Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Well we missed out on the snow at the start of the week with only a light dusting, but today...!
After a failed attempt to drive down to the station which ended with us being pulled back onto the road by a 4x4 I went out to take some pictures.


I found this Acconite poking throught the snow.



my broad beans should be nice and safe under the frames I put over them to stop the pigeons.



We took Boris out for a walk, he likes to lay in wait and ambush us, unfortunately he doesn't understand the concept of Camouflage.





This was the view along the lane looking back towards our house.



And this is a view of one of the oldest houses (actually an ex-pub).


Finally a view down the fields towards St Ives.


All very pretty but hopefully it won't stay to long!

What a difference a day makes.

Well I spent all weekend working on the kitchen and I think we are finally getting towards the end of it!


The sink is all plumbed in and working, the worktops are in place and most of the painting is done. All that remains to do is finishing off the trim, painting window frames and replacing a pane of faded plastic (why did they do that!!) in the window with glass.

Well after yesterdays snow (it was quite light around here) today is the day of the deep freeze. All the hard surfaces outside are sheet ice, glinting in the sunshine. The weather forecasts are a little vague as to what we should expect today but my barometer is settled between Rain and Change so maybe we will get more snow later.

I just watched a fox resplendent in it's thick winter coat crossing the fields. Sadly it ws to far away for a photograph but I watched it foraging through the binoculars I keep on my desk.

A weekend to myself

Well as you can see the kitchen is coming on nicely, floor tiles are down, new ceiling is up and the walls are ready for painting. Hopefully I should make good progress this weekend even if I will be on my own. Sharron is in London all weekend teaching on a course at the National Tennis centre. In her spare time she is a Tennis line judge and as part of this she gets involved in training new people.

I may have been abandoned but I am not forgotten. This morning I have got an invite for coffee an a chat about some of the plans for the village in bloom entry and I have an invite to go out to dinner tonight. I have planned my day around these so I can get some paint on the walls and leave it to dry whilst I am out.

Well I have finally got round to chitting some seed potatoes. I have decided to just grow first early this year and am trying Accent. They are mean't to be very early and heavy croppers with excellent taste, well we will find out.

I have been suffering with a bad back since Christmas which is not good with the amount of decorating we are doing. Over the weekend I went into a sport shop in Huntingdon and bought a sports back support, or truss as I call it! The difference is amazing, I have still got some pain but it really does help.

Sunday afternoon was really lovely, cold and sunny. We took Boris out for a walk across the fields towards Warboys.

As you can see he really enjoyed himself. There are a lot of nice muddy, smelly ditches to dive in. On the way back he saw a rabbit which he chased straight across a field, pleased to say he didn't catch it , but it was close.

A task list for 2009

My Potting shed.

Yesterday as I sat here, bored, in front of my work pc I decided it was time to commit myself to a list of tasks for 2009. These are some of the jobs I want to do out in the garden that will make it more enjoyable for us.

Here they are in no particular order.

1. Put a green roof on the potting shed, I plan to seed it with wild flowers.
2. Run power to the potting shed and greenhouse. at the moment I have nowhere to run a propagator.
3. Clear stable and make it into a garden room/ studio for reading and photography.
4. Sort out garages for storage and a workshop
5. Sort out the fruit cage (it a jungle in there!)
6. Make new benches for the garden
7. Build a path to the greenhouse and herb garden
   
8. Build pergola for small lawn area
9. Make more bird boxes
10. Improve wild flower area and make a Beetle bank.

As you can see I intend to be fairly active over the next few months and in case Sharron is reading this, the kitchen. dinning room, etc etc will of course take priority!

So as we go through the year you will be able to see how I get on.

Well this is the view of the garden today!

So what to do, well I have been downloading some Podcasts to my iPhone, there are some really good gardening ones, I thought I would try the Gardens illustrated
Podcasts as I haven't listened to them before.

I also decided to plant some chilli seeds yesterday, not ordinary chillies but Dorset Naga
seeds I had saved from last year. These chillies are absolutely lethal, but make a fantastic chilli jam that will blow your head off. Anyway I thought I would try and get some going on the office windowsill

Oh what a beautiful morning

This was the view from the bottom of the garden this morning, the 2 spires are the churches in St Ives (Cambridgeshire NOT Cornwall!).

Yesterdays forum on the RHS website was fun, apart from a complete lack of any sensible navigation on the site I think some good points whee raised. For a more full review have a look at VP's site.

Well things are beginning to happen in the garden.


Apart from the bulbs breaking through I have noticed the wildlife getting ready for spring. The squirrels are beginning to pair up, chasing each other up and down the trees. This morning I have been watching Blue Tits Parus caeruleus investigating possible nest sites, including the Bat box on our walnut tree. I also have Starlings Sturnus vulgaris trying to get into a sparrow nest box. I even heard a woodpecker drumming this morning, spring must be on the way.