Warming up.......

Net tunnels warming the soil in preparation for planting next month.

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Today I'm planting spring onions in the polytunnel, already planted in there are radishes and mixed leaves. I have celery plants rejuvenating themselves and the herbs are looking good. There are also 5 cabbages that were tiny little things at the beginning of Winter and now they are starting to grow. Standing firm all Winter, surviving nights of -10 degrees and still alive. I take my hat off to them.

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I write this as there are folks out there waiting to plant alongside me...you know who you are!! For now my seeds are indoors, either in the PT or on the window sills of the house. On the kitchen windowsill I have a new herb pot just planted up, with Red Basil, normal Basil, Coriander and Parsley, handy for cooking with and warmer for a quick start. I have plans for the spare bedroom window sill. We have no family visitors booked to use it until May so I have a sunny windowsill to start some plants on.

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Elsewhere on the farm there are many stirring as bulbs push their shoots through the sodden heavy earth. There is the start of the magic daffodil fairy ring, planted last year by Mum and Dad under the old apple tree in Chicken World, other daffodils are appearing in the most unexpected places, did we plant them or have the birds been re-distributing things they have pulled up? The pots Mum and Dad spent hours over last year, placing four or five daffodil bulbs to a pot have been fetched from the barn and are lined up at the front of the house, the weak warm intermittent sun encouraging growth, tiny shoots peering above the soil as if to say "is it time?"

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The pigs are manically digging the perimeters of their paddock as weeds start to grow, not for long will they gain a foothold with two big and four hungry baby piggies chomping away.

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All these signs are good, Spring is on her way. If we hold on to the thought it should carry us through these last cold days of Winter with a hope and a yearning for warmer times, more abundant crops and a peeling off of the many layers of clothes. Just when we feel we can take no more Mother Nature steps in with her promises of things to come. We wait with baited breath and tingling, twitchy green fingers.

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Oh........ and another pair of wellies have sprung a leak, I have soggy socks AGAIN!!

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Sue xx