Hotting up

Today the temperature in the sun was close to 30 degrees. Amazing for April although from what I can understand this is not unusual down here. I have been concentrating on my veggie patch. I have never had any luck with veggie gardening in UK; with all my efforts destroyed by slugs, cats (turning the newly dug soil into their litter tray), lack of time, lack of water, bad soil etc etc. Looking at the hard lumps of clay here I was not holding out much hope as I planted five rows of potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, and beetroot. However, so far, nothing has died. The neighbours tell me that everything grows here really easily including the weeds and it is certainly true that this time of year with the warmth and a little rain you can virtually see things shooting up. I am keeping my fingers crossed., although I did work out that with the cost of plants it is probably cheaper to buy seasonal veggies from the supermarket! Next year I will have to try my hand with seeds.

The fine weather meant that at the weekend everyone was out mowing the lawn on their ride-on mowers. Our neighbour mowed his lawn, left the mower outside the shed and settled down to an evening meal and a few glasses of wine and failed to notice when thieves cut through his fence and stole it. This also happened to someone else so we suspect a lawn mower gang! This is only the third crime in the history of village in the last 20 years, the other main one being the theft of Ian's caravan from the field a few years ago. It has lead to a lot of disussion, debate and purchasing of locks!