End of January

 Finally one of my amaryllis has opened, daughter got me this as a birthday gift, I asked for red, I do love colour at this time of year, there is a second bud on this bulb. My second amaryllis bulb is way behind, I have a couple bulbs in my greenhouse with shoots, hopefully more blooms to come.

My hyacinths have opened, nice white blooms, I purchased these already in their pot from Lidl, they have grown tall, once they go over I will plant then in the garden.

To add inside colour I have put out my fake tulips, I love these they look so real, and feel very spring like, other than my big poinsettia stems which are still out, all the silk seasonal plants are packed away until December. 

I adore turkey leftovers as much as the main meal itself, our crown fed 6 on Sunday, all three children had double helpings, I have loads for cold turkey sandwiches, and another favourite turkey pie, very simple, I shredded the turkey, added loads of cranberry sauce, we like the lumpy one, make a sage and onion stuffing mix and put of top for lid, bake in oven to heat up meat and cook stuffing. I made 4 pies, two for this week, two in the freezer, half of the slices seen here went into the freezer, not bad for just £11.00. 

I have read all Rob Rinder books, all set in the legal system, courts and chambers, everyone involved in huge cases, and always more than one case, here their main case is defending a activist from a murder charge, a crime seen by many people and caught on video, is she a murderous woman or a silly woman caught over her head. Book 9 read this year.

 

We made more great savings this week, we live in a hard water area, we are always fighting limescale, we removed the yellowing seals on our shower cubical and could not clean inside, we managed to track down replacements, I cleaned the edges of the glass panels and hubby cut down the seals, our shower now looks like new at a low cost. Hubby has a cracked tile to replace and some grouting, just small jobs. We have no big DIY plans for us to do this year, we will need to get someone in to sort our wooden floors.

The wind and rain overnight earlier this week from storm Chandra was horrendous, there was local flooding, mainly roads unable to cope with the volume of water, we managed OK, Lilly has become a bit vocal, she loves to be outside, and  is fed up being inside, I understand her frustrations, I feel the same.

Our MP Suella Braverman has defected to Reform party, locally her popularity is very mixed, she is known for jumping on any local success stories whilst being absent from any work, both hubby and I are not happy as we feel if an MP change their party a by-election should be called, I know we vote for the person on the ballot paper, but you do also highly consider the party as well. It's just another case of MP's working for their own agenda rather than the people they were elected to represent. 

Weekend

 I stuck with this book written by a new author to me, it was not the best of reads, set in Edinburgh, the police is using a profiler with extra abilities, some of which was strange, I liked the twist in the plot, which sadly took too long to arrive. Book 7 read this year.

Another author I like, this is a very different plot, after drowning and resuscitation his life changes forever, it's a tale of how he tries to understand what is happening to him, with startling outcomes, his story ending was good, what followed was also good, but the final chapters was strange, it did leave an opening. Book 8 read this year.

I did plant my half price hellebore in the corner by my back flower bed, I think it will look good here, it has white blooms, so it should blend in with the fleabane daisies. Placing it under the Magnolia will give it shade when required, it has plenty of room to grow, I have a good collection of hellebores in this area. The overnight rain washed all the mud from the surrounding slate, it looks as if it's been here for ages. In a perfect scenario we had rain overnight and dry days.

Friday and Saturday were both sunny days, the swirling weather front sitting over Cornwall did not extend to our area, it was cold and breezy, lovely to see blue skies, my greenhouse has been getting warm inside, the seeds and plants are all doing well. I do not heat my greenhouse, I reset this thermometer midweek, so Friday it reached 31° at it's highest and 0° at it's lowest, 12.4° was at 10.00am Saturday, so still warm inside. 

Molly helped me start my sweet-peas on Sunday, she popped her shoes on ready to go to the greenhouse, she was very surprised when I asked her to get the stool to work in our kitchen. I confused her using paper towel and water in a clear tub, she follows instructions very well, I promised I would send photos once the seeds start to grow. Molly also brought her school reading book, she sounded out her words and read her book, she was rightly very pleased with herself.

Friday night we had party food for tea and to nibble with wine whilst watching the final of the traitors, just to make the whole evening a bit more fun, just the two of us. We have loved watching this season, all the changes to keep it fresh, the usual calling at the TV, because we know and can see them misleading each other, I am glad Stephen stayed true to their pact, it was good viewing, he could easily have taken the whole winning prize amount, but deciding to share. Saturday after a day at home, we had homemade pizza for tea, when shopping for the party nibbles we found toppings at a great price, saved ordering a takeaway.

