15 July - Slow motion

Things are looking a little sluggish on the plot.

There is very little evidence that any seeds were planted during the week, i.e. nothing has come up. We have looked very hard and the only real seedlings showing themselves just now are radishes (quelle surprise). If we squint, we think there may be the tiny beginnings of raddichio. No peas as yet, though it said on the packet that germination took 6-8 days, so here's hoping. I have deliberately not gone to have a look today.

Though the weather has been louring and ominous, no water has fallen, so watering has had to be done. If the seedlings don't come up, I shall be worried that we are not greenfingered - that the plot is in the dodgy bit of the allotment - and that we are asking too much for this late in the growing season. Or a mixture of all three. Or that we have been too lazy in preparing the beds, i.e. not got rid of all the ****ing stones.

Something greedy is eating the broccoli/sprouts, despite the netting. And one of the courgette plants (in the compost heat) keeps "losing" its flowers. And we found incontrovertible proof of rabbits.

But the potatoes are growing well and flowering; the celery looks to be strong, green and crunchy; and King Pumpkin is showing us his lurve on the other side of the compost heap. And we have had lovely lettuces and springies and radishes.

We have two videos of the slug - I know, I know, we're too good to you. But it was an enormous thing and oozed quite quickly and efficiently across the plastic.

All in all, the successes and failures are adding up to a keen appreciation of life's karmic balance. It's quite a bit of "on the one hand, on the other" type of thinking with an allotment, as the slug above learnt the hard way. Please note - this is not one for slug-lovers even if it is sideways. Nature red in tooth and claw and all that.