A year ago this week the rains started and we had serious flooding all over the country, not to mention our Lincolnshire land being saturated with standing water.

What a difference this year. We had 8mm of rain on the longest day, very welcome, but on Sunday it blew a gale and then the sun dried everything back again.

We could still do with some God-heavy showers for most of the cropping. We have never been so late planting sprouts, the conditions a few weeks ago were too wet and then too dry.

Hopefully they will make up with a good dose of nitrogen, but not too much at the price it is, nearly £350 a tonne. Over the last few weeks green vegetables have been making better money on the markets, with some places selling cauliflower at nearly £1 each.

I think the reason for this is a cool late spring, a cooler period at the moment and that growers have cut back because of the expenses.

I always like to tell you of any nature happenings. Well it has just been spring and we have a blackbird still feeding its young, five of them.

She built a nest in some plastic crates and when we cleaned the yard we had to move them. The wind then blew the crates over and the nest was on the ground but amazingly they were still in it.

Their mum came to them, we put the nest back in a crate and put it higher and now they have all flown away, that's mother's love for you.

Well, I hope for an unsettled summer of sunshine and showers which will help the veg trade and I hope you will all be ready for this new season's sprouts starting September onwards. Have a good summer.