May bank holiday, walking over the hill, blustery breezes and bright sky. A linnet clung to the upper most branches of a wych elm and sang for all he was worth (then flew away when I tried to take a photo). I was intending to call it a day with my blog. Recently I have been a bit distracted and haven't managed to do regular blogs. But my dearly beloved says I should keep going.

Died and gone to heaven...

One of those delicious spring mornings, the moment you open the door the smell of new plants and sun on warm earth greets you. Making the most of the promising day we walked our new patch, up the hill behind the our new house and on a lovely lane along the ridge of the hill. We heard larks so high in the sky we couldn't see them, saw newly arrived chiff-chaffs and yellow hammers, and spotted my first sweet violet of the year. The haze came and went, the sun already high enough to feel warm.

Now I have a dilemma, we are nearly through packing up the last of our life at Walcot, so what do I call the new blog? Something to work on...

Feeling better now!

Large green guinea pig with house attached














We've just bought a little house, finally after trying for years. The idea was to do it when we moved to Shropshire, well it has taken a little longer than expected - 8 years! We are so pleased that we can stay in this area which we have come to know and love. We have made some very good friends since moving here who we would hate to part from, not to mention our favourite butcher.
But as the old saying goes "death, divorce and moving house" the 3 big ones for stress, fortunately we're just dealing with the last one.
Mum is here to lunch tomorrow, poor lamb, we'll bore her silly with house photos. As a small compensation I've made Conran's dark chocolate mousse for pud.

Just Teeze Me - Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington

The past couple of years I've been trying to work on stress management with greater or lesser degree of success. Then recently listening to The Great Summit Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington I thought this particular track was a good antidote those brain fevers and tummy churnings.

Dark days of November

Looking over last year's weather records I realised by the end of Nov. 2010 we had already had snow lying for a month and temperatures at night hovering around minus 11 (centigrade). All pretty unusual for our temperate, small island. This year how different it is, mild and it has to be said, very grey. Here however is a much treasured sight. I call it John's rose. A number of years ago I took a cutting from my (would be) father-in-law's climber, and it has produced a sturdy, healthy specimen here in our garden, which even in dark November is producing exquisite, intensely scented flowers. Yesterday I cut a few for the table when John came to have lunch with us. There was a poignant moment as we looked at it and remembered former times.

Pickle jar label

At the top of the meadow against the brick garden wall, stands an old pear tree. The chickens like to bask in the sun around its base. The tree now only produces small fruit, but they are sweet and perfect when lightly pickled. We like these with a little cheese or sometimes smoked ham.
Prepared at the beginning of November 2011 they should be eaten between December &Easter 2012.

Golden fruits - saved for the dark winter days

On an intensely sunny autumn day last weekend, I gathered some small Rocha pears to pickle. Now in dank November the sunshine seems captured in the jar of fruit.

Not a thing of beauty, but still...

These are not small rats but a small gardening discovery. This year I grew cylindrical beetroots, these are the very last - sort of the runt of the litter. The joy of them was that despite the record dry conditions for this part of England, they produced a very fine specimen, always sweet, not too earthy tasting and even at the very end of the season they never got to that woody, starchy stage that can happen with the beet.

Autumn bliss

Autumn raspberries never fail to amaze me. Every couple of days from the start of September sometimes till November we pick large bowls of them. When everything else is slowing down and stopping production they just keep cropping. Intensely flavoured and sweet, a real treat.

Summer back again

Amazing weather, out walking on the Mynd in summer togs, for the first time in 7 years.
Just spent week on new leaflet for our next John Lewis range. If the weather hadn't been so good I don't think we would have been able to do any of this photography. Also due to be launched in South Korea too, very exciting. Click on image for larger size.

Bitter sweet

Dark before 8 o'clock, wood smoke on the chill air, and the bitter sweet song of the robin, who resolutely sings through the dark, cold months.
Still there are the lighter moments, visiting the growing duck family in the meadow behind the house. Father duck is an Indian Runner, mother a squat white one and babies looking very sweet, if a bit dim.

Hurrah for the hoverfly!

My small but heartfelt tribute to one of the undeservedly underestimated insects. The adults sip delicately at nectar from our garden flowers and their larvae eat aphids and other sap sucking nasties. They come in many and various forms, but all (I think) do their very clever hovering mid air for a period of time, then whizz off at great speed to return to just about the same spot with no apparent visual markers to guide them, really quite amazing to watch.
Click on image for a closer look.

