Afraid of our vegetables!

We woke up this morning to discover that literally overnight the batch of yellow courgette seeds has not only germinated but almost grown up - we were concerned enough to wonder if they might nip at our ankles as we came down the stairs this morning that’s how fast their progress seems to be - I wouldn’t be surprised if we had courgettes for the bbq by this evening (thinly sliced with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice - yum)!  I’ve posted a photo above of both the yellow courgettes and the regular ones which in comparison do seem to be lagging despite both being planted at the same time.  We’ve put them next to each other in the hopes that might encourage some competition!

We’re both so impressed and humbled to be surrounded by so much life - it really is fascinating.  Last week, I had planted the gladioli bulbs my mother had very kindly given us (50 in all) and already we’ve got about 5 of them peeking through with the others fast behind I’m sure.  In addition, I have sown about 50 assorted sunflower seeds along one of the borders - this was only done less than a week ago and already a few dozen of them have poked their way through our nitrogen rich soil!  I cannot wait to see that border in bloom and will be sure to take photos as much to keep evidence as to whether you really can have too much of a good thing because I think I may have overdone that particular border in my eagerness to have a profusion of pretty sunflowers to see us through the summer.

The sunflower seeds used came with us from Cayman, ordered from the “Seed Savers Exchange” catalogue.  This is an organisation we became members of a few years ago and one we both thoroughly approve of despite being a little in awe of the people behind it all.  In awe of them because these are people who have been “saving seeds” for generations - people who are standing firm against the monsters who want to genetically modify everything and then have you buy the “drugs” for your plants because the genetically modified version doesn’t withstand normal weather conditions and the ‘creepy crawlies’ one should expect and sometimes even encourage in ones garden - essentially, people we want to become one day!  If in the market for interesting seeds brought from Bavaria to the United States in 1870 or want to read some fascinating stories of seeds discovered and subsequently saved from the gizzards of a duck - check them out at www.seedsavers.org.

We woke up to rain this morning and as a result of the hot dry months that preceeded our return to France, we’re very close to having a hose pipe ban imposed in this area, so we were thrilled that the plants were getting lots of water the way God intended!  However, this reaction was very quickly followed by disappointment as we remembered we have our first guests arriving later today and so of course wanting our cake and wanting to eat it too, we are in the process of praying for a morning of rain to keep the plants happy followed by an afternoon of sunshine to keep the guests happy!  And if all else fails, I have some lamb (marinading in olive oil, soy sauce, garlic, dijon mustard and rosemary) and we have a few cases of wine and the french version of Scrabble to keep us all amused!!