Sorry for the break in service. I come down with the lurgy (TM) a week or two ago and the extent of my gardening activities has been putting tulips brought for my birthday into a vase - and I didn't manage to finish that without some help from a less weary pair of hands.
On my sick bed (or should I say sick sofa) I have been listening to the relaxing sound of a CD of British birdsong that was another birthday gift. Now I know what a nightingale and a capercaillie sound like.
It's also the first time I've been able to watch the seeds on my windowsill almost literally grow before my very eyes. Now I just have to get well enough to be able to harden them off.
Spouse is a Twitcher and has been known to play 'guess that bird' with this CD - I am not joking! He also made me hide in a hedge making corncrake noises (rub a comb up a metal zip) to try and tempt one of the elusive blighters into the open once. The things you do to stay married...
Posted by: Frankie | February 20, 2006 at 06:18 PM
Sorry to hear you've been unwell, and over your birthday too! I hope you're feeling recovered now.
Posted by: Clare | February 20, 2006 at 06:59 PM
Sympathies re lurgy. Look at it this way, though: better to be sick now than in the growing season. Too much to do in April!
I have the hardening off dilemma: it's still too damn cold to start doing this, yet I have tons of seedlings that I sowed indoors in a fit of optimism in Jan. Unless the wretched weather improves soon, I can see myself having to chuck them all away and start again. I don't think brassica seedlings like sitting in tiny modules that cramp their roots, do they?
Posted by: Jess | February 23, 2006 at 04:21 PM
I have exactly the same dilemma, eased by the fact I am still not well enough for gardening. Depending on how big the brassicas are, I am sure they will be ok for a while longer: or can tyou give them some cover outside in a cold frame?
Posted by: Jane Perrone | February 23, 2006 at 04:46 PM
I was considering doing exactly that, but I feel that in these temps it would still be too much of a shock from a centrally heated house into the cold frame outdoors.
Ah well. I'll see if the cold snap ends next week and do it then. Te morturi salutant.
Posted by: Jess | February 24, 2006 at 04:32 PM