Peas please.

How long ago did I pop those little peas into a length or two of guttering in the greenhouse? One week, two? Hrm, I think it was just one week ago. Already they have pushed their little emerald stems through the compost and now, today, they have started to unfurl their leaves. Only a centimetre high there is so much life in these little bombs of taste. My favourite way to eat peas is straight out of the pod and into the mouth (checking for caterpillars first, of course).

We'll give these a week or two in situ and then we'll slide the contents of the guttering straight into a shallow trough in the veg patch and start again for another later row of peas so we'll be popping those peas for a longer harvesting period. Yum.

Best of all, Luke got into the greenhouse and whilst I dug up an enormous slab of concrete from the back patch by our new fence he cleaned up last year's seed trays before levelling off some compost and putting in very regimented rows of tomatoes before finishing off with some Bells of Ireland seeds for me. Once he had done all that, he rested the trays into a larger tray of water to allow them to soak up without disturbing the seeds.
He's also got to prepare Buddleia seeds by planting them up and then keeping the covered planter int he fridge for one month. I am not a lover of them as they can take over and look very messy if not kept in check but Luke wants to plant them on the other side of our new fence in order to attract butterflies. He's a real advocate of  nature and is always on the lookout for ways to encourage new life. My plan is to put a pond in the front garden and the day we have our first iridescent dragonfly flitting over it will be wonderful. We don't have a pond in the back garden because the chickens can't be trusted not to fall in. Our friend, Heather, found one of her chickens drowned in her small garden pond after it had fallen in (they aren't like ducks with 'waterproof' feathers). Although I didn't want to let our chicks out today after Lola destroyed my new allium within seconds of me planting it into the bed and turning my back. Fortunately I had only paid a pound for it but that's one less point of interest thanks to her incessant search for slimy worms.

Shakira is in the broody box because she just wants to sit and turn eggs into chickens which isn't possible without a cockerel to fertilise them. So now she is stuck in a chicken wire bottomed 'box' to break her out of her maternal episode. This would be okay if only she was left alone but Buck Bucky misses her so has been trying to break in. Here she is on top of the broody box. The only way is down and so off she goes.

This is nothing new for Buck Bucky, she is often to be found on the run's roof; looking for another way to get into the nesting box!

Maybe she needs to read the sign!Beware of the chickens!

To me, this reminds me of someone striding out to the shops. She's so determined to get where she wants to go. All the time being four foot above the ground. You know what happens next.

She takes flight!