Saturday

 Good morning.  It's lovely and sunny right now and this is what Beeb predicts for today around here . . 

Nice morning, a bit dull this afternoon.  No complaints.

But just look at Tuesday's forecast - summer!  March is definitely going out like a lamb.  Lovely!

Today's great news is that I have a hair appointment.  On the 12th April.  How fantastic is that!  That's means I won't be chopping my fringe in frustration, I can wait for Sharon to do it for me!
It's very odd how a bit of sunshine and the hopes of a hair cut have lifted my spirits.
It helps that the sore throat is pretty much gone and the aches are minimal.  

Things are waking up in the garden.

The flower bed has been lovely this spring but the snowdrops have finished, the daffs are starting to wilt, the hyacinths are in full flower and the summer stuff is starting to emerge.  It's going to look pretty tatty for a few months now before I get bored and cut down the wilting bulb leaves.  I know one is supposed to let them completely die back but I get fed up of them by mid-May.

Last year's new strawberries have survived.  They are a very lovely deep pink blossom and fruit pretty much all the way through summer.  I have some new plants to add to these, not to fill the whole bed this year but just some.  The majority of the new strawberries are for the allotment.

I'm not sure whether to move the ones in the top photo to the pot or the ones in the pot to the bed - or just leave them all where they are.  I suspect the last is what will happen - this year anyway.

The autumn fruiting raspberries are starting to do their thing now, both here and at the allotment.

The clematis ooh la la is shooting really well again.  It was glorious last summer.

But the rosemary has had its day.  Jeff had it out yesterday and it took him ages to get some of the roots out as well.  I felt so sad but it was woody and messy and bits kept dying - and it had fallen sideways and was putting pressure on the wall of the bed.

I took some cuttings but if they don't take I will get a new plant from the garden centre.  I might possibly have a wigwam of runner beans there this year, just so there's not a wasted space.

Inside, we have three cucumbers, six courgettes and numerous sweet peas.  In the other trays the tomatoes and bread beans are still sleeping in their blankety bed.

The baby corn will be started off in the trays the pansies came in.  Thirty singles and ten with two seeds as the seed pack says there are fifty.  We won't need fifty plants but there's always a few failures.

I'm doing the baby corn and some mange tout today.

As it was raining hard yesterday afternoon, Beth and I didn't get to the allotment.  Instead, she sorted out all her dolls' clothes stock and made up parcel for friends who said they would like some.  To be fair, people offered to pay but Beth, bless her, told them to make a donation to charity instead which suited everyone.
So the amount of charity shop stuff is a fair bit reduced, charities are going to be better off and some little people are going to be happy.  Excellent!

I've finished my bigger knitted squares using aran yarn and then just need sewing together and edged.  It'll be a 5x8 rectangle but each square is a fair but bigger than the other blanket so the whole thing will be bigger.
My fingers got twitchy though, so I rootled in my still considerable store of yarn and found several balls of some DK that I started something with and then didn't like it so undid it all again.  I think I have enough for a jumper for me using this pattern that belonged to my mum.

She adapted it into a jacket type thing, very comfy and warm, but I'm just knitting it a bit longer.  I'll know, once I have done the front, if I have enough yarn so fingers crossed.

The yarn is a lilac colour and will be nice to pop on if the evenings get a bit chilly, I think.

Whether it gets made or not in the end, it's keeping my fingers busy.

I have no reason, but plenty of yarn, to make another little nativity set.  I might do that and, come the winter, donate it to the school for their Christmas Fayre.  There will be one, either real life or online, so it's a possible.

A question for anyone who knows.  You know those columnar fruit trees, the small ones that grow up, not out?  Do they grow naturally like that or do they require special pruning?  I'm just pondering as I gather they do pretty well in largish pots and I have a few suitable corners in the garden.

I've waffled on enough.  Have a great day and I hope the sun is shining where you are too.  xx