Cabin fever

Looks like another day of kicking my heels indoors - I've come to the conclusion I'm a fair weather gardener, but for Heaven's sake the rain over the past few days has been torrential. When it hasn't actually been raining anything I might want to weed or till has been sodden and unappetising too. In lieu of getting dirt under my fingernails I've been drawing a map on the computer - gaining an intimate knowledge of every pixel on the screen. There must be an easier way.

During a break in the clouds I recorded this month's garden. It's certainly greener now.

I've harvested the autumn planted onions - which are drying in the garage. The garlic will be next. Hopefully both will store until next year's crop is harvested. I've only bought 3 onions in the past 3 years - a statistic I'm quite proud of. Once the bed is cleared I shall plant out the brassicas - ideally I would have given the land a little rest but the pressure for space means I haven't got that luxury.

The broad beans (Express) are coming into their own - young, sweet and tender. Abundant too - we could eat them every night. Our nightly suppertime dilemma is cabbage or beans? Beans or cabbage? Both are ready to eat now. In another week we will have peas - the vines are hung with a mass of flat pods and I anticipate the popping of pods. Perhaps peas are at their best eaten on the hoof, in passing, pod popped with a grubby finger and its contents greedily snarfed and savoured - a sweet crisp sugar burst.

The soft fruits are ripening. I'm picking raspberries and shoo-ing birds off the black, red and white currants. The fruit cage is almost a waste of space, trapping more birds than it deters.

In the greenhouse? It's a jungle in there. A round of applause for peppers and (the) cucumber. Basil? Better late than never I suppose. The tomatoes are beginning to turn colour and the Trelystan melon harvest does look promising for once. We've managed a melon larger than a tennis ball (a personal best in the past) and have 4 looking like this:Growth does seem slow this year - the courgettes have hardly kicked off - yet 800 feet lower, down in the valley, I've seen courgettes well on their way to marrow-hood. Perhaps it's an altitude thing. And squash - another of my favourites, along with onions, for storing? Don't mention the squash. Diddly-squat squash. Bah.

The borders are looking lush and overgrown - I need to be amongst them with a machete. Sweet peas, shooting up their canes in a reasonably orderly fashion, are heavenly. I pick them and they reward me with more flowers. Theirs is a short life but a fragrant one. We won't talk about grass. Suffice to say it's growing and the rain precludes mowing. The Glam.Ass. has retreated to his shed muttering. (Another trug anyone?)

Now I can hear thunder and the sky is battleship grey. There's a rumour that this will all clear up by tomorrow. Tomorrow is Trelystan Church Fete........

Me? Right now, mouse in hand, I'm going to chase pixels. After that? A few moments looking out a raincoat for tomorrow's stint on the plant stall might be time well spent.