Autumn is here. The swallows and house martins are gathering in great numbers to leave us, dahlias are looking lovely in the garden and the plums (Marjorie Seedling of course) are ripening very nicely.
But I am so sad that summer is over, and much as I convince myself that the trees turn beautiful colours and the mushrooms are delicious I'd like more sun and heat.
This summer though was good and we managed to eat our way through our broad bean and pea crop plus most of the salads and an astounding quantity of Cambridge Favourite strawberries before our holiday, which was very satisfying. Now the runners are going great guns and the autumn raspberries are looking hopeful.

Field Grafting June update

This is the latest development in the apple grafting. Last night I untied the plastic binding joining the root stock and the scion and miraculously the new graft grows on the old stock.






And here is the position looking out towards the Long Mynd.

Latest prize

This is the sort of thing that makes gardening worthwhile, despite the disappointments, seeds that don't germinate, numerous pests reaching beloved plants first, poor summers etc etc. when the broad bean season arrives it is all wonderful.
This meal is only really possible if you grow them yourself, a great dish full of small and the tenderest beans, still raw, along with chopped up home-grown green peppers (with a pep to them), purple spring onions, cherry tomatoes, fresh thyme and chervil added with the dressing. Later I added the Feta cheese, a perfect balance with the beans (not in photo as I knew we couldn't wait to eat it all up.)

A thing of beauty!

More in the series of strange purple foods. This year, willing it to be a scorcher, I decided to grow aubergines, (poor deluded fool I am) but also, more sensibly for our climate here, I sowed some kohlrabi seeds too. Now I've nestled them into the asparagus bed, which I realise is a no no, but space is short.
Here is a picture of them to inspire great wonder.

Eat, eat, eat

We are what we eat - so make sure it's good.

This is rare cooked roast Belted Galloway rolled sirloin. The most crucial bit of kit is our meat thermometer as cooking time varies enormously from joint to joint. This time we cooked this piece (about 1.2kg) for 35 mins.
Today we had it with peppy rocket leaves from the garden in a horseradishy mayonnaise. I rarely get round to digging our horseradish up so am a great believer in the English Provender (80%) Hot Horseradish, not those scary jars with 20% HD in (and the rest made up with titanium dioxide to make it white. Titanium is fine in emulsion paint, but I don't really recommend eating the stuff.

Heaven on a plate

4th June, warm sunny day spent planting things out in the garden and rearranging spring flowers now gone over and replacing them with dahlia seedlings and Rudbeckias.

Then picked a wonderful mix of asparagus and our first sugar snap peas and the last of the leek spears. This is a secret which, for some reason, passes many people by. Don't compost your leeks when the flower spikes are forming, but eat them, they are tender and sweet and have a delicate flavour. I steam them with the asparagus for about 6 mins (testing for done-ness) 2 mins before they are ready add the sugar snap peas. Have a little butter melting on warmed plates, pitch the vegetables in a yummy heap into the butter (carefully counting out each to avoid a row). Savour just like that.

Spring at a gallop

The swifts are here. The last of that group to arrive. Swallows are already having great fun using the front yard as a flight training path and our car in particular for target practice.
Bluebells in full swing and leaves of the huge ancient oaks and sweet chestnuts are unfurling beautifully. I love to see the light shine through them, starkly cut out against their dark trunks.

Twig inspiration

Having spend a happily creative afternoon making "the Patent Pheasant Keeper-Outer" I decided I wanted a similar structure on a larger scale as an arch to frame the garden path and to grow my sweet peas up. Having acquired a wonderful collection of contorted twigage from the Actinidia prunings I set about fashioning them into an elegant arch. And imagine my delight when since I built it I have watched the garden birds flit in and out and perch on its upper most curlicues.

They've arrived...

As we sat after dinner tonight we spotted what we thought must be the first swallows arriving. Then a few more flew over the house, and we could clearly see their very characteristic forked tails, and the final confirmation was when we heard their squabbly call. I don't remember them ever reaching these parts in March before (OK it is the 31st). Today we had an especially strong southerly wind, did that help carry them along quickly?

