Happy Mothers' Day!
I get a day off today. Was woken at ten (as I'd requested), with a coffee and a pain au chocolat - very nice! After checking greenhouse and feeding the birds, Kai and I headed off to join the Talbot Rd Allotment group.
Allotments, looking south from around the middle. The big building and car park is our local Tesco.
No, I don't have an allotment, and wouldn't have the time to tend one if I did, but local residents can join for £2 a year, and there are all sorts of benefits, like seeds at cost, all sorts of different nutrients, cheaper than the garden centre, by the kilo, and a lot of friendly people to ask for advice.
Looking east, towards the Talbot Rd entrance.
It's a big space, and an absolute delight to walk around - Kai was dead impressed and says he'd really like an allotment (though I don't think he realises quite how much work they entail!) Still, I could check out if it would be possible to put his name down for here. There's about a five year waiting list (last time I checked, anyway) so plenty of time for him to change his mind.
Looking north, up Talbot hill. The tallest building you can see is the green-roofed water tower at the top - the highest point in Briz on this side of the river, if I remember correctly.
We were going to spend some time in the garden this afternoon - Kai volunteered to pick our lavish crop of dandelions so I can get the dandelion wine on the go - but it's hailing at the moment (Hail? It's bloody April!) so that's been put on hold. It may just be a shower, as forecast. Fingers crossed.
So, other news... Ken tells me there was a sparrowhawk perched in the medlar earlier, but it flew off before he could grab his camera. We know we have them in the city (one of the joys of living somewhere with masses of parks and open space) but it's been years since we saw one. The last time was when Argent was a kitten and one thought he might be a tasty snack: luckily it changed its mind when it saw me and swooped off again. Don't really want it haunting the garden, not good for the little birds, but it's nice to know they're still around.
Elsewhere in the garden: I now have two rows of carrots coming up, and the potatoes in the planter are coming along a treat. The garlic and onions are looking good, and the Swiss chard (planted last year and neglected over the winter, but it's thriving) almost ready to start eating. The blueberries are full of flower buds, as is the apple tree: the pear is coming along nicely but is very unlikely to fruit for a year or two. The tayberry is merrily sprouting too - oh, and the wintersweet shrub I ordered (on sale: decided we needed something that flowers in the winter to help wakeful bees and other goodly bugs) from T&M has arrived, though we haven't cleared the area where it's to be planted yet, up by the elder. The hail and rain has stopped while I've been typing, so we might be able to do that today.
In the greenhouse: the tomatoes and 'burpless' cucumber are now in their final pots (I managed to overwater the 'Flamingo' cucumber seedling and it rotted, so I've started another one. This is a new variety for me, supposed to be all female, prolific, and particularly tasty. We'll see...) I have a pot each of lime and sweet basil, more pots of thyme, parsley, oregano, chives (which Kai has decided he really likes) and hyssop, and am waiting for the peppers (bell, sweet and chilli) to sprout. Next month I get the dwarf French beans and sweetcorn on the go!
On the potting table I have two different leek varieties, doing OK so far; two different sorts of sprouts will be ready for planting in the ground in a couple of weeks. The first cauliflower seedlings didn't survive (don't know why - haven't had any success with caulis so far, but it's a favourite veg and organic ones are very expensive, so I'm determined to manage it!) so we've planted more. I have 13 (so far) mange tout seedlings growing apace, and the Romanscu and summer sprouting broccolis are doing fine.
We're merrily ploughing on with B5 (and loving it. Kai wasn't too interested in all of the first season, but now we're well into the second and he's hooked...) We're not far off finishing DBZ season 2, either. And we also have Star Maidens to finish watching. Blame GoodTwin for that one: someone pointed her in the direction of the first ever ep posted on Youtube: she emailed to ask if we'd ever seen it: I replied saying I used to love it - and then found it cheap on amazon, so ordered it. It's one of those cult things that's so bad it's brilliant - though after saying that, we watched the first ep and it's nothing like as bad as I remember. A product of its time, obviously, but it tries to make some very valid points. Heh. More comment when we've watched all of it.
SO! Steak and chips for dinner later (thoroughly self indulgent day!) and some more B5. Then it's back to the rockface tomorrow (and correspondingly lighter blogging, probably...)
Later!
Labels: Babylon 5, cult movies, DBZ, gardening, mumness
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 1:36 pm
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