Crocuses

Mmn, lovely. The golden crocuses have appeared. Some at the foot of the minilith and some around the edge of the pond. Before you know it, it'll be spring.

Today, I dug up all the remaining parsnips as the foliage died back a while ago, and it's been sheer guesswork trying to find them. Their bed is now ready for me to add compost and start all over again with something different.

I'm at the planning stage at the moment. My charlotte potatoes have already sprouted enough to plant, but I think the ground's still too cold. I think the old parsnip bed may become home to early potatoes in a week or so.

Also today - I swept the hut and chucked out a pile of broken canes, dug up some more leeks, re-filled the bird feeder, tidied away some hoops and netting and sat with my face turned up to the sun, with a flask of green tea. All very nice on a February Sunday.

Happy gardening.
Note: Minilith, from monolith - a single block or piece of stone, usually of considerable size and mini - small, miniature, of reduced size. It works for me!

Pigeons at work?

I had a brief respite from "knackered knee syndrome" yesterday and managed to get to the allotment for a look around. I spent most of the time putting the new bird feeder back together again after I found it on the grass under the tree, minus any birdseed and unfortunately, also minus the hook that fastens it to the tree. I suspect pigeons at work, hefty great things. The seed I've used is for wild birds, robins, finches and the like, not enormous great pigeons that pull the entire feeder off the tree! Lets hope my new hook is strong enough.

I also popped some tulips into a pot. My neighbour passed them on to me as she left to go to New Zealand for a couple of months and they should have been planted in autumn. I wonder if they'll do anything? They were all sprouting madly, so maybe they will. Hope so.

 Sorry about the horrible red text in the last posting. I don't really know how that happened - I've recently upgraded my blogger account because I understand that I'll have more control over the layout etc, I am particularly keen to be able to move the photos to wherever I want them, but I didn't notice that the text was going to change colour like that! I'll be very careful this time! I forgot to take the camera to the allotment so I can't try out photo re-positioning either! Duh!

Happy gardening (in green or red?)

Candle in the branches

It was a good day to prune the old apple tree. The first of February is Imbolc, the day when we see the first signs of spring and celebrate the returning daylight with a fire festival.

It felt very cold today and spring is obviously some way off but to honour the day, and the goddess, if that's your way, I hung a candle lantern in the branches after re-shaping the tree, and left it burning when I walked back home down the hill. I like to think of it flickering amongst the branches as night drew in.

Having also cut down my autumn fruiting raspberries to ground level and done a bit of digging, not to mention painting a bedroom ceiling and doing an hour and a half's yoga class, I am now completely exhausted and fit for nothing more physical than sitting on a sofa with a laptop on my knees. Oh, and I may just possibly be able to lift a glass of red wine to my lips! 

Happy gardening (it's all worth it - honest)