Thursday

Good morning!  It's another very cold start to the day with a frost on the car but not, thankfully, on the plants.  The apple blossom is in full swing so a really hard frost wouldn't be great!

The redlove apple looks beautiful at this time of the year

I started yesterday off with a trip to the allotment to prepare more ground for planting, to dig the trenches (is that what they're called?) for the potatoes and to water the seeds.  I succeeded in two of the three but, to my dismay, the water was off at the allotment.  I have no idea why - it's been fine all week and there was no notice about it on the hut or on the gate.  Fingers crossed that it will be on today - those seeds need water.

Three trenches ready for the seed potatoes which have been chitting merrily away on the side for a while now.  I'm no expert; doing the potatoes has always been Beth's job, but as she can't this year, the responsibility falls to me.

We're not planting a lot of potatoes and just one kind as we decided, well before this current crisis, that we would keep it small and manageable this year.  Better a bit than none at all.

I have about a third of the uncovered area to turn over, clear of any visible evil weeds and try to break up any large lumps of clay.  That will be the space for  potatoes, runner beans, baby corn and, hopefully, a courgette.

Then I start on the larger area, uncovering one bit at a time so it is manageable.  On that we hope to have more courgettes and a squash.  They are both good for ground cover so perhaps that will keep all but the worst weeds down.

I know it's a bit limited in terms of vegetables but a little is better than none at all and I am confident that even if Beth stays in isolation all summer, I can manage it for us both.

I expected to say RIP to the baby tomato this morning but it is still - er - not totally dead. shall we say.  I don't hold out much hope though.  Of the other baby plants, the corn is coming on nicely, I have several yellow courgette seedlings, the stripy heritage tomatoes are poking their heads up and all the gherkin seeds are coming up - which means I have eight plants when I only wanted two so maybe I will have to plant a few at the allotment too.  I think I'll have too many courgettes too but I have a larger planter doing nothing in the garden right now so one could go in there.

The rest of the day was spend doing bits and bobs.  I finished the algebra course - cheers!  The last bit was hard - hard for me, I mean - but I was encouraged that even though I was very unsure as to whether I was doing it right, when I checked the answers, I was, and I had found a different way to do one of them that worked just as well.

I looked on my OpenLearn profile because there was another course there that it looks as if I started several years ago but didn't get very far.  I don't actually remember but it seems to be my sort of thing.  It's called Grammar Matters and has the following sections:

Why does grammar matter?

What do we mean by 'meaning'?

Ideational meaning - talking about what's going on

Interpersonal meaning - interacting with and relating to others

Textual meaning - organising messages to make sense in context

Summary of the types of meaning

Grammar in the real world.

Some of you will be reading the above in absolute horror while so some it will look good.  It looks good to me and I've ordered some pads of file paper (not having any to hand) to make my notes and answer the various questions that are scattered about.

I meant to look for what else there was in the mathematics section but that can wait now.

Today looks like being more of the same really.

Something energetic:

I'll be getting those potatoes in and covered over and doing more ground preparation.  I want to finish that section by Saturday at the latest.

Something for house/garden:

In Daily Kitchen Live (are you watching it?) they showed a clip of Nadiya making baked bean falafels and I'd really like to have a go.  I was intending to make falafels anyway so this is just a variation.

Something social:

I have a vid-chat with Val lined up this afternoon.  Yesterday's chat with Beth didn't come off.  Her neighbour was not a well man and had certain ongoing treatments which were delayed because of the virus demands and he died on Tuesday evening.  He won't show in any virus statistics but he was just as much a victim in a way and Beth is, obviously, very sad.  I wanted to go over and give her a hug but couldn't.

He was a good neighbour.  RIP, D.

Something creative:

Well, I finished another pair of socks!!  Today I might look at how to sew up that other side seam but if I don't get round to that, no problems.

Something entertaining:

I started watching Jane Eyre but decided it wasn't my sort of thing so didn't carry on.  Instead I watched an old documentary about Rudolph Nureyev and then started watching a performance of Romeo and Juliet, the Macmillan version which is my absolute favourite.  I'll carry on with that after I have watched my daily diet of Daily Kitchen Live, Homes under the Hammer, Keep Cooking and House of Games plus whatever else is on today.

I'm not going short on entertainment, am I?  

I'm really sorry - I seem to have gone on and on and on today.  A sign that I'm feeling a lot more cheerful, I guess.

Take care, stay safe and enjoy your day.  xx