Bank Holiday Weekend

Back to school and work today after the four day break. Just two more weeks and then the schools break up for the holidays. This new arrangement for the school terms will take some getting used to, especially as the holidays are still being referred to as the Easter holidays.

We've enjoyed (?) a mixture of weather including hail, snow, strong winds, heavy rain and briefly some blue skies and sunshine.

It was not the weather for watching sport and while my younger son got chilled to the bone running around in shorts I decided the best place for me and my knitting was inside the car.

As the snow and the temperature fell the car misted up which apparently was a good thing because nobody could see that I was knitting which would have been so embarrassing! - just thought I'd mention it in case you are thinking of knitting near teenagers, its really not cool!

Of course Easter is traditionally the time that the serious gardening starts and the allotments are usually busy. I didn't even get down there this weekend but there was some planting in the garden as I spent my birthday money.

Firstly, some herbs, chives, coriander, and two types of thyme.

These were planted in the front garden as the chickens have almost destroyed the ones in the back garden. I didn't realise how much I used my herbs, particularly the thyme, until they were gone. Hopefully these will establish quickly so that I can start picking again.

The back garden addition was another small apple tree.

This variety is called Sunset and is similar to a Cox. It is on a small rootstock and will only reach 10 ft in 10 years. I decided that if the chickens were going to eat nearly everything I grew at ground level then I could still produce some food for us by planting a tree. They did seem to be very interested in this new addition and "helped" with the planting.

I now have three small apple trees, four if you count the crab apple, in a very small garden which is probably all I can sensibly fit in, but then if I wasn't being sensible I could probably fit in another one!