We had our lovely family over for Sunday lunch, whilst shopping in our village we got a larger turkey crown on sale, enough for a family roast dinner, a pie for us, and cold turkey for sandwiches, which I love, the children love chicken and turkey, so we knew it would be a meal they would all want to eat. Hubby made loads of small marmalade cakes, Molly had asked for them, some ate here and some taken home. George gave me a huge cuddle and stayed close all day, I've missed them in the last couple of weeks, they were busy last weekend so we did not see them. I get video calls most evenings with George and Molly,  I love to listen to their chatter, George is getting better with his conversation.  

Getting ready

Hubby needed to pop to B&Q this week, so I had a look at their plants, I always look at the reduced section, these plants were half price, I paid £6 for the hellebore and £2 each for the geums, I always look closely to see if there is new growth, a good indicator the plant is not dead. The geums are inside my greenhouse to let them dry out, they both will go into my side bed, I have a lovely spot for the hellebore once the rain stops. 

My main purchase was seed potatoes, these bags are much smaller than bags sold at our local garden centre, perfect size for just the two of us, the first early are already in an old egg carton tray on the kitchen window sill. I will grow these in bags again, three potatoes in each bag. 

The second necessary purchase was John Innes potting compost, this will be required soon, seedlings and seeds will be started in a few weeks. Whilst I was there I got two boxes of fertilizer, both natural products, which I have used before with great results. 

Soon I will dig out both my composters and hopefully have two bags of compost, enough to see me through to the summer, in previous years I have purchased different compost and mix them, I am confident my compost will be good quality and give my plants a great start. I could sift my own compost for seedlings, but in truth I can't be bothered, maybe next year. 

Most of my flowering plants in the greenhouse are doing well, I have now only 2 guara plants, I have 3 in the garden, I will have less gaps this year. I also have a bucket of carrots which are growing well, would be nice to have an early crop.

We had intended to pop to our favourite garden centre, but decided it wasn't necessary, the café has lovely cakes but is expensive, so we came home and enjoyed hubby's homecooked brownies. Everything above was much cheaper than from any garden centre, often the reduced plants are over watered or just finishing their growing cycle for the season, the shelves were full of different plants, most can be revived. 

Note to myself, the garden is full, no more new bigger plants, will I listen to my own advice, probably not.

Tiny starts

Soon it will be seed sowing time, these are new variety to me, I always like to try new things, most of my seeds are started from February onwards, as are these. I have always had great results with Wilko's seeds and roots, I haven't the space for too many plants. 

I have to start my sweet peas, I had a great success last year for the first time, so again I will soak the seeds for 24 hours and then leave them on wet kitchen roll until I see shoots, then they will go into long root holders in the greenhouse.

I have taken 10 cuttings from my fleabane daises, I need plants for daughters garden, hubby made a raised bed along her side fence, she wants to fill the bed to look the same as mine, I did scatter loads of flower heads over soil in a covered propagator last autumn, there are tiny shoots forming. If I have plants left over I want to pop them along the base of our back fence.  

I have left most of my seeds in the garage, putting off getting them out as it is far too early, most packs came with my subscription Kitchen Garden, which I won't renew next month, I have kept the magazines for reference, they go into more detail than gardening books. I have 26 issues here in this drawer, plus a few other magazines. Most of the unwanted seeds I gifted to our local junior school.

This is my least favourite time of the year, everywhere is dull, grey and dismal, I do get outside in the garden for short periods, and I pop to the greenhouse a couple times a week, I want to be doing things but it is far too early, so I sit and wait, no plans to keep me occupied. Normally I craft, cross stitching or knitting, but neither is calling, I have been reading, my latest book is slow, I really need to decide if I want to know who are the bodies and why they were murdered, it's a good old police based plot, or start another book. I was hoping for a needle felting class, sadly the tutors mum is poorly so the classes are suspended for now. 

I'm so bored I have done all my housework, not my favourite task, I do love to see everywhere clean, we are not untidy, we live in a hard water area, so bathroom gets a wipe down after use to stop the build up of limescale, making it easy to keep clean. Hubby made two soups, carrots and coriander, pea and ham, which is this weeks lunches, and chocolate brownies for our treat.

We have not been out much, rain in January is cold and uninviting, we wrap up to walk to the village trying to avoid getting wet, drive to our local Lidl's for a bigger shop. There is nothing we need or want, so I see no point to going out, our town has shrunk, just a few nice shops, our local outlet is all outside so no fun on wet days, as is Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. It was nice to have some sunshine on Tuesday,  still really cold.