Bees and Geology

Tristan has returned from his father's and has disappeared with the laptop so no piccies I'm afraid. All I have on my camera anyway is a photo of my lovely Wiggly Wigglers Valentine's Day posy which has all British-grown flowers, and comes with a Quattro Stagioni jar for future use and a bar of Divine chocolate :-)

I went up to London yesterday to the Geological Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly, to listen to one of the Shell London Lectures, on the geological record of previous global warming events, particularly the one 55 million years ago. It was really interesting and the main message was that it's all very well having scientists saying in their peer-reviewed journals about climate change but it needs to become part of the world population's consciousness, and that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the only way to deal with carbon dioxide emissions until low-carbon alternatives become mainstream. I was disappointed to learn that top geology totty, Professor Iain Stewart, was at the earlier presentation, but never mind :-(

I missed the earlier lecture as I was meeting beekeeping friend John to discuss apicentric tactics for the coming year. It was great: we sat in the Waterstone's cafe talking and talking for 4 hours so the pecan tart and 2 pots of tea were very welcome.

Today was another day sans enfants, so Charles and I took the opportunity to go for a pub lunch at a child-unfriendly venue - I think it's called The Star but we know it as The Dreary Placemats due to the extraordinarily naff pen and ink drawings of a nondescript cottage on said placemats. I also had to get my boot catch fixed as it's been stuck since the snow, and it turns out the lock wasn't frozen. I popped in to the garage expecting to have to book it in and pay money I don't have to get it sorted out, but it was only a fuse, so for the princely sum of 42p I can now get a bale of hay in the car for the bunnies, who are recovering well from their neutering op.

The rest of the day was spent watching iPlayer and discussing which pollinator plants would be best and working out what we think about biodynamic gardening. Lovely :-)

Looking Forward to Spring

The snow is hopefully on its way out, as we have high pressure bringing us some Atlantic weather rather than dragging in cold continental air, so the forecast is for temperatures up above freezing. It means rain too, but hey, can't have everything! I got to work in the garden over the weekend as the chaotic mix of privet, winter jasmine and bramble was looking dreadful outside my front door, so it had to go:

I didn't take a 'before' photo as it was a it of a spur of the moment decision but take it from me, it was a mess. So, I now have some space to plant some new plants, and given the proximity of the beehive, I'll focus on pollinator plants, although really I feel if you're going to plant plants at all, they may as well be pollinator ones. I bought some Cobaea scandens seeds from Sarah Raven which can romp away to 6 metres, so I will sow some of those in trays this afternoon and see if they germinate. I've not been particularly impressed with Ms Raven's seeds so I'll see how they do. She produces a very attractive catalogue though!

When Nicky and I made lavender bags a few weeks ago, we used the dried seedheads from my Mum's plant, and there were lots of tiny seeds at the bottom of the storage jar. I popped these in to some compost and I was pleasantly surprised to see some tiny green shoots this morning:

I have been reading my book about biodynamic gardening, and it's certainly intriguing. I've a chart that gives times for sowing and tending different groups of plants (flower, root, leaf and fruit) and I am going to try and stick to it. I quite like having restrictions actually so if nothing else it will prevent me feeling overwhelmed by the needs of the garden! A lot of people garden according to the lunar cycles as it affects groundwater in the same way as the tides, but biodynamic is another step on from that. It's easy to scoff but I think there is so much about the planet and its workings that we don't understand, I'm happy to give things a go, especially as so many aspects of our relationship with the soil and plants and the natural environment as a whole is out of alignment. So, this afternoon is a time to focus on flowers. Maybe some cosmic influences will enhance the germination rate of the highly-marketed seeds I was seduced in to buying! I'll let you know...

My granny squares have been transformed in to a cover for my wicker basket:

I am really really pleased with it :-) I would have loved a big blanket but realistically, the rush of enthusiasm had slowed to a trickle, and at least with this I will use it all the time (plus I have lots of lovely blankets already). I have a few squares left over, so I am thinking of making a wool-insulated bottle jacket, but that's still gliding around in my head at the moment, waiting to become a proper idea that I can work with. I did a picot edging and the picture doesn't show it, but I have buttons at the handles, so it can be taken off, to possibly make an impromtu picnic cloth? I find wicker baskets so handy as I often carry boxes of eggs and food and drinks, as well as knitting, so they would get squashed up in a bag. It's a shame Glyndebourne is too highbrow a venue for the likes of me; reckon it would go down a treat.

It's half term so I made bagels and muffins. I was given a friendship cake starter, but having given a portion out to two of my friends, I couldn't think of who else would want it so I'm keeping it for myself! I know that is really not the point of it at all but I figure people would rather I took them a batch of cakes. The recipe suggests an addition of apple and cinnamon to the batter, but this morning I put in some grated carrots and a cup of walnuts instead to ring the changes. They are delicious.

The girls are playing with their fairy theatre and singing along to their favourite songs, as well as practising for Oliver! as part of their Stagecoach performance. T is in bed reading his Bernard Cornwell for a third time, and luckily I was so late getting breakfast I'm hoping it will sort of count as lunch too so I can be relieved of that duty!

Egg-citement

I discovered an egg in Joanna and Llywelyn's run today, so the day length is now officially long enough to stimulate call duck egg production :-) It's my first duck egg so I was really pleased. She laid it right on the mud rather than in the house but it scrubbed up alright once I'd armed myself with a damp paper towel:

Peggy egg for scale

Before you ask, no, I won't be hatching any, unless by some miracle either Jean or Joanna decides to go broody which they are not known for! They can be incubated under a hen (or indeed in an incubator) but I'd rather keep it natural. A shame though, as ducklings are the most impossibly cute little things in the world. I will try to sell some as hatching eggs though as call ducks are quite popular due to their diminutive size.

I've rearranged all the poultry pens to give them a change of scenery, and this prompted me to then tidy up my sewing box as I'd found a load of compartmentalised trays in the garden (?) so again, having washed the mud and hen footprints off them, Rosie helped me sort out my button and thread stash:

As you can see, the heated airer provides a very useful surface on which to rest things - this is why I can't have an ironing board, as it just gets colonised by random stuff. I also got started on a project using this Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn:

I love the green, and it's working really well. Another thing that is working is the welly rack (sorry, the pic's a bit overexposed but the sunshine must've shocked my camera):

This evening I am going to sort out my seeds in to chronological sowing order and also stick my new biodynamic charts at the front of each month's divider. Biodynamic gardening is new to me (although I have heard of it in the agricultural context) but I'm going to a biodynamic beekeeping event this weekend and I find the whole concept quite intriguing.