February is a Hard Month

Every year I forget how challenging the months of January and February are. The rain keeps coming, just when I think it is drying up enough to order the gravel and sand for my studio. The mud stays sticky and slippery. I have got fed up with knitting and craft work... I want to get on with my building project! Sigh. Still, I have been collecting more rocks for the foundations and still need lots more.

This is a photo I took when all the big wet clouds went away to the east and I thought, ah, good bye rain, but it was a false hope as they sneaked round the back and squeezed themselves out once again.

I had a nasty cold last week which has knocked me back a bit.

Here is a cardi I knitted for Olivia, using scraps and oddments of wool.

The garden is producing green stuff. We have lamb's lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and pak choi i nearly ready. The coriander is coming up and the peas have pods, but not enough sun to fill them with yummy peas.

My green house was blown to bu##ery in the storms, the plastic torn. I will have to reconsider the situation when the weather calms down. I do have some tomato seedlings coming up, and a courgette, I noticed. I have put them outside as it is not so cold.

So that's the story of February.

Cobsessed

So here is the trench, dug and lined with weed stopper in the weedy bit. It looks tiny, but it's five meters across.  I still don't have enough rocks to make the foundations. I am gathering them while the weather continues wet and muddy. The gravel will have to wait and so will I. I still have lots to do while I wait. Whenever I go for a walk I see potential stones, and then I go off in the car or get the wheel barrow and haul some home.

R has offered to make the door and window for the studio.

I made some trial bricks using mud and sawdust which worked very well.

When I'm not building or digging I sit in the chair R made and look at the lovely view. This afternoon there was a burst of sun and the birds were chirping in that Spring-like way and it felt like heaven. Bonny found some sheltered cabbages to lie next to and snooze (after she bit off the top of the kiwi plant...). I weeded the onions and transplanted some cabbage-type seedlings.

R had laid down a huge sheet of black plastic over six months ago and yesterday I took it off and started to dig... All the bramble weeds are dead and most of the couch grass, and the soil is quite easy to dig, even though it's quite steep!!!  I am making long strips so I can grow a bigger crop of onions or beans, for storing. Most of the beds in the vege garden are a bit pidley for large crops. I am now excited about putting the black plastic down in the bit of land next to it. It is such a good way to get the ground usable without resorting to chemicals, and you can use it over and over.

The nectarine tree has bright pinck flowers coming out all over.