Category: Sofa flying

had a good Christmas and enjoyed themselves.  Mine was very quiet and mostly spent armchair gardening or sofa flying reading, drinking tea and eating biscuits.

I had a quick look round the plot a couple of times and spent a couple of hours there on Tuesday morning pulling up and composting most of the remaining cornflowers, cosmos, pot marigolds and sunflowers.  I then added two sackfuls of willow tree leaves as a thick duvet across the top of the compost heap which is now waist high.

I’ll be growing a couple of flowers which I’ve grown in the past but not for some years.  One is the white Corn Cockle Bianca (Agrostemma githago) which is an annual, and the other Chicory (Cichorium intybus), a perennial which has lovely blue flowers.

The corn cockle picture is from July 2015 and the chicory June 2014.

There’s been plenty of rain here, with more to come over the next few days so I don’t think I’ll be doing any more plotting until next year.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

 

 

One of the books I borrowed from the local library last Friday was Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, which I last read many years ago.

The contents go from Part 1. December 22nd through to Part 7. December 28th, and I’ll be rereading one part daily starting later today.

 

 

 

Yesterday I received copies of the 2023 Chiltern Seeds Grow something new from seed catalogue and The Veg Book which I’ll be happily browsing over the next week or so.

 

Have a good Christmas and take care!

The daytime temperatures here in Harrow, London  have continued to hover mostly just below 0 C/32 F at best with the temperatures at night dropping well below that.  There have been hard overnight frosts and on Monday morning I woke up to find that it had also snowed overnight.  Thankfully it was only a light dusting and had mostly cleared within a couple of days.

Given all that it’s not surprising that I’ve stayed indoors since my last plot visit on Friday.  This morning was still cold but calm and sunny so I was pleased to get out and take a walk to the local shops.  I’ll probably take a quick look round the plot tomorrow  after lunch when it may be just above 0 C/32 F.

Weather-wise it’s certainly been a year to remember what with a drought, the temperature reaching nearly 40 C/104 F a couple of times in the summer and ending with a cold spell. I wonder what next year will be like.

Needless to say I’ve spent much of the week in front of the fire either armchair gardening or sofa flying, drinking cups of tea, eating biscuits and re-reading some Agatha Christie books.

Thankfully it looks like it’s going to get warmer, although wetter, from Sunday onwards.

Today’s archive sunflowers picture was taken during July 2011.

Have a good weekend, and take care!

It’s mostly been a non-plotting week so far, which looks set to continue into the weekend as today and tomorrow the temperature may only reach    9 C/48 F, but feeling much colder with the wind gusting to over 35 mph.

On Tuesday I had an appointment at the local hospital for a check-up which had been delayed for over eighteen months due to various reasons.  I arrived early, and much to my surprise was seen straight away.  Thankfully all is well, and a possible biopsy wasn’t necessary.

Today I’m staying at home and probably doing nothing much , especially after lunch when I’ll settle down with a cup of tea, some biscuits and a good book to read.  (Picture by Maria Bradley)

Take care, and have a good weekend!

with three rather wet and windy days so I’ve not been to the plot since Thursday morning.

I recently mentioned that the communal wood chips bays have been empty for a long time so I was pleased to see that one of the local tree surgeons had been and refilled all three bays.

The rose Pretty Lady has been blooming continuously since mid May, although less and less floriferously, and I think these will be the last blooms for this year.

Yesterday I checked all the onions and potatoes I have stored at home.  I found one onion that needs to be used but otherwise the rest are all okay.  I do this periodically, and think that it’s a job well worth doing.

I’ve been settling down after lunch some days to carry on seed sorting and saving.  I’m doing candytuft, cosmos, pot marigolds and sunflowers some of which I’ll keep to use next year and the rest to give to someone who passes them on to a couple of worthy causes.

Thankfully next week looks like being mostly dry, but with temperatures close to 0 C one or two early mornings.  At least I’ll be able to take a look round the plot even if I can’t do much.

Take care, and have a good week!

I’ve only made two brief visits to the plot this week as the weather has been miserably damp and dull.  Thankfully from tomorrow and over the weekend into next week it looks like being colder but mostly dry with some welcome sunshine.

Needless to say I’ve been doing plenty of armchair gardening thinking about what I’ll be growing, and where, next year.  I’ll be endeavoring to grow less better again, especially tomatoes as I grew eleven plants last year which is almost twice as many as I usually do or need.

Talking of tomatoes I’ve been given an unopened packet of Little Sun which are well past the sow by date.  I’ll give them a go regardless and see if I can grow one or two in pots on the windowsill at home.

 

Further to last Sunday’s sunflowers post how about this painting by Gary Bunt titled The Sleeping Gardener. 

 

Have a good weekend!

 

At the moment the only plants that I have on the windowsill at home are this small house leek, in a three inch clay pot, and a spider plant.

      

 

The three pots each planted with three hyacinths which have been in a cool, dark place since I planted them.  This is the best pot with the tallest plant now about a couple of inches high.

 

I tried growing gazania rigens Talent Yellow from seed last year without success.  I’ve bought some more to try again, and hope to do better this time.

 

I generally grow one or two tomato plants in pots on the windowsill but they’ve never done that well but I keep trying.  This year it will be with the variety Tiny Tim.

It rained for much of yesterday, and today it’s sunny but much colder with the temperature feeling around 0C.  It looks like staying like that until at least the middle of next week so I’ll be just taking a quick look round the plot most days.

Have a good weekend!