Spinach experiment

I have an old pack of spinach seeds.  The expiration was 2018.  Two years out.  I don't know what the germination rate will be.  Some seeds can live for decades - other seeds only barely hang on until the next season.

The old seeds are getting planted. There is a good fistful of seeds so  I will plant all of them.  I will start out with two test rows in the polytunnel.

I also have some new spinach seeds.  I ordered them from Amazon and they arrived in a few days  from China!   There will be two rows of these seeds too.

Well well well. . . Chinese spinach.
The warning on the packet is formidable!  Do not open this can/package/container or plant the seeds until you have read and understood the NOTICE TO PURCHASER.  This seed is intended for planting by professional growers who are familiar with this variety *text obscured by photo* under their field conditions.    Cripes!  I hope I'm up to the challenge!


When comparing the appearance of the seeds, the newer seeds are greener.   I don't know what the variety is of this new seed.


The old spinach seed from a shopping trip to Aldi and is obviously variety Matador.  I hope it germinates and is happy here.

I've planted two short rows of each in our big plastic tunnel and watered them well.  I will be interested to see how each variety does.  It is not fair to compare germination rates as the European seed is old. It will be fun to note the physical differences.  I expect the taste will be identical.

I will plant the rest of the seeds outside later on today.  I will plant all the spinach seed.  No sense in keeping it.  I love spinach and will eat every scrap that is edible.

If one variety does particularly well, I will let a plant or two bolt at the end of the season and harvest the seed for next year.

dead lupin seedlings

On another note, it is vital to check and water everything in a greenhouse every single day.  Sometimes you should water twice a day if the weather is particularly warm.   This poor tray of lupin seedlings is now dead.  It sure didn't take long to go from healthy and growing to crispy and dead. I am upset with myself for being so careless.  I had great plans for those plants.  I have a few seeds left in the packet so . . . do over.

Nets on the Fruit Cage

The poles to the fruit cage were put up a few days ago.   We promptly had a couple days of high wind so I just left the project until we had more favourable weather.

Yesterday I dragged the nets out of the greenhouse and unrolled them on the grass.  I looped the meters of net over my arms like an enormous bridal veil and draped them over the wobbly poles.

Birds thwarted for another season

The nets go on when the fruit looks like it may start to be inviting to all the local birds around here.

blackcurrants starting to plump up

I like having song birds dart around the soft fruit bushes the rest of the year.  They clear everything of insects that may be harmful to the crop.

gooseberries are now protected

The gooseberries were looking the plumpest of all the fruit over there.  They are a favourite of The Man of the Place so the berries need to be protected. 

Now that the net is over things, the trick is to not let the birds sneak in any gaps. I believe that I have pegged down the net in all the places where tiny songbirds can sneak in. . . but only time will tell.  If a bird gets in under the net, it is difficult for them to find a way back out.  They could die if somebody doesn't check the fruit cage regularly and release any trapped birds.  This is yet another reason we need to stay at home! 

Baskets up - Baskets down

Earlier this week we were enjoying a lovely stretch of fine warm days.  We got loads more done outside in the garden.   

The bold step to hang the hanging baskets out was taken.

Baskets at the kitchen door

It gave so much more room in the poly-tunnel and greenhouse.  No more bumping my head! 

On the "courtyard" side of the house we have three doors.  I put a hanging basket on either side of each door.  That makes a grand total of six hanging baskets.  They really brighten up the place.  It is a daily activity to water them completely (until water is running out the bottom).  The spent blossoms also get pinched off.  Deadheading keeps the plants blooming for longer.  If they don't make seed, they will keep producing flowers.

There are two big enemies of hanging baskets, not watering them enough and wind. In the last couple of years we have not only lost a hanging basket to the wind, we lost an entire bracket that was bolted to the wall! 

Baskets unhooked because of wind

When the forecast was for wind today one of the last jobs I did last night was to unhook all the hanging baskets from their brackets and place them on the ground.

