With all the wet weather this summer, tomato and potato blight putting in an unwelcome early appearance was inevitable. The first signs showed up last week on the outside tomatoes and although the Bordeaux mixture is slowing it down, the chocolate brown splodges are spreading through the crop. Sometimes it’s worth stripping the leaves which essentially kills the plants (stopping the blight colonising any further) but gives the green fruit a chance of ripening. This year however it’s so early that there isn’t enough developed fruit to bother with. Our hopes and dreams of creamy tomato pasta, spaghetti bolognese and fried tomatoes lie within our two greenhouses now!
Returning from Morris dancing there was a distinctive and persistent bleating emanating from the darkness. Raised to sheep farming I recognised the noise immediately. Farmer B had clearly been weaning lambs and left alone for the first time they would undoubtedly shout for the ewes all night long.