The Ladies!

Spent all morning on the allotment - dead heading, harvesting, playing with the hens! Lots of treats went their way as I tidied up my plot and once I had finished I sat with them and gave them mealworms and millet sprays! So here they all are in one photo! From the right Fiona, who is moulting, Gerda who's just been moved on by Fiona, Felicity who is top hen and chases the others, Izzy trying to get to the food and had come rushing out the coop when she heard me call " Chook!ChooK!Chook! " she has gone back to  sitting on the others eggs, Amy who was the escapee until I clipped her wings, and then Penny and Greta, both of whom have dirty bottoms I see and will need a bathe next time I go up! Finally in the middle wonderful Henrietta! 
Only two other people on the plot, one of them being my Fellow allotmenter, so we looked at each others produce - his Butternut squash are already a lovely colour so I just don't understand why mine are still green! Plus mine are monsters! Not sure monster Butternut squash is a good thing! He had courgettes which were similarly monstrous! We both have new sowings of beetroot, and I actually harvested one of the ones sown earlier. Inspecting my Fennel and Kohl Rabi I was sad to see some of the latter had split - hopefully they won't look so bad once / if they grow bigger! The Crystal lemon cucumbers are still producing as is the red Kuri squash - that is one seriously prolific cropper! So too  is the Winter Sweet Dumpling squash, such a pretty shape too!  The sweet peas have not done so well this year - the best wigwam is the one I planted when the first wigwam got full of my seedlings! I was pleased to discover the raspberries have produced new fruit which are tasty! I just hope we get some nicer, dry weather so the autumn ones which are coming into crop don't go mouldy as they usually do! My other disappointment on the plot are my Romanesque cauliflowers - they look like kale! It was a new packet so don't know what went wrong there! Ha! Just googled it and apparently it is a tall growing plant! Will inspect the tops for sign of the flower next visit! The poppy heads are now beginning to look brown and will soon be ready to cut, so MotherShipton expect a delivery soon! 
Once home I tried some more places for travel insurance recommended by the Berger Picard facebook group - success! Well partial success! They will cover the guy bringing the dogs over for third party liability but not Oscar! He is obviously a worrier like me and has done a thorough risk assessment, so I don't foresee anything going wrong, and France Dweller assures me the dogs will be clingy and therefore unlikely to run off if there is any mishap getting their leads on! I will however be very nervous for the 3 days it is taking them to arrive back! Think I will be doing a lot of yoga and meditating - unless I plan some days out with France Dweller!