I heart Lollo Rosso

We went to the car boot sale at Banham Zoo yesterday, we were staggered to discover they now charge an entrance fee! The site looks like Guantanamo Bay with 6' fences and guards on the exits (Willow asked if they would make us pay again to leave!). It's only 50p per adult but seeing as the overall spend at a car boot is quite low that's a substantial percentage. There are signs up claiming it's for 'site maintenance' but isn't that what the stallholder fees are for?

Adam is stubbornly refusing to go EVER AGAIN!!! But have to admit I'm tempted by the Thursday morning sale during half term .....

Anyhoo, I picked up a tray of lollo rosso seedlings, about 16 for £1.50. I grew these last year and they were a great success giving us all the salad we needed over the summer. Slugs and snails seems to leave them alone probably due to their slightly bitter taste, so I'm trying again this year. 16 plants is really too many for us, I ran out of containers so they're jammed in between the garlic and I even have a couple of stragglers on the playroom windowsill (see photo)

I also got a couple of strawberry plants for £1 each, a variety called Loran which are supposed to fruit for longer. We shall see. I am woefully inadequate at growing strawberries. Last year the fruit were all nabbed either by the chickens on a netting breaking raid or by Xanthe who pulled them off and ate them when they were still green. This year they're up in hanging baskets away from sharp beaks and tiny fingers but now I have all the wild birds to worry about.