Strange Times Wk 5 Post 3 Saturday Once More

Thank you to everyone for the Happy  Birthday wishes on yesterdays post. The birthday cards lasted on the window sill until the evening, when Polly likes to sit there looking out in the dark - no idea what she sees, but I have to leave the curtains slightly open so she can get on there easily - as you do! I took the cards down and then put them all back again next morning. Someone asked if I tried the cheese - I looked, I sniffed but no - 9 days to get from Surrey to Suffolk was a bit too long!
I think the windows only look clean because we've not had rain since the window cleaner came and getting up close they aren't so clean on the inside!
Happy Birthday to blog reader Debi who is halfway between 60 and 70 today.
The 'yet to be published' book coming later from Waterstones is another British Library Crime Classic Checkmate to Murder.

Another  quiet week up the end of the lane has ended and I'm 'worried' that I'm NOT angry and NOT bored! I had no idea I was so easy going but when I see people moaning about life as it is now I think "chill"!
Of course I'm worried for my family and frightened of getting the virus because of being alone but I'm feeling quite settled about staying at home, gardening, reading, watching TV, doing puzzles from a puzzle book, baking, cycling, walking, stitching and another 3 weeks the same will be OK I'm sure..................Seem to be getting into a reclusive frame of mind much too easily!

I've not been out shopping this week so it's now 12 days without going out..... so far.  I'm saving so much diesel! but will have run out of apples by Tuesday and ran out of fresh veg (except spuds, carrots and onions) several days ago.

 I like to have two portions of fruit a day  so made my fresh fruit last by buying some soft fruit, 4 pears and  and lots of apples. The soft fruit was eaten in the first two days, then 4 pears and and four apples the next four days, then an apple and home grown rhubarb for the next 4 days and then the last apples plus dried prunes/apricots soaked and cooked for the remaining days. It will get more difficult as we get further into April and May because of being the end of the stored apple and pear season. So it will be tinned and dried I reckon or shopping more often which doesn't appeal at the moment.

 With my disastrous Sweet Pepper germination I'd been hoping to order some sweet  pepper plants from a local-ish nursery who have started delivering but they have had to close completely due to someone with the virus.
 Looked online at several other seed companies but all are so busy they have stopped taking new orders. Then remembered Thompson and Morgan who I should have thought of earlier as their HQ is just in Ipswich. They are more expensive than Kings Seeds, Marshalls and D.T. Brown (whose catalogues I get sent every year) but their main business is online and by post so they are well set up for an increase in orders and Hooray! they are still taking orders and 3 pepper plants should arrive within 21 days and just for fun I ordered a watermelon plant too. The cold frame has nothing in it so the watermelon can go in there, if I can find a way to take one of the lids off  or prop it up safely,  otherwise it will be too hot. I've drilled some drainage holes in the bottom of an old bucket ready for the melon as all pots are already  in use -  the cold-frame is sat on slabs -  like the greenhouse.

I did a sort-of greenhouse tidy before taking the photo but it still looks a muddle - so much is crammed in. On the left are the big pots ready for Sweet Peppers and Aubergines . Then all the small pots with things growing either waiting to pot up or to plant out. There are Big Mama and Cascade Tomatoes, Aubergines, Courgettes, Butternut Squash, Pumpkin. Rocket seedlings, some Climbing French beans just coming through, Little Gem lettuce - there are more in a container just outside the greenhouse door and somewhere there is the 1 Pepper plant that germinated from my 3 times sowing. Straight ahead are the cucumbers, some pots that I've just sown with Nasturtium, more tomato plants which are destined for Brother in Law and some pots of Parsley that I keep forgetting to plant out.

 Turning round and standing in front of the Cucumbers and looking the other way are my Ildi yellow plum tomatoes and pots waiting for the rest of the tomatoes. On the ground is a piece of guttering that I'd just sown with Mange-tout peas that I'd had soaking in water for a day.

Growing food has to be the best hobby and has always been important for me, my sister loves gardening too yet I can't remembering our Mum doing anything in the garden so goodness knows where we inherited the gardening gene from.


This week I'm grateful for

• Still being alive to celebrate another birthday!
• Presents, cards and letters from family and friends.
• Quiet roads for cycling 
• Remembering that I'd put some multi-grain flour in with the white for my bread so it wasn't spots of mould I could see! 

Hope everyone has a good weekend, a bit of rain for the fruit garden would be useful.

Back Monday
Sue