On the veg front. I used the last of our Nicola yesterday. The 2kg bag of seed potatoes did us 2 x 3 portions a week from around my post in the food thread and I'm happy with that. I don't look for the greatest possible yields but want something tasty and feeling worthwhile. These have been excellent throughout and have never needed more than a mild scrubbing. They will be my first choice for our main small bed of spuds from now on so thanks Steve.

Overall I don't think it's been the best of years for my few small attempts but I don't think the weather helped. After a promising early start, May started off cold and turned very wet and, apart from the odd fine day, it wasn't until September that we saw anything resembling a summer. Grey and damp was the norm much of the time.

Still, although late starting, I at least kept ourselves in tomatoes until last week. Lettuce have been good, I managed as well as using some to freeze a bit of Swiss Chard, French beans and some aubergines and courgette I boiled up with some tinned chopped tomatoes. And I try to view everything we do get as a bonus.