Wednesday 24 June 2020

First Thing,

the fox and her two cubs,


 were in the garden, it did not take long, 

 for the cubs watching their mother to learn that peanuts taste nice! 

 and were soon competing with her for them,

 we left early to meet Steve, Kai and Phanee,

 to go strawberry picking,

 and here we all were, at the Stanhill PYO Farm, Birchwood Road, Wilmington, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7HD, Tel: 01322 669711, please note that they are closed on Mondays and opening times may vary, so it may be best to call first,

 this the the same tent to pick up your punnets or baskets and pay for them after picking,

 we were early, just 4 minuets after the farm was supposed to open, but it was crowded already,

 Phanee has picked one!

 Steve and Kai making a start,

 as did Diana,


I was also helping out, having done this before my lack of hair meant my head would be sun burnt, but I had a cunning plan, wear a hat!

 with so many fields to chose from,

 we had to sample them,

 to find the best tasting ones,

 this is the result in no time at all, 

 a happy camper,

 what a feast for later tonight,

 three very happy campers,

 they look good enough to eat!

we had to have a few poses,

 what a beauty! 

 well I had to have a pose as well,

 another from Diana,

 Phanee,

 Steve and Kai,

 and all of the girls,

 we knew we had the right area, as just as we were finishing, the professional pickers arrived and started in the same rows we were in, 

 we made our way to the paying station, the baskets were not weighed, it was a standard charge of £3.00 per punnet or £15.00 per basket, there are also other crops available at different times of the year, 


Raspberries
June - October
£3.00 per punnet
Just started
Courgettes
July - September
Not yet ready
Runner beans
July - October
Not yet ready
Dwarf French beans
July - October
Not yet ready
Beetroot
July - October
Not yet ready
Sweetcorn
August - September
Not yet ready
Mini cucumbers
August - September
Not yet ready
Sunflowers
August - September
Not yet ready
Tomatoes
September
Not yet ready
Pumpkins
October Half Term - Pumpkin Patch
Not yet ready
Squash
October
Not yet ready

so maybe another trip later in the year?

 next stop,

 to Steve and Kai's garden,

 it is amazing how their plants have grown, just a couple of weeks ago this sweetcorn as just a few inches tall,

 now the first cobs are here,

 the girls picked some lettuce for tonight, as well as some pak choi,

 whilst Steve watered the garden,

 Steve and Kai kindly dropped us off at home, so for us we were out shopping, I parked in the Lidl car park, Diana went shopping in there,

 whilst I made my way to Sainsbury's where thankfully there was not a queue,

 in the evening we started with pate along with toast and a delicious salad courtesy of Steve and Kai, for our main course a steak each, with mushrooms, broccoli, coleslaw and a baked potato,

to go with her meal Diana had made a strawberry milk shake, and frozen the rest of the strawberries for more summer milk shakes,

 'Cheers!', 

 for myself a Eton mess, well with all of those strawberry's I had to!

 but Diana had strawberried herself out!, so a coconut dessert for her, 

I had forgotten this photograph at Steve's home which he brought around today, the last time I meet Mark he gave me this photograph to copy, taken back in the 1990s, it was when I had a leaving the UK party, for the day there was a bouncy castle, a Mr. Whippy ice cream van in the front car park, as well as Mr. Creepy Crawly who provided all manner of creatures, like the tarantula crawling up Marks arm, and if you look carefully the results of one of the face painting ladies that were in the back garden for the day, great fun was had by all, 

back to tonight after our meal it was feet up for Vertigo, followed by one from Have I Got News For You, we rounded off the evening with one from New Tricks, at the end of that we were off to bed.


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