My tomato harvest this year has not been great. Lots of plants were planted but I think that I need to start early growth under cloches next year. The bottom line is that we have had enough for some salads but not enough for canning. And the stacks of green tomatoes are generally too small to fry up and eat. Hence, as you can see below, I now have around eight pounds of green tomato chutney made with sultanas, apple vinegar, onions and brown sugar. It needs a bit of time to settle and store but the first pots should be ready for the Guy Fawkes night party where surely the guy on the bonfire has to be our dear leader here in Wales, Mark Drakeford or, possibly, the head of Oxfam.

My colleague Darren reckons these vegetables are gourds. They are aparently white acorn squashes all harvested from just one plant in the marrow patch which I suppose I must have planted. Each year I hope I grow a pumpkin but seem to produce a new type of squash. Now all of them sit in my larder where they might just last eight weeks. I think they are the basis of autumn soups but will report back if I find any other way to use them. 

Amid the glut of marrows there is also one acorn squash. There will be more on that as it has now been harvested while I try to figure out what on earth to do with the marrow glut. Meanwhile there was also one gherkin plant which produced more than half a dozen gherkins, now also all harvested.

I am back with these bonus video shows and in this one my job is to play the sceptic though I own Red Rock Resources (RRR) shares – silly boy ! – and have 25% of my portfolio in gold & PGM shares. In this show I interview Andrew Bell of  Red Rock Resources dissect that interview myself and then chat to Nigel Somerville before discussing the gold and PGM shares I own and why. I hope you enjoy the show.

I have, on these pages, discussed a number of “issues” in my family: the vicar struck off for perjury and sent to jail, the illegitimacy of my great great grandmother, a matter still unresolved, a great great Aunt so hideously deformed she was locked up in a Derbyshire vicarage until she died aged almost 60, and more. One day I shall tire of writing about stockmarket villainy and become a goat farmer and turn my attention to my family history.

I am delighted to say that signs warning of new 20 miles per hour speed limits as you enter Wrexham have already been vandalised. Our dear leader here in Wales Mr. Mark Drakefrd is not one to allow hard data to get in the way of his desire for more meddlesome and pointless Government as we saw numerous times in the scamdemic.  Drakeford makes two big claims for the new limit.

Call me somewhat old fashioned if you wish, but I am not a great fan of folks who fought in Nazi Regiments in World War Two. My Great Uncle died fighting against such chaps and three of the most important people in my life are Jewish who have very few relatives left in Europe because of what those Nazi fellows got up to. But, as I say, maybe I am just old fashioned. As the excerpt below shows a 98 year old man hot a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament yesterday with President Zelensky also applauding. The President got 10 standing ovations as he addressed the fawning MPs.

My family is a bit unusual in these parts. My wife is a person of colour and my kids mixed race. But 97% of folks in this part of the world are white, as opposed to 87% of the overall population. When we lived In Bristol, a big City, the ethnic percentage, at 16% was above the national norm. Non white folks are more likely to live in big Cities than out here in the boonies. that is just a statement of fact.

It is about twelve litres in all and yesterday I decanted the first nettle beer run of the year. The bottles should be ready for Sharestock this weekend but I may well hold back a few for personal use. There is a sweet honeyed taste and I could really get quite into making the stuff. Picking the nettles is a bit of a pain but there is no shortage of them here. And given the price of a pint of normal beer in the Peel of Bells..

I showed you yesterday my growing harvest of crabapples HERE. Hey presto, after a few hours in the kitchen spread over two days, I have six jars of jelly. I might sound conceited here but the colour and texture are absolutely spot on. Next year 12 jars. And now onto the damsons.

It was just over three years ago when I planted the first three crabapple trees at the Welsh Hovel. In year one I harvested half a kilo, in year two it was about one and a half kilos and this year, as you can see below, it was three kilos. It is a real pain stalking and splitting so many hundreds of little apples but its only going to get worse.

From the wake up alarm at 3 AM your time yesterday to stumbling across the doorway here in Wrecsam it was a 16 hour day. The Mrs headed off wity the kids to se my mother-in-law. I who had driven across Greece to get us to Athens airport, collapsed into bed. Here in Wrecsam it is warm amd muggy, we left the hovel with lightening all around us and yet more rain, the sixth day in seven with more forecast. Has the BBC yet reported about how rains this month are already thrice the monthly average in volume and twice in days? I thought not. I guess it still insists that Greece is becoming a desert. 

I am not sure where my mad lefty pal L got this idea from, probably the Guardian. But as he came over for a swim and lunch yesterday he brought over warm figs in blankets – the blankets being bacon. Maybe he invented the recipe but he should claim credit for they were stunning.

It rained overnight here and it is raining again this morning and the forecast is that it will rain again all day. After yesterday’s deluge I consider the reporting of the BBC and other Doom Goblin cultists of Greek forest fires and also of weather patterns this year in Greece and claims that this country will become a desert.

That is the steep hill, first gear only, that forms part of the track up to the hovel. Anyhow it was moving fast in the middle of the road so the whole family got out to usher it to the side and have a look as you can see below.