ghoti_mhic_uait

I noticed earlier that chamomile needs to be sown by the end of May, and that it is May. So the children and I have just done that, covered the bare section of garden in lawn chamomile. That also ended the dithering of lateral thyme or chamomile - sure, thyme might be slightly better, but either is better than nothing, and in any case I was probably going to decide chamomile anyway.

We also planted some purslane seeds, will have to see how that goes.

My pepper plants are tiny, but living, and everything else is thriving. I've a tiny fig and a diminutive almond, three growing currants and a blueberry, a happy looking fuchsia (before its sibling was stolen, this was a miserable fuchsia), a rosemary, a handful of raspberries and strawberries, one potato and a lot of Jerusalem artichokes. Two clumps of rather downtrodden clives. Also, on the other side of the path, a Mirabelle with rather fewer aphids than before I put a lot of mail-order ladybirds.


In other news, I have new glasses which always makes life easier.

Watching: some kind of Lego superhero thing, because we're excited about the Lego Batman movie which we'll watch later.
Reading: Death's end by Cixin Liu which suffers somewhat from being the first thing I've read since Ninefox Gambit but is otherwise rather lovely
Eating: a lot of veg and hummous, in a tomato sauce with soft cheese stirred in at the end, served on spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, and a fruit salad made by chopping all the most attractive fruit in the shop, adding chocolate covered raisins and chopped dried apricots and leaving to soak with vanilla sugar and apple juice, and then serving with creme fraiche mixed with more vanilla sugar.
Playing: lots of lovely bridge!
Making: working on a sleeveless dress in bronze and black stretch velvet.

Aldi has chili and pepper plants in their specials this week, and add I've had good experiences growing chili, I thought I'd give both a chance. They said transfer asap, so Judith and I did that this afternoon and I thought maybe it was time for one of these posts again. So.

6 chilis, 6 bell peppers.
2 clumps of chives
1 rosemary. My rosemary was stolen last year at mother's day but not this year!
2 strawberry plants, I think I might plant some more later.
5 raspberry canes
2 redcurrants
1 blueberry
1 blackcurrant
1 jostaberry
1 miniature fig
1 tiny almond, with blossom!
1 Mirabelle tree, blossom in by bud.

I was thinking of planting lateral thyme or chamomile to fill the gap between the big things, too.

Six raspberries of three different type. A number of strawberries (elsanta). One blackcurrant, two redcurrant, a jostaberry and two blueberry bushes. Angelica, lemon thyme and a few mystery plants that are probably from the edible flowers I planted last year. One of last year's onions has reappeared. Shoots of Jerusalem artichoke and radishes. Lots of weeds.

The rhubarb appears to be dead. The ginger died, and the other herbs (except the rosemary, which was stolen). The mirabelle is in uncertain health, I'm neither giving up nor hoping. I might try again with rhubarb, and may even eventually turn the front garden into permanent stuff only rather than the crop rotation I'm sort of trying.


The most exciting of those is the angelica. I've had candied, and am keen to do that myself, but the BBC say I can also use the uncandied peel as a sweetener, and recommend it for rhubarb or apple in particular, and the leaves apparently work as a herb with fish or salad.

Yesterday it was buds only, but this morning, all the buds had opened. Spring has really sprung (which explains why it's so hot).

Similarly check out the spring watch in my favourite bird-watching blog, docbrite. (Actually, I love his religious posts too, and of course he's an author)