I am glad I haven't planted out the beans and pumpkins yet.  This wind would shred them.  It's really rattling the windows.

comfrey jungle near the chicken run

There is a lot of comfrey growing here.   The bees love it!  On a warm, still day I could be mistaken for a beekeeper.  There are hundreds of happy little buzzers.

We didn't plant the first comfrey plant for the bees. The bees were a delightful added bonus.  The comfrey was planted so we could make fertiliser for our vegetable plants.

We cut down loads of comfrey leaves and fill a bucket.  Nettles may or may not be added to the mix and then top it up with water.  The whole lot is left to putrefy for a few weeks.  There is a lot of protein in the comfrey plant so when the leaves rot down it really stinks! 

rotting comfrey leaves

When diluted this mess is a brilliant high potash feed.  Great for tomatoes and flowers.    It costs nothing, is completely organic and boosts the fertility of the garden enormously.

This bee was in the kitchen this morning.  He isn't supposed to be in there.  I gave him a little feed and then sent him on his merry way.

Being an Immigrant

Food in a culture is vital.  You have your favourite things to eat.  The way the kitchen smells when your favourite dinner is cooking makes you happy.  You miss the treats your grandma used to make for you. 

One of the lovely things about travelling is discovering new things to eat.  Sometimes the new food is a bit challenging for you.  Butter takes on a whole new meaning in Brittany, France.  The butter there is beyond amazing.  The first time we were there on holiday marked the end of margarine in my refrigerator.  I want to live in a world where I always have butter from Brittany in my fridge.  If you cook with good ingredients, your food will automatically be better.  The buttery pastries from that part of the world send me into raptures. 

You know you're in the American south when sweet tea and grits are on the menu.  In Iowa you will see a pork tenderloin on the menu.  A good one will be way bigger than the bun it is served on.   Really excellent Mexican food in Mexico (of course) and the Americanised version that you'll find along the southern border of the US.  I'll try it all!  Some people will eat nothing but hamburgers and fried eggs until they can get back home.   I feel pity for them. 

American breakfast

I have discovered some life-changing taste sensations when I am on holiday.   I try to replicate it when I get back home if I can.  I have also had food poisoning.  You roll the dice and you take your chances.  Fish in North Africa was a gamble too far.

Fish n chips

When I moved to the UK all those years ago I was eager to try new foods.  The first place we lived was within walking distance of a chip shop. So much winning! I put the blame on fish and chips for the 20 pounds I put on in the first year I was in the UK but I also had a baby.  

There were different things in the supermarket.  There are some stupid things that I miss.  Graham crackers, root beer and wint-o-green lifesavers are biggies.   Some other things I just get over or make my own self.  I have made root beer in the past.  I may do this again some day.  The apple butter I make is better than any that is available in a US supermarket. Apple butter isn't even known over here.

Language is the first adjustment that is made when you move to a new country. 

Changes in manners, dress and language happen over time.   Some changes happen immediately as we struggle to assimilate. Other changes happen gradually over years. 

Even though I have lived here since 1992, I still sound like a foreigner to somebody new.  

"Where are you from?" 

I will explain that I have lived here for over 25 years.  Originally I am from Iowa.  

"Oh, you haven't lost your accent!"

I have lost a bit of my accent and the volume at which I speak has lowered.  My American accent is going around the edges, but for the most part I still sound American.

I am still doing volunteer work.  I have been asked to help two Syrian families that have moved into the community.  One family has only been here since December.  They are trying to get up to speed quickly.  Their English is coming on leaps and bounds!   The little ones may outpace their parents as soon as things open up again and the little ones are in school again.

The other family has been here a year.  Their children are already fluent and the family are due to have a new baby any minute!

I am making baklava.  A tray for each family. Syrian style baklava.  Each country has their own style - I investigated and discovered that Syrian style has orange blossom water in it and the technique is basically the same as other methods.  No honey or cinnamon and Syrians prefer orange blossom water.

