Saturday 18 April 2020

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

50 comments:

  1. I definitely identify with the first 3 of your weekly gratitude. I chuckled at the 4th. My 4th would be "finding the tin of Brexit Spam down the back of the pantry shelf". Having found it, I cannot make up my mind what to cook with it though...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fritters, it has to be very fattening fritters!

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    2. Spam fritters would be my choice!

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    3. Spam and baked beans and bread and butter is a regular of mine.

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  2. Your wonderful gardening 'stuff' is fantastic and truly inspirational. Thank you.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm looking forward to trying the Watermelon plant. Everything looking good except for those bothersome pepper seeds which wouldn't germinate

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  3. Every year without fail I have a good sweet pepper crop. This year I have sown two batches and none have come up. I sowed the second batch just after you mentioned you were doing a second sowing. Have you cast a spell? As you point out garden centre back up for such situations is not availbale this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How odd. The seeds I had last year were so good and as I had several left I never even thought about buying fresh seeds this year. From now on it will be fresh seeds each year like parsley.

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    2. My peppers failed too and they were fresh seeds. I wonder what went wrong?

      Delete
  4. I was late sowing toms as we should have been on holiday and would have had no one to water them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope they get going, you will probably have toms to eat after mine are finished

      Delete
  5. We have had a little rain overnight. It is cold. It would do well to warm up a bit to warm the soil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A horrible gloomy day today, no enthusiasm for cycling anywhere

      Delete
  6. Belated Happy Birthday. You are quite right we settle into a routine of being at home quite easily. King Seeds shut down pretty quickly and have closed their site down, always remember it when it was Suffolk Herbs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think several seed companies that look as if they are different companies are really all the same using the same phone ordering system- so overloaded with extra phone calls.

      Delete
  7. It's quite easy being a recluse. Welcome to my world!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm still looking forward to boot sales so not totally reclusive in the future!

      Delete
  8. What a lot of fresh veggies you'll have to look forward to. My Mum loved her gardening and was the green fingered one and could make anything grow. Apart from strawberries she grew mainly flowers and bushes. We had rain most of yesterday and it is forecast for today too.

    I've always been a home body and never happier than when I could spend time there, just as well really as I never guessed what was in store for me, so isolation is just another day.

    It is our youngest grand-daughter's third birthday today and earlier we watched on Facetime as she opened her presents with big sister giving a hand when needed. Such excitement and so sad that we can't be with them and that her party will be on hold for a while. Still, it is as it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you were able to see your granddaughter on facetime - thank goodness for technology

      Delete
  9. We are Ok through this lock down, for most days of the week it's no change, it is a bit of a pain, when hubby runs out of paint when a job is not finished and we can't get the shade online. But for most of the time we are chilling.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your greenhouse looks very busy. I am enjoying just pottering about in the garden and when it was Mothers Day my daughter brought me lots if bits to make a Fairy Garden and now Easter has passed and the decorations have been put away I am going to have a go at the Fairy garden I might put it in the front porch so the children can see it and it might give them an idea for something to do.
    Enjoy the weekend we have rain at the moment which we need.
    Hazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love my greenhouse - it was here when we came, just the right size to manage for me.
      Have fun with your fairy garden

      Delete
  11. How I envy you all that gardening Sue. My immobility means that I can do little now although I have a long border which is on the flat and I can manage that. The rest I just discuss with the man who does my garden and he does it. But I still get the pleasure from looking at it.
    I agree with you about not being bored - the days fly by - goodness knows what I find to do but there is never a dull moment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not doing much and still the days rush by - it's very odd

      Delete
  12. Belated Happy Birthday! It is so uplifting to watch things grow. I love your gratitude comment about the flour😂

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was horrified for a minute as it was only 2 days old, then I remembered - phew

      Delete
  13. Sorry I missed your post (and birthday) yesterday. I hope you enjoyed being in touch with your family.

    Could you cook with the sweaty cheese? Seems a shame to waste it "in these times"!!

    Post seems so erratic - a friend posted a birthday card and letter to me from Carlisle, 1st class post, on 7th April and it reached me on the 17th. I posted Danny his birthday cards (for next week) on Thursday, 1st class, and they got there yesterday. Champagne yeast we ordered from eBay took the sender a fortnight to get in gear and then another week to reach us. Fortunately there is still plenty of blossom on the Gorse bush in our top field.

    Your greenhouse looks great. ENVIOUS of those huge tomato plants. Tam is growing from seed, now - only just germinating - but they are Russian ones and not due to be started earlier. I am REALLY missing the car boot sales, where I would have got my tomato plants normally, trays of Leeks etc and garden flowers too. Not to mention wine making stuff (demijohns are almost given away) - it hurt to have to pay full price for my new wine making stuff recently.

    Interested to read about your watermelon plant. Tam has managed to get a Real Seeds order in and is going to grow a small melon in the polytunnel. We will have to compare notes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm pleased with my tom plants this year as sometimes they get a bit lanky in the conservatory before I get them into the greenhouse.
      I tried Real Seeds several years ago and loved their whole ethos but it was just too dry in Suffolk for them to do well

      Delete
  14. Your greenhouse looks a hive of activity, just as it should be for growing and getting muck between the fingers.
    I too am liking the slower pace and quiet and calm of the lockdown. No complaints here either.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Belated happy birthday Sue - you are still a youngster really - and I can see you are going to have some great veggies as summer comes along.
    No complaints here either - so much to keep me busy and active, and having more time to address all the chores/projects makes them even more enjoyable. I cannot sit until the evening - then I flop and enjoy some TV , knitting , reading etc.

    Many more happy birthdays wished for you.
    Mary -

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been very lazy today as it's been so dull and cold here

      Delete
  16. I loved reading this post! I feel the same way - I am not overly bothered by all of this solitude. I dearly love solitude and quiet! I am married to a completely opposite man - he is noise from the moment he wakes! So there are days when I do wish he was still working at his part-time job! I am not "missing" any activities - I am knitting, reading, sending pen pal letters to shut-ins, cooking, working some in the yard (still cold and snowing in Illinois!) walking, jumping on my mini-tramp - and the days do indeed fly by! As the weather turns warmer, I will be out even more, walking and riding my bike. Your greenhouse looks lovely - so many promises of abundance. A very happy belated birthday to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry you've still got snow over there , we've hardly even had frosts this year, no winter at all.
      I'm looking forward to all the food from my garden and greenhouse

      Delete
  17. You are so right - growing food is the best hobby. Nothing beats the satisfaction of sitting down to a meal where everything on your plate has come from your garden. I miss those days ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's lovely to eat with the seasons and the freshest possible

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  18. What a lovely big greenhouse!

    I had to laugh at you remembering that you'd put some multi-grain flour in with the white for your bread so it wasn't spots of mould you could see ... I've done that so many times before and started to pick out 'mouldy' bits from my toast only to realise they were the seeds from the bread!

    I too am enjoying this enforced almost solitary time, I think I would have preferred it even more if I were still able to be at the Van. Having the river nearby would have been lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Love your greenhouse! Perhaps if we get rid of the garden shed I could get one.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Happy Birthday, Sue!!! Every day is such a gift! Thanks for sharing your lovely self via your blog. <3

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