End of the year Start of new year

Their,s a bit of catching up to do on my blog due to the fact that i have been offline for the last fortnight due to a problem with my computer, something about some virus spy ware that shut it down and it seemed to take an age to fix, still we are now back in business. The Leeks that i sowed 6th December are now decent size and i have today potted them on into 3" pots, i sowed 30 and they nearly all sprouted but i think i may have under watered them a bit early on as i had a bit of a disaster with some of the plants that sprouted slightly later in that they really struggled to get going and as a result i had to disposed of them , but the early ones must have had enough root system to find enough moisture to see them through and are now as i said looking well, pity that theirs just 14 left though. I might be able to get some more plants at our NVS next month when David Metcalfe comes to speak about his Pendle strain if he brings some to sell, as it is i have most off the packet of seeds left and will sow a second batch in February. On 21st December as tradition says i planted my Shallots in my unheated greenhouse but with the cold nights we have had since Christmas it might have been better to wait till the new year as i have had to put a light under the bench just to give off enough heat to stop them from getting frozen even though they have some fleece on top as well. A couple(Top left hand corner of picture ) are showing some green shoots now, they were a bulb that was in the process of dividing when i checked them over prior to planting so i just clicked them and as they both had some root system i planted them separate, i will have to watch to see how they go on. In a couple of weeks i hope to get some under 250 gram onions sowed this time i am trying Vento F1 from Medwyns it will be the first use for my new propagator that my daughters bought me for Christmas, thanks a lot Abi, Natalie and Susannah it's a good one and is much appreciated, i think they must have read on my blog that i was thinking of getting one and clubbed together, thanks again. Perhaps i will have to hint i need a new car next Christmas!

Christmas time

It's that time of year again when everything is starting to look like Christmas the tree is up and we have been to the grandkids school pantomime (do all under ten's sing in the same way, slightly flat and loud but with lots of enthusiasm) still it was good to see them having a good time even if it was about half an hour to long and the seats were a bit to small and hard. At least it was in the spirit of the season compared to our local garden center where it seems to have been taken over by commercial Christmas tat, when i just bought a bag of compost they must have thought i was scrooge's brother. I got the compost levingtons no 2 to sow some leek seeds of in, it's a week today since i sowed them and as of now well over half have come through it is just a bit of an experiment to see if i can get some better grown leeks next show season without buying bulbils, on the subject of leeks at this weeks local NVS meeting our top local exhibitor has had his bulbils growing since the early November so i have a bit of catching up to do, and next month we are haveing David Metcalfe breeder of the Pendle coming to show us how he grows them and give details of his new improved Pendle variety that he considers to be an improvement on the original . I must say we do seem to get some top class speakers to come.

Big race day

Today has been a bit different to usual in that it was the Western Australia Ironman race( 2.4 mile swim 112 miles cycle race then finish with a Marathon ) in which our eldest daughter Abi was taking part so we have been watching most of the action via video link over the Internet, and i have to tell you it is hard work when your kids are doing something like this, as you mentally run all the way with them so it was quite a relief when she finished and i could have a cup of tea. Her time just for the record was 13 hours 42 mins 59 seconds, her goal was to beat her previous PB and thankfully she did by about 1hour 10 mins, so if you read this Abi you can retire now and give us a rest.

The picture is of her finishing the first one she did last year as today's picture is not yet available.

From the past

Some times when you dig up ground that has been occupied for quite along time you turn up all sorts of things and today up popped an old what looks like a kind of hoe minus it's handle of course which must have rotted away a long time ago. I might have a go at cleaning it up and putting a new handle on as it is quite sound and most of the rust should brush of , I presume it was used for earthing up rows of veg or something similar in the past, I wonder who and when it was last used, the weight of it and solid nature of it makes me think it could be from the 1920 /40 era. This is the first time I have found anything that could still be useful normaly it has been old horse shoes i have about 6 of them that I've found nailed up on our wooden pergola to bring us plenty of luck, other things that we have found are 3/4 old spoons and a couple of vintage padlocks.

Fighting back against control freaks

Read this in the paper today must say that's a great way of dealing with them, i bet they sat and counted it all to.
A carer who was slapped with an £80 parking fine by her council, despite winning an appeal to drop the charge, has presented her fine to officials in a wheelbarrow full of pennies to pay it, in protest at the penalty.