Late August

I recovered from the travelling and returned to work this week for a rest. We took the girls to Hardmuir Fruit Farm at Auldearn near Nairn and that was really good, they had all sorts of fruit to pick your own and a corn maize which was great fun...two hours spent looking for dinosaur clues in the maze! They also had go-karts which the kids could ride around the blocks of fruit which was great fun.

Whilst returning the girls in Bristol i attended the annual Balloon Fiesta and was really impressed with the nightglow. I also managed to track some rather good garden centres too but didn't have too much time to explore them fully.

I'm starting to pick carrots, i grow the round type and they're really gathering speed now and i cooked the first ones last week and they were delicious. I'm needing to lifting my onions and shallots, got good sized onions this year and good shallots too.


The cordon apple trees are showing a really good crop but still a while to wait for these before picking. They're all dessert apples and were very tasty last year.





There's still one or two strawberries but these are smaller but still tasty.

Still digging the tatties and getting good sized potatoes now. The crop isn't as good as other years although still reasonable which i put this down to the weather.

My caulis are just starting to form heads and so is the broccoli so i'm keeping a close eye on both. Hopefully i'll be cutting my own shortly. Pleased with the difference the netting made to the caterpillar problem. I only netted the brussels to protect from the birds so took the netting off but left it on the cabbages etc. The brussels had caterpillars but the netted brassicas didn't.

The green beens are gathering pace and in the space of a week are really huge, one picking is enough for a family of five and then some. I'm having to pick them every other day to ensure that they don't set seed. I'm always amazed at the difference in taste between shop bought runners and those you grow yourself. I've eaten some and frozen a lot, I don't think even Captain Bird's Eye could get them frozen as quick me! Not bad from three wigwams.

August 2006

I managed to travel the length of the country and safely bring my nieces back from Bristol. It's amazing how different the culture is to Scotland. First day here and they're running wild in the garden enjoying picking crops wanting to harvest everything. Rhianna found to her delight that she liked gooseberries.


I've never seen two children so eager to get into the strawberry patch....and were out in their PJs picking strawbs and eating them early in the morning! Of course the best of the crop has just about been had and the rainy spell hasn't helped but they couldn't get over the size of the strawbs....even fighting over 'the biggest strawberry ever'. Which someone then sneaked off and eat! There followed a 'strawberry investigation' before a vital witness came forward in the shape of Uncle D who saw the culprit!

They seemed to enjoy digging the 'tatties' and picking fruit for tea. Lauren wasn't impressed when Uncle D pointed out that the straw she could see when picking out the tatties was 'cow pooh' and refused to believe him!

I had to laugh when Lauren announced that there were more strawberries on the raspberry canes. She picked and eat the few that were there...the gooseberry bushes are now stripped bare with the help of Uncle D!

The look on Lauren's face when she saw a 'round' carrot when i pulled it out of the ground! The runner beans were favoured because of the orange flowers and few good size bean were pulled and had for tea.

We picked turnip and they quickly caught on about the compost bins when we popped the turnip tops into this.

Rhianna delighted in picking the runner beans and although there was only enough for one person for a meal, she was fair chuffed with her cache and was interested in the pretty flowers and how they became runner beans.

Things we take for granted in Highland my two nieces are fascinated with...growing your own produce, open spaces and fresh air....oil rigs. After picking their own tea and taking many pictures to prove this. Whilst around the table there was much discussion on how the crops grew. Not a morsel remained on their plates and they couldn't wait for their dessert of strawberries!