Onions harvested

It has been a wonderful hot and sunny day here, however it is do to turn back to the wet and soggy stuff as from tomorrow. I made the most of it as it was such a lovely day, I managed to install the new water butt. I have put it up in the corner out of the way as it is quite big and cumbersome. I was planning to put in down the side of the house but it would take up far too much room, especially with the boys coming through with their bikes. I have put one of the smaller water butts down their instead.

I had a look at the onions and noticed some of the stalks appeared to be starting to rot, so I thought with more wet weather on the way now is probably the best time to lift them. There were a few decent sized ones which I will use for cooking and the smaller ones I will pickle, you can't beat the taste of home made pickled onions! When I was a child I would help my mum and grandmother pickle onions. It was an eye watering task and my mum would put on her glasses in the hope it would help to stop her eyes from streaming, however it never did!

Here is a list of remedies that people use to help stop their eyes from watering when peeling and cutting onions

• Place a teaspoon in your mouth
• Leave a tap running
• Chew gum
• Refrigerate the onions prior to cutting/peeling
• Burn a candle near by
• Put the onions in the freezer few a few minutes prior to cutting/peeling
• Soak onions in ice cold water
• Wear glasses

I have tried the running water and even wearing glasses that I knew would not work and neither of these did work. If you have any great tips on how to peel and cut onions so your eyes don't water let me know.

I have potted up the two melon plants, and I am sure that they are indeed the melon plants as they are darker and the leaves a much smoother than either the courgette, pumpkin or squash plants. Glad that little puzzle has finally been sorted.

I now have several empty pots since I have harvested the onions so I will have a little rummage in my seed box and have a look at what I can sow now in these.

We had two eggs today, one was from Dory as she was clucking and honking like a goose when she came out of the coop earlier. Perdy would always do this whenever she had laid an egg. It seemed strange to hear that sound once more. The other egg was from Matilda, she is the only one that lays an egg every single day.

Well that is it from me for another day, I have cleaned out and scrubbed the coop and need to put it all back together again. Until next time x