I chose not to go with her on Tuesday and missed the hottest Winter's day ever recorded in the UK! What a pity for that would have given me lots of vit D for sure!
The temperature, thanks to the winds blowing air up from obviously very sunny Spain, had steadily risen for two weeks and on Tuesday, 21.2 degrees was recorded at The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, which are but a short hop & a skip from our allotments!
She came back and told me what she had done and how very chilly it must have been on Monday.
She had gone out early to the allotments and found the grass covered in dew and the bottle of olive oil in Shack completely solid which meant the night had been frosty, for which she was grateful.
It sounds strange, doesn't it? But frost and heavy dew bring moisture to the ground and sure enough, later on in the day when she planted the new strawberries, the soil was moist underneath the top layer.
Last Autumn she filled lots of glass bottles so she would have water to drink whilst our water supply is turned off and she found they were deliciously chilled just as if one had come straight out of chilly white larder.. aka fridge!
It was hot enough to work in a camisole and as long as she drank lots of water and took a tiny pinch of salt every hour, she was ok.
Yes, a pinch or lick of salt now and again counteracts cramp which she gets if she works hard and sweats in hot weather but doesn't have enough salt in her system.
Leg cramp is painful but certainly preventable with just a pinch or lick of salt now and again.
Boy Cat came to stay yesterday and I stayed home to keep him company, it was a hot day, not quite as hot as Tuesday but too hot to work in a sweater, she worked in a camisole and at the end of the day, wow.. had a tanned back!
She dug over the old herb beds which was dirty work so she wore boots, otherwise she would have been wearing her strappy shoes, they always make people laugh as she gets striped feet!
We had an early start yesterday for she woke up with a jolt and thought 'that wretched diary, when it got wiped it took off the reminder to send Fanny a birthday card', so we called her in Majorca to wish her a happy day and caught her just leaving to take Marcus, her dog, out for a walk before going to have breakfast with friends.
Phew.. that was a near miss! They've known each other since they met at school when they were eight.. a long time ago!
Today is the morning of the last official day of Winter, the past two weeks have been glorious with sunny warm days and all the bulbs at the allotments are up but not everything is in flower.
But the mini narcissi are flowering underneath the two white cherry trees, they're planted amongst a long bed of French Lavender and are such a POP of colour!
Well, we certainly don't have a pop of colour here this morning! It's past 10.30am and there isn't a sign of Mr. Sun. The weather channels warned us of a 15 degree drop in temperature and sure enough, it has happened.
The heating was turned off two weeks ago and it will stay off now until the late Autumn BUT and this is a big but, if we have snow in deepest Knightsbridge, it'll go on in a hurry, that's for sure!
It's too cold for me to go to the allotments today but she has to go to tuck horticultural fleece over the tiny broccoli, curly kale and pointy cabbage shoots she planted on Tuesday.
They have metal frames over them to stop birds eating them, fleece will be put over the top of these and then tucked underneath to hold it in place.
It would be very silly to lose these tiny plants after growing them in the propagator and then let a frost or pigeons kill them.
She investigated two raised beds yesterday, where not a single shoot has appeared. How peculiar, for she planted lots of Broad Beans aka Fava Beans and Peas last Autumn at the same time as she planted Garlic cloves.
All the garlic is up and growing well, but now she has to do plant beans and peas again, how weird.
There's time to do it again, she will start them off at home in the heated propagator so won't miss out very much.
She isn't bothering with tall French Bean plants this year, for dwarf beans keep on growing and you can cheat old Jack Frost by keeping them covered in the late autumn with a light fleece.
She grew purple and green dwarf French beans last year and the purple variety grew like Topsy! What a lot of beans came off those plants and there are two little packets still in frost cabinet aka freezer.
So now you are up to date and I'm off in search of a comfy perch. PipPip.. hurray.. it's the last day of Winter today!
GeeGee Parrot.
February 28th, 2019.
The temperature, thanks to the winds blowing air up from obviously very sunny Spain, had steadily risen for two weeks and on Tuesday, 21.2 degrees was recorded at The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, which are but a short hop & a skip from our allotments!
She came back and told me what she had done and how very chilly it must have been on Monday.
She had gone out early to the allotments and found the grass covered in dew and the bottle of olive oil in Shack completely solid which meant the night had been frosty, for which she was grateful.
It sounds strange, doesn't it? But frost and heavy dew bring moisture to the ground and sure enough, later on in the day when she planted the new strawberries, the soil was moist underneath the top layer.
Last Autumn she filled lots of glass bottles so she would have water to drink whilst our water supply is turned off and she found they were deliciously chilled just as if one had come straight out of chilly white larder.. aka fridge!
It was hot enough to work in a camisole and as long as she drank lots of water and took a tiny pinch of salt every hour, she was ok.
Yes, a pinch or lick of salt now and again counteracts cramp which she gets if she works hard and sweats in hot weather but doesn't have enough salt in her system.
Leg cramp is painful but certainly preventable with just a pinch or lick of salt now and again.
Boy Cat came to stay yesterday and I stayed home to keep him company, it was a hot day, not quite as hot as Tuesday but too hot to work in a sweater, she worked in a camisole and at the end of the day, wow.. had a tanned back!
She dug over the old herb beds which was dirty work so she wore boots, otherwise she would have been wearing her strappy shoes, they always make people laugh as she gets striped feet!
We had an early start yesterday for she woke up with a jolt and thought 'that wretched diary, when it got wiped it took off the reminder to send Fanny a birthday card', so we called her in Majorca to wish her a happy day and caught her just leaving to take Marcus, her dog, out for a walk before going to have breakfast with friends.
Phew.. that was a near miss! They've known each other since they met at school when they were eight.. a long time ago!
Today is the morning of the last official day of Winter, the past two weeks have been glorious with sunny warm days and all the bulbs at the allotments are up but not everything is in flower.
But the mini narcissi are flowering underneath the two white cherry trees, they're planted amongst a long bed of French Lavender and are such a POP of colour!
Well, we certainly don't have a pop of colour here this morning! It's past 10.30am and there isn't a sign of Mr. Sun. The weather channels warned us of a 15 degree drop in temperature and sure enough, it has happened.
The heating was turned off two weeks ago and it will stay off now until the late Autumn BUT and this is a big but, if we have snow in deepest Knightsbridge, it'll go on in a hurry, that's for sure!
It's too cold for me to go to the allotments today but she has to go to tuck horticultural fleece over the tiny broccoli, curly kale and pointy cabbage shoots she planted on Tuesday.
They have metal frames over them to stop birds eating them, fleece will be put over the top of these and then tucked underneath to hold it in place.
It would be very silly to lose these tiny plants after growing them in the propagator and then let a frost or pigeons kill them.
She investigated two raised beds yesterday, where not a single shoot has appeared. How peculiar, for she planted lots of Broad Beans aka Fava Beans and Peas last Autumn at the same time as she planted Garlic cloves.
All the garlic is up and growing well, but now she has to do plant beans and peas again, how weird.
There's time to do it again, she will start them off at home in the heated propagator so won't miss out very much.
She isn't bothering with tall French Bean plants this year, for dwarf beans keep on growing and you can cheat old Jack Frost by keeping them covered in the late autumn with a light fleece.
She grew purple and green dwarf French beans last year and the purple variety grew like Topsy! What a lot of beans came off those plants and there are two little packets still in frost cabinet aka freezer.
So now you are up to date and I'm off in search of a comfy perch. PipPip.. hurray.. it's the last day of Winter today!
GeeGee Parrot.
February 28th, 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment