Eight Reasons to Love June

I think that June is my favourite month of the whole year - here's why:

Sweet peas - first picking of these this evening at the Hill. The scent is divine, & I hope to be picking these over the next couple of months.

They are from saved seed from last year's packet - which incidently cost 35p in the Wilko sale at the end of the previous season.

Light nights - these are fab, fab, fab. I love them.

Peas - probably my favourite veg. And (fingers crossed) I seem to have got the supports right for the first time this year - previous attempts at pea growing include a two foot high netting (the peas grew to twice that, despite what it said on the packet); harps with a different variety on each side (the strings rotted where they touched the soil & snapped); and netting on a V of bamboo canes (too flimsy, peas intertwined, pigeons sat on bamboo supports & ate peas). Wigwams seem to be the way to go here.

Broad beans - heros of the veg plot being first out the traps in terms of harvest, & freeze brilliantly without any faffing about.

Potatoes - although even the most ardent potato fan will concede that a jacket spud is pretty much a jacket spud, those first potatoes of the year out of the warm soil, with the skin wiped off and cooked with a spring of mint, salt and butter really cannot be beaten.

Strawberries - what is there not to love here? Must try strawbs with balsamic vinegar as Nic suggests - a bit counter-intuitive, but something chimes with me enough to have a go.

Weather - despite moaning about the variable weather (and yesterday was no exception - it rained ALL DAY LONG), June is a fantastic month to sit outside in the courtyard in the evening with a glass of something tasty, being shouted at by the blackbird - sorry Mr Blackbird, but it is my garden.

Cherries - I think that this must be a good year for them. The little tree in the courtyard is weighed down with ripening cherries, with no blackfly at all (or on the broad beans at the Hill, come to think of it). If the birds come near them, I will be eating pigeon pie - have taken to posting a cat-sentry on the bench.

Come to think of it, that's probably why I get a bollocking from the Mr B when I sit out in the evening.