Now I know why I don't get stressed

Stressed workers given jam jars of fresh air
The jars were filled at beauty spots including Townend near Windermere
Fresh air captured in jam jars at English beauty spots has been given out to city workers in a bid to encourage them to visit the great outdoors.
The National Trust handed out the jars in London after a survey revealed going to the countryside made 70% of people feel more relaxed.

With it being a bit warmer I took the time to blanch my leeks, at the moment they are in the garage under lights that are on twelve hours a day. They are growing steadily enough but the really cold weather earlier in the year, has just held them back a bit ,even though they have had some bottom heat since they were planted up. In about a fortnight there will be 12 hours of natural daylight so at that point I will try and put them out in the greenhouse with just some light bottom heat so as to harden them off and just hope that they catch up by September. I have been moving and dividing a few flowering plants around this afternoon which is a bit later than I would normally do them but as they are still only just breaking into bud they should be OK. One thing I will have to get cracking with is getting all the mixes done for carrots, parsnips and potatoes before we start lambing on the farm. Lambing starts at the end of the month for us and if it gets hard going and we need a extra pair of hands I wonder if I could get Kate Humble to come and help out as she seems to have enjoyed herself on 'Lambing Live' this week.





The really good news is United's great win over Colchester on Saturday. Just lately we have struggled a bit having been hit with injuries to our strikers, and so it was handy our new loan signing Jason Price slotted right in to the team scoring one and making one for Ben Marshall . If we can get a result against Yeovil on Tuesday and Southend on Saturday we may get to the magic figure of 50 points before the Johnson Paint Final at the end of the month .

Happy days are here again

Last few days have really lifted the spirits with lot's of bright sunshine and blue skies , though it has meant some frosty mornings. I decided to turn all the sand in my long carrot and parsnip barrels to loosen it up ready for boring out the growing stations towards the end of the month, the house next door to my home is used as holiday cottage and i'm sure the people staying there this weekend thought i was a bit nut's as i first emptied one barrel in to a bulk bag then proceeded for the next 2/3 hours to empty one barrel in to the one next to it before putting the sand in the bag in to the last barrel. One thing about having all this frost and not so much rain since Christmas is it has made a good job of getting all the ground on the veggie plot in realy good condition with it breaking down in to a really nice seed bed for when it starts to get warmer.

I took a look at my seed poatoes that have been chitting up on Sunday and they seem to be coming on nicely with some good strong sturdy shoots starting to come on both the Kestrel and Winston mind my NVS varieties Sherine and Amour seem a bit further behind but I suppose that's because they are a lot less in size. I might put them in the kitchen for 3/4 weeks where it is a bit warmer just to get them pushing on a bit faster. A couple of my dahlia varieties (Marys Jomanda and Shophie Taylor) are just starting to show signs of sprouting so it could be that i will be able to take some cuttings towards the end of the month.



This last week I have somehow got myself roped into standing in as a temporary caretaker at our local junior school from 6.30 to 8/30 AM, as if I haven't got enough to do! but i find it hard to say no if they are stuck, still it was interesting to see that they have plans to grow quite a bit of veg this summer all the kids seem to have a potato each chitting up and there was a decent selection seed packets ready for sowing so with a bit of luck some of them might enjoy the experience and stick with it or take it up when they get older. I didn't think they did that any more, mind when i was at school (When you say that you know you getting old) we all had to help in the school garden, and the school kept pigs and hens.