The last thing to leave us when we immigrate is the food.  Food that we loved from our former home stays with us.  We hold old recipes dear.  These recipes and food traditions stay with us and are passed down as a legacy to the next generation.  

Gardens Have More Enemies! *edited*

I am in a seriously foul mood this morning.  Gardens are always under attack!

Two nights this week we have heavy frost warnings.  Even with frost warnings, it is still very dry and seeds that have been planted are really slow to germinate.

Going into the poly-tunnel this morning I noticed that there were some green strawberries that have fallen off the plant. My first thought was, perhaps the strawberry plants are so dry that the berries are falling off.

Moving the lawnmower  I was confronted with this!  A green strawberry midden has been started under the lawnmower.  Rats!  They're eating the strawberry crop!

It looks like a large percentage of this year's crop!  Damn it!

Two rat traps have been baited (no poison) and set carefully in the strawberry bed.   The poly-tunnel is blocked so that Fen can't get in and get his nose nipped.

In addition to the rat damage, there is evidence of a large black Labrador digging deep holes in the vegetable patch.      Some of the sweet peas have been destroyed and a few carrot seeds have been sent flying.

I can water the garden, set rat traps but I can't protect the vegetable patch from marauding pets.

I would really like the garden gods to cut me a bit of slack!
_______________

Not rats.  It is mice. Lots of mice.  I've managed to trap three so far.  Setting traps each night until the damage stops.

Treasured Gift

Years and years ago - possibly 1988.  After a move from Boca Raton, Florida back to Iowa City, my beloved sister and her new husband sent me a set of towels. A blue bath towel and a pink bath towel.  There was also a blue and pink hand towel set and matching face cloths.  There may have been two of each colour but it has been so long now, the memory is fading.

The towels were SO welcome!  I was always broke back then.  I was raising two little boys on my own on a secretary's wages.  Having a nice set of thick, fluffy, matching towels was a little bit of luxury.  I had enough nice towels to make a nice display of them in the bathroom.

Boy did I ever use them!  They stood up to vigorous and daily use. 

Over the years most of the towels have disappeared. I may have given my eldest son the blue half of the set when he left home.   

This is the last towel, one lone faded pink hand towel.  I won't get rid of it.  It is still in regular use all these years on. 

Sometimes when I am using it, I am thankful for my sister and her generous support all those years ago.  I don't know if she remembers sending me the towels.  I am pretty sure I said thank you back then. I am also sure that I haven't mentioned them since.  I should have.  They made domestic life a little easier for a long time.

Don't Get Caught Out!

We have enjoyed WEEKS of sunshine and mild temperatures!  There hasn't really been a frost for a while either.  It is SO tempting to just put stuff in the ground!

Vegetable plot patiently waiting

The vegetable plot is ready.  The plants in the greenhouse are ready!  The weather is fine. 

One could be lulled into thinking that putting all those tender plants out will be just fine.  I know better. . . rather I have had this happen before.  I put everything out on a fine weekend before the risk of frost was completely over.  Naturally, a late frost came along and killed everything.  I learned my lesson.

The US has a system of zones that lets gardeners know when the frost risk is gone.  Britain is a much smaller area.  We don't need a zoning system.  Just trust local knowledge and experience.  Folks in Cornwall can plant stuff out earlier and probably grow tomatoes outside.  Scotland has a narrower growing season and some tender things like cucumber and tomatoes do best in the greenhouse.    Some years we don't get enough sunshine for those tomatoes to ripen or the sweetcorn cobs to fill out. 

The rule here is to wait until the end of May.  Seriously - that is late in the growing season . . . but that's our time.  Don't play Russian roulette with your tender plants. You may win but if you don't,  you will have dead plants.

