Our weather, yes, I know I'm an African Grey but I'm an English born African Grey and we English, especially us gardeners, always talk about weather and it has recently been decidedly 'iffy' to say the least.
We've had days so warm that I dozed in the shade of my umbrella whilst she gardened in a sleeveless t.shirt and days so cold and wet that she has stayed in bed! Well, not all day but she's found stuff to do indoors.
On Tuesday it was bright but far too chilly to take me to the allotments, so she wore many layers of clothing and went off to plant onions and shallots and check on 'stuff'.
Everything looked fine, the early narcissi are coming to an end and larger double white varieties are in bloom, along with our little friends, the self seeded Forget-me-nots who are such a welcome visitor.
They've spread under two apple trees which are by the gate and with the dark red stems of the peonies, there is such a pop of colour it makes everyone smile.
LOTS of work was done, hard work.
There was a big square bed that had tomatoes and peppers in it last summer, it was a double height raised bed that she filled with good leaf mold, compost, horse manure early last autumn and to which she has added all of our food waste since November.
Mr. and Mrs. Worm have eaten every scrap of the food, manure, wood chips and turned it all into the most perfect soil. But at nearly 20 inches (50cms) high and approximately 6 feet (1.80cms) square the bed was too big.
So gathering shorter pieces of timber together, she split the bed in two. One is now shorter than the other to allow a rose and a clematis to have a properly weed free area around their base.
The path between the beds was tramped on, thick cardboard laid down and topped off with a layer of wood chips.
Job done! The smaller bed was planted with Spring Onions, aka Green Onions or Scallions, we lurve them!
Did you know that you can regrow them as you can also do with Celery as well?
With the onions, cut off the green bit leaving at least an inch and a half (3.5cms) of the white base which must have the roots!
Put the root end into a clear glass jar in about an inch (2.5cms) of cold water and place the jar in a light place. After a short while you will notice that the green ends are growing, this is when you can plant them outside.
With celery you do the same thing but suspend the 2 inch (5cms) root end (celery never are sold with their roots) in water, do not let the bottom sit on the base of the container as it will cause it to rot. Use wooden toothpicks to hold the celery in place and change the water every day.
After a few days, you see a tiny spear of dark green growing from the middle of the cut off stalks, this signifies that magic is happening and after about a week, skinny roots will start to grow!
She plants it out when there are lots of roots and protects them from frosts with a Sun Tunnel.
Our last frost date is June 9th! Yes, that late. She managed to keep a couple going through last winter, they were planted in August last year in a bed with very high raised sides and amongst the Perpetual Spinach.
They've rewarded her by growing 'fat and happy', the taste is superb. We have six growing at home, a couple will be 'blanched' by wrapping cardboard around them as they grow.
And when we go to have lunch or supper with friends, we take celery stalks and peonies or roses as gifts, it is a such a delight to watch people's faces as they taste or smell our home grown produce.
We have a visitor. Boy Cat is staying with us for ten days. He has grown very big and developed weird habits! He likes to sit on the top of doors and on your lap when you are in the bath or on the loo aka lavatory! Most bizarre.
And she found him up high on a bookshelf in the bedroom so he's, unfortunately, had to be banished from this room because she found him eyeing up the shelves where she keeps her collection of glass and porcelain treasures.
Do not feel sorry for him, he has free-range of the rest of our home and finds the old boiler room of 'particular interest', as well he might, for mice used to be in there quite not so long ago and it must smell very interesting indeed.
And the smell of a cat would certainly make any sensible mouse think twice about coming into our home, so Boy is most welcome!
We've had snow in London. On the day she cut the big bed in two, she saw a ominously dark cloud approaching from the north west, so packed up and got to the bus stop very quickly!
A bus came on time and it started to rain, she was mighty glad of her 'Pat's Hat' as the bus heating was off, on Hammersmith Broadway a man got on and said "Phew, it's grim" and then down it came.. sheets of snow, BIG white flakes. It stopped after about thirty minutes, luckily before she got off the bus.
Talk about hurry scurry down our steps! She was SO grateful she had turned the boiler on before she left.
And that she had a chicken stew which all she had to do was heat through.. we lurve chicken stew and save the bones to boil and make a stock with which she cooks Spring Greens.
That's your lot for today. later I'll tell you about her taking Jane on a jaunt to Shepherd's Bush and introducing her to new exciting places!
And about the wonderful things happening up in |Ayrshire in May. so come back soon!
