Being Watched

 Out on the allotment today I had the feeling I was being watched.

 I heard a little fluttering of wings around me.

 This lovely little Robin was watching me like a hawk.. or like a Robin.

 Perfectly happy to stay still while I turned my camera on, zoomed in and focused to take a snap.

 My animal behaviour training tells me that in Spring, all male animals get a surge of testosterone to suppress fear so that they can fight for their territory and impress the ladies..

 Well, this lady was certainly impressed.

He even stopped for a traditional pose on the handle of my wheelbarrow!

The Beauty of the Beast..

What a glorious weekend to be out on the allotment having a good clear up! Damp soil, warm temperatures and bright blue sky. Matron now has a satisfying back ache! I have brought my Scotch Bonnet chillis indoors onto a warm, bright windowsill. All they needed was a bit of sunlight and look at these vibrant colours.

I will probably dry these in a string and use as Christmas decorations! edible decorations!

My new F1 Oarsman leeks are amazing! I didn't earth up too much stem here, but they have a lovely colour. I wait to see how well they stand over Winter. A wise person pointed out to me this week that if you look at the arrangement of the leaves each side, it reminds you of a rowing boat...think Oxford / Cambridge boat race? .. then wouldn't this variety be called Oarsmen instead?

I dried off the last of my new F1 St George runner beans, and shelled them today. I was expecting pink beans, but these are white! I am going to grow them next year and see what the 2nd generation are like. I really don't like paying such prices for F1 hybrids.

I have started off my Isle of Wight garlic 'Early Purple' in pots in the greenhouse. Hopefully they should put on some roots and a shoot in the next few weeks. I like to give them a good head start in case they get nibbled!

The mild weather in the past couple of weeks has kept my courgettes going! this is one of my climbing courgettes Black Forest.

These are the last two Courgette Defender. This spot has been tidied up now and a few Winter lettuce have been planted in their place.

During my clear up efforts today, I disturbed several frogs, was harrassed by an excited robin, and I found this beast lurking around my cabbages! A quick look on google image (whatever happened to going to the library!) confirmed its identification as a Leopard Slug. What a beautiful beast! I couldn't bear to squish it, so I threw it into a neighbours garden!! I bet it will find its way back, they do say they have a good homing instinct!

Oh Dear! Oh Dear!

London was colder than Moscow, Prague, Copenhagen or Stockholm on Tuesday night! Silly Matron forgot to take the tomato plants back into the greenhouse for the night. They have been hardening off nicely for the past couple of weeks, then temperatures plunged below zero and they caught the frost! I don't think all is completely lost, and I always try to look on the bright side, I think some of the sideshoots have been protected by the larger leaves. I might be able to cut some of them down to a side shoot.

You can see below at the base of this chocolate cherry tomato there are two side shoots that seem to be OK. Perhaps this is natures way of protecting itself in placing new shoots in a protected place under bigger leaves? Fingers crossed I might be able to salvage one or two plants. If these grow back I will be able to take some sideshoot cuttings.

The sweetcorn was quite badly frosted too, a couple seem to be OK, but I had always planned to plant a second crop of these, they will be up and going again in a couple of days.

Potatoes caught a nip of frost as well. These are some first early Rocket new potatoes which I had earthed up a couple of days ago so there will be shoots underground to keep growing.

And I was followed round the allotment today by a very bold robin! It was diving just feet away from me, and I swear it was laughing at me! We can learn from our mistakes. This will teach me to be more careful in future!