July 19th 2018

Shockingly I'm having to actually think about what to wear each morning - will it be shorts and vest top, or trousers and a warm fleecy top? Normally, from June through to the end of September all my warm clothes are stuffed away in the spare room gathering dust, but this year the weather is crazily changeable from one day to the next, and in fact sometimes within one day itself. Yesterday, for example, was deliciously warm but with constant gale force winds, whereas today has dawned dull, grey and a tad chilly.

For the garden it's sort of good news bad news. I mentioned before that the cucumbers and leeks had taken a battering with the heavy rain, well the cucumbers are faring very well now that they are dangling over the runner bean poles. They seem to produce 6-8 cucumbers at once, and when I pick them off, for fear that waiting one more day will result in marrow sized monsters, they suddenly start to develop half a dozen new ones. I like them whilst they're still quite thin as there's less seeds then and they have a very crispy almost water melon like texture. The leeks all recovered nicely in their new space, but sadly developed tons of orangey rust spots all over them, so yesterday I snipped off all the affected leaves and pruned the other ones back short. They all look very neat and tidy now with their new haircuts. Speaking of haircuts...

I went to Gabrovo a week or so ago with the intention of doing a bit of shopping and having my hair cut. Lazily I take my hair dresser for granted as nine times out of ten I can just walk in and get trimmed within 20 minutes, but this was the other one time when she's got a lot of customers booked and wasn't able to fit me in for a couple of hours. I didn't have a huge amount of shopping so rather than hanging about I decided to pop into a different place and see if I could get a cut there. I found one not far from where I was parked and sat to wait my turn.

She put me straight in the chair and fastened the protective cover around me, at which point I thought I'd go along with her plans for a dry cut (if it turned out dreadful at least I wouldn't have far to run to the car) and explained how much I wanted off, what the fringe was like etc. Snip, snip, snip and suitable amounts of hair began to fall so I settled back and relaxed whilst she did her thing. I did think at one point that the length of hair being cut off the top of my head didn't look very much, but wondered if it was just deceptive being dry. All done and a quick burst of the hair drier to complete the job. At that point I knew for sure it was still too long on top but by now she had her next client waiting, so in true British fashion I smiled and told her it looked lovely and left.

Back home I washed it and began blow drying to see if maybe she'd trimmed more than I thought. Alas no. The sides, fringe and back were all perfect, but the top was still a lanky bouffant mess which I hate, but what to do. If I made an appointment with my old hairdresser she would see that the sides had been cut and would know I'd been sneaking off elsewhere. If I returned to the new one, who's to say she might not cut the top shorter but then scalp the sides to match? Only one thing for it. I reached for the scissors and tidied up the top myself until it was the length I liked (plus or minus the odd centimeter on the odd chunk here and there). To my untrained eye it all looked fine once dry, so now all I need do is wait a few weeks for it all to grow a bit and then make an appointment for a proper cut with my usual stylist who will be far too polite to mention how odd my hair should grow at such a variety of speeds.

Enough of this nonsense, I know you're as desparate as me to get back to the garden, so here are a few updates out there.

The lawn I sowed a few weeks ago has sprouted nicely, so yesterday I went round slinging some more grass seed in the sparser patches. Certainly the wire grids have done their job as neither dog will set foot on them.

Amongst other things the tomatoes are all ripening steadily, with a nice variety of sorts, some of which have already been frozen or processed in jars.

I've begun transplanting/sowing winter veggies including kale, savoy, white cabbage, red cabbage, swede and turnip. Last year they were all well and truly savaged by not only the usual caterpillars but also by these tiny black flea beetles which decimated the leaves, so this year they are all being swamped in protective material from the get go.

Do you remember back in April/May when my neighbour pruned their giant mulberry tree and threw several huge branches into my garden for kindling?

Well yesterday's main job was cutting it and bundling it to store in the wood shed. It's surprising how tiny it all looks now!

And finally and update on Charlotte. She spent a couple of days in a corner doing nothing and then moved to another area where she made this cosy little nest for her babies. I'm not sure what's inside there, whether there are miniscule live young or thousands of eggs, but she has now rebuilt her food web and spends her time positioned midway between the web and the nest, a position which is unfortunately right over my head as I walk in and out, but I have to trust that she will stick to our agreement and share the patio without the need for direct contact. She's a lot smaller now she's shed all her babies too.