Mid Winter Bits and Bobs.

[Geoff]

Hottest day of the year, 3.2°C already, might still rise.

[Clive.]

2.2°C out here in the East..

C.

[Chantal]

We're just above freezing in Warwickshire. The padlock on our plot gate was frozen at 10am, but by 11am the trees were starting to drip. Looking forward to a balmy 6C this week!

[peter]

I'm pacing up and down waiting for first light, so I can get at it...digging, that is...

Get a beanie hst with inbuilt led torch.

[oldherbaceous]

Now that's an idea, Shallot Man, but I will insist on a pretty young Maiden to operate them...

Just finished another nice big section, so i'm very pleased with that! It was a little slow going doing the last half hour, as the frost had melted and the soil was picking up on my boots....

[Monika]

4.1C here now, but all the pots and the ground are still frozen hard. They'll take a few days to thaw out, I guess.

[Clive.]

I did get a bit more done this afternoon. Pathside weeding and sorting around the oddments that reside under one side of the cordon fruit trees, then weeded out the bigger of the two cold frames.. Amazing to think that my father built this frame in the early 1960s...it's a little tired but still quite serviceable.

C.

[oldherbaceous]

You are certainly making good progress, Clive, must be very satisfying...sounds like your Father made a really good job of the frames, when he built them.

[oldherbaceous]

It feels really nice to pop on the forum and there are quite a few new posts...feels a bit more like the old days again...not that I live it the past, mind...

[Chantal]

In the old days it was hard to keep up at times. I remember going on holiday for a week and it took me forever to go through everything when I got back. We did have some laughs...

[peter]

Cleared five years worth of greenhouse composting from the little concrete coal bunker I set up years ago as a compost bin. Barrowed four full barrows up to the bit of allotment I rotovated after harvesting my onions.
Repurposed the bunker into a different sort of compost bin, it now holds all of my potting & seed compost bags, more floor space in the greenhouse.

Dug up a squirrel planted hazel and replanted it behind our back fence in the park, shield the greenhouse from north-north-west.

Dismantled a plywood pallet our son scrounged before chistmas, nice bit of thick plywood and some plywood blocks and strips for the log burner next year.

Tidied up a bit around th greenhouse, plenty more of that to do an looks like I need o replace the back fence panels this year. Wish we could still get and use proper creosote....... modern wood preservatives just don't cut the mustard.

[Clive.]

You are certainly making good progress, Clive, must be very satisfying...sounds like your Father made a really good job of the frames, when he built them.

It's all a bit of distraction at the moment...but yes, good to get a bit more done and in cold but, importantly, dry weather.

Green Cuprinol was the substance of the time that has kept the frame going. There was a time when it was treated annually externally with a dose on the inside every few years...sadly that regime is long gone but it has stood it in good stead.

C.

[Chantal]

Good grief Peter, I needed a sit down just reading about what you've done today!

[oldherbaceous]

I remember doing all the Dahlia stakes in green Cuprinol, when I worked at the Manor house, when I was a boy...it used to make them look like new.

I bet that felt nice getting out doing stuff again, Petrer...and quite a lot of jobs too...

[oldherbaceous]

And this is my 12,500th post...