Had a long lie-in, then trundled downstairs to OH's tasty egg-and-bacon muffin breakfast with coffee. We bought a copy of Let's Grow Veg yesterday, which had free seed packets for kale, leek, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, beetroot, lettuce, chillies, rocket (rucola) and courgette. OH has just placed an order with a big seed and plug retailer whose catalogue we always get so next year we'll grow three kinds of potatoes (Charlotte, Duke of York, and Shetland Black) and two kinds of onions (Red Baron and Sturon).
Tonight we're having chicken with roast pumpkin -- there's a football-sized pumpkin we'd grown on the allotment last year that we've kept on the hallway table for ornamental reasons, but it is of course edible and I'd hate for it to go to waste. Tomorrow, I'll wander to the allotment to harvest more kale for another kale stew. One thing we'll do differently next year is to build a permanent cage around the kales. This year we merely covered them with mesh and staked it but the kales grew so tall that all the pigeons had to do was land on them and pick the best and freshest bits off the top through the mesh. Duh. Also, the mesh collected the snow last week and when we tried to shift the snow by lifting the mesh, it tore under the weight, leaving us with massive holes. You learn something every year!
This year, we'll finally dissolve the historic compost heap, lift up the strawberries at the back, re-site them and spread the old compost all over the back bed where we'll probably move the red- and blackcurrants -- and the gooseberries if I can persuade OH... I know he loves them but they didn't crop at all this year and I am forever pricking my fingers as I weed around them (OH never weeds them -- odd). We'll build a new three-chambered compost site out of the old shed wood. OH wants to move the compost heap we started last year over to what used to be our potato bed (and which practically drowned last year) for his new raised squash and pumpkin bed. We're very pleased with the pumpkins, like them as a roast vegetable and will be growing more of them.
On the right, near the allotment shed, OH is planning his wine zone, i.e. grapes. Maybe we'll move the potatoes back to where they did best, on the right, and put the veggies on the left where they'd catch the most sun. This is a rough first draft:
Back in our garden: OH is keen to dismantle the patio greenhouse. It is now several years old and the wood, which was second-hand anyway, is starting to rot down. That would free up our little suntrap on the patio, which will become our seating area underneath the jasmine, with lots of plant pots and hanging baskets. Here's hoping we'll have more al fresco opportunities this year.
Also on the list of things to do in Jan/Feb:
* top the tall birch tree
* prune the apple and the pear tree
* build another Holzleg, now that we know just how much wood we're going through
* transfer last year's cut wood out of the shed and into the now-empty Holzleg for further drying
* move some of the water butts to the allotments, rig them up and hope the late-winter and spring rains will fill them up in time
* repair the handcart
Not sure how much of this we'll get done within the next 4 weeks -- OH is being kept very busy at work this month and next, which is obviously good news, and it'll also depend on how I get on health-wise. My legs have been improving, that's for sure. The joint pain has finally started to recede, mobility is coming back to the knees, and I have managed without the painkillers since Tuesday. The skin is still inflamed and I still get swollen ankles after being on my feet for a while -- so the compression stockings are still obligatory, but I don't feel so fluey anymore.
I did wonder if an autoimmune disorder isn't a little like having a gang of superathletic, battle-ready, tooled-up riot police charging mindlessly around your body and not finding anything untoward. Then they end up truncheoning anyone with a placard just because all that 'roid rage has to go somewhere. Kudos to my immune system if it's that geared up. Maybe if I ate a handful of half-digested compost out of the bin... that should introduce some real nasties to the system. You can truncheon those leptospirochaetes all you like, boys and girls, just leave my poor joints alone, and my skin, thank you.
Anyway, yesterday I managed to do half an hour of firewood sawing on top of doing housework, which is not bad going. These were the bits of pinewood roof supports that Neighbour P had deposited with us and that had been piled up on the patio table staring at me accusingly through the snow ("You lazy cow," I imagined them whispering at me). These newly cut pieces were keeping us warm last night. But my, was I out of shape. I really noticed that I hadn't been doing very much exercise for 6 weeks now, let alone proper muscle work.
Off to the shower now, and then for a wander round the block, to catch the sun and some fresh air. Then some admin, tidy-up and sorting in the office where mail and various receipts and statements have been piling up. Woo yay.
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