Its raining its pouring

The weather is very wet at the moment, so much so that a 25 min journey took me and the boys an hour and a half this afternoon and was very hairy in places. I was secretly pretty apprehensive, but the mini's were loving every minute of it! Especially as they watched two cars fail to make it though the flooding and they gave a great big cheer when we manged to get through, MadDads voice in my head "high revs and go slow". I have a diesel and that does make it easier in the wet.

Well one thing that is loving the rain is our garden. MadDad installed a water butt when he built the raised beds and we have been amazed at how much water it collects and uses and we love the fact that it is so ecological too (one of the other things we want to instill in the children is looking after their planet).

We are really enjoying the fruits of MadDads labour and the peas are wonderful and sweat almost like sweets. The mangetout are so crisp and delicious. The kale and chard plentiful and both boys love them, although MadDad is not so keen. The potatoes are coming on well, but we planted them a couple of weeks late due to hospital, so we are waiting before trying them. The cabbage are yummy and well you get the picture it all tastes so much better when you grow it yourself with no pesticides and anyway I am running out of ways to describe the taste. The spinach seemed to have taken over so we have pulled a couple of the plant.

We are excited watching the rest and the boys seem to be even more excited than me. The eldest MiniMad came in and jumped up and down when the beans first flowered. we have eaten carrot thinning in salads. The mixed salad leaves have not done so good, neither the belotti beans or the corn. The pumpkins, leeks, onions, sprouts, broccoli, cauli and parsnips are all looking promising.

Even better still the apple tree we planted last year (we moved in to a new build, so our garden was just a building site 2 years ago) is bearing fruit. We have strawberries in hanging baskets and I think we need to have much more strawbs next year as the boys love them.