Olympic schedule causing havoc in the urban farm...

OK so you should feel lucky today, in fact feel so lucky you go and buy a lottery ticket on your way to Bingo.  You are very lucky indeed to be getting a post at all given the hectic daily schedule of Olympic viewing and Team GB supporting that has been going on here at streetgrowers.  The viewing ranges from online BBC site whilst in the garden fixing fences, pruning raspberries and feeding chooks to complete immersion in lounge in front of large flat screen taking in every pixel of the action amid the sea of empty seats.  Oh yes that little episode has not escaped us here and roused just a little anger.  The other morning we watched the swimming heats with 'Our Becky' swimming past rows of empty seats which we had unsuccessfully bid to pay for back in the day! It had a double whammy anger effect not only because like many of you we would have loved to be sitting on any two of the seats but also because it magnified onto the world stage the incompetent backhander trading that goes on in UK politics and in fact any corporate arena, and LOCOG couldn't even get that right.  But No I shall not step onto my soapbox of joy and rant excessively on this topic. I shall as I did on Sunday shout at the TV later about it if any more empty rows of seats are televised...mind you have to say seeing Seb Coe with the Royals in the Equestrian arena in Greenwich on Monday surrounded by empty seats was priceless. And whilst on the topic of Greenwich didn't it look fantastic in the cross country.  We have the best park in London by a country mile...go Greenwich.

So as said you have rolled a 6 this morning getting a blog post amid all this Olympic excitement and bursting pride in the glory of our local area.  Well between viewing and cheering, which I am sure they can hear in the stadiums from here, we have been soldiering on with the never ending demands of the urban farm.  Our summer fruiting raspberries gave us a massive harvest, we now have Raspberry and vanilla jam to die for and enough sorbet in the freezer to see us through the Gold medal parade.  Having exhausted themselves fruiting and sending up beautiful new shoots we pruned out the old stems and tied in the new lush green thick canes so all is looking neat and tidy ready for next year.

We planted out 50 plus leeks grown form seed, quite close as we will harvest them young as baby leeks, then re-fenced the squash bed which is churning out regular courgettes and has a range of pumpkins and butternuts coming along nicely so the chooks need to stay off for a while.  The runner beans have fought back against the slugs and despite the lack of leaves have gone on climbing the canes and grown some new leaves nice and high up...are slugs scared of heights? Anyway they need weeding so that is on the list as soon as there is a mini break in the swimming heats this morning!

We have been up to our eyes in Freegle gifts again this week and have a lovely pile of reclaimed floorboards ready and waiting to be turned into a tool tidy...design is done just waiting on a new blade for the circular saw and we will be busy creating. Took in a car load of firewood which is all chopped, sawn and stacked in the garage to season before burning in winter. Also grabbed a load of glass bricks which we are cleaning up at the mo and hope to use to design a cold-frame for the salad bed to extend the growing season. As soon as we have pics of our Freegle creations there is a blog post just waiting for publish on that lot.

Finally, as I have to get back to the rowing at Eton Dorney, Peep is doing really well, has loads more feathers, loves jumping on Dad's back, which doesn't go down too well with him but he is being a kind Daddy about it and is looking really healthy...Boy or Girl...still not sure, what do you think? Answers in the comments please.