The only things that have been planted in so far are things that are known to be okay with a light frost.   I have sweet peas (pretty flowers), garden peas, onions, garlic, and cabbages.  Peas are super hardy. I love them for that.    The soil is ready.  The bean supports are up and we're ready.  Just waiting for the calendar to move forward twenty more days.

Me enjoying the sun

In the poly-tunnel there are few things to bring me joy.  The scent of the flowers in the hanging baskets and the setting fruit in the strawberry bed.

Strawberries on their way 

I spied a 5 kilo bag sugar in the supermarket the other day.  I grabbed it even though I don't need it just yet.  I plan to need it when these puppies are ripe.

Bad Compost!

At the beginning of the lock-down The Man of the Place was still going in to work.  This drove me insane as 98% of his work is administrative. There was no sensible reason for him to go into an office full of people who had to travel out to visit other people.

Anxiety levels were quite high for me.  I was worried that he was putting himself (and me) at risk of infection.   To placate me, he went to one of the few shops that was still open at the time, a local shop that sells hardware, and gardening things amongst other stuff.  He picked up two bags of compost for me as I was getting near the end of the bag that I had in the greenhouse.

A few days after some strongly worded complaints, he is working from home now.

The new compost that he brought in was a bit rough.  Lots of very woody twigs and bark.  It had not been sifted.  It was practically mulch!  As we are in the middle of a global pandemic I won't complain. I used it.  From time to time I tossed the big wood chunks out of the greenhouse door.

I thought perhaps the poor germination rate I've had this year was due to old seed.  Maybe it wasn't that.

Although there were more failures than normal, some things did germinate.  I was diligent about pricking them out into larger pots as soon as they were big enough.

Some seedlings went into the old compost and some went into the budget compost.

Things were okay until I noticed that some seedlings were not thriving.

Some were not only  not thriving but actually dying!

dying tomato seedling

Today I re-potted a lot of those sickly seedlings.

Look at these two cucumber plants.  Both germinated at the same time.  One lucky seedling went into ordinary compost and the other went into the "budget" compost.

cucumber seedling in the good compost

unlucky seedling in bad compost

These two cucumber plants were from the same packet.  Both were potted into pots at the same time.  The only difference was that one was put in budget compost and the other was put in ordinary compost.

All tomato plants were sown on the same day.

What I am saying that buying budget compost is no savings!  Look at the dramatic difference!

I got another bag of ordinary compost as I was getting to the end of the barky, twiggy compost.    Nice stuff is being used to re-pot the poor plants that are not thriving.   I am now at the end of that bag.  Now it is known that I need at least four big bags of compost to get me through the spring planting season.

I had to re-pot everything that was placed in the bad compost.  So really as I have to remove and replace a lot of that budget compost there was no savings to be made at all!  False economy!

I've got a big 50 litre bag of good compost coming today or tomorrow.  I am so thrilled that one of our local garden centres are making deliveries of garden things for orders over 35 pounds.  My house is just on the very edge of their delivery range so I made my order big.  I am grateful to be able to have enough cash to make a decent order and take advantage of the delivery system.

In the meantime, I have been rotting some comfrey leaves in buckets.  The leaves will stay in those buckets until they have made a purtrifed and stinky mess.  That putrified liquid will be diluted and used as tomato fertiliser.  It stinks to high heaven.  I believe that this is the nature of fertiliser.  It stinks.  I love using things I already have here at the place. Comfrey and a few stinging nettle leaves make excellent fertiliser. It costs NOTHING.

Jobs Done!

The Vegetable Patch is Ready

As there is nowhere else to go and the weather has been glorious!  Jobs got done!
The Man of the Place did the lion's share of that digging.  For this I am so grateful!

The vegetable patch in all its glory.  I really must get out there and put stuff in.  There are things that can go in now and should have gone in a few weeks ago.  I can put the peas and onions in.  Anything else that might suffer with frost has to wait.

Washing the Greenhouse

 
The greenhouses were tidied up a while ago.  I got a lot of junk out of them at the time.  When it isn't growing season, the greenhouses end up as see-through storage. 

For most of yesterday it was very clear and sunny.  I put sunscreen on my face and wore a hat while I emptied the greenhouses.

I can fool myself into thinking that I don't really need to wash the glass every year.  That is until I empty them and have a hard look.  It really needed to be done.  I don't remember if I cleaned the glass last year.  I'm glad I did it.

It is immensely satisfying to blast the green off the glass.  I give the greenhouse frame itself a good blast too.  I feel like a better gardener after washing everything down. 

You can see the clouds were building just as I finished with the power washer.  It started to rain just as I was putting things back in. 

I was tired after blasting off the green and went for a sit and a cup of tea.

Today I am nursing a migraine.  It is almost gone now so I will go out and see about getting those peas in the soil.

Somebody Want to Dig my Garden?

It is by far my least favourite job of all time.  I hate digging the vegetable patch over in the spring.  It is the worst job of all time. 

This area is covered and weighted down with ground cover during the non-growing part of the year.  It is the last job in the autumn.  I save and fold the ground cover and stack it in a corner of the greenhouse during the growing season.

There are some anaemic weeds left and some hardy crab grass that just won't die.  It just sits there mocking me.  I know I must dig it over, but I don't want to.

All the dock weeds with their long tap roots are gone.  The veg patch is carefully edged but not quite dug completely over yet.  I start to dig, get a few forkfuls flipped over and then I find something else that needs to be done.

I HAVE to get it dug over in the next week.  It will be planting time and there must be a place for the plants to go.  I have onion sets ready to go out.  I have garden peas soaking so that they will be ready to pop in the soil.   Bean plants will be ready to go out in a few weeks.   So I had better pull my finger out.  No excuses!

This is the soft fruit patch on the east side of the house.  It is all scraped of weeds and covered over with the same sort of ground cover.  We have taken the decision to leave this ground cover where it is permanently.

There is no reason for the ground cover to come up.   It prevents NETTLES!  We seem to get a lot of stinging nettles over there.  This is a great way to inhibit them without the use of chemicals. 

In closing I would like to present the rhubarb in bloom.  It is spectacular!  I hope that the fact that it is in bloom doesn't mean the crown of rhubarb will die.

I Don't Believe in God

There. . I've said it.

I lost my faith a number of years ago.  I really struggle with it but there is a sense of loss that still haunts me.  

I think that if you had faith in God and lose it, you feel much more adrift than if you never believed in the first place.  

Religious life is still important to my family.  I just shut up when it comes to discussions about faith, God and religion in general. If somebody says they are going to pray for me, that's lovely.  I will accept all positive energy.

To go along with not believing God, I also don't believe in the devil.  

I don't have all the answers.  I used to have them when I followed religion.  That is what leaves me with a lot more questions. .. . The Bible has a ready answer for most everything.  When you hand in that set of beliefs, you also hand in all the easy answers to most of life's difficult questions.

I still believe that there is a right and wrong.  I haven't given up being moral.  I haven't become a nihilist.  

I was looking for some good arguments in support of my newly discarded beliefs.  I found it in Judaism:

There is a story told in Hassidic literature that addresses this very question. The Rabbi teaches the student that God created everything in the world to be appreciated, since everything is here to teach us a lesson.

One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?”

The Rabbi responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all — the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.”

"This means," the Rabbi continued "that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no God who can help, and say ‘I will help you.’" 

Tales of the Hasidim, Vol. 2: The Later Masters [Martin Buber, Olga Marx]

This comforts me.

Scary symptoms!

I had a bit of personal drama yesterday. . .inside my own head.

I started to develop a headache.  Headaches for me can trigger a migraine so I always hit the paracetamol as soon as my head is slightly sore.   The pills seemed to do the trick until about four hours later the ache in my head came back.  Terrific.  Here we go.  I took two more tablets.  

