An extremely belated Happy New Year to you all. I don't know what's taken me so long with putting pen to paper. I've already bought 3 presents ready for next Christmas, so there's really no excuse!
The garden here at The People & Cats Republic is looking nicely snowdroppy. They were early this year. They're usually at their peak for Valentine's Day, but some are already past their best, & making way for 'Tete-a-tete' & 'February Gold' narcissus, & the many varieties of daffodil that are now heavily in bud. I braved the possibility of hideous arachnid encounters earlier this week & cleared out my half of the shed. I also finally got around to ordering our veggie seeds, & this morning, achieved my first greenhouse session of the new season. Fab couple of hours - warm sun on the panes & I was serenaded by a pair of bouncy robins. Albert Whiskers helped by staying out of the way, as there was an urgent matter behind the compost bins which required his full attention.
I sorted through my October-sown sweet-peas & removed a few mingers, before pinching them out to encourage stronger, bushier plants. I need them to be as strong as possible, as I know they'll come under attack from the Sparrow Mafia as soon as I plant them outside. Also sowed some penstemon seed. If it gets off to an early start, the plants will flower this year, & will still be providing colour as late as November, frosts permitting. You can see I'm using old CD cases as mini cloches. The Big Hairy Half of the Relationship had been having a clear-out & I rescued these from landfill as the completely transparent ones are useful at seed-sowing time.
These are the little strawberry runners I snipped off & potted up before Winter. I wasn't too hopeful about them as some didn't have much root, but with just a sprinkle of water now & again, they've all survived, so that's a dozen free extra plants to add to the strawberry barrel this year.
More recycling here, as I often like to use big yoghurt pots for seeds, as they can enable a good root system. These are alium christophii, astrantia, sweet cicely & sysinchrium. Apparently they take a long time to germinate, up to 1 year. I don't know if they will bother as the seed is very old. It's so old, & I've failed to sow it for so many years (7, maybe?) that this task made its way onto my official Annoying Things lists.... which are new, motivating & extremely effective at getting rid of longstanding Annoying Things ONCE & FOR ALL!!
What exactly qualifies as an Annoying Thing? Well, it is the sort of task which if you decided to do it, would probably take you less than half an hour & very probably just a few minutes or EVEN SECONDS! Despite this, you walk past it several times a day (x days in a week, x weeks in a year, etc) & pretty much every time, you mentally berate yourself for still not actually having bothered to do it. The reason for not doing these tasks is rarely down to logistics, the state of the household economy, or ability to carry it out successfully. No, the reason........& come on, we can all think of tasks we've got at home like this.......is that despite seeing whatever job it is multiple times a day & it annoying me EVERY SINGLE TIME ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT FAIL, I still CBA to do it!! That's the truth of it.
And so, this January, my Annoying Things lists were born. There are two of them. Annoying Things List 1 consists of all Annoying Things I can solve for free. Yes. Free. Without a single pence needing to be handed over to People with Skills or Purveyors of Goods. Annoying Things List 2 consists of things which involve expenditure of less than £20. Now, in case anyone thinks I'm racing my way through List 2 positively shedding £20 notes with gay abandon, wrong! One of the Annoying Things on this list cost 99p to solve, another cost 50p & one that I'd been putting off for simply ages came in at the dizzying total expenditure of........39p!!
So, this morning, I was already intending to head down to the greenhouse to sow some penstemons & fanny about with sweetpeas & strawberry plants, so half way down the garden, I made myself turn tail & fetch the 4 packets of ancient seeds for sowing today. Will they even bother germinating after so long? No idea, but plants generally want to grow, so it's only fair to give them a chance. That's another Annoying Thing crossed off. I've already done a total of 25 Annoying Things this year & it really is quite weirdly satisfying!
Well I shall sign out now, as I can hear some scrabbling around in the hall, which most probably means Albert Whiskers is beating up the doormat again. They get above themselves, those doormats, & need to be taught a regular lesson about who exactly is Boss in the hallway.
Until next time, when I have a book review for all those who have missed having a 'proper' winter this year......simply the iciest book I've ever read, which on a couple of occasions actually had me reaching for another layer to put on, so great was the psychological effect of excellent writing & Arctic chill.
See you then,
C x
Lovely snowdrops and very heartening to read about your garden, a positive sign of lighter days to come.
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