Chicory flowers everywhere

Up at 5.30 before the sun to open every window, water, pull weeds (fat hen), pick dried cannellini beans, gherkins, cucumbers, a lettuce and a squash that slipped its moorings and went careening down the hill.

The apples are suffering a surprising amount of hornet and emerald beetle damage (see extra). I’ve not put up beer traps this year. Seems too cruel unless life threatening.

As I write the air ambulance comes by. A reminder of the worst days of the lockdown when they were moving covid cases to hospitals with capacity. It’s never far away, the virus. The news from Europe, the Balkans and further afield is not good.