You Need Hands

Look at all that fresh new growth. That was last weekend, a nice sunny day but a freezing wind and there’s fleece protecting our strawberry plants because there was frost in the week. I weeded the flowerbed by hand. Perennials are emerging and I’ve bought lots of flower seeds, mostly annuals, for sowing quite soon. I pulled quite a lot of the Nigella which does rather take over, but they are pretty flowers and seedheads.

What you may not have noticed in the photo is this broomrape (Orobanche) just emerging, there’s another one popping up too. They’re parasitic plants which get their nutrients from the roots of their host plants. If it’s Common Broomrape, which is likely, it has multiple rather than one preferred host plant - it should be more obvious when it grows more.

And here are a few of the tadpoles in our tiny pond. They stay low when the weather is cold but you can see movement when they’re eating the duckweed and they’re enjoying the algae growing on the sides of the pond. They’ll move on to eating meat quite soon so they can eat snails and flies that fall in the water. I really hope they get a taste for snails, there are so many everywhere!

At last there’s a bit of sowing and planting underway. These are shop-bought; a Blight Buster tomato, Money Maker tomato and a Summer Ball yellow courgette which we’ll grow in the polytunnel until (if) Summer arrives. Jamie has sown some Claret purple sprouting broccoli and Brechin Brussels sprouts seeds on another windowsill and we planted the potatoes yesterday! Yay!

Four Desiree into the ground on Plot7, two Wilja and four Rocket into bags on Plot8. 

I do like a close-up of potato chits! Such interesting features.

It was actually quite a pleasant day yesterday. Though rain threatened it didn’t arrive till later so we had a nice few hours on the plot and I got a bit more weeding done where I want to sow my mangetout. Last weekend I weeded ‘The Orchard’ - ok, so just 3 tiny twigs at the moment, but look!

Our first blossom! One day that may be a cherry 😄

Aah, look at that gorgeous blue sky and fresh leaves on the trees. This was last week, so beautiful and the birds are really active. On the advice of plotholder Linda we’ve downloaded the Merlin app and it’s great for recognising bird song, perhaps we’ll even learn from it. There are plenty of robins, blue tits, goldfinches and wrens around as well as gathering numbers of swallows. Also, lots of magpies, crows, jackdaws and 11 red kites circling overhead!

I’ve been watching this jackdaw and its mate from our window. See the two sticks poking up from the chimney pot - he’s been having a lot of trouble with them! I bored Jamie for hours with updates the other day 🤭 The jackdaw had selected a stick that was far too long to manoeuvre and he kept dropping it, I think he gave up in the end. And that’s why I decided on the song title - Malcolm McLaren’s version from the Great Rock & Roll Swindle rather than Max Bygraves.

Chim Chim Cher-ee

We had two visits to the allotment this cold weekend and yesterday (Sunday) everything was looking beautiful encrusted in frost. 

The likelihood of pretty frost was mainly what dragged me outside. It's so easy to just remain indoors but of course, once out and surrounded by birdsong on the allotment I was glad I shifted myself.

The frost on this dandelion was just starting to thaw as the temperature edged above freezing when the Wintry sun emerged. The macro shots bring out the lovely ice features which I certainly couldn't see with the naked eye.

The temperature has been sub-zero for a few nights with day temperatures staying low. Some parts of the site haven’t had a chance to defrost at all as the low Sun doesn't reach all areas.

The ground and all the water collection points are frozen solid. I took the thick round slabs out of our buckets because I am rather fascinated by ice even though I hate, hate, HATE the cold.

You can see how thickly it's formed in this photo - I stood them up in the raised bed. I hope the pond ice isn't as thick as that smallest bucket. Male frogs apparently tend to stay in ponds, at the bottom, over Winter (females hibernate underground usually) but the ice can deprive them of oxygen if it stays for too long. I wonder why we found that dead frog last week - it was by the pond, but shouldn't have been out and about...

The houseleeks couldn’t avoid getting a frosting but they won’t mind. They're hardy little plants.

And I’m sure this moss won’t be adversely affected either. Look how sparkly it is, just starting to thaw.

The birds seemed to be enjoying the sunshine on Saturday. I think this was a flock (a charm) of goldfinches but it’s difficult to see from this angle. The robin was happy to see us with his mealworms and we saw (probably) a buzzard land in a nearby tree. So huge compared to the tiny blue tits, wrens and long-tailed tits that were flitting about.

The main reason we visited the plot on Saturday was because I need to saw some dehydrated coir compost block for making up a seed compost. Believe it or not, I had to remove my coat as I got so hot exerting myself - first time since about September 🤭

The coir block is rehydrated with warm water and then we add some vermiculite. It worked ok as a peat alternative last year, but I'm rather concerned about the sustainability of using coir. We’re not actually going to start most of our seeds yet, but it’s exciting as they’ve been arriving in the post all week. A few different flowers this year.

January has certainly provided some beautiful skies in the mornings and evenings - this was a morning photo. You can just about see the sprinkling of snow on the dormer windows from a thick, but quick, snow shower we had in the early hours.

The jackdaws have secured their spot for another year. They pair up and stick together with a lifespan of about 5 years. We look forward to watching these two rear their young on the chimneys opposite.

And these two photos are my excuse for sharing this song by Turin Brakes. I liked the original in Mary Poppins (well, Dick van Dyke was always a favourite, even with that accent) but this version is so beautiful and the video makes me think I should stop whinging about the cold as I sit in relative comfort.