GeeGee Parrot.
April 5th, 2019.
We've had days so warm that I dozed in the shade of my umbrella whilst she gardened in a sleeveless t.shirt and days so cold and wet that she has stayed in bed! Well, not all day but she's found stuff to do indoors.
On Tuesday it was bright but far too chilly to take me to the allotments, so she wore many layers of clothing and went off to plant onions and shallots and check on 'stuff'.
Everything looked fine, the early narcissi are coming to an end and larger double white varieties are in bloom, along with our little friends, the self seeded Forget-me-nots who are such a welcome visitor.
They've spread under two apple trees which are by the gate and with the dark red stems of the peonies, there is such a pop of colour it makes everyone smile.
LOTS of work was done, hard work.
There was a big square bed that had tomatoes and peppers in it last summer, it was a double height raised bed that she filled with good leaf mold, compost, horse manure early last autumn and to which she has added all of our food waste since November.
Mr. and Mrs. Worm have eaten every scrap of the food, manure, wood chips and turned it all into the most perfect soil. But at nearly 20 inches (50cms) high and approximately 6 feet (1.80cms) square the bed was too big.
So gathering shorter pieces of timber together, she split the bed in two. One is now shorter than the other to allow a rose and a clematis to have a properly weed free area around their base.
The path between the beds was tramped on, thick cardboard laid down and topped off with a layer of wood chips.
Job done! The smaller bed was planted with Spring Onions, aka Green Onions or Scallions, we lurve them!
Did you know that you can regrow them as you can also do with Celery as well?
With the onions, cut off the green bit leaving at least an inch and a half (3.5cms) of the white base which must have the roots!
Put the root end into a clear glass jar in about an inch (2.5cms) of cold water and place the jar in a light place. After a short while you will notice that the green ends are growing, this is when you can plant them outside.
With celery you do the same thing but suspend the 2 inch (5cms) root end (celery never are sold with their roots) in water, do not let the bottom sit on the base of the container as it will cause it to rot. Use wooden toothpicks to hold the celery in place and change the water every day.
After a few days, you see a tiny spear of dark green growing from the middle of the cut off stalks, this signifies that magic is happening and after about a week, skinny roots will start to grow!
She plants it out when there are lots of roots and protects them from frosts with a Sun Tunnel.
Our last frost date is June 9th! Yes, that late. She managed to keep a couple going through last winter, they were planted in August last year in a bed with very high raised sides and amongst the Perpetual Spinach.
They've rewarded her by growing 'fat and happy', the taste is superb. We have six growing at home, a couple will be 'blanched' by wrapping cardboard around them as they grow.
And when we go to have lunch or supper with friends, we take celery stalks and peonies or roses as gifts, it is a such a delight to watch people's faces as they taste or smell our home grown produce.
We have a visitor. Boy Cat is staying with us for ten days. He has grown very big and developed weird habits! He likes to sit on the top of doors and on your lap when you are in the bath or on the loo aka lavatory! Most bizarre.
And she found him up high on a bookshelf in the bedroom so he's, unfortunately, had to be banished from this room because she found him eyeing up the shelves where she keeps her collection of glass and porcelain treasures.
Do not feel sorry for him, he has free-range of the rest of our home and finds the old boiler room of 'particular interest', as well he might, for mice used to be in there quite not so long ago and it must smell very interesting indeed.
And the smell of a cat would certainly make any sensible mouse think twice about coming into our home, so Boy is most welcome!
We've had snow in London. On the day she cut the big bed in two, she saw a ominously dark cloud approaching from the north west, so packed up and got to the bus stop very quickly!
A bus came on time and it started to rain, she was mighty glad of her 'Pat's Hat' as the bus heating was off, on Hammersmith Broadway a man got on and said "Phew, it's grim" and then down it came.. sheets of snow, BIG white flakes. It stopped after about thirty minutes, luckily before she got off the bus.
Talk about hurry scurry down our steps! She was SO grateful she had turned the boiler on before she left.
And that she had a chicken stew which all she had to do was heat through.. we lurve chicken stew and save the bones to boil and make a stock with which she cooks Spring Greens.
That's your lot for today. later I'll tell you about her taking Jane on a jaunt to Shepherd's Bush and introducing her to new exciting places!
And about the wonderful things happening up in |Ayrshire in May. so come back soon!
GeeGee Parrot.
April 5th, 2019.
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