I was reading and the pain came back at about two in the morning.  This time it was accompanied by feeling sick to my stomach.  Was I feverish as well or just cold?  

With the corona virus floating around, it is a scary time for migraine sufferers. 

It turns out that I had a whopping migraine.  I managed to prevent the worst of it but I still felt like rubbish.  My worst paranoid nightmares were flitting through my head.  What if I am infected?  What does that mean for all the people I just distributed food to?  Are my affairs in order if this is going to be it?

Perhaps it is the tap on the shoulder that I need to be MUCH more careful about how I go about volunteer work during this global pandemic.  Should I stop with the volunteer work?   I am pretty cautious about staying away from other humans, washing my hands, and not touching my face.    I wear a boiler suit that comes off when I get home.   The boiler suit goes straight in the wash.

Weeds!

There is a curse that nobody tells you about when you find yourself in possession of a house with really great topsoil.   Everything grows spectacularly well . . . even the weeds.

You can fool yourself into thinking that you will be on top of the weeds at this time of year.  The weeds are marginally easier to get out of the ground and growth really hasn't kicked into high gear yet.   I can get bits cleared of weeds and lie to myself about how the rest of the year will be.  I can imagine that with almost no further effort on my part, the vegetable beds and flower borders around my place will be a pristine and weed free oasis.

Any plant or flower can be a weed.  By definition a weed is a plant growing where you (the gardener) don't want it to grow.   Grass is encouraged  to grow but only in the area designated as "lawn".  If grass is in the driveway, it is an unsightly weed.

wild strawberries in the gravel

Strawberries are encouraged to grow in the strawberry bed.  Wild strawberries showed up in our gravel a few years ago.  I was so delighted that I left them there.   They are taking advantage and spread too much. The older wild strawberry plants have died and the novelty has worn off.  It is time for the wild strawberries to go.  I want my gravel back.

yellow nettle root

Stinging nettles are easy to manage now but wear gloves.   They are young but still sting. If you're careful you can get a lot of them out of your herbaceous border.  The roots of  the stinging nettle are a marvellous turmeric yellow.  If you are digging around in the border and see bright yellow roots they probably lead to wrinkly, fuzzy and stinging leaves.  Get it out of there!  These plants grow like bamboo when the weather warms up.

One of the worst weeds in the vegetable garden is bind weed.  I hate it!  Really the only way I have found to eradicate it in the past was using glyphosate.  As I am trying to have an organic garden, the use of that stuff is not okay and is linked to cancer.  I have been digging bind weed up.  The only way to get rid of it is to keep digging.  I have been going into the poly tunnel every day and removing emerging shoots.  I know what the shoots look like and I pounce on them immediately.
It is so pleasurable when you get an enormous root up and it hasn't broken.  This particular weed is insidious as every millimetre of  root left in the soil is a new plant! 

See!  there is a solitary inch of root that was left in the soil and it started growing a new leaf and a new root system!  If you have bind weed, you will never get it all in the first weeding session.  You have to wait a few weeks and go back and get the next batch when  the new leaves have started popping up.  It may take a year of constant vigilance to get your patch free of bind weed.

bind weed regrowing from a bit of root

This stuff doesn't sting and the roots aren't as horrid as bind weed BUT the roots do make a real dense matt under the soil.

mystery weed

I don't know what it is yet.  I will have to do some investigating.  We have plenty of it and I wish we didn't.   Thankfully it is easy to get up.

There is nothing more pleasurable when digging up a weed with a long tap root and getting the entire thing.  Weeds with taproots will regrow.  Not right away but they will come back eventually.

Comfrey is particularly tough to get rid of once the root has established.  We planted one crown of it years ago.  The bees LOVE comfrey flower and the area behind the chicken run is all but given over to comfrey.  The air is always filled with the happy buzz of hundreds of bees over there. The leaves of the comfrey plant can be harvested and rotted down with water in a big bucket and used as a brilliant organic fertiliser.

