We could really do with a few days of sunshine in the garden. Too much rain and the bees can’t fly. The bees not flying means that the runner bean and zucchini flowers won’t get pollinated. Nor have the last couple of pumpkin fruits, but that’s no so important. There isn’t time now for them to grow properly anyway, and seven pumpkins should be enough for anybody’s freezer! Also, some sunshine would be useful for ripening the sweet corn and the tomatoes, not to mention the pumpkins.

I was too late on Saturday to pollinate the melon flowers. They had fallen off the vine. Also, the cucumbers in the greenhouse are not getting pollinated. We’ve only had a couple; the rest have dropped off. Definitely next year the cucurbits can grow outside. I might get The Builder to make wigwams for them to grow up. Or at least tent type structures. But the Cape Gooseberries are beginning to ripen. Some of the lanterns over the fruits lower down the plants are beginning to turn papery :-)

The rain also hampered potato digging over the weekend. Fortunately, the ones we have got up are not rotting, but they are being munched on by slugs and wireworm. I need to sort through them and make ready for the freezer those that have been badly munched. Unfortunately, I am not at home now for a weekend for about five or six weeks :-( And I really, really need to get into the flower garden and get that sorted out. I have desperately struggling hollyhock seedlings to go in.

When we first bought our fish for the pond, I also bought some oxygenating weed which I threw in and left to get on with it. It survived the winter and kept on growing. We noticed that the fish hide in it and play in it and lay on top of it in the sunshine. Then we noticed that there was so much oxygenating weed that there wasn’t very much room for anything else. Yesterday evening, The Builder went and pulled loads out. I think we need to take yet more out. This will probably not entirely delight the fish. Or the very large frog which took evasive action as The Builder’s hand reached down to engulf it. The fish had all retreated to the extension bit at the back as soon as he started yanking out weed and were out of the way!