If it Stands Still, Paint It!

This week, there has been a lot of activity down at the lottie due to the sunny weather we have had. We have been down a few times to catch up after our Winter hibernation and accomplished quite a lot. We have dug two trenches ready for our beans, peas and sweet peas and filled them with manure and have also painted all our woodwork, excluding the shed, a nice shade of green. Phil and Julie, next plot up, very kindly offered to take our green bags of rubbish which was a big help, so the plot is looking very tidy at the moment. The tomatoes which we took home to propagate have now germinated and are about 5 inches tall and proudly sitting on a sunny windowsill! We have planted parsley, thyme, oregano, re potted the chives which had sprung to life in a week, sown lupins and poppy seeds in bowls from last years crop, and mucked up the rhubarb. The early carrots have been sown under fleece, and five lots of perennial flowers have been sown in pots and so have the leeks. Next up are the early potatoes and the onion sets followed by marking out a grid for our salad squares, all of this is part of our master plan which we drew up last Saturday and we are still sticking to! Our next tough job is to dig up the mint we inherited and replant a quarter of it in a strong container to keep it under control. We have also planted a hyperincum shrub in the little garden opposite the bench because, from experience, we know that it produces an abundance of yellow flowers from May to November.

A Jolly Molly

Molly was ecstatic today and gambolling over as soon as she heard his bell because Toby has returned from wherever he has been this week sporting a nice new collar. She has been a mopey Molly all week because, usually, when she goes out first thing, Toby is waiting for her by the pear tree and they go off chasing each other and playing around the tree and the bench and it starts her day off just right. Has he been on holiday maybe? a fishing trip, or a course perhaps, we will never know, but what we do know is that Molly has sorely missed him and when she saw him coming down the path, she was really excited and bounced off to pee-po him. If it hadn't been for Will , her other playmate, popping down several times this week, she would have been really miserable. As it was, she wasn't her usual self so we are glad he is back. She'll be one tired but happy pussy tonight with all that playing. Welcome back, Toby!
While the cat's away, the mice will play. Henry has took full advantage of Molly's absence today, and got himself real comfy for a quilting lesson and watched very carefully the whole process as the thread went up and under for no reason that he could see except to keep him amused.

New Beginnings and Old Friends

Just got back from a mornings work down at the lottie. We started yesterday by tidying up the shed. John Badger, who is feeling better now, and Julie popped up to see us and also Lionel stopped by and we all caught up with each others news and we are all ready to start the new season and stood around and admired Hazel and Julie's posh new raised beds. We also raked the leaves off the strawberries and found the beginnings of new plants. Today, we sowed cos lettuce leaves from speedy seeds which only take 3 weeks to grow so that will get us off to a good start. We also sowed cos lettuce proper, parsnips, beetroot and brought home the tomatoes (Sungold and Gardeners Delight) to propagate. Hopefully we will get good sturdy plants this year and no blight!!! We cleaned out the greenhouses and put a piece of trellis up by the side of them for our rambling rose which had rambled a little too far but nevertheless was a good buy at a pound from Wilco's last year. We had flowers off it until late October. The trellis is also for some everlasting Sweet Peas. Our hollyhock has made a good start this year already, which was a surprise because it looked like it was on its last legs. last year. Non of the geraniums that we overwintered had survived so we won't be doing that again, too cold for them. We have still a long way to go just to get started but it is a really good beginning to Spring and so exciting waiting for the little seeds to germinate.

Hope Springs

It was a fantastic Spring morning today, so we headed down to the lottie with our trusty thermos. On the way we ran into Dave (down at the bottom) who told us that our old friend John Badger isn't feeling too well. Hope he gets better soon. When we arrived, we did a bit of digging and bagged up a lot of stuff to take to the tip. We listened to the birds while we soaked up the warm sunshine and planned our fresh start. We plan to start with cos lettuce, spinach, early potatoes, beetroot and carrots. It was good to be down there again drinking tea on our bench and chatting with Jackie(in front of us) who had arrived to do an hour like us only we stayed for two. It was wonderful to see that the daffs, snowdrops and crocus have all come up to hopefully be followed by Morning Glories, Polyanthus, Bluebells and Iris. Even our rambling rose has got new buds on it already and has started to climb up the hedge again. We came home rejuvenated and with a spring in our step and with high hopes of good crops.