Inside

This cactus in the kitchen is a very slow flowering plant, we have had at least one bloom on it for weeks, and loads of buds, it's nice to have a later flowering plant. Beautiful colour in the gloomy January days. I love the pineapple pot it's in, all golden and shiny. 

In the bathroom, plants are growing well, we have a second flower stalk on the spider plant, which is pleasing, it's always green in here, other than November when the cactus flowers.

On my electric log burner in the sitting room, these plants do well, the Poinsettia is fake, I can't keep a real one, it will stay out for now adding colour here. My space man get weirder as the plant grows. 

I got this Amaryllis bulb half price in early December, I planted it and it did not show any growth for ages, in the last week it has shot up, another pure white bulb. My original bulb had a second tip growing, it is another bud, so more blooms. I have another bulb, but I will wait a while before planting it, I see no point in having more than one flowers at the same time. 

I have finished reading Adam Frost newest book, 'How I garden', and I loved it, he is now my preferred TV gardener, I loved Monty Don, for years, but I am now finding Gardeners World to be repetitive on so many subjects. Adam's book is just like he is chatting to you, very down to earth and not preaching in any form, so much good information regarding organic and little digging gardening. He has such a good start as a gardener, firstly with Devon parks department, and then working with Geoff Hamilton, who was way ahead with organic gardening. Book 1 read this year.

As always my office is full of plants, I showed a photo of my desk in a recent post, I have so much joy is seeing things growing. I have been out into my greenhouse, but I am not doing much, the very cold spell has damaged some of my tender plants, I don't do anything in the greenhouse to protect from cold, our winters are normally very mild, I do have a heater, which I have never used, I am leaving everything, once warmer weather starts, in the correct time of year, I will see what can be salvaged. Our temperatures are much higher as our climate changes, it was the same last year, our winters are much wetter, we have more storms at this time of year, luckily we do not live in a flood area. 

We had Will, George and Molly here on Saturday, for a couple of hours, they played well, we ate our picnic lunch sat on the floor, and then watched some TV, for rest time, once they went home hubby and I relaxed for a few hours, how peaceful the house was. Most of the time they were reading books, all 3 love books. It rained most of the day, so no walks, but with 3 children our steps were high anyway.

Sunday was dull, dark and cold, and rained most of the day, so another inside day. I started sorting my stash of fabrics stored in 2 boxes in the attic, most of what I had was over 10 years old, I am passing loads on to a young lady doing a college course in needlework and textiles, hoping she can use most of it, if not pass it on to others on the course. One thing lead to another and all my fabrics have been sorted and what I'm keeping has been folded and stored, I just need to get a box for my fat quarters. 

Regarding Harry's book Spare, we are not interested, most families have issues, but there is no need to air everything in public, it's so sad. Social media is full of him, rightly or wrongly, I don't read any of it, he is an entitled young man from an entitled family.