We have returned from the Alpine sunshine...

Time for a much needed update following our galavant around France in a super duper camper van.  Thanks VM to mum for looking after our place while we were away, she does a super job of looking after the cats, chickens, bantams and the long long list of garden chores as well as her annual job of making all our tubs and hanging baskets burst with colour with her home grown bedding plants...you see its in the genes.!
We have returned from the Alpine sunshine to hear the summer vacated the GB Isle for the two weeks with us.  So there was not much call for watering, but grass had grown like crazy, the wind had ruffled the roses beyond tidy and the fruit is splitting all over the place.
Now slow and steady is best when you have a to do list as long as your arm, so we have spent the past 4 days getting things back in order and moving on towards summer proper now it seems to have come back from it's break too.
First up, the roses needed tying in to stop the tops breaking over, likewise the grape vines which are advancing all over the south facing trellises.  The corn netting needed lifting as they are getting tall and the radishes have been thinned out.  We lost our cucumbers to the snails or slugs which is pretty unusual as our chooks deal with most of these but there must be one or two which have got behind the netting and had a good munch in our absence.
In the greenhouse we have planted out some more heritage tomatos and some chillies now the winter beetroot have all gone and sowed some ornamental grass seeds to see if we can propagate those which we have never tried before and they will be great in our garden room display for next spring.  Also we have taken stem cuttings of sage, rosemary and lavenders ready for bringing on next spring and harvested our early onions.
Finally we moved the water feature down nearer the garden room which makes an amazing soothing trickling addition to that environment.  We had built it all from recycled products 2 years ago down the far end near the bee hive for them to have constant access to fresh water, but now they have had to go we felt it was time that we gained more benefit of its relaxing properties.
News on the secret stories is good on both counts, 6 of the 9 lychee stones have germinated and are now showing first silky shiny purple leaves and the gorgeous Midnight is being a superb first mum still sitting tight on her clutch of 3 eggs under the watchful eye of the proud father Dr Horacio Abbchamp I.