14th February
Happy Valetine's Day!
Brett likes Bacalhau (dried salted cod), slightly more than
me, so yesterday he put some in to soak and this afternoon he cooked it, and
then he went to train ......... leaving me to flake the fish off the bones and
skin; it's a horrid job your hands get all sticky with 'fish glue' - I washed
my hands several times and couldn't rid them of the stickiness (they probably
smelt fishy too, so there is a benefit to losing the sense of smell?).
Brett cooked dinner tonight, Bacalhau in a spicy tomato
sauce with olives and mashed potato, it was very tasty.
15th February
Hoorah, no rain today.
We have three tomato seedlings through in the cold frame and
the leeks are sprouting too. I sowed lots more exciting seeds today, until I
ran out of compost: including physalis, red Welsh onions, garlic chives,
melons, winter squash, courgettes - the cold frame is looking pretty full
already and soon I'll be 'potting on', I don't know where I'll put everything (we
need to put the polytunnel up).
Typical, we had a frost tonight; I covered the cold frame
with a duvet!
16th February
I don't believe it!!!!
I was told the hunting season had finished last Sunday, well it didn't, we were
woken well before 7 a.m. by gunshot followed, six seconds later, by the sound
of lead pellets raining down onto our roof and this continued relentlessly
until we were driven from our home at about 10.30 - we went to CB to do some
shopping, but most of the shops we wanted to go to were shut. At least I was
able to buy some compost and we bought some draught excluder
................... for what???? To use instead of hotspot tape (which is very
expensive) on our polytunnel which we are going to erect this week - I'm so
excited.
I sowed more seeds this afternoon .......... and the forth
tomato seedling is through! I'm so relieved that they survived the frosty night
under their duvet. I couldn't find any type of seed trays to buy, it doesn't
look as if they are used here; in fact there's quite a few gardening
accessories that I haven't been able to find like a Dutch hoe (Debbie &
David kindly sent us one), a garden fork - you'd have thought that was a given,
but, no, here the enxada rules it's used for everything (unfortunately I'm not
very good with one!).
17th February
Another frosty night but my tomato seedlings survived
snuggled under their duvet.
The ducks are so funny; when we had a fence around them they
tried to escape, now we've taken the fence away, so they can roam anywhere,
they stay put just outside their shed - Brett thinks they look depressed!!!
We spent the day working out how to erect the polytunnel, of
course we've lost the instructions, we bought it fourteen years ago; after a
lot of head scratching we got the frame up and stable,
We had a grand total of seven tomato seedlings through by
nightfall, plus the leeks, Florence fennel, bronze fennel - exciting times!
Debbie and David are coming back to visit us in June, this
really made our evening! And this time (fingers crossed) we're practically
guaranteed sunshine.
18th February
Thank goodness I covered the cold frame last night, even
though it was raining, there was frost on the duvet this morning; but the sun
was shining when we got up (yay!) and ................... 16 tomato seedlings
through now (I planted 76 seeds so quite a few to go!).
By 11.30 there were 23 tomato seedlings!
Washing day always takes a lot longer than expected,
especially when it hasn't been done for a couple of weeks (down to the weather
not laziness); so we didn't get much done today.
The other day, in the supermarket, I noticed dried olive
leaves for sale, to make into tea; so I looked it up on the internet and
apparently olive leaves contain oleuropein and elenolic acid and have a multitude of health benefits
including: antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, reducing blood pressure etc.
so I thought I'd give it a go - NO I didn't buy the leaves from the
supermarket, I picked fresh leaves straight off the trees outside the house; it
tastes quite weak but not unpleasant, I'm drying some leaves to see if it
intensifies the flavour - no it didn't!
26 tomato seedlings by their
bedtime!
19th February
29 tomato seedlings when I opened the cold frame this
morning.
We went to the builder's merchant and bought a roll of concrete wire mesh, I'm going to use it
to make tomato cages and bean, pea etc (basically anything that needs it)
supports. It will add form to the garden and I like the look of it, it's a
rusty metal grid.
Brett attached the
door frames to the polytunnel and concreted them in place - I held things and
gave my opinion!
The ducks are beginning to explore now, they like to sleep
up outside the chicken run.
The ground is still too wet to work properly but I managed
to hoe the broad beans plant over a
hundred cloves of garlic (in addition to the 150 which are growing well - we
eat a lot of garlic!).
{35!}
20th February {37!}
Bloody hunters at it again, not on our land (in the season
they are allowed to hunt on Thursdays, Sundays and Public Holidays), but we have only ever had problems with them
on Sundays and that's fortnightly not every week (but I still don't like them,
they're killing all the song birds for sport).
We went into CB to buy all the things we couldn't get on
Sunday and came home with a dog. Actually she's a puppy, about three or four
months old. She was in a cage with two other dogs and she was shaking from head
to foot, tail between her legs, every so often she'd dart over to sniff our
hands, then the more dominant dog would push her out of the way. She looks like
a long legged, short haired Jack Russell.
