Everything good comes in pairs

You may remember some time ago me showing you the mantle cats (in case you have forgotten here is a reminder). They sit proudly on one end of the mantle piece grinning out at us.











We now have a pair to go at the other end. Yesterday we called at Eversley Antiques Centre on the way to visit my parents, there were many things that we were tempted by but there was one thing that we couldn't resist - a pair of mantle ducks. They do have some ago to them but have no makers mark. The way they are holding their wings is exactly what the runners do when they are getting the air to cool themselves down and drying themselves after a lovely bath.

I have put them facing each other as they looked haughty the other way round.







We also have the pair of Victorian camels that sit proudly on top of the davenport.

1any Victorian drawing room would be proud to own our collection. Shame we are in the 21st Century.

Sentry box

You may remember from a couple of years ago, that we put up a shed in the garden and at the time we christened it the outside loo.

Due to the ducks moving in it has had a slight modification and is now a sentry box. The height has been reduced by approx 16 inches so that it will fit in the duck compound when they have a roof.

It will be their personal shed for their food, bedding, grit etc. Aren't they posh ducks!

Update from the allotment

I was worried about the seeds that I had sown in the greenhouse as the sun had been so hot I was sure that any seed that had germinated would be cooked and shrunk back in.

I was delighted to see the red cabbage has germinated and it looks as though more to come. The green cabbage (can't remember the variety) have dome amazingly so I will have to keep an eye on them and pot on fairly soon.







The leeks are just starting to peep through as well and looking very healthy.













I am a bit worried about the peppers and chillis. Last month Grow Your Own gave away a selection of four different types. It looks like three have germinated but no sign of the others. The problem is that I was short on labels and tucked the packet under the tray. Just my luck it fell out during the week so I have no idea which are which. Hopefully I will be able to tell as they get bigger.










The ducks absence from the allotment is really noticable and it is not only seeds that have been germinating. We were sitting by their pond on 53 and noticed that the surface of the water was alive. The pond is fully of tadpoles. Previous years the ducks would have eaten the spawn before the hatched but not any more. I am a bit worried as if 1% live we will still have a plague of frogs.

Hopefully they will be slug eating frogs.

Late harvest

Parsnips and leeks are winter crops which means that you harvest them after the first frost and before spring when they start growing again.

That is the theory anyway. It didn't quite go according to plan this year so we still had quite a crop in the ground.

While Hick was doing some wonderful digging to give me some seed beds, I dug up all that was still in the ground so we brought home a cat litter tray full of leeks and one full of parsnips.

The leeks are rather tiny as they were planted so late they didn't have much time to develop but should make a couple of leek quiche and some leek and potatoe soup.





The same does not apply to the parsnips.

I had trouble digging them out - partly due to the fact that i was using a fork with a prong missing and partly due to their size.

This one snapped off at the end but was still too long for the cat litter tray. I didn't have the traditional banana or 20p to use to show scale so I used a teabag.

Potatoe planting day

Finally the windowsill in the 'spare' bedroom has been cleared when we took the potatoes to the allotment. We chose mainly first earlies this year (Oriana, Vales Emerald, Ulster Prince, Chere) one lot of second earlies and my favourite - Anya, and two maincrop (Shannon and Mayan Gold).

You can tell that I wasn't very with it in February as I hadn't a clue what Nick chose and Anya is the only one I have ever heard of.










You may remember last year me telling you that we had used the old bed frame to make the sides of the trailer. Well ...... the off cuts were still in the shed so I found these and used them as markers for the rows of potatoes.

Now that is what you call reusing!

Rebuilding commences

Nick and Matt did a wonderful job on rebuilding the brassica cage and with a bit of sewing the netting should be back in place soon.

It did a wonderful job last year of keeping flying vermin off our crops but there is a noticable reduction where the netting was missing. It is going to be used for peas and salad crops this year and the ex-duck compound will be used for brassicas.







Thankfully the netting fell onto the broccoli. We had a lovely meal of purple and yellow sprouting on Sunday evening and there should be plenty more to come.











This is just one plant and as five survived we should be able to continue picking for some time to come. I can see a brocolli quiche coming along soon..

Getting into better shape

Another visit to the allotment on Sunday. It was wonderful to see the fruit trees budding up. The only one in blossom was the Apricot. It has lovely small flowers and I am hoping for a reasonable crop this year. Memories of the taste of our one apricot last year is making my mouth water already.

Purple Podded Peas

Last week I was a lucky winner after making a comment on purple podded peas. The winners were chosen by one of Celia's under gardeners (chickens) who perform many tasks in the garden as well as the selection of winners. This one was chosen by Tarragon the chicken. Click here to see the selection process.

It was so exciting when the package arrived. It contained some beautiful cards with pictures of heritage vegetables, some chicken hanging decorations with bells (one went to Katy and the other to Rebecca), a loomed flower on a gift card and some seeds.

The seeds include some purple podded peas which will be going into a pot on the windowsill at home and planted in the garden. I had purple podded peas from the Heritage seed library a few years ago and they look wonderful. I am hoping that by planting a wigwam in the garden I will avoid the dreaded pea moth.

Thank you Purple Podded Peas.

Great find at the tip

Last weekend we went to the tip to get rid of all the rose prunings as they can't be composted.

I never miss the chance to look in their shed to see what they have salvaged for sale, and came away £2 worse off financially but much richer in garden planters.

I have a sack of polystyrene at the allotment that I will use to half fill, then a bag of compost and one the weather improves will plant with trailing toms and basil.

I am not sure where to site it. I put it here so that it will get the best of the sun but I think it may be better on the decking where it will be (slightly) less likely to be attacked by ducks.

Posh ducks

The ducks have finally got a gate.

After months of having a bit of green netting stapled at the top and held down with bricks at the bottom, Emily and Fennel managed to work out how to get their beaks under the netting and escape. The others soom learned to follow.

This meant that we couldn't risk leaving them, and as the sun was shining and we had all the wood, Nick set to work making a gate. An hour later here we have it.

It looks so lovely and I am glad that the garden looks slightly less like a building site.

Easter eggs

While the boys were away doing manly work, Rebecca, Katy and I had a lovely craft session. Katy and I left the room while Rebecca blew the eggs and then we set to painting.

The only paint I could find was a vintage 'Robin Hood paint set' which we had got in a job lot at auction. There are about 50 colours and all in wonderful condition.

I have only shown mine here as two went to Kent and two are much better than mine so will show me up

I have tied them to the kitchen scales so we will feel Eastery.

Revenge

As revenge for the damage their huge feet are doing to my flower beds, we treated ourselves to some bag hangers for the hall way. There always seem to be a lot of bags in the hallway or hanging on the back of the rocking chair, so we will now have some order in the chaos. It is an ideal place for bags waiting to go shopping, binoculars, camera etc so we will always know where they are.