Got three patty pans planted. Loads of flowers, but not a sign of a patty pan. My courgettes are in full swing (Defender, Orelia, Goldmine, Midnight, de Nice Rond and Zephyr) 
Shall I give up and rip them out or “have a little patience” as the Take That song goes?
It would give the others a bit of space to spread.

It was recently my birthday (for my 30th I went to Paris where the French kindly put on a big parade and fireworks display). 

I was gifted these shorts and also a pair of trousers with very similar pockets.

https://www.scruffs.com/workwear/trade-shorts.html

I have been using them a fair bit for various jobs the last couple of weeks and so far they are very good. The material is pretty water resistant, appears very hard wearing but isn't as stretchy as some trousers I have. 
The pocket options are great, I wasn't sure about the front flappy pockets at first but they are turning out to be very useful for bits and bobs. Also there is a long thin pocket made of fairly robust looking fabric on the outside of the right leg which fits my hori hori perfectly which is turning out to be very useful.

So does anyone else get a rash from picking DFB ? Or am I just delicate & sensitive    .

         

It’s not much of a rash and it’d gone within half hour. But it was noticeable an felt a bit prickly.

Well I’m back. Good old France Telecom have decided to install Fiber Internet all was going well until they hit a problem. As a result there are a lot of people in our area with out phone or internet for the last month! Anyway they have now given us a Dongle so we are back in line but still no phone. Lord knows when we will be reconnected proper!

Saw this and thought I should share it.
It seems that the companies "Garden Gear" and "Happy Beaks" are sister companies of T&M and calls to their Customer Service helplines are charged at Premium Rate - this has been unlawful since 2014.

Read more at:-

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/j...D1YZyqvLUQ

At the edge of my lawn to the hedge I have a small slope which is annoying to mow. I've left it to grow long this summer mainly due to laziness and a few wild flowers including red campion and some others I can't name have popped up. It got me thinking could I make a mini meadow strip? 
So my plan is cut the long grass back hard, heavily scarify the area to open up bare soil patches and sow yellow rattle alng the ridge at the end of this summer. Then allow that to get established next year only cutting the grass early in year then in August (or after yellow rattle has set seed). I may at that point also add some wild meadow seeds or leave that until spring the year after. 
Anyone think I shouldn't bother or do something differently?

Its hot and my mind is wandering (again). Memories of things/happenings are surfacing so I thought I'd share them with you - as nobody else will listen.

Yesterday, I remembered that old cars and motorbikes had a "reserve" tank of petrol for when you ran out of petrol. My Dad's Austin 7 car would run out of petrol whilst he was driving, and he'd coast to the kerb, say "I'll turn on the Reserve", get out of the car, lift the bonnet, turn a knob/switch, put bonnet back down, start the car with a starting handle, and off we'd go again until we reached a garage.

I told my brother this and we couldn't remember whether these cars had a petrol gauge - I suppose so but not very accurate.

Look who had germinated this morning

   

Is it only me, or has anyone had fantastic crops of juicy strawberries this year whereas last year mine were rubbish . No blackcurrants this year but goosegogs are good as well. Birds have had most of my redcurrants.
Strangely, without even netting,  both birds and slugs/snails haven't had many either.

Has anyone grown Nectar rose before. Its suffering badly with BER whereas every other plant under the same watering and feeding regime is fine. Ive had a bit of BER before on longer toms such as orange banana  but this variety  seems quite squat so a bit of a surprise. I 've now added a bit of calcium to see whether that helps or hinders but it's very soon going into the compost bin and the 'dont grow again' pile unless I can fix it.