Apple blossom

England needs more orchards. They are so beautiful.

I love this time of year, when you can spot fruit trees in hedges and gardens, old orchards behind high hedges, lost fruit trees in full blossom.

Roma

Canker in the Lord Lambourne

We have hacked it back, daubed it with stuff, and are hoping it will survive. It is a particular bummer as it is by far and away our most productive dessert apple, sharp and tangy, nice with cheese, and was full of blossom.

It meant a bonfire, which BT and his mate enjoyed. Amazing how dirty 2 small boys can get with the help of a couple of fields, a few trees and a bit of charcoal. Dirt is a sign of a day well spent...

Shoots and stuff

I tidied the porch last week, and now it is full of seedlings in a mixture of pots and trays. I get very excited about beans sprouting - such large leaves, pushing through the soil. Cotyledons. I can understand why Jack climbed a beanstalk.

I am not an organised gardener. I always forget to label my seedlings, and have to trust to recognising what they are when they grow big enough. I have runner beans and broad beans and some broccoli, and various herbs.

We still have a box full of chillis in the freezer that I planted in a haze. It was a mixed pack of seeds that would produce chillis of different strengths. It adds a new dimension to things to not quite know what you're getting when you reach for a chilli - every curry has a touch of Russian roulette about it.

We planted lettuces and stuff direct in the vegetable patch. We were restrained in our planting, and aim to succession plant over the next few weeks. This is something we have failed to achieve in the past, so perhaps we are getting marginally more organised.
The first year we grew radishes YM planted the whole packet in one go. There is a limit to the number of radishes you can eat. You reach it quite quickly, we found.

Flowers we saw on our walk

Primroses

Celandines

Violets

Tiny little wild strawberry flowers

seals

We dropped down to north Cornwall last weekend, sat on a cliff top and watched seals. At first we saw one or two, bobbing and playing in the pools the tide had left. Then Rainbow noticed some strange, smooth shapes on the patch of sand up under the cliffs. A paisley print of seals, and as soon as we had seen them, we saw more and more and more.

I tried to photograph the seals, but all you can see are tiny dots. So here is the giant we met, along with her pixie brother.

And if you look very carefully you can see the sculpture the pixie made, channelling Goldsworthy...

The moon is a liar

A tiny sliver of moon in the sky tonight, almost flat on its back. On our honeymoon a lovely Italian lady told us "In Italy we say the moon is a liar. When he say crescendo he is diminuendo. When he say diminuendo he is crescendo".

Had a mad weekend in Dublin, came back Sunday morning and had a roast dinner in the pub. The kids went down to one of the neighbours, YM wallowed in Liverpool beating Man U,  and I had an hour of weeding. There's sorrel up in the vegetable patch, the first signs of mint, and I have things to plant. Had some sorrel in my cheese sandwich this lunchtime. Am feeling excited about spring.