Smile!

Look what I grew! A truly smiley 'smile potato'! Part of our first harvesting of the potato crop.

I have to admit that the only reason these ones came up (most of them were a bit on the small side) was that it was growing in a pot with another potato plant and was beginning to look a bit like a stunted twin with yellowing (not blighty) leaves, so I thought we'd have it out and let the other grow unimpeded. Have subsequently watered the remaining twin with tomato fertilizer, because apparently that's what they like... same family and all that jazz.

It has been hot and quite muggy here. Great weather for drying washing, but makes the plants (and general population) feel a bit wilty. Hence I have been watering the plants quite a bit and Spike has been playing with an old washing up sponge and a bucket of water in nothing but his undies. Splodging patterns all over the driveway. How great to be a child in summer...

Last night I went out with a torch and satisfied my lust for the sound of crunching snailshells... Where do they all come from? It wasn't the first night I had been out there massacring molluscs, and the paths are littered with the wrecked homes of other deceased gastropods. And yet there are always more. Which would explain why my beans are only 4 inches tall! Still, hopefully they'll regrow. There are new shoots and new twiney arms reaching upwards, but will they actually make it past the snail army? With my continued vigilance, we hope and pray for success.