I sieved a ton of top soil to finally get that 4th bed filled.
I took the fleece of the other 3 beds. The carrots that had been chewed down to stalks by the bunnies have come on tremendously. No sign yet of the celeriac.
In the bed where I put my cauliflower seedlings there is nothing. They are all dead. Guess it was too early for them even though they were under the fleece. I had to get them out though because they were started indoors and were going leggy. Going to put some straight in the ground now.
The other bed has carrot seeds and spring onions and there is no sign of anything there yet. I think it may be that the fleece has prevented what little rain we have had getting through. They need moisture to germinate. They will come.
What else did we do? Well Simon had fun using our new hoe, at least he did after he had spent half an hour messing around lighting his wood burner. What is it with men and fire? For hecks sake just light the bloody thing. We get it lit as soon as we get there because we use it to boil a kettle and it takes a while! Have to have my coffee breaks.
Back to the new tool. We have just purchased a Chillington ridging hoe. It's primarily for potatoes; digging ridges and trenches and earthing up. Although Simon did also use it to break up the soil where we wanted to extend the onion bed. It's a good bit of kit. Nice solid wood handle and heavy metal head. Nice and sharp too. You could do serious damage with one of these! It cost £18 which we thought was a bargain.
As we arrived our elderly (78) Italian neighbour arrived and he came over to chat. He has a similar tool which he made himself 50 years ago! I am sure Simon could make one too but lack of time makes such projects impossible right now. Perhaps when he retires. Anyway, Frank was appalled at the price. He said he couldn't afford it and didn't think it was worth that much. Just goes to show different attitudes to money. We think nothing of that but to a pensioner on a fixed income it is a lot. If Simon was to retire we would have to be a lot more careful.
We did put the tool to good use. We planted another 40 potatoes. 20 Yukon Gold and 20 Pentland Dell. That makes 97 in the ground so far. We have another 70 still to go in which we will do next weekend. In total we are planting 167 of 9 different varieties. We want to see which does best in our soil and conditions. Well this years conditions as that will always be a variable. I also have 3 potato sacks which are going to be kept here at home. I am puting 5 tubers in each and have 3 more different varieties, Charlottes, Maris Peer and Vale Emeralds. It will be interesting to see if potato bags do better than those in the ground. I am writing lots of notes so we can keep track. We also got in 75 more onions.
It was a nice day and as well as numerous tea and coffee breaks we cooked sausages for our lunch and I had taken some rolls and some cake along too. It's important to recharge the batteries!
On Sunday Sam and Lisa came over with the girls for a short while in the morning. It was Mothering Sunday here in the UK so they had a gift for me ...., the mug I showed you yesterday. Josh was at home too and he got me a book. I had cards from the others but didn't see them. Verity and Steve were going to come but we were going to Stevenage in the afternoon so there wasn't time. It was lovely to see my granddaughters. Jessica is 5 months old now and such a happy smiley girl. We put her in the activity station for the first time and she seemed to like it. Ellie was delighted to have her uncle Joshie so I was redundant!
We went up to Stevenage at lunch time and picked up my Dad to go to visit my Mum in the hospital. Simon went to his parents. My Mum was ok. No change. She of course has no idea about Mothers Day. We sat in the garden with her for most of the afternoon and she wasn't really awake for a lot of it. We took Dad home and got back to Peterborough about 7pm.
Yesterday I should really have been catching up on house work but I ended up doing sewing! It's another time consuming hobby! I was pleased with what I got done though. Today I am sort of working my half hour system so that I can hopefully get the housework done and get some craft stuff in.
I have done the kitchen and bathroom but still have all the hoovering to do. The washing and ironing is up to date anyway. I want to do my online banking at some point and Simon requested a cherry and almond cake so I need to do that. Must also get up to the post office to post some stuff to my Dad. He is thinking of getting a mobility scooter for himself so I have got him a whole load of information.
Well time to move my bum I guess and get on with things. Back later with the DPT.
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