Surely the sight of them fluttering around among the flowers in the sunshine during summertime is almost magical. I don’t see many on the plot, and I’m even luckier to take a good photo when I do.

The photos shown were taken both there and around the site. Thankfully blog friends with more patience and better cameras do rather better as you can see on Lucy’s post THE SPECKLED WOOD’S BOTTOM.

Butterfly Conservation’s Save Our Butterflies Week started yesterday, and continues through to next Sunday. Sadly they are in serious decline so we should do all we can to help as a world without butterflies is simply unthinkable.

Have a good week!

There are at least thirty more flower buds on this clump which will attract plenty of bees when they open like this.

See the RHS webpage for further details of this excellent perennial.

Have a good weekend!

The Rosy Cheeks Appeal aims to raise £750,000 over the next two years to build at least ten new gardens in children’s hospices around the country.

Donating to, and supporting, any charity is a very personal choice so all I’m asking is that you watch this film.  Thanks, Flighty xx

At home I’ve a few plants growing in pots on the window sill. There are tomatoes – two each Gardener’s Delight, Golden Queen and Outdoor Girl. You’ll notice that the leaves of the latter, on the right in the picture, are different to most tomatoes. These will all be planted out on the plot next month.

I’m also growing a couple each indoor tomatoes Red Robin and Tumbling Tom Yellow, and two cucumbers Straight Eight which germinated in just a few days.  Sown at the same time were two each courgette Nero di Milano and squash Sunburst F1 none of which have germinated so I’ll sow some more in the next day or two.

The pelargonium Frank Headley that I bought a couple of months ago now has flower buds on it which is good to see.

The forecast is for unsettled weather, including heavy rain, through the coming week but I hope to do some plotting, even if it’s only weeding.

Have a good week!

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There was no sign of any flowers on the strawberry plants on Tuesday but look what I saw today.

The grapevine has plenty of new growth. Last year was a poor harvest so I’m hoping for better things this year.

This perennial cornflower has at least thirty buds showing with some like this one not far off opening.

Most of the yellow daffodils, and the tulips, have now finished but there are still some white narcissus.

Weeds are growing everywhere, even on top of this log.

These are the two unknown plants that I mentioned on Sunday. I’ve had a browse through a couple of reference books but I couldn’t positively identify either although there were several possibilities.  Any suggestions?

Have a good weekend!

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I’ve at least a handful of these dwarf red tulips scattered around the plot. I shall lift the bulbs when they’ve finished and replant later on in a group to give a better effect.

Plot neighbour George kindly gave me two flower plants neither of which I know the name of at present, so I’ll wait until they flower then post photos of them.  Another one is physalis alkenkengi, the Chinese Lantern Plant, which one-time shed helper Martin gave me today. This has gone into a large container until I can decide on where to plant it out.

It was a busy morning at the trading shed but I stopped to say hello to Stanley and share a biscuit or two with him.

Plot neighbour Trevor also called in to show us a chicken egg.  One of his hens regularly lays large eggs of around 70 grams but he was amazed when during the week he found that she’d laid one that weighs just 8.3 grams. It really was tiny being little bigger than my thumb tip, and he mentioned that the according to the Guinness Book of Records it’s only just over 1 gram heavier than the record smallest one.

Out on the main road between the trading shed and my allotment site is this wonderful looking tree in full blossom.

Have a good week!

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The weather forecast for the weekend is looking good so I’m sure people will be keen to spend it in the garden or on the plot.

If not then why not enjoy a walk in the countryside. Have a look at the VisitWoods and WalkingBritain websites for plenty of inspiration.

Here’s another picture of my yellow tulips, which are also my new header.

Have a good weekend!

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PS…Tuesday’s post over on Sofa flying was Odd one out.

I think that is particularly true at this time of year when we’re waiting to see if the various flowers and vegetables that we’ve recently planted or sown have started growing.

One of the first things that I do on arriving at the plot is look round to see what has and last week I was pleased to see the broad beans Witkiem Manita appearing. Now that they have I can weed round them, and fill in any gaps.

The onion sets have also started growing so I can the same with them sometime during the week.

I was plotting every day again except yesterday, when it was chilly and showery, and it’s now almost reached the stage where most of plotting I’ll be doing over the next couple of weeks is just weeding.

One of the most delightful things for me last week were the yellow tulips.

Have a good week, and happy gardening!

I’ve always grown teasels as I let a few self seed. They’re impressive plants and good for wildlife. I didn’t think that there would be any this year but these three are growing beside the dustbin lid pond.

I’m growing sixteen tulips in a container as I couldn’t decide where to plant them and the first ones flowered today.

I should have perhaps planted them in the square planter rather than the pretty, but not very showy, daffodils which are in it.

They’re small, little more than an inch or so, and pale in colour but there aren’t enough of them to really make much of an impact.

Lastly I promised Town Mouse (also known as Cityexile and Disgruntled) that I would mention this e-petition, Promote cycling by implementing the recommendations in the ‘Get Britain Cycling’ report, as she’s a tireless cycling campaigner and says that it is important.

Have a good weekend!

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I’ve since plotted every morning Monday through to yesterday forking, hoeing, planting, sowing and weeding. This is what the plot looked like on Thursday morning -

The light coloured area on the right of the bottom area is where the raspberries grow, and which now all have new growth appearing. To the left of these are the onions some of which have just appeared. The rest of the area is for growing vegetables including beetroot, carrots, cucumbers and lettuce.

The middle area is all potatoes, which have now all been planted, and over on the right in front of the compost bin is the blackberry bush.

In the top left hand area I’ve sown some broad beans, with more to follow. In a month or so I’ll be sowing French climbing and runner beans, in a double row down along the left hand edge, along with sweetcorn and tomatoes.  The rhubarb is in the top right hand corner with the strawberries in a double row on the right next to the middle path.

The flower area is over on the top right, above the middle group of daffodils, which I shall cover in more detail in forthcoming posts.

Sadly the crocuses have finished and the daffodils just starting to go over but the plum tree is now blossoming. Last year saw a few marble sized fruit for the first time and I’m hoping that it’ll do better this year.

Yesterday morning it was a sunny and warm so there were plenty of plot neighbours around. Unfortunately some were busy with bonfires, lawn mowers, rotovators and strimmers so I didn’t stay too long. Thankfully the forecast is looking good so I’ll be there tomorrow morning hopefully with just the birds for company.

Have a good week!

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PS…Yesterday’s Sofa flying post was The Father Anselm books.