Seedlings coming on a pace

As varied as the seeds that they emerge from, seedlings come in a wonderful array of forms, and never fail to delight. After a week of mild day time temperatures and quite a lot of sun, I watch their daily progress with eager anticipation. Broad beans are now planted out and the first sugarsnap peas too. Salads which are hardy I can transplant shortly, then we can look forward to having this year's lettuces in May.

What a gaff!

My dear friend Hilary, very discreetly pointed out (but far more subtly than that really) that I had made a bloomer. Toads and newts, of course aren't reptiles at all, but Amphibians - I hold my head in shame, at my erroneous scientific classification.

Our new gift wrap in action

Soon all manner of new things will be on our website, but now its slow and steady to develop it ... patience is a virtue, or so i am told.

Has Spring sprung?

Well I certainly think it has, even here in deepst darkest Shropshire it would seem so. The blackbirds have started to sing, and they are generally very tardy, saw some primroses flowering today (- they have such a beautiful pale lemony colour), and the reptile population is definitely making up for time lost hibernating. Last night I when I went out to tuck up my seedlings for the night I had to step very carefully to avoid all the little newts. Most people thing the common newt is no longer common, well here it still is.
I must say I have a particular fondness for small reptiles, newts especially, which is just as well as anything that has been stored through winter, for instance my favourite dahlia bulbs or garden pots now has a resident newt underneath, and now they are getting quite frisky. Then this morning there were 3 toads sitting on my back door step...and now they are seranading - how romantic.

Promise

This is a wonderful time of year when I plan my garden for the coming season. At the weekend I re-arranged my borders, shifting my Pacific Giant delphiniums to the back so the don't loom. It was such a nice feeling being out there again after winter seeing the first shoots appearing from the cold earth, and sensing the promise of the coming year ahead. Then back into the conservatory to sow some seeds. I am fascinated by the different forms that seeds come in. This is a small collection of some of my favourites. Click on the image and see them in greater detail.

Finally...

Those magic words - so long coming, "high over the Azores". It has been a long winter and although by now the days are perceptibly longer, the little dark month (February in Welsh) is a tough one. One tends to be run down by months of cold and dark and the promise of spring can't come soon enough. So when, this morning I read this on a weather report i felt positively euphoric.

A New Skill

I managed to persuade the head gardener here at Walcot to show me how to graft fruit trees. After a crash course this week I was let loose on a row of MM 106 apple rootstocks to practice field grafting using whip and tongue technique. For those of you experts out there, please don't flinch at my beginner's technique. I am acutely aware there is a long way to go with this, but I must admit I'm already hooked and spend most of the afternoon out in a bitter wind on a raw February day working away to improve and only the hens with me to pass judgement.
I gathered scions from a Russet and Winter Gem in my garden as material to graft on. This is what I began with in the top pictures, then taking a razor sharp "Tina" knife I cut the 2 sections, one on each piece to marry up the Cambium layer as best I could - here you see I've got to do a bit more practice! I made the "tongue" incision to correspond on the opposing sides, then wedged the 2 parts together, leaving the characteristic "church window" arch exposed above the rootstock.
The last stage was binding up the grafted sections, and onto the next one till I had just about completed a row and they stood like like plastic bristles in the meadow. Now it's just patience to wait and see which have "taken".
Then home as dusk came, not much darker than at noon today. And later thoughts of supper, Roasted Pout and River Cobbler with a spiced tomato sauce...

Almost forget

Exciting news came today. Nice Mr. John Lewis sent an email to say what was new in store for Spring Summer 2011, browsing through I saw that our new range of tableware is there ahead of schedule (how often can I say that?!). here is a shot I took of one of our prototypes, please excuse lack of handle, the proper ones come with one.
Here they are and also there's our new kitchen textiles too.

A few brave flowers

Milder days, the birds are starting to sing, today I heard chaffinches on my run and there was a thrush that sat at the top of a tree and sang its clearly warbly song. It must mean we are over the worst of the cold and dark. I even managed a day without wearing thermals. Alan and Shirley came for dinner with an exquisite posy of flowers from their garden, intensely coloured Iris reticulata, fragrant snow drops and a clutch of cyclamen and jasmine, now just a few stems of these survive on my window ledge.

