Baby robins

Here’s an introduction to The Glums… five baby robins who hatched out last weekend (click image to enlarge). I call them that because their mouths are wide and yellow and when they’re sitting quietly they look fed up... wouldn’t you, crammed in with four siblings? But more frequently the nest is full of wide open yellow beaks. Mum and dad are furiously feeding the beaks… the fat balls I’ve made seem a favourite. Dad is also chasing birds off left right and centre. He’s even been on the back of a starling. Just over another week in the nest before they take flight. That’s an amazing rate of growth… they’ve grown a lot in the last week but look nowhere near ready for flight. Suppose it’s more of a flop first time round.

You’ll gather from another late posting that I’ve been hard at it at work. Thankfully all the call centre advisor training is done now, just got the back office training tomorrow morning then back to working two days a week. Stacked up over sixty hours of flexi time now. Hoping to take some as pay, some as time off in a couple of weeks.

On the allotment it seems I’ve got more flower seedlings growing than anything else. Potted up a million cosmos plants Sunday morning (ok, but you try potting up 170 and it’ll seem like a million). That’s on top of the fifty marigold plants the week before… and I’ve yet to pot loads of stocks, snapdragons and Livingstone-daisies. And I’m dreading the nicotianas… they started slow and small but I daren’t count them. The back garden is going to look stunning this year if I can keep my daughter Beth from nicking the best specimens as she usually does, often with the glazed pots as well!

Sadly my vegetable performance isn’t quite so exciting. Think it must be the continuous sunshine we’ve had over the last couple of weeks, although the soil is still nice and damp a couple of inches down so no excuse there! The first sowing in mid March has been generally successful, but late March sowing under the Geoff Hamilton cloche is poor. I blame the compost I put down, which is a bit ‘chunky’ to say the least. No sign of the turnips or parsnips in the next bed.

So I’m still struggling to get a reliable way of raising my vegetables. Wandered past Angelo’s plot on Monday. Don’t normally come that way but some mysterious activity by the groundsmen blocking off a huge area of land near the cemetery with secure high wire fencing made me take a long detour… must watch that space but I suspect the fact that there’s loads of news about an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico has caused the Town Council to accelerate their plans to provide more burial space. May sound far fetched but the fear of a flu pandemic is causing many town councils to think ahead.

But back to Angelo’s plot… wished I hadn’t bothered going that way when I saw his plot… like the other Italians he’s got lovely examples of veg growing without any problem or apparent effort. You wouldn’t believe his garlic, and when the plum tomatoes go up I’ll again despair.

I’m now thinking maybe the best approach is to raise everything in the greenhouse (yes, even the lettuce since Angelo’s seem to suddenly appear in the ground almost fully grown) and plant out when a decent size. I’ll give the new project a sound start this weekend to celebrate the return to normal working hours. That’ll be added to trying indoor strawberries, nettle fertiliser, chicken poo fertiliser, making my own seed compost and growing shop bought garlic as current projects and I’ve probably forgotten a couple of others on the go.

The nettle fertiliser is going well, judging from the smell. If you want an idea of what it smells like click here. Stick your head near the surface and it’s like your nose is up a cow’s bottom. Here’s how it looks at present with some more chopped nettles added.

Son John has taken an interest in home brewed wine... mine unfortunately! It's my own fault. I've been trying to get his and David's approval for months. Now John has had two bottles of apple wine off me in the last week. Apparently his flatmate thought it was so good he’s started brewing. Received a text of helpful advice from the ‘master’ suggesting I try elderberry wine. When I told him I’d got a four year old bottle in the garage he was after that! No chance. But supplies are getting dangerously low so I’m trying little and often on a weekly or fortnightly basis rather than the big batches I’ve done in the past. Started a gallon of rhubarb wine on Sunday.

Got bladdered last Friday… another peek by the consultant to make sure all clear. It was (hurrah!) so another check up in six months with some more chemotherapy in between.

I’m having some five star breakfasts at the moment… my own asparagus and three fried eggs from the feathered fiends, on top of home made Italian peasant bread. Could it get any better?