Comfrey by the chicken run

I like comfrey but if a clump shows up somewhere else, it is officially a weed and I have to dig to get rid of it!  This clump is in the stone wall in front of the house.  I tried to get it out two years ago.  I failed.  Not only did I not get it all out, I didn't do anything about it last year.  So now I have to try to get this stuff out of the wall without having to tear the wall apart, remove the weed and then rebuild the wall.

Fruit Cage preparation

A few years ago new soft fruit bushes were planted. We organised a place on the east side of the house where we keep things like ladders, bird seed bins and where the compost pile used to be.

It's a decent sized area.  We have black currants, gooseberries and blueberries.  The rhubarb crown is there too but it doesn't need any protection.  It can handle anything.

This year should see everything come into high production!  In anticipation of this, I am laying the groundwork now.

I cover the fruit with a makeshift cage made out of garden canes and net.   It works just fine.   It keeps the birds away from the berries but it does nothing to prevent weeds popping up.

Last year we had a pretty good crop but every time we went to pick berries we were either eaten up by midges or stung by the nettles.  I don't really mind a nettle sting.  It's unpleasant but . . you know. . .ouch! 

The ground was scraped of all weeds earlier and this morning, I dragged out the leftover pieces of ground cover and laid them down.  I weighted the ground cover down with rocks.   I am pleased that this is another job done. 

I will put the nets up in a few weeks.  The bushes aren't in bloom yet so we need the birds to continue to eat any bugs that may be there now.

MICE!

So the mice ate all the radish seedling the day after they popped up. 

I have not replanted them yet, but I will.  I am going to wait until there are other things available for the mice to eat before I do that.

The trick to getting rid of mice is to 1. Remove food. 2. Stop them from coming in.   3.  Put down mouse traps.    If I can't stop the mice from coming in the greenhouse, there is no point in moving on to step 3, mouse traps.

We have mice in the house too!  Yesterday was a sunny and warm day.  I saw THREE in the house. 
They were all little mice and in very different parts of the house.  The mice I saw were very little, juvenile mice.  The sort that are just big enough to leave home for the first time. 

One mouse tried to shelter under the dog.  That didn't work out so well.  The dog didn't care or move but the mouse realised that he was trying to hide in the fur of another animal.  That particular little mousey was caught in the corner of the room with a plastic cup and a bit of stiff cardboard.    I took it outside.  It will either die out there or find it's way back in.

Today I bought three new mousetraps when I went into town.  I have baited them and placed them strategically around the house. 

We normally only have mice problems in the autumn when the weather cools down. Mice want to come in where it's warm. I don't remember having a spring mouse problem before.

Gardens Have So Many Enemies

A garden has many enemies.  Sometimes I wonder if it is ever worth all the effort!

Weeds, frost, mice, rabbits, too much rain, not enough rain, slugs, aphids, caterpillars and beetles!  Let's not forget diseases.  They're all out to get my garden.

I went in to the little greenhouse to get some chicken feed and have a look at the little radish seedlings that popped up the day before.  They were GONE!  Not a bit left anywhere.  The two little volunteer tomato seedlings I had been nurturing were gone too.  Crap.

I have plenty of radish seed so I will resow them.  

I won't put tomato plants in that greenhouse until they are bigger than seedlings.  Is there a point to putting a mousetrap in a greenhouse that has open access to the outside?  It seems a bit mean.  I need a nice fat snake or a weasel.  

Please for the love of God don't tell me to get a cat.  We can't have cats. 

Things are Sprouting

Spring is marching forward at its usual pace.

I find that the fact that I am out of my nightgown by 10 am a triumph! I was up much earler and was out in my robe and slippers to check on things. 

The rhubarb is spectacular this year. It has a great big bud on it.  I don't ever remember a rhubarb blooming.  I'm sure they do. . . but this is new and must be investigated.

The peonies that I love so dearly are doing even better this year.  I am hoping that they grow from strength to strength.

