Snow, Seeds and Stuff.

Morning.

We have had our first significant snow of the year. This was yesterday; apologies for Radio 4 travel news in the background!

The boys have both got to school but one came home early; they are both praying for a proper snow day.

On Monday I received both of my gardening mags which is always fab and this month a mountain of free seeds came with them. Sowing and growing will commence soon!!!!

I've just ordered from Thomson and Morgan, thanks to Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert website I have to say, a selection of fruit canes/bushes as it was an offer I just couldn't resist. Instead of paying £52 + p n p I got them for £17.49 total. (Sorry about the poor photo.) 

The offer I think is still available until early next month/whilst stocks last and they are posting out after the cold snap. The temp in the poly house yesterday was 5 degrees but I think these will have to stay indoors for a little while. 

I'll also have to get my bum in gear and tidy the fruit area in readiness for them. A bit of strimming is required and I REALLY do want to get it covered with matting of sorts and then wood chippings to properly keep the weeds down; soooo many jobs/plans.

I am also waiting for delivery of my seed spuds also from T & M. 

This year I have gone for:

- 1st early Swift (approx 16-18 tubers)

- 2nd early Charlottle, including some growing bags as part of an offer (approx 16-18 tubers)

- late maincrop Cara (32 - 36 tubers)

The spud order has prompted me to really get a grip on where I'll be planting things out. I'm not always very good at timing so planting out can continue once something has been harvested, but I am trying! 

We've had to put back the plan of making a new veg patch due to the work on the new Airbnb listing taking priority -  we it will be listed for the summer. Talking of which, here are some photos of the interior; Jon is well on the way to getting the plaster board up in the kitchen/living area which always makes things look great. It will be a lovely light space with 2 Velux windows, a door and a window in there plus a row of three windows in the bedroom.

We also recently celebrated my youngest's birthday, 11, how did that happen? Compared to my first boy which is always a struggle for most people I think, this one came into the world at 3.40pm in just over 5 hours from start to finish; it was a lovely birth being in the day time where as the first was night time as he arrived at 6.30pm with the experience taking a lot longer than that. I'll stop there as I could talk about my pregnancies for ever and it isn't everybody's cup of tea!

So pancakes with blueberries were requested for breakfast.

We're not given to big celebrations in our house but we asked him what he wanted to do. He asked for Domino pizza and this is a real treat for everybody as we have a 26 mile round trip to collect them, but worth it. This is his cake I made; he is not keen on lots of butter cream so we went for a Victoria sponge with a jam filling a couple of twiddly bits on top.....

As I write this we are expecting more snow this afternoon and possibly tomorrow. The temp is 0 degrees just now so really feel for people who still have very cold weather after the very chilly night most of us had, not to mention what is happening in The States! Brrrr.

Right, that's is all my ramblings for now. Off to get a few jobs done and then some leftover yummy homemade butternut squash soup for lunch.

Bye for now.