July 15th 2014

Very little reporting in the press so far, but the spring and early summer of 2014 has been exceptional weather-wise. No record breaking temperatures (although that may happen at the end of the week), just warm sunshine and very little rain. Presumably and I'm only guessing here,  with the exceptionally wet winter, groundwater levels are still good, combine heat, long day length and sufficient water,  the growing season is doing well. Certainly many farmers have already begun harvesting cereals and by all accounts its set to be a bumper harvest if this dry weather continues. As such we've been having a lot of salads in the garden after work. And here is one I created earlier. Salads in a big salad bowl remind me of my childhood as my mother absolutely loves salad. Great bowls of fresh lettuce or tomatoes straight from the garden. We grew a lot of food, however Wilf Shields who lived next door had the market garden to the other side of us. I can still see my mum putting a large pan of cold water onto the hob, walking up the back garden, picking a cabbage from 'Wilf's and in 20 minutes we'd be eating it. My love of the smell of tomatoes came from his greenhouses, always that mossy, earthy ripe aroma inside his huge Victorian glasshouses. At one end a trough full of rainwater, a selection of long spouted watering cans and his collection of briar pipes. Memories of childhood summers in those glasshouses will live with me for ever.