Well it's been a while and I do apologise, one of the only down-sides to having children is the amount of illnesses they pick up and pass on to the rest of the family. It really has been a month of viruses and bugs! Oh well all are fully recovered now and after a weeks family holiday down to Weymouth we are all feeling restored and raring to go.



So what's been happening? Well the allotment is finally starting to look like an allotment (although there are still too many weeds!) and everything seems to be flourishing. I have had our first crop of radishes (quite a decent size I think), which I planted with the parsnip seeds, I have also had lots of salad leaves and our first lot of strawberries are just ripening. The 5 mini cucumber plants are also doing really well, they are the 'Rocky' variety and I have had loads off the plants already and loads more flowers are appearing so a definate thumbs up for this type and I will had it to my must have list for next year. Tomatoes, Chillis, Potatoes are flowering and the only things which aren't doing too well are my carrots of which very few seedlings have appeared.

It's so nice to be finally reaching the stage where we only have to water, weed and the occasional sowing, rather then the completly hectic couple of months we have has with mass sowing, potting on and planting out.


On the greener, frugal front we have decided to purchase 1/2 a pig. We eat quite a bit of pork and our local farmer who breeds a few pigs as a sideline offered us 1/2 of one. It's being delivered this weekend and although I know it will have been butchered I haven't got clue what we are going to end up with!! This could be very much a one-off, but I do like the idea that the pig has been born and bred locally, has had a good life and hasn't travelled half way across the country to an abbatoir. So if it turns out as economical and tasty as I hope, we may buy in bulk again...so expect lots of recipes for Pork to appear soon!