Kitchen Garden Forum

No commencement of digging here yet....still snow/ice lying in places...clear ground very wet.
We have been pruning the Rev Pemberton Musk Rose collection over the last couple of days..working standing on boards. Most of these Roses were planted in 1962....they are in quite good order but some are showing there age a bit...I should know.

This morning as the drizzle came down we gave up the pruning after 3/4hr and went doing some leaf cleaning..as a job that would still go. With a brief pause for a dentist trip midday.

2 of our loyal volunteers were busy greenhouse paintwork cleaning in the tomato house..and readying a wall for some whitewash and subsequently applying 2 coats of same...

It was a white frost here this morning followed by rain...made for some awful road conditions.

Clive.

Evening Clive, i was in King's Lynn this morning then on to Wisbech this afternoon. It was bitterly cold walking beside the great ouse, and that's coming from someone who likes the cold.

With reference the pickled Shallots higher up this thread... They have just been sampled..and very nice they are too.

Clive.

I'm glad you enjoyed them, Clive.

Went to the Church Carol service this afternoon, it was that cold i had to huddle up to two very nice ladies to keep them warm.

Just being helpful, that's all.

Lovely service, though.

Dear OH, be very careful or you may not be getting any Christmas dinner

Dear Elle, i wasn't being too daring, one of the ladies happened to be cook.

Ah, well you should be well cared for right into the New Year then, because you did say "very nice" !!

OH is cooking his turkey at his allotment this year, here is his trial run at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -bird.html

I don't know where you lot find these little gems from!

OH, you know that weathervane three plots down that never quite seems to point in the right direction for the prevailing wind?
It's amazing how small cctv cameras with a built-in mobile phone data card are these days.

My commute today started with minus 12C on the drive at 06:25, coldest -13 in Stanstead Abbotts and peaked at -7 inside the A406 North Circular Road at 08:00.

I've just walked back to the office an it's so cold out there that my face hurts. I had earmuffs on and a scarf up to my eyeballs, plus a duvet coat with a hood and I felt underdressed. It was circa -7C when I came to work this morning and I'd swear it's got colder as the day has progressed!

weve had a bit more this morning...and a bit of a cold wind .... but mid day the ice has melted on the car windows.... lane is compacted snow over ice.... dont need to go anywhere so i aint.

Did the earth move for anyone up North last night, especially in Cumbria.

Been and dug a couple of Parsnips up this afternoon.
I expected the ground to be really frozen but, under the six inches of snow, the soil was only frozen down a couple of inches.

Just goes to show what a good insulater snow can be!

I thought we might have felt a bit of a rumble, OH, but we didn't. We have had small quakes in the past, though, and what an eerie feeling it is!

Been gorgeous today again, -2 degrees maximum (-8 minimum last night) but brilliantly sunny with just a very slight dusting of snow at noon which came down whilst the sun shone. It looked quite magical.