I do hope you have some good weather you can be grateful for and enjoy if you are able to get outside. We have been very lucky recently and the forecast is good for the rest of the week so much so that our boys are camping out in the garden tonight.
How is everybody? Well I hope and staying safe under the circumstances; we're ok with the odd wobble here and there. We were back in home-school mode yesterday so at times I needed to help the youngest with the writing of a theoretical business plan and then an imaginary diary of a sheep drover from the 1880's - in Welsh, suffice to say I was helping before translation. Today it is French, Science and Maths but the last one is Jon's domain if help's needed!
The chooks are laying well at the moment. We gave a box of eggs to each of our neighbours at the weekend and yesterday made use of a few more. It was a bit of a kitchen day so I managed to make chicken and tops-of-the-leeks soup, over-ripe fruit crumble, apple and cinnamon oat cookies with some shamefully slightly past best eating apples and two cakes - almond pound cake and chocolate.
In other kitchen news I was able to get some yeast from the catering company my sister uses so I am good to go with the bread making now!
I took a turn around the garden after tea last night and did the watering; some of the chickens were free ranging and quite happily shared the garden with the lambs.
The red and green lettuce in the shallow sink is doing really well; hope it results in as good a crop as last year!
Arran Pilot first early spuds are coming along in all three of the tyres.
Even the lilac, which only flowers once every couple of years, made me smile.
The strawberry pots outside are looking very healthy after over wintering...
and they will, along with those from the large crate, VERY soon be transferred to the poly tunnel (PT) because I'm expecting it to be delivered TODAY or tomorrow.👏👏 Soooo excited. The plan is to get the frame up at the weekend and Jon is going to build beds each side with a middle walkway. We hope to have compost delivered at the end of the month when we share a big order with our neighbours so the supplier makes just one journey. We'll be looking at putting a good eight inches or so over the manure we have already laid on the area and then let the planting commence!
One slight nuisance I have in the large bed are the rogue spuds left over from last year; they have popped up here and there so I think I'll have to take them out so they don't bother the new planting out I'll be doing.
I checked the conservatory last night, too; things have been coming on gradually in there over the last few days, too. I did my first potting on the other day and that was the squash, Butterbush variety, which are suggested as a container plant but I'm actually putting them in the ground.
I've sown aubergine Black Beauty this year, again, and they are showing, not huge yet but...; really want to be able to have these in the PT.
This is the first year I have tried multi-sowing, a la Charles Dowding, and these are my leeks!
Tomatoes are not very big yet but looking healthy.
One crop which will be ready to plant out soon, allowing for the last frost, are my dwarf beans; it should be safe to put these out by the end of the month.
Well, I'd better get a brew so I'm ready to start with the boys.
I hope you are all managing, coping and maybe enjoying or at least making the best of this forced situation we've found ourselves in; we need to stick to the rules to protect everybody. I know it seems like it will never end but it will and when we come out the other side life will be different for sure, but we'll be able to reconnect with people again without the use of a screen and hopefully appreciate so much more who and what we are lucky enough to have in our lives.
Take care and stay safe.
Lou.xx
Your seedlings are doing well. We have put the ones who like heat in the new polytunnel (enjoy yours!) and that gives us more room to start further seedlings off. Tam's squashes are coming through - Buttercup and a Blue Hungarian one. Cucumbers through now too. Tam was delighted to finally get an order through to Real Seeds, and I have bought various seeds from different companies. We have doubled the size of the veg plot and made a 2nd soft fruit area (having found some forgotten Blackcurrant bushes on the site where they were originally planted 30 yrs back - these are gr. grandchildren of I think!)
ReplyDeleteI bet your boys will enjoy the camping out.
It's strange how we can pretend everything is normal until we have to have contact with the outside world, which is suddenly a very scary place. Stay safe Lou and family. Jennie x
Oh have you posted a photo of your poly tunnel? So interested in seeing how people use theirs as looking to make the best of mine. I'll try and look up your squash varieties, does the second one have a blue skin?! Enjoy your sowings and take care with you and yours. Lou.x
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