The Californian poppies are here! I’m looking forward to these establishing themselves further in the ledge. They’re another nice pop of colour.

The first order of the day was planting out the bitter melons. A couple of the vines were about 3 feet long! It was pretty windy while I was working, but happily the vines behaved nicely and let me plant them and put them in and out of the netting without tangling or breaking off.

It’s quite a wide bed for such delicate vines. I might put something along the front – vegetables or flowers.

It tried to rain a little in the morning, but never really came to much. I went back after lunch and had put in half the runner beans when the gathering dark clouds I’d had my eye on let forth a downpour.

I sat in the shed for half an hour while the rain poured and the wind blew. And I watched water drip in below my window, run down the wall and start to puddle on the floor. I tried to plug the gap and protect the floor as best I could with my two towels. The window was simply being blown away from the frame, leaving a gap.

Once the rain gave up, I got the remaining bean plants in as quickly as I could and planted the random sweet peas that had been growing in the root trainers. They’re now at the end of the beans and the ends of the gourd trellis. Two bean seeds have gone in to complete the runner bean row.

I ran to the shop as soon as I was done and grabbed some silicone sealant. That’s now in a thick line along the window and I made sure it went deep down inside too, so I’m hopeful that it’s plugged the gap well.

A sad casualty of the wind and rain was one of my big poppies at the trellis boundary. It had snapped off at the bottom of the stem and there was nothing to be done. It’s now in a bucket of water to see if it survives at all. I’ll see if the buds want to open at all before heaving the whole thing onto the compost heap.