The What makes you Happy Thread 2018 version

[self-contained]

Ate my first homegrown strawberry for over twenty years, and it was good There are a few more coming, but I won't get more than that this year. Lots of runners coming off the two more established plants though, and the plants grown from seed this year are all looking good too.

I also had two red gooseberries from my gooseberry bush. It was a cheap one bought from Wilko last year with the label long since lost, but I don't remember it being anything but a bog standard green one. All the other gooseberries are very resolutely green and unripe, so I will just have to see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Gooseberries have special significance for me as, not only do I love them, eating them is also probably my earliest memory from the garden.

[burnie]

Just spotted my first tomato is developing in the greenhouse

[Nicos]

My first outdoor swim of the year!
In the sunshine too!

( yes...I know, I went swimming because it was raining and I couldn't garden...ooops!..how,was I to know it was going to change like that???)

[Snoop Puss]

My potatoes are doing surprisingly well, seeing as I have totally ignored them since I put them in the ground. Maybe I should adopt this approach with other plants...

I earthed one lot up. Hope it's not the kiss of death.

[lottie dolly]

WE are happy that the bone scan & x rays came out clear,phew,just on watchfull waiting,and back in 6 months time,i can breath again,thank you NHS and staff.

[Nicos]

Reading ^^^^ made me feel really happy for you both. Brill news

[muck lover]

I’m up to about 25 takeaway containers of gorgeous strawberries frozen for winter compotes.
Feeling like an AWESOME gardener.

[1Bee]

Happy days...

[Nicos]

Listening to a couple of tawney owls chatting away together...towit.....and towoo. I'd love to know what they are really saying.

Fancy a nice plump vole tonight love?
What again?....any chance of a mouse or some juicy maybugs?
Maybugs in June?
I'm sure I saw some the other night.....

[Potstubsdustbins]

At long last some small.........................tomatoes

[Jungle Jane]

When you sow carrots & you lovingly care for the seedlings & they turn out to be grass



Edit - I’m not happy particularly but it makes me laugh,I kept looking at them thinking they’d look more carrot like soon

[Potstubsdustbins]

Longest day of the year I love daylight

[KevinM67]

I finally got to use my Father's Day present yesterday evening.

A hose !!! (I had to get a mixer tap fitting for it).

That's the first proper watering my garden has had in about 2 months.

Honestly, I'm struggling to remember the last time we had a bit of meaningful rain here in Co Dublin.

[Potstubsdustbins]

First runner bean has appeared...................

[self-contained]

Lots to be happy about here:

1) I have just spent three nights away in Liverpool on holiday, and while there:

i) Went to see the terracotta warriors exhibition, which was excellent.
ii) Met up with a good friend who I don't get to see very often (I lived in Liverpool for a while, but left more than ten years ago) and she cooked for me while we talked gardens.
iii) Had a decent (but cheap) hotel room all to myself (I mostly stay in hostels if I go away, so not sharing a room with seven other snorers is a real luxury).

2) Stopped in Manchester on my way back where I:

i) Met up with another good friend, who I also don't get to see very often after she moved to the wrong side of the Pennines.
ii) She took me to a really nice vegetarian restaurant, where the food was excellent.
It's so unusual to have a real choice of food as a vegetarian and for the dishes to be carefully considered and not just a lazy afterthought.
iii) I managed to find fresh turmeric root in a local greengrocers, something I have been unable to do in my local area. Now I can see if I can get that growing alongside my ginger plants that I started from supermarket roots!

3) Returned home and:

i) Found that my garden had largely survived my absence. A bit wilty, but everything looks like it will survive after a good watering yesterday evening.
ii) My sweetpeas are flowering.
iii) One of my aubergine plants is about to flower.
iv) There are a few chillies forming.
v) There are more strawberries coming.
vi) I had a Collect+ parcel to pick up from a local garage and the website said it was 24 hours, but when I got there they said they had a locked door policy after 10pm, so could only serve people through a little window and couldn't pass parcels through. I must have looked so dejected that the man opened up just so I could get my parcel, which was very nice of him.