Last peppers

Four days of rain are forecast and the sun now arcs behind the tall Douglas Firs that shade this part of the garden in winter. So I did a pick of the pepper plants planted in late May as bought-in plants potted on and kept in the greenhouse until the weather finally warmed up.

It felt like there was a good 2kgs of bell, horn, frying and Cayenne and round hot peppers. The Boss did a lot of processing - frying the peppers and putting them under oil and pickling the reseeded chilli peppers. A lot of work.

Meanwhile I dug up all the leeks as they are being destroyed from top to bottom by the Alium Leaf Miner which bore down onto the stems. We have tried chopping and freezing what was still good to eat. A shame but other than using fleece to keep the blighters at bay there is little defence against them.

Watched the rugby. Sport’s a funny old thing. But a win for the multiracial South African team will hopefully be a massive boost for a country experiencing so many grave problems.


I got chatting to a nice young Nigerian guy who arrived in Italy by boat across the Libyan crossing. He told me he commutes three hours a day from south of Arezzo to stand outside the Coop hoping for a handout from customers and the occasional day of building work for €50. By the time he has paid his return train fare it hardly makes the terribly underpaid work worthwhile. But he seemed amazingly upbeat and hopes to move to the Netherlands when he gets his papers.