An Update (now with cat pictures!)

The heatwave continues here in North Lincolnshire, so aside from playing Portal 2* I've been out in the garden. The weed crop at the allotment is finally under control, and all the Jerusalem Artichokes & Broad Beans have been planted out. I'm even close to planting all the potatoes too (I thought I was finished, then a box from Thomson & Morgan arrived with a few kilos of Yukon Gold & Vivaldi in it. D'oh!). It's still a source of bemusement to me that MikeyFox & I are the only people at our allotment that don't believe in all gardening requiring a two-stroke engine (though are more than happy to watch people pushing hired rotavators over their weed-covered plots & learn the hard way about the root propagation of couch grass**).

Peas, carrots, beetroot, chard, parsnips & unusual roots are all safely in the ground, and the polytunnel is heaving with seedlings, which will all be coming out later on in May.
There is an old saying about the best way to check that soil is warm enough for sowing is to drop your trousers & sit on it. I prefer my own method

Not so good for shallots, though.

Alas, all this sunshine has caused the early arrival of my nemesis - Rapeseed!
Of all the things to be allergic to, it has to be this stuff. And what is one of the four main crops grown in Lincolnshire? You'll never guess. Here's a clue, I can see 5 fields of it from my house (and fields in Lincolnshire aren't small. The one I'm looking at now is 1km long! And full of rapeseed. Good for biofuel, bad for the sinuses.)

I cause conjuctival swelling & swollen nasal turbinates - ask me how!

Well, at least it's only lasts for a couple of weeks. And I have antihistamines to keep the dreaded mucousy horrors at bay.

Okay, off to turn an old cask into a strawberry planter. Hope wherever you are you have sunshine, good company, and an immune system that doesn't get in a flap in the presence of pollen.

*Wheatley! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

**And dandelion, and thistle...