The rain this week has given us a welcome break from watering and worrying about plants getting parched.

At Clissold the ladybird pupae that were on the sweet Cicely 2 weeks ago have turned into ladybirds!  Amazing metamorphosis - in the second photo you can see the empty pupal shell.

Our nasturtiums are taking over in the polytunnel in Clissold.  The bees were undeterred by the rain on Thursday morning and carried on foraging for nectar amongst the poppies at Springfield .  We have kept the long narrow bed at Springfield that we planted with flowers last year as a flower strip this year. 

Tom helped me plant some sweetpeas and then I ran out of time to do anything else with it. But out of the leaf mould mulch that we put on it in March have appeared self-seeded flower upon self-seeded flower and now we have a bountiful bed of borage (the pink and blue petalled flower), calendula, nasturtiums, sweet peas and more - it has been like a wonderful floral present that has gradually unwrapped itself over the last few weeks.

 Finally, our cucumbers and beans are going great guns at both sites - all of our indoor veg are already fruiting - now I just have to find somewhere to sell them to!

Farming Today can also be listened to as a podcast if, like me, you're not up at the crack of dawn.  A few days ago they interviewed Dee Woods and Sinead Fenton, two Black women I know from the growing world about their experiences of working in growing.  You can listen to it here (starts around 14 minutes into the podcast)

Wishing you a good weekend,

Sophie