I adore peonies they remind me of happy times in the Midwest.    Yes, I will be going out to weed (carefully) these flower beds.

The soft fruit section of the garden is tucked away on the east side of the house.  The soil around the base of each fruit bush has been scraped.  I swear this year I am going to put the ground cover down before the weeds can pop back up!

One of the best homemade ice cream flavours EVER is blackcurrant.  I adore it so much that I planted loads of blackcurrant bushes.   They are now about four years old.  This means that at the end of the season, I will be removing one third of the large branches.  Every year going forward I will be removing another third.

Just What I Needed

The Covid-19 virus or Corona virus has been all we hear about.  It is affecting the entire planet.  Who knows what is going to happen when it is all over. The centre of infection had moved from the source in China to Italy and Spain only to shift gears and get bigger in the US.

The numbers are terrifying and as there seem to be an unwillingness to shut things down properly. This is going to cause a delay in the pandemic ending. 

The other day I had a text quarrel with my mother. Dementia is slowly taking hold of her once sharp brain. She forgets things.  She has always been stubborn so I can't lay that particular trait at the feet of dementia.  Since the shut down, things have decided to take a nice step forward. She passes all the questions that are put to someone who is suspected of having dementia, "Who is the president?" "What is the current month?"  and she is deemed to be just fine.  It is the decision making process that is flawed. There doesn't seem to be any thought beyond what she wants at that moment.

Her senior centre has closed.  When they closed they sent people home with food parcels.  My mother promptly gave all the food to her neighbours.  She has always been generous but now her generosity is becoming a problem.  She gives her money and food away to anybody who asks and leaves nothing for herself.

I found she had gone out for a newspaper and sent her very firm messages to return home and stay there.  "I survived polio, I can survive this!" That time she went home and agreed to stay in. . . . until the following day when she decided to go visit her friend.  This prompted another round of fierce texts.  Thank heaven she can still operate a smart phone!

After she showed up at home again, I just burst into tears of frustration.  When I started to cry, I decided that I would pick at everything that worries me and have a good howl.  I miss my children.  I miss my grandchildren.  I miss my friends.  I worry about the collapse of society and famine.  Oh when I decide to feel sorry for myself, I don't mess around.

That very evening I got a call from a friend of mine who runs a charity, Dumfries & Galloway Multicultural Association.  They run a lot of support for refugees in the county among other things. Could I pick up some food donations?  Of course!

I was thrilled!  The BEST thing for snapping out of a round of self-pity is to do something for somebody else!  This was just the tonic I needed!

The local supermarket normally donates unsold food to the school.  Schools are closed and they were scrabbling around to find someone to collect the food and save it from being thrown out.

I was at the door of the supermarket just before closing.

It is shocking to see a place I visit frequently go through dramatic changes.
I put on my boiler suit and wore rubber gloves for this trip.  I am trying to minimise infecting myself.  If I am infected and not showing symptoms, I don't want to be the one infecting others.

The lovely lovely staff at the supermarket had boxes of food that was still perfectly fit for human consumption but had past its sell-by date.  They could not legally sell it.

They hated the thought of throwing it all away and were happy that somebody could make use of it.

Now then. . . what to do with all this food?!  I couldn't drive to Dumfries with it.  There really isn't a network set up in my little tiny village for this sort of thing.
The next morning I put a notice in the village hall Facebook page announcing that there was free food available!  All anybody had to do was pick it up from the village hall.  I asked people to only touch what they wanted to take, bring their own bag and be respectful of distances. 

I left the boxes of food and hoped the local village people would not be shy.  I was so glad it didn't rain!

At the end of the day, just when it was starting to get dark, I went to collect what was left and the empty boxes.

To my joy I was met with this sight!  I was SO happy that my lovely little village was able to make use of this food!    It helped snap me out of a big self-pity party.  I am reminded that doing things for others has always helped.  I also helped to end food waste!