Gales lash the house but we can hunker down and savour a delicious dinner

Beef to die for;

You can read accounts of people whilst under extreme privations; seige of St Petersburg having to eat wallpaper for any scrap of nuitrition or Terry Waite in solitary confinment for how many years and how remembering and reminising about extraordinary meals that mentally sustained them in the most difficult of human struggles. We have just eaten the beef that could do just that.
Interestingly it wasn't the most expensive cut or in a swanky restaurant, but something simple and pretty cheap. I have to admit we are blessed with a butcher made in heaven and his beef is supremely good. We have chatted about whether it's the breed or conditions that make it special. His take is that it is all about how the animal has lived which makes it extra special. In fact on our recent trip to Korea we discussed this matter with very nice Mr and Mrs SS Kim who described they had heard that some beef cattle were given massages to keep them happy. Anyway, I digress, we have just eated Pot Roasted flat rib of beef. And owing to me having to attend to a critical ceramics firing it wasn't given much attention at all. The absolutely key thing with cooking any meat I believe (although many very well thought of top chefs neglect this)is to know the cut and understand the manner and treatment that suits that muscle (or muscle group). I have no time for recipes which use for example "stewing steak". That just means its bits and bobs from who knows which bit of the animal in a heap - and how are you supposed to know what each muscle requires for cooking?? So do the choosing yourself and don't get unrecognisable parts that are so hit or miss. Flat rib is from a part which has done a fair amount of of work and exercise, and from between the flank and the foreribs. So its best for a long slowish roasting.
Today I put two goodly chunks in a pot, very loosely covered with foil and scattered liberally with dried thyme. I roasted it like this at 200 degrees for 20 mins. Then I added 2 x quartered carrots (pointy ones best, but that's another story) 1 x halved onion and 4 charlotte pots. This was all a nice cosy fit in pot. Poured on probably no more than 1/3 glass of red wine and sealed up in foil and put it back at 180 degrees for an hour whilst I dashed up to the workshop. Then lowered it to 130 degrees for another hour and a half. At which time I turned it off to rest and we ate a cucumber salad. Then the beef followed, as simple a meal as you could wish, so deeply satisfyingly beefy, succulent, rich flavoured without any heaviness and with the vegetables from the pot and a little mix of horseradish, creme fraiche and black pepper along side. Memorable, delicious and deeply satisfying. Sorry no photos!

Last Year

It was a year of extremes.

Most recently it is the weather which comes to mind. Plummetting temperatures and being snowed in.

Work Highs and lows. This year we had a Steep Learning Curve as much about our expectations of others... I think we have finally realised with our work, that good as promises from others seem, we must not let it knock us off course, and actually it is far and above more satifying (and successful) when we do the decision making for ourselves.

Garden Achieving a long held desire to plant an orchard for ourselves.

Travelling among other trips we went to South Korea which was a real high spot. It was quite unlike any trips we have done before. This time we were shown around,taken care of, driven everywhere with a chauffeur, we even had a "minder" to make sure we didn't get lost or kidnapped.

So now for 2011. Dare I make any resolutions or predictions?

Yes, Lighten up! Be intrepid, Try new ideas without fretting over imminent disaster. And then let's see what I'll be writing in another year's time.

Above freezing point - at last

Finally we have a reading of a temperature above freezing. Just enough to start the thaw. And with it comes that gushing sound, vaguely familiar, then you suddenly remember what it is, yes the rushing of a water through a burst pipe.

Christmas celebrations

By dint of being snowed in this year Christmas has been wonderfully quiet and reclusive. The first day of serious snow we dashed into Ludlow for provisions to see us through the severe weather. The great advantage of the extreme cold is that my fridge space has increased exponentially - I now have a "lobby" fridge, 2m x 3m at 1 degree C, a "conservatory" fridge 2m x 4m at -5 degrees C, not to mention icy bathrooms and window ledges.
So having for the first time in my life planned ahead the larders were stocked good things.

We decided that this year as the temperature varies between minus 15 and minus 6 we would have a Christmas barbeque, but in the living room. I marinaded boned rolled shoulder of lamb and we heated the griddle in our woodburning stove to searing point, put on the meat, bunged it in the hot embers and shut the door. It was great fun, like being a boy scout. It was that free adventurous cooking that you could only contemplate as a child when "Mum was out". It felt just like that. The lamb was beautifully juicy, and tender. Pink in the middle and I made a yoghurt dip to go with it with toasted, infused spices, lots of fresh chilli and mint which is somehow holding out in my conservatory.

I can thoroughly recommend it and all the better for not being a traditional Christmas.

