A walk yielded two socially distanced chats. One with a friend through her car window and the other with a friend through her cottage window

The skies are blue and dotted with white clouds

The hedges are white with common hawthorn blossom

The friends across the road had a broody hen and two chicks hatched last week

Another friend in a nearby village collected some eggs three weeks ago (social distancing rules applied – we left the eggs outside our gate and she collected them wearing gloves and staying on the far side of the gate). Today she has two little chicks called Jet and Honey.

If just some of all these newly hatched chicks are hens then, soon, we can solve the National egg shortage! We have another broody sitting on eggs in the orchard and have given friend across the road eight eggs for two more broody hens. Put your orders in now.

On Friday night I heard tiny cheeps from under the sitting hen. We saw three new born chicks when J bravely put his hand into the nest and extracted them from the protective pecking mother (he carefully replaced them). Yesterday morning mother hen had moved her nest out from under the hen house. We lifted her up and lo and behold we counted 11,yes ELEVEN chicks! A record for The Gables. We have moved mum and babies to their own secure house until the chicks have grown and are feeding.

J has started to plant out cucumbers around a wigwam of canes. The plants started as seeds in the house and then hardened off in the greenhouse and are now outside. I can practically taste the pickles!

Brother and sis in law made their weekly “through the window” visit to mum. I suppose this will become the new normal but it feels very abnormal.

The salsify roots have flowered and what beautiful flowers they are – and edible too, apparently. The salsify is a root vegetable said to taste like oysters. As I have never eaten oysters I wouldn’t be able to confirm this but I find them fiddly to peel and pretty tasteless. Oysters?

Another strange feature of salsify flowers is that they open in the morning and close in the afternoon.

Yesterday evening Jeremy asked me to hand him a large bowl. “I’m collecting a surprise for you”. He returned with a bowl full of new potatoes – Sharps Express

J had grown potatoes in part of the poly tunnel last year. After he lifted the spuds a few got left behind and began to grow and multiply and, Hey Presto, very early new potatoes

I was talking to an animal loving friend in London when suddenly I spied some unexpected movement in the paddock. I opened the gate as quietly as I could and crept towards the fenced off tree trunk.

As I got closer I could see more and more baby rabbits – looking just like cuddly toys

As I began to video they must have sniffed me on the air and one by one they fled down the rabbit hole! They are lovely – but only if they keep out of the veggie garden! click below