It's all happening!

The first radish seedlings have broken through the ground outside and all of the brassicas have germinated in the greenhouse. I spent the weekend debrambling and unearthing roots to enlarge the vegetable beds. Lots more to do. M. lopped off the tops of some shrubbery to allow more light through along the south border. And I sowed tomatoes seeds (10 varieties) in a tray on the dining room radiator.
4 Eggs today.

Spring is Sprung

This weekend just passed I sowed Cabbage seed Mammoth Red Rock & Savoy Piacenza, Brussels Sprout Sanda, Broccoli Waltham and Leek Monstrueux de Charentin in trays in the greenhouse and Parsnip Tender & True, Radish Sicilian Red and Blue Pod Capucijners Peas out of doors. AND potted on Peppers and Aubergines.


Leonora Carrington's painting of a cabbage (the alchemical rose?) which we saw last autumn in an exhibition entitled 'Surreal Friends' at Pallant House.

Be Careful With a Spud

Soviet Accident Prevention Posters @ How to be a Retronaut

Looking Up

This month is starting to look a bit more promising in the sunshine department. This is the third day in a row that we've woken to a blue sky. S. gave me a little lemon tree (pictured on the left) which she grew from a pip and it's been spending afternoons in the greenhouse where temperatures have been up to 20°. And the wild plum by the garage is in full bloom. The Met has now published figures for last month which show South East England to have had one of the dullest Februarys since records began.
Indoors, peppers and aubergines are forming their first true leaves.

Buds and Shoots

The soundtrack to accompany this picture can be heard here . Scroll down and click on 'Buds & Shoots', listen and enjoy.

Grey Matter

Here is what this week's weather looked like on Saturday. I have taken to screen grabbing these BBC forecasts and filing them away for some, as yet undetermined, purpose. But I've had the feeling that for many months now we've been shortchanged in hours of sunlight. It turns out I'm not wrong. The Met anomaly maps show (Click to enlarge and then go here when you still can't make it out) that our little corner of the country (circled) has been deprived over the past six months. Quick calculation - 50% of November's average 60 hours = 30, 30% of December's 37 hour average = 12+, and 50% of January's average of 45 hours = 23. That means we've had 65 hours sun in the past 3 months. That would be about 8 sunny days I guess - 1 day in every week and a half.
On a brighter note, I sowed many peppers and aubergine seeds on Monday.

Burn's Night Etiquette

'Burnish no bones with thy teeth for this is unseemly, neither belch thou near to a man's face with corrupt fumosity. Scratch not thy head with thy finger whilst thou art at meat, and blow not thy nose on thy napkin, where you should wipe thy hands, but cleanse it in the handkerchief. Fill not thy mouth too full, least thou perhaps of force must speak, neither blow out thy crumbs when thou dust eat. Blow not thy pottage nor drink, for it is not commendable; for if thou be not sweet in thy body, thy breath is corruptible. If you must spit, keep it out of sight; let it not lie upon the ground but tread thou it outright.'
Words of advice (predating Burns by a few centuries) in a little pamphlet of Scottish recipes 'Friends Cook Book' I got many years ago near Glencoe. There is also a helpful guide to measures. 1 1/2 Pints - 1 Lippie; 4 Lippies - 1 Peck; 4 Pecks - 1 Firlot; 4 Firlots - 1 Boll.


Happy Burn's Night and if you have to spit be sure to smear it into the carpet while your host is looking the other way.

Accomodation Available

High rise living with views out over the city for south London's stag beetles at Nunhead cemetery - part nature reserve part burial ground. They don't offer 24 hour security which is a pity as a magpie or crow can pick off emerging bugs in their dozens. Maria.Fremlin has posted some particularly macabre footage of the aftermath of such an attack which could be animated out-takes from a Svankmajer film. She also very helpfully provides a guide to the larvae of several beetles which is worth consulting before stomping in disgust any and every grub one unearths. Size would seem to be the big giveaway for indentifying a stag beetle larva - 8 centimetres!

Do Not Make Cucumber

Found on the world wide interweb @ eatliver.com

Signage in Yorkshire No.2

'Life is an old cabbage wrapt up in newspaper'. Photo taken by Nev in the late 70's.
One week until the South London annual Potato Fair!

One Egg

Hurrah! Doris has ended our 10 weeks of egglessness.

Least of All

"This is the least of all birds found with us in England, weighing not more than one single drachm... The top of the head is adorned with a most beautiful bright spot (which they call a crest) of a deep saffron or pale scarlet colour. Hence it got those ambitious titles of Regulus (little king) and Tyrannus (tyrant). This crest or crown (if you please so to call it) it can when it lifts, by corrugating its forehead, and drawing the sides of the spot together, wholly conceal and render invisible."
The Ornithology of Francis Willughby John Ray 1678


I saw the goldcrest again yesterday foraging in and around the currant bushes. So, one has survived the cold snowy December weather.

A Quiet Sun!Day Afternoon

... at nearby Nunhead. Hirsute and snag-toothed, this wooded necropolis is a good place for a wander. Last year I saw one of Britain's rarest mammals here - the black rat.

Me New Bamboo

I took home a bundle of MH's* thinnings when we visited last week - raw material for pole bean supports which will be arranged artfully (?) in the spring.
*A founding father of the Bamboo Society, you can see some of his bamboo illustration here.

'Natural History of Selbourne' the Musical Play

Scenes from my little paper theatre play 'Entries from Reverend Gilbert White's Diary in December' performed last night for Nev, Iz & M. And they, each in turn put on their very own, very idiosyncratic plays. Much fun was had.
Pictured here are such entries as - December 3 1788 Good mackarel brought to the door. And December 17 1774 Mrs. Snooke's tortoise, after it had been buried more than a month, came forth & wandered round the garden in a disconsolate state, not knowing where to fix on a spot for it's retreat.

Update

Six Days off Work...

Five Hens NOT-Laying...

Four Pigeons Poaching (the chard and kale)...

Three Magpies Watching...

Two Swans A'Fighting...

I witnessed a tremendous mud wrestling match at low tide last week with two swans trying their darnedest to kill each other. They spent a long while between sodden flapflapping locked beak to pinion as illustrated above. Finally after having been nearly drowned head first in the Thames ooze, the weaker one escaped upriver.


... and a heron hunched amongst the reeds.

Cold Front

Fierce frost. It's not yet December and they've just salted the road for the third time. The ice was an inch and a half thick on the water butt this afternoon and tonight we fired up the wood stove.

Caper Substitute

The climbing (clambering, sprawling) nasturtiums I sowed in June were a long time getting any ambition to go anywhere. But from sometime in late August until now they have been blooming continuously. I've been adding them to salads and now there is a small jar's worth of seeds to pickle for which I have found the following recipe -

Gather the nasturtium seeds immediately after the blossoms have faded and put them to soak in cold salt water for 2 days, stirring them twice each day. Peel and slice 1 shallot, 1 horse-radish, 2 red peppers, and quarter 1 nutmeg. Place these in a glass jar with white wine or simply vinegar, adding salt, pepper, and a few cloves. Put in the drained nasturtium seeds, then cork and seal.

They Can't Ration These by Vicomte de Mauduit, 1940
("All those possessing a roof in the country together with the necessary sticks of furniture and apparels of clothing will be able, if armed with a copy of this book, to live in comfort, in plenty, and in health even if all banks, all shops, and all markets be closed for indefinite periods.")