Flea beetle?

Like every one else life is getting busier as the Spring arrives! And yet again something is out there is trying to eat the veg. We think it was Flea beetles but all 6 rows of carrots in the polytunnel have disappeared as soon as the seedlings emerged. No snail or slug trail just empty ground! We are thinking flea beetles are attacking the seeds.  We are going to try French bean plants instead now!  They have come on nicely in the greenhouse and are quite sturdy - should give us some early beans before the glut of runner beans outside. We have put some carrots in outside instead next to the garlic which should help.

Our budget has been well supplemented by other garden produce this last 2 weeks. 3 big cauliflower harvested; lots of spinach; enough for two rhubarb crumbles; some salad leaves;  last bits of kale; a couple of small cabbages and as many leeks as we can manage. I calculate a value of  £12 saved.  My little tin dish makes a lovely crumble dish which usually last 2 days for us.

Had a terrible fright yesterday when we were out in the back field planting our early potatoes. Suddenly a landrover towing a trailer and a large van appeared behind us, shooting at speed in convoy through a gap in the neighbours fence line, and tore up the field past our fruit beds heading for our bonfire site. He did not stop when we rushed forwards shouting and waving. When one of the blokes got out he was rude and aggressive and shouted a man three doors down said he could drive on here, dump the 15 ft high stack of conifer cuttings on his trailer from clearing trees somewhere in the village and burn them on our land!!!!!  When we protested he was on our garden and did not have our permission he stormed off to another house to "get the bloke to tell us to let him carry on".  After 10 minutes of outrage on our part and aggressive threats to do "us over" on his, he left tearing up the grass we have been carefully nurturing back from being a damaged pony paddock for the last two years!

We told the neighbours later if they burnt that stuff and the smoke came over our way we would report them for unauthorised waste disposal and being a smoke nuisance. I am fed up with the neighbours inconsiderate bonfires any way, practically ever Sunday! Generally I like the open countryside here and it is usually peaceful, but yesterday I longed for suburbia, fences and hedges to hide safely behind and a police force less than 12 miles away!