26th July

 All the brassicas this year has caused us problems, well not the crop but pigeon problems.

Usuallly, we take the fleece of off the crops, weed them with a machine then go over with the bed weeder, and lastly re cover the crop with bird netting nice and easy.

But this year after taking the fleece of and going over the crop with the weeder machine, the pigeons came swooping in for breakfast, morning break, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper and a bed time snack some even came in for an extra snack in between all that, I’m surprised they could even fly with their bellies being so full.

The reason for the extra hungry pigeon dinning, was that usually when we take the fleece of and start weeding, all the Barley, peas and oats in farms around have nice feeding for the wildlife.

But this year everyone started sowing about three weeks later than usual, with March being so wet and April frozen cold, so the fields all around didn’t have any feeding for the birds.

So we had to re fleece after going over with the weeder machine and the kale in particular had been really damaged by the feeding frenzy.

When we came to take the fleece of for a second time, it was surprising how well the kale had recovered and looked really well, but the weeds were looking even better.

So again we had to go through with the machine, and this week we will make a start on bed weeding.                                                                                                                                       The brassicas crops should now be safe from wildlife as the combines are all out in the fields and working away, so there are loads of food now available.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about slugs and frogs in the cucumber tunnels.           This week Breagh our border collie came across her first ever frog, she is only four months old and never seen one,   were walking through the tunnel checking the plants,  and here was a huge frog, nothing unusual with that.

It was just sitting nice and still, basking in the heat probably full and taking a snooze after a slug feast.

Breagh seen the frog and stopped in her tracks, she never went up to it straight away, just stood staring and tilting her head from one side to the other, one ear up and one ear down, probably wondering what in the world is that.

Well Breagh took one step forward, stretched out and touched the frog with her nose.   

Well the Frog must have bricked itself; it made a Froggie noise, and with its huge back legs sprang up, half the hight of the tunnel.

Breagh got the same fright she also lept up and done a back flip at the same time, landed on top of a cucmber plant then sprinted right out of the tunnel.