Got the day off today, and it’s daughter Becky’s birthday. So we’re meeting up with daughter number two, Beth, at The Dolphin Hotel for coffee and a natter. Nice.

	Good signs of growth for the penstemon cuttings! (Click image to enlarge)
	Outside the shed it's all seedlings
	Tomato seedling nesting in my own compost
	Inoddr strawberry plants doing really well
	Chickens ignoring me... no wonder, they're having their favourite meal of spaghetti!
	Got all the potatoes in the new bed now.
	Productive trip with the wheelbarrow... dumped compost from the Town Council's hanging pots heading for my compost bins.
	The start of rat defences. Mr Ratty keeps burrowing through for a nibble.
	The feathered fiends sheltering from the sun. We've had an unbroken run of ten days sunshine.

Busy busy busy

This post is a bit late and a bit hurried because I'm up to my eyeballs with work. Migrating Housing calls to the call centre early May and I've got to write the training materials by Wed 22-May, so been working a few hours from 07:00 each morning as well as my normal two days a week.

Went on a fantastic 6 mile walk with Linda earlier today, a round trip from St Ives to Hemingford Abbots, across the Black Bridge to Houghton, and back to St Ives via The Thicket. If you haven't been on this walk you really should try it... lots of variation and a great cup of coffee at The Axe and Compass. Park in the St Ivo indoor sports centre, where marked with the yellow cross (click image to enlarge).

On the allotment I'm desperately trying to get all my spuds into the newly dug border. Managed six rows so far with help from grandson Connor, got another eight to do. Potted up marigolds and some penstemon cuttings. Rhubarb and asparagus doing well.

The robin is still sitting on her nest in the back garden. Should be seeing some small fluffy things soon!

Sorry it's brief, but I'll be glad when I get back to the normal routine of sixteen hours a week at work... can't imagine how I ever worked a full Monday to Friday!

Nettle fertiliser

Been meaning to make nettle fertiliser for some time. With comfrey fertiliser it's one of the simplest but most effective organic fertilisers to make, being rich in nitrogen and really good for tomatoes.

So just had to get some fresh nettles (easy!), chop them up and put in a bin to leave for a month. This is the concoction just made up at the beginning of this week (click to enlarge). After a couple of days there were definite signs of activity... the brew was starting to foam. It does get a bit smelly, so best to store away from access areas.

After four weeks remove what's left of the nettles and you're left with a dark brown liquid. To use dilute one part fertiliser to 9 parts water.

Started and ended the week with grandson Sammy worrying the chickens. He calls it loving them but involves a lot of chasing and Izzy chicken, the most docile, being carried around. He was accompanied by sister Izzy on Sunday, when we had a picnic with Becky. I'd been thinking of building a play house for the grandchildren but have realised it's not necessary... Sammy & Izzy spent a lot of their time in the chicken hut, picture at foot of this posting.

Noticed evidence of a fox trying to get into the chicken pen this week. Thank goodness I followed best advice and buried the wire netting in the ground, otherwise I'd have been faced with trying to buy exact replicas of the current brood to save grandchildren trauma.

Had another brain wave today... one that turned out really well. The groundsmen had cleared an old shed nearby ready for new owners to take over the plot, and there were lots of aluminium strips that once must have been part of a greenhouse. I'd already grabbed a few since they looked like they might be useful. It was while I was coveting (as they say in the bible) my neighbours' small cloches covering their broadbeans that the brainwave washed over me. A bit of hole drilling and a few nuts and bolts later and here's the result. Just need a bit more plastic sheeting from Wilkinsons and I'll have saved myself a fortune. I've got enough strips to make myself about five cloches. What a result!

The robin activity in our back garden is hotting up... she's sitting on eggs! Spent part of this afternoon peering at her through binoculars from the seclusion of our sun lounge (actually the ex-garden greenhouse) whilst she spent an equal amount of time staring out of the nest box at me. A bit worried she seemed to be spending quite a bit of time off the nest, would the eggs not go cold? But apparently the robin routine is to spend forty minute spells on the nest interspersed with a bit of egg turning before she flies off for a feed or break. Takes about a fortnight for the eggs to hatch out, another fortnight for the fledglings to exit the nest, then they continue to get fed by parents for another three weeks, so we're in for a couple of months of interest. To see the plan for the nest I made click here.

