Posts that Didn't Happen 2: You Looking At Us?

Brood 2 as at 27 July - ready to fly . . . and they did, off camera, in private, the very next day.

Posts that Didn't Happen 1: July by the Lake

Time to play catch-up with some posts that didn't quite make it.

Had a few days away in July in the Lakes, meeting up with old friends, and buying lots of walking kit. Even managed a couple of walks - including the circuit round Derwentwater - although maybe it was a bit hot that day for some people:

Before and After

Tomatoes and Tomato Sauce

June / July Weather Summary

Not been the best of bloggers recently, including a lack of weather updates.

Herewith therefore the weather for June and July - only no weather station data because it doesn't seem to have recorded anything other than the first 4 days of June (having rediscovered the lost data for the end of May as well - couldn't be bothered to reblog that though!). Maybe the data for the rest of June, July and August will reappear in due course . . . I can but hope!

JUNE (pretty good on the whole):

JULY (not quite so good, and missing a few days when we were out of town . . .) :

Elephant Tomato and the Lone Blueberry

One of our first tomatoes - in our fine tradition of deformed produce. We've had a few more tomatoes since, all much more normal looking.

The Lone Blueberry is an even more tragic tale . . . We had (at one point) lots of lovely ripening blueberries - then, one day, they were gone, except for the Lone Blueberry sitting on a strawberry leaf. No idea what got them, as far as we can see the fruit cage is intact - our only thought is that some clever bird / squirrel squeezed itself under the flap of netting at the top, ate the lot, and squeezed its way back out again.

Ah well, you live and learn . . . next year we tie down all the netting round the top and keep our fingers crossed!

Another Log Store, Another Nest

Our local pied wagtail population seem to have a real thing for log stores . . .

A couple of weeks after brood 1 left the nest (which was neatly positioned behind the log store by the house) we found a second nest, neatly positioned at the back of the log store at the bottom of the garden (where we dried the onions last year).

Here's the latest (slightly out of focus) view of the newly-hatched chicks.

Elephant Strawberry

And our first Raspberry Crop!