7th of the month Following a tree link + other stuff.

Joining up with Lucy at Loose and Leafy blog to follow a tree through 2014. My tree is our pink flowered  Horse Chestnut. Someone planted a conifer hedge behind the tree and it's also near the hedge boundary with some Ash trees on the third side, which have been cut back frequently because to the right of them is the fruit cage where we have raspberries, red currants and gooseberries.

Pink candles from a distance

and closer

A shady spot underneath

I think lichen shows we have lovely clean air here on the edge of Suffolk

I've decided that after I've saved up for my new Roberts Red Retro Radio, I'm starting a new fund for a digital SLR camera. I just don't get on with the little Canon digital. I'm old fashioned, I want a camera I can look through. I had a cheap Russian SLR camera way back in the 1970s and it took lovely photos until it got sand inside.

Now onto today's news
Both of us had more energy today so C started the day loosening the soil on last years Brussel sprout bed and then after an early coffee he went to our neighbours for grass cutting. I did the ironing then wheel-barrowed some compost onto the bed, ready for him to rotovate in.
We then  got 10 courgette plants out, it's quite windy today so we've put an old tyre round each plant until they get established. Wind can do them a lot of  damage - twisting the stem.

Later he prepared the bed for the climbing French beans and got some canes up ready. The beans have been moved from the conservatory to the cold-frame to harden off but we will still wind a bit of fleece round them when we plant them out in a few days time.

It's going to be a bad year for bugs, caterpillars and other nasties. I've been checking the gooseberries for sawfly caterpillars every couple of days and there are lots and greenfly too plus we've already destroyed one wasps nest this year and it's only May. If you have gooseberry bushes it really is worth looking for any half eaten leaves which will usually have a caterpillar underneath. Varying from the size of a dash like this - to about a centimetre long they can eat their way through the leaves on a bush in next to no time  I usually squash them by folding the leaf around them and squishing.

Back Tomorrow
Sue