Good runners

With all the rain around, it could be a good year for runner beans.

Glass half full

Half a glass of redcurrants; they're so time consuming to pick, especially after you've already spent an hour bending and stretching to pick strawberries, but unlike strawberries, they don't demand to be picked lest they disintegrate into a squishy mess nor are they preyed upon by wee beasties.

Broadly speaking

Harvested the first of the broad beans which happily didn't succumb to an early blackfly infestation or become too adversely affected by tiny bites out of the leaves of the young plants made by wee beasties, believed to be weevils (sitona lineatus).

Forage

Sol sistere

The word solstice derives from the Latin 'sol' (sun) and 'sistere' (to stand still).

Currant berries

Nasty surprise

A shotgun cartridge and a Kinder Surprise toy casing - not the sort of juxtaposition usually encountered.

Transplant transport

Today's tricky-to-transport seedling for transplanting is the borlotti bean.

Mange non

Miraculously the molluscs haven't munched the first of the season's lettuce.

Bee friendly

Berry first

Mind your hands on the thorns as you harvest the first berry of the year, just beating the strawberry season by a week or two. You're supposed to prune out the centre of a gooseberry bush otherwise it's likely to become infested with saw flies whose larvae will strip the bush completely. I seem to have got away with it, but did get a few scratches, which is one of the reasons I've avoiding pruning it. Last year one of the low branches rooted in the ground producing another plant (much like strawberries) and at the end of this season I'll cut the gooseberry umbilical and sever it from the mother plant.

Bristol Green Capital

"Helping to create a Low Carbon City with a High Quality of Life for All"

(But don't go planting sunflowers, marigolds, dill, sweetcorn and broad beans or we'll rip it all out)

Architecturally significant

Zygoptera

Damselfly on a chilli plant.

Market for bunting