Friday.

 Good morning, everyone.  It's a lovely, sunny early morning; there are clouds in the sky but the sun is shining and the wet paving is drying out.  Will it stay nice all day?  Beeb seems to think so.

Sadly, yesterday was dire - the weather, I mean.  It started raining during my chat with Chris and hardly stopped for the rest of the day.
However, nothing daunted, I drove around town to Abercorns and grabbed a trolley.  However, when I looked at the pansies, while they were in beautiful condition, they were also shockingly expensive for the number I wanted.  Ditto for strawberries, although I was glad to see that they are now being sold.  I went in, found the tomato cages (cheaper than Amazon), got some metre long canes (useful for the mange tout and the broad beans) and another pot.  I also got a packet of roma plum tomato seeds and, for Beth, some climbing French bean seeds.

I then decided to cut back through town and go to B&Q to see if they had any more reasonably priced pansies.  I'm glad I did because they did plus strawberry plants, half the price and, to my fairly ignorant eye, they looked just as good.  

RHS advises me that strawberries can be planted in 'early spring', i.e. now, more or less.  Where they will go in my garden is a nice and sheltered spot so that's on next week's list.  The allotment isn't quite so sheltered so I might wait until mid April.  It tells me that a fleece for those colder Spring nights might be a good idea so that is now on the shopping list.

I also got a sturdy looking dustpan and brush for the allotment shed.  I thought we had one but it appears not.

Once home and unpacked, as it was still chucking it down with rain, I really didn't fancy the allotment at all so spent the rest of the day inside knitting and reading mostly.

Today I think I have a chat with Jackie at eleven and another Zoom thingy at three.  In between those two times, I may very well do the allotment stuff I had planned for yesterday.  That, plus clearing the week's clutter for the cleaners, should take up most of the day.

All the best for your day - may it go well for you.  xx