Had a couple of visits into St Ives this week as usual, including the best coffee and view in town at The Dolphin Hotel. Noticed just how many nesting birds you can see around town. At The Waits there's a swan sitting on her massive nest in full view, a moorhen nesting at the parish church end of The Waits quay, and another coot coralling her two young (only two left of five) on the short approach to the parish church. At the St Ives bridge (The Dolphin end but on the opposite side) you can see housemartins swooping into holes in the concrete banking, and a coot nesting near the bridge footing.

And best of all... Holt Island nature reserve was open again today for the first time this year. Amazing just how relaxing it is to wander around the boardwalks and sit looking out over the meadow.

You may have noted there's been no mention of squash results for some time. Let's just say the squash cup hasn't been in my possession for some time. If I lose this month that'll be the first half of the year over. A bit up and down on the cups for tennis and pub games as well. Maybe I'll just have to accept the inevitable results of growing old when I'm playing against competitors half my age... or could I persuade them to compete in the tiddlywinks cup?

	Evidence of a fox trying to get under the chicken wire.
	Gathered an audience while making the nettle fertiliser.
	The first strawberry appeared this week.
	Two new occupants of the chicken hut.
	Sammy 'loving' Izzy chicken.
	Sammy battling it out with a chocolate biscuit. Two seconds later it was Sammy 1, chocolate biscuit 0.

Stevenson screen

For those of you in the know it may not look like it (and if you're not in the know just ignore the first part of this sentence), but this is a Stevenson screen (click to enlarge). My thermometer readings were looking far too high compared to the 30 year average... either that or we're on our way to having a fantastic summer.

But during a chat with Richard as he was passing it looked like I was getting radiated heat from the greenhouse affecting my maximum/minimum readings, since the sensor housing (an upturned plant pot) was against the greenhouse glass. So now plan B... a white upturned yoghurt pot on a pole four feet high, being the recommended height. I'll try this for a week or so.

Getting decent readings is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I'd imagined, but I'm hoping that once things are working well I'll have some advance warning of what type of summer it's going to be, and how early I can plant things out. See the chart for the last few weeks' temperatures at the foot of this posting. Believe it or not there is a plan C if I have to give up on my natural Scottish inclination to do all things at minimum cost.

Lots of seedlings popping up this week, pictures for some shown below. On the veg front there have been broadbeans, peas and leeks showing in the greenhouse, and most exciting of all (since this is the first year I'll get to eat them) the asparagus bed is showing its first shoots. For flowers there's been first appearances for tuberous dahlia and begonia shoots, anemones, lobelias, stocks, marigolds, cosmos, and ranunculus.

Had to make modifications to last week's Geoff Hamilton cloche. The support piping had almost collapsed 'cause I'd ended up with it too short, so cut some new supports and it's looking a lot better as can be seen. There's a picture below of the constituent parts.

The chickens made their return back to normal egg production of three or four a day with perfect timing. It was Izzy's third birthday on Tuesday and Becky needed 106 eggs (well, maybe not, but it seemed like I delivered something like that) for the various party and playschool cakes. And what a birthday cake she made... huge, full of chocolate and moist! Got paid the greatest compliment possible by resident expert Connor (aged 6) when, as his eyes popped out of his head, he described it as the best cake ever.

	The last couple of weeks temperature readings. Includes the 30 year average for soil readings to a 10cm depth.(click to enlarge)
	Parts to make the Geoff Hamilton cloche.
	The first asparagus shoot!
	First appearance for leeks. I'm still harvesting last year's crop... think leeks are my favourite vegetable.
	Maybe at last I'll be successful with peas.
	The girls are a bit thirsty... although there was plenty of water the previous day they'd run out on this visit.
	Trying to educate the feathered fiends with some Radio 3. Now using the Roberts fm radio after the on/off button on the digital version packed up. Bit poor for a £90 radio, hence the reason my last and best radio purchase was from Pure.