Banks...

I was feeling pretty low anyway and to add to it, I'm in the middle of one of those horrendous bank experiences where they tell you to do one thing and it's wrong and they tell you to do another, etc.  Today, I shall cycle into Broadstone for the third day in a row to try yet again to send some money to America.

I've written a letter of complaint to the bank already, but I shan't mail it yet in case today adds another episode to the horror story.

Planting stuff

Ordered some strawberry plants from  Ken Muir as he was recommended by my mother-in-law.  Ordered Elvira, an early strawberry, as I'd tasted it early this year in the shops and had a 'wow' reaction to the flavour.  Also bought a late variety, Chelsea Pensioner, which is one Ken Muir have developed themselves and think will promise well.

Richard dug in loads more manure from the local stables and I weeded round the beetroot seedlings.  The strawberry plants all look to be good healthy ones and the Chelsea Pensioner had had a free upgrade to pot grown rather than bare-rooted, so I'm feeling very complimentary about Ken Muir (who also include a detailed guide on growing strawberries with the order) and may well order more soft fruit from them in future.

Beetroot looks like being one of the plants that we can grow successfully.  Unlike cabbages (members of the same brassica family), it doesn't suffer from clubroot - which most of our cabbages have - and we've found that it grows a lot better when fed with a mulch of grass clippings.  It also has a much higher rate of seedlings succeeding where we've dug in compost - and the slugs don't seem to go for the seedlings as much as they have with other plants (or maybe they just germinated when the slugs were having an off day...).

The spinach has been resown as the slugs got nearly all of the seedlings.  We saw them come up and then vanish...  Slugs traps are in place with the new seeds.

The courgettes taste better than anything I've ever had from a supermarket and so do the cucumbers.  I'm still amazed how easy the cucumbers were to grow - for some reason I'd expected them to be difficult (maybe because I mentally associate them with greenhouses) although we did give them a head start in a baby poly-tunnel.

The tomatoes, by contrast, were dire.

The spuds have been a mixed batch.  Nicola tastes great. Edsell Blue have a really poor flavour.

Celebrity art auction

If you are a fan of any of the following:John Alderton, Clive Anderson, Paddy Ashdown, Michael Aspel, David Baddiel, George Baker, Clare Balding, Gordon Banks, Alexandra Bastedo, Lynda Bellingham Sally Boazman, Ian Botham, , Tony Benn, Dickie Bird, Jennie Bond, Jo Brand, Piers Browne, Darcey Bussell, Melanie C, Linford Christie, David Coulthard, David Cameron, Menzies Campbell, Bobby Charlton, Jack Charlton, Lorraine Chase, Julian Clary, Jilly Cooper, Alan Coren, Robin Cousins, Daniel Craig, Edwina Currie, Peter Davison, Anita Dobson, Chris Donald, Johnathan Edwards, Tracey Emin, Nick Faldo, Sarah Ferguson, Ranulph Fiennes, Bob Flowerdew, Philippa Forrester, Bruce Forsyth, Frederick Forsyth, Edward Fox,  Clement Freud, James Galway, Ricky Gervais, Liza Goddard, Hannah Gordon, Fran Godfrey, Peter Hall, Christina Hart-Davies, Adam Hart-Davis, Brian Hewlett, Harry Hill, Damien Hirst, Ian Hislop, Bob Hoskins, Geraldine James, Sarah Kennedy, Charles Kennedy, Rula Lenska, Steve Leonard, Maureen Lipman, Gina McKee, George Melly, Katie Melua, Patrick Moore, John Mortimer, Jose Mourinho, Andy Murray, Denis Norden, Graham Norton, Ian Ogilvy, Tim Pigott-Smith, Alan Plater, Chris Rea, Harry Redknapp, Amanda Redman, Ruth Rendell, Zandra Rhodes, Griff Rhys Jones, Tim Rice, Tony Robinson, Eric Rose, Nick Ross, Greg Rusedski, Jimmy Savile, Prunella Scales, Alan Shearer, Ned Sherrin, Rick Stein, Rachel Stevens, Shakin' Stevens, Peter Stringfellow, Imogen Stubbs, Una Stubbs, David Suchet, Jimmy Tarbuck, Alan Titchmarsh, Peter Vaughan, Michael Winner, Greg Wise, Sharron Davies, Charlie Watts, Christopher Wheeldon, Anne Widdecombe, Kim Wilde

then you might wish to visit  art auction in aid of the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

These are the people who drawn pictures of butterflies and donated them to the Dorset Wildlife Trust to help them raise money.