Making progress

 

I'm making progress with the veg patch. I forked it over yesterday, took me just under an hour.  The soil was very compacted and there were a lot of roots to deal with near the fence.  The soil is definitely clay so will need to add lots of goodness to it over time.  At least I'll have chicken manure ;-)  My biggest problem atm is keeping Emma off it!!  Next stage is to build a fence round it.  I'm thinking metre high with chicken wire and a couple of posts.  Not worked out how to do a wee gate yet!!

 

Where I live we still get frost until May so I'm chitting potatoes and planting peas and beans indoors to get them started off.  I'm checking the viability of seeds I've already got so hopefully won't cost me much in terms of buying new seed this year.

 

I still have my 2 raised beds and pots at the front so need to get those sorted out today.  It's brown bin collection tomorrow so I need to get those weeds sorted and get fresh compost from my local recycling centre.  It's free but you need to bag it yourself.  Guess what the The Teenager will be doing today??

 

Look who was wandering round my garden last night!  He/she froze when I let the dogs out for the last time.  I was able to run back inside and get my camera.  Lucy walked past it but Emma wanted to play with it!  I watched it for a wee while before it decided it was safe to move again.  It ran across to gate and disappeared under it.

 

I took the last of the Seville oranges out of the freezer yesterday and boiled them overnight in the slow cooker.  They're cooling just now, waiting to be shredded and turned into whisky marmalade. When I got my empty jars down I found 2 large jars of Apple and plum chutney.  I'd obviously 'tidied' them away before Christmas.  They'll be perfect for eating now.  One for me  and one for my lovely mum.

 

I'm really enjoying my holiday.  Even though I'm keeping myself busy it feels relaxing doing all the things I just don't have time to do when I'm working.  I found a sock I started knitting last summer so might even get some knitting done today as well.  Lovely :-)

Edited to add:  Jars of chutney are actually marmalade!!  That's why I should label everything at the time :-)