Actually we couldn't see this but what a stunning image

Different phases during the lunar eclipse that happened in December 2010. captured from Telus world of science observatory in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Submitted by: Mohamed Ali

2010 going out with a bang not a whimper

Here we are again, approaching the end of the year, and doing a mental summing up of thoughts and experiences over the last 12 months.
As some of you know it has been an "interesting" year for the challenges here on Planet Walcot. I think 2010 can be called "Stress Year". And being swamped by these things has been a regular experience. Some very personal, taking care of my mum as she has developed memory difficulties in her 80s, which has been pretty traumatic for both of us. Then our English manufacturing has been through a major and painful upheaval, not to mention other hiccups, which at the time I thought were unsurmountable, they all happened together this year in spadefuls.
But then after all the sleepless nights and angst and that awful sick, sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that takes you over, its sometimes possible to reach an equalibrilum and learn from the most unexpected quarters. I can't go back and undo regrets - I've just got to move on and somehow progress beyond the bad things.
But best of all has been the amazing love and support of family and friends, allowing me to put the darkest moments to oneside.
There's more I want to write but I'll have to wait a bit. The next black cloud is looming, but now I know I'll get through it. More than anything I feel disappointment in people's personal weakness. How interesting they get off on being so mean and feeble. What a shame they revert to such weedly methods to boost their own small stature. I'm waiting for my "Baron Von Espie" moment - it will come.
Then as an antidote to their bitterness come some unexpected glimpses of something that lifts your spirits.

Afternoon treat

At the weekend I managed to walk through snow to village shop for provisions. Its a tiny place with an interesting mix of foods on offer. As you'd expect a good showing in the baked bean and Shipham's department, but also a very passable selection of wine, well chosen and not too pricey. I also came upon a bag of local walnuts from Mildred's garden down the road. They are smaller than the average Californian, but particularly sweet and nutty. Andrew has been working on a good shelling technique with a split log on the edge of the hearth. The knack is in the correct application of pressure - I have some way to go yet! Anyway my contribution was making some walnut bread as shown.
85g walnuts (in rough pieces)
250g Doves Farm wholemeal flour
150g white Plain flour not strong - otherwise it comes out too poofy and light.
3/4tsp salt
just a little less than 1/2tsp dried yeast
320g water
1 tsp sugar.
Put all above ingred.s in bread maker (adding the walnuts at pinging sound so they don't get smashed to smithereens).
Delicious with stilton, but my favourite is with unsalted butter and honey eaten in front of the fire.

How long will it stay?

We're pretty much snowed in now. Being on a northerly hill our weather has its own particular qualities. In the depths of winter, Planet Walcot resembles Narnia stuck in permafrost. Suddenly one's outlook and perceptions are altered to very simple needs. How to keep warm and making sure there's enough to eat, it appeals to how I view my world anyway.

Out for my run this morning about 7.30 it was still darkish, but I reckoned I could beat the next snowfall. It is magical at those moments, no one around, even, white layer all around and stark black trees. I must have disturbed a hare as it tore past me and disappeared into the surrounding woodland.

Minus 11 and still November

Temperatures plummeted last week and by Saturday night it went down to -11. Out walking on Sunday it reached a heady minus 8. I'm sure it was only about 7 months ago I was describing similar conditions. Still its fantastic for striding out in, stout pair of Brashers crunching over frozen ground, then back to the warmth. Have done some timely renovations to our woodburner so now we can face the winter undaunted.

Not yet 4 o'clock

Its before 4 p.m. and the light is fading. A stormy, wet week has stripped the last leaves and the scene outside is of black tree trunks and mud. This time last year we were just back from Hong Kong, (what an amazing city) where temperatures were in the low 30s (C). Local weather can be so all encompassing that it is too easy to forget that even just down the road the climate is different.

Quince Heaven

Our friends Caro and Howie sent us home the other night with the most wonderful Vranja quinces. They were so fragrant that as I lay in bed that night I could smell their beautiful perfume permeating the house.

And this is what I did...