She was sick three times in the car coming home, I caught it
all in plastic bags! And she pooed once in the house; Looby has never messed in
the house (well just a little wee when we were having to give her injections).
Looby is very accepting of other dogs, she just plays a bit rough - she doesn't
realise how big she is. But they seem to be getting on fine, they play chase
(puppy in front, Looby behind)
We went to dinner with P&M tonight, we took the puppy
with us, we thought it was a bit mean to leave them alone together so soon
after just meeting. It was a lovely evening, though P&M's dog weren't as
keen on the puppy as Looby, poor old Tooby had to be locked in the kitchen.
When we got home there was a text from Sarah to say that
she, James and Joyce would like to visit us for a long weekend the end of
March/middle of April - I'm so excited.
Brett walked the dogs to the gate and back without leads, we've had the puppy for
less than 10 hours and she already walks to heel!
21st February {41}
Brett let the dogs out as soon as he heard the puppy wake
up, 7.00 a.m., and the puppy did her business (no mess in the house overnight),
so we were very pleased with her (lots of 'Disney voice' praising!).
Alexandra has named the puppy, she's called Lily; it suits
her and she responds to it.
Brett started the trench for the polytunnel; fortunately we
managed to buy a spade yesterday or it would have been an impossible job. Lily
followed him to the polytunnel and just hung around for a couple of hours while
he worked - she wasn't on a lead, we had had her for just 24 hours!
I prepared some sweet potatoes (cut in half, placed in
water, and put in cold frame), to grow 'slips' from, which will then be planted
to grow sweet potatoes; they belong to the same family as morning glory and
have the same purple/blue bell flower, so they will be rather attractive (and
the leaves are edible). I sowed more seeds in my cold frame, it's practically full
now we need to make another one.
I made kiwifruit jam (the kiwis were half price!),
Lily has taken over poor old Looby's bed
No accidents in the house today, we've been very vigilant
with our toilet training.
22nd February {44}
Lily was good overnight (nothing to clear up), we are letting her out as soon as she wakes
up, 7.30 this morning.
I had so many plans for the garden this morning and it was
raining! And it was jolly cold too, 11◦C in the house. So the best I
could find to do was the housework!
Looby and Lily have started playing together, Looby is still
too boisterous (we forget she's still a puppy herself, probably about eighteen
months) and now they sleep together -
Brett carried on digging the polytunnel trench; he took Lily
with him - the independent creature turned up back at the house about 1/2 an
hour after they left; she was very pleased with herself!
Meanwhile I made scones
Poor old Brett was reduced to watching the Rugby (Six
Nations), via the written word, on the internet (refreshing the page every few
minutes), I think he was a little jealous of Will who was watching the match
live at Twickenham!!!
23rd February
Sunday morning and we weren't woken by hunters!!!! So the
season must be finished, hoorah!
Lily doesn't want her food, she wants Looby's! Looby is very
good about it but it's not fair on her; so this morning I kept Looby in the
kitchen and put Lily outside with the barrier across the door - she climbed up
and through it!!!! She has very powerful front legs and she just pulled herself
up, 2', and wriggled through the gap, little minx.
We left the dogs in the shed while we went to Karina & Alex;
we thought we'd be a max of four hours, we were six!!!!! But they were both
alive and well when we returned.
We had a lovely afternoon with Karina, Alex and Sean. They
have a very pretty piece of land about ten minutes from us with fabulous views
of Monsanto and the Spanish mountains. Karina cooked a lovely savoury pastry
that she told me the name of, but I've forgotten, made with a bread dough
stuffed with mashed potato and onions then fried. We took our seeds and did a
seed swop (I'm going to try to grow peanuts), and took out hard drive and did a
film swop. And suddenly the time was gone and it was getting dark so we had to
rush home to put the animals away, fortunately the chickens and ducks had put
themselves to bed.
We had a very uncomfortable evening with streaming eyes and
ticklish throats; smoke was seeping out of the stove door, we're going to have
to sweep it tomorrow.
It rained this evening; there was a Fire Salamander
24th February {57}
Masses of soot came out of the chimney, nearly three bags
full; I looked up 'uses for soot' on Google and it can be used on the vegetable
garden as a fertilizer (it shouldn't be used fresh as it will burn the plants).
The stove works so much better now!
Pam & Mark came around this morning and we tasted the
white wine (it didn't taste very good at Christmas) ................... it's
really nice, Pam says like a Savignon Blanc! Now we've got to bottle it, we
have over 90L each!
I spent the rest of the day sowing some of the seeds I got
from Karina, the cold frame is full to the gunnels.
I got some exciting things
planted though, like peanuts, loofah (which I didn't realise was edible if you
harvest it fresh), okra, lots of different melons and cucumbers, sunflowers, pumpkins
........... the list goes on.
Lots more is coming through in the cold frame now - peppers
(no chillies yet), courgette, melon, garlic chives, butternut squash; it's all
very exciting (well to me it is!).
Brett finished digging the trench around the polytunnel, now
we have to wait for a windless day to get the cover on - I can't wait.
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