Swifts, felting and cucumbers

Friday 31st July 2009
Three more swifts took to the skies above Wallington! It's lovely to see them fly up and up until they find the thermals and soar effortlessly for the first time. I kept looking out for them for the rest of the day and took binoculars up to the allotment with me. It was very hot and sunny but I did see a group of three high in the sky several times, so hope it was them!
Now just have one left - it is starting to flap the wings and climb, so will probably go on the next decent launch date. Sunday looks like the best weather for a first flight. Fingers crossed!

Picked my first cucumbers this afternoon! Gave 2 to Nick in return for some of his very tiny courgettes. I'm going to make more potato and courgette soup from mine, as they are like bludgeons! His are just right for eating raw, as matchstick thin strips or thin slices, like linguine. How nice to have something other than salsola to trade with!

Dug up the onions so now I will have a bed for autumn/winter salads, once the beastly and ever present bramble roots have been dug out of it. Again. Amazing how it keeps coming up. If I'd wanted to nurture it and grow blackberries you can be sure it would all have died by now.

When not feeding birds, weeding or being at work I've been making more egg cosies. The latest two are for quail-sized eggs and were made just for fun. I've been using a rather fabulous fleece bought from The Threshing Barn, in Derbyshire - or is it Staffs? (must check that). It's from a cross between a coloured Ryeland and a Black Welsh and is rather lovely, so I'm using it for several new projects.

This is a pic of Betty and Bessie, the normal-sized egg cosies. I'll have to take one of them with the quail cosies, as soon as I can get my little camera working properly again. it's being a bit moody at the moment. Ever since I dropped it, in fact!