Stuffed Quinces (Dolmeh-e Beh)
4 large quinces
1 onion, finely chopped
chopped cooked flat rib of beef
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. tomato paste
vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
sugar
1 Tbsp. Butter,

Wash quinces, removing fluffy layer, halve and hollow out as best you can (difficult I thought) saving any useful flesh (not pip)
Brown onion , add meat in 2 Tbsp. oil. Add tomato paste, 2 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice, remaining quince flesh, salt, pepper, and 1tsp cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Stuff as much as you can into quinces. Place into an oven proof dish, pour around some good, flavoursome homemade stock. Cover with foil and bake 40 mins at 190 C.
Then mix a little lemon or vinegar, sugar and butter and pour over quinces and return to oven,briefly.

Serve with bread, yogurt, and fresh herbs.
Jane Grigson and Maideh Mazda had a good hand in this, not to mention centuries of Persians.

Dear Marjorie

What a wonderful plum the Marjorie Seedling is. Our relatively new tree produced a wonderful crop this year, here are the last ones we gathered. The flesh is luscious, and juicy and a perfect balance of sweet and acid

Mummy, Daddy and Baby

Look at these little cuties I found on my run this morning. Sadly the big one was a bit eaten, but still lots to make a wonderfully intense Cep soup

Memories of Summer

Just a few brave flowers from summer remain. The odd brilliant cosmos nodding in the breeze, and Japanese anemones catch the low sunshine. But here is a little reminder of a wonderful summer's evening in Baja Hungary. Every year the town holds a Fish Soup competition, the emphasis more on friends and family getting together to cook and eat outside in a party atmosphere than achieving culinary honours. The result is over 2000 log fires and bubbling pots of fish soup all cooking at once in the town's very picturesque square. Next year our friend Vince is planning to cook - we intend to hold him to his word!

Back on the horse...

Life for the past 6 months in edited chunks.
How would I sum it up simply?
Work - some good, some not so good, never predictable,
Family - sad, my Mum has had a lot of struggles,
Weather - v. mixed
Garden - fruitful, but with gaps

Results - I will try to learn to value the little things that can be as satisfying as the bigger picture-

Here are some of those small moments which make me smile;

John Crowe lent me his 1953 tractor (Fergie). I took it for a spin around the yard.

A small tip - I don't recommend driving one in flip-flops, it made it changing gear very tricky.


Weekend Breakfasts

They replenish the tissues like nothing else.






Ambitions - very important for motivation, this is mine.

With some trepidation I write another entry. Last one was in April. The intervening time has been difficult to say the least and rather than bore readers with sad tidings I thought I would wait for better times.

Real weekend

We're having a "real" weekend. Relaxing time off doing nice things. Yesterday we went to visit to Hay on Wye. Then went for a potter round the surrounding villages. We found an ancient church with wonderful 13C bell tower at Kinnesley (you can find it on Google Street view). Inside there was a beautiful early carved altarpiece. Here is a small detail. Then home in time for drinkies and seared lamb chump chops on the griddle. Slight downside was we had to have every window open downstairs in an attempt to get rid of the smoke. Amazingly I had the presence of mind to pack the chilly bin for our trip, so on finding a promising butcher in Hay (I can never resist looking in butcher's shops - probably how some people covetously look in clothes shops) came back with the lamb and a lovely looking piece of rolled sirloin from a Red Ruby Devon.

7th April 10

Today we saw our first swallow. Is it regretting returning to our chilly part of the world? Having wintered in South Africa where all it needed to do was concentrate on eating lots (barbies on the beach?) building up its strength for the journey back to Shrpshire what is it like coming here when there is scarcely a bug to be seen. Also today saw;
First primroses growing in the arboretum.
My all time favourite bird, the Willow tit (after sparrows of course)flitting from branch to branch.

Today is also the birthday of Alison Pitman. She was my first school friend at Overchurch Infant in 1969. Her mother was the first person to take the trouble to point out a swallow's nest in their outhouse. What an interesting circularity life sometimes has.

Having fun with with electricity...

One of my favourite sites Click here

Finally...

The year is turning. I can't exactly say we have signs of spring yet, with night time temperatures regularly as low as minus 6, and the ground not thawing in the day. But the days are noticeably longer and the sun is high enough sometimes to be able to drink a quick cup of tea outside. For me though the significant point is when I can sort out my first seeds to sow in the conservatory as I did today.
This year's gardening resolution is only grow favourite proven tomatoes. How many times my eye is caught by a good looking newcomer only to be sorely disappointed when they aren't as sweet as Gardeners Delight or as rich and flavoursome as Super Marmande.

"Little dark month"