Man, that was a marathon gardening session today! Hit the back garden with my seedbox at 12pm and packed up at 5.30pm, with maybe a half hour for lunch.
Lots of niggly little spring jobs that needed doing -- terracotta pots that needed their compost changing, bulbs that needed dividing and replanting, seeds that needed to go in. I saved several dozen Asiatic lilies, the orange ones, so should be looking forward to a lovely display this year. Sorted out some hyacinths, narcissi and tulips. We'll have loads of self-seeded parsley plants this year, about 100 I'd guess -- they're sprouting everywhere in the pots, exactly where they fell (not that I'm complaining!) so that will become a tidy little parsley border on the allotment.
Today I sowed (to sprout inside in the utility room):
* 6 courgettes
* 2 trays of tomatoes ('Hildares' and 'Moneymaker')
* 1 tray of aubergines 'Halflange Violette'
* 1 tray of china asters (Sommeraster)
* 1 tray of snapdragons (Loewenmaeulchen)
* 1 tray of Ageratum (Leberbalsam)
* 1 x 1 metre halfpipe of peas 'Ambassador'
I also repotted several Moroccan peppermint roots -- they're pretty indestructible and keep coming back year on year -- and some stray strawberry plants from one of the 'coffins' out front. We need to fill up the veg planter with more compost because the level's dropped to about half of where it was.
Then I noticed how dirty the patio windows were, and cleaned those too. And finally I swept the patio clean(ish).
Meanwhile, OH spent his day at the bottom of the garden painting the Brauhaus white on the inside to make it lighter. He screwed on plastic guttering to catch more rainwater and then he tackled the firewood pallets with the crowbar.
The weather was supercold all day and the wind blew quite hard. It was a salutary reminder that winter still has us in its teeth.
Our birds, however, are busy nest-building and building up their strengths for the breeding season ahead. We have a pair of blackbirds that are becoming tamer by the day. Yesterday, OH left the patio door wide open to air out the living room and went next door to sort something out in the kitchen. When he returned, he surprised one of the blackbirds, who had come inside for a snack on the bowl of apples. He flew out, but only reluctantly.
Today, I was putting every single vine weevil I found in my pots on the birdfood table -- and Mr Booze took every single one. Good man.
Neighbour P (P for Perfect, really) showed up at our front door this afternoon requesting a single chilli, fresh. He does that when he's experimenting in the kitchen. This time it's for chilli chocolate. OH could help, natch, he has everything!, a perfect specimen of frozen red jalapeno, home-grown. Two hours later Neighbour P appeared over the garden fence with a wrapped parcel of home-made chilli chocolate.
Now the fire is roaring in the fireplace, putting some heat back into us, and neither of us can really be bothered to cook. We winged it yesterday -- found some mozzarella in the fridge plus some tomatoes plus fresh basil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil and oatcakes for carbs -- but today is tougher. OH has had his shower and is limbering up to go to the supermarket to pick something easy, but I am so knackered I could just fall asleep on the sofa. If OH opens another of his knockout 2013 cider, I'll be out for the count for the night.
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