Trusses is the right number for Indeterminate Plants?
A truss of tomatoes is the bunch of fruit growing off the stem. Different cultivars have different sorts of trusses, some are long with up to 40 tomatoes on a truss, others are much shorter with only a few (sometimes as few as five or six) tomatoes. We grow tomatoes to get as many ripe…… Continue reading Tomatoes – How many Trusses is the right number for Indeterminate Plants?
2022 – End of June Status
So here we are approaching the end of June (which means we’re past midsummer and on our way to Autumn) the garden and vegetables are beginning to be productive and I’m making the record of what we’re harvesting. The tomatoes are all growing well and have small fruit growing on them. I have a feeling…… Continue reading 2022 – End of June Status
Blue Tits Successfully Fledged – 2022
In my last post about the Blue Tits the parents were dashing backwards and forwards feeding their young. Well, now they’ve gone. A couple of days ago, it was apparent that the youngster (I never saw more than one) was preparing itself to depart and its parents were sitting some way away calling to it…… Continue reading Blue Tits Successfully Fledged – 2022
Busy Blue Tits – 2022
Sitting quietly in the garden I watched the Blue Tits dashing in and out of the birdbox. They were delivering food to their young family hopping in and out about every ten minutes (or less). Its virtually impossible to get a still picture as they hop around for a few moments before leaping into the…… Continue reading Busy Blue Tits – 2022
Planting out Tomatoes – 2022
So, the plants have got to the stage where they’re large enough to plant out. I grow my tomatoes in a couple of small greenhouses (since my polytunnel failed last year) in “Morissons Flower Buckets (MFBs)”. (For those of you who don’t know about them, Morissons is a UK supermarket and one of the things…… Continue reading Planting out Tomatoes – 2022
Apple Blossom – 2022
We have two apple trees in our garden, a Discovery eater and an unknown cooker. In January this year we significantly pruned the Discovery, cutting out large amounts of crossing wood and opening up the tree. I was nervous that this would damage the tree or shock it into sulking. The opposite appears to be…… Continue reading Apple Blossom – 2022
Airfix Wellington Bomber
All the bitsCockpitAll these bits are hiddenFuselageSide ViewWings BuiltWith UndercarriageWings attachedAnd tailplaneEngine CowlingsBombs FittedSide Guns (should have left these unfitted)WheelsPropellorsMore or less finished for paintingFirst coat of TopFirst coal of undersideGreen topPaintedTransfers – note the letters are wrongFront ViewClose-upLadder I’ve added to my collection of models with the Wellington MKII bought from a local model…… Continue reading Airfix Wellington Bomber
Tomatoes Germinating -2022
The tomatoes I sowed in the middle of March are (mainly) germinating and growing reasonably well. Of the 29 different cultivars, three have so far failed to show any sign of growth (which shows how old some of the seeds are so I’m unlikely to get Amber Coloured, Carotina, or Kibits Ukranian this year. I’ve…… Continue reading Tomatoes Germinating -2022
2022 – Clocks Go Forward, lighter evenings
Our clocks went forward this morning making it lighter in the evenings and the days seem longer. The past few days have been warm and we’ve been out in the garden tidying things up and preparing for the summer. The tomatoes I sowed earlier in the month have mainly germinated, as I said at the…… Continue reading 2022 – Clocks Go Forward, lighter evenings