31 May 2015

Greetings from chilly Dorset...

Sunday 31st May (and feels like March!)

Afternoon,

Firstly...I am determined not to put the heating on so excuse any typing errors due to lack of feeling in my fingers!

There is still no sign of the fish. Tuesday morning I went out at silly o'clock to check but nothing, just the tadpoles and nearly frogs a'leaping. And there are literally hundreds of them. What if they all come back next year to breed? The garden, let alone the pond, isn't big enough! Pulled out quite a bit of blanket weed (thanks Gardener's World, handy info in the latest issue) from the pond and put the bemused airborne tadpoles caught up in it back in the water. The miniature water lily I bought is definitely not miniature and growing fast. The resident water lily is also growing fast and looks like a flower bud forming. Both plants are home to the amphibians. On Wednesday I sat by the pond in the sun (yes, we have seen it this week) relaxing. There are some baby brown frogs which are actually smaller than the majority of the tadpoles. Freddie/Freda not been seen this week.

Tuesday and Wednesday I planted out yet more beetroot seedlings and that's it now, no more. I also removed the rest of the plastic sheeting from the veg patch and boy, was it smelly...had to lay it out on the patio to air for a couple of days before I could pack it away. But the soil was lovely and warm and covered in worms. I planted one of the Japanese squash and I'm leaving the other one in a pot to see which grows best. This week I'll plant out the second batch of parsnip seedlings (the first batch having been commandeered by the snails).

The potatoes are now resembling a small tree, I hope potatoes grow and it's not just bags of compost, stalks and leaves. The tomato plants are doing well and have flowers forming, I staked them up yesterday. Watercress, peppers and chillis getting there albeit slowly. I have oversown the cucamelon seeds as they have all taken. I think I'm going to be on a varied and weird diet this summer but at least I'll be healthy.

The strawberry flowers are dying off and the fruit is forming so I covered them with netting yesterday. Oh...and yes, before I forget, I heard the blue tit chicks chirping for the first time yesterday. The cd's I've hung on the cherry tree to protect fruit aren't working...does nothing scare the birds nowadays?

Something big in the bird world was happening in next door's garden the other day. The blackbirds were going bonkers screeching, flying and dive bombing, running up and down branches...serious stuff.

One last thing...I was looking out at the garden one evening during the week. It was just getting dark, the sky was clear and  the moon and Venus (I think) were straight ahead.  Later, when I went out to close the blinds the moon had moved - obviously - but it had moved anti-clockwise yet in the winter it moves clockwise. I must find out why this is.

It's getting very windy outside now but the sun has come out briefly so I think I'll have a stroll and check everything is battened down.

Until next week,

regards,

DD