February ends

The last week or so of February has been cold and windy, so the garden has not had the attention I’d been hoping to give it.  Though the bush roses are pruned, the climbers need pruning and tying back, and it won’t be long before the cornus needs hacking down.  Still, the tomatoes have germinated nicely in the heated propagator, and I’ll have a poke through the seed box one of these days to see what else we can get started.  The bulbs are starting to provide some colour at last, and we have replanted the basket at the front door with bright coloured primulas.

It’s early days, but there are one or two encouraging glimpses of sense in the world of politics.  Don’t quote me.

Meanwhile, Claire’s legacy has still not found its way to my bank account, over six weeks since I presented it.  The Bank of America says it has been cashed, so either Barclays or the Metro Bank are sitting on it.  Another beneficiary has received her legacy, but I think hers was with her bank about ten days before mine.  I’ll be patient for a little longer…. [LATER: The Metro Bank must have been reading my blog: within hours, the amount was showing in my account.  Long-promised transfers have now been made, so I’m hoping Claire’s kind gift will soon be put to good use.]

February

We tend to dread February, but it isn’t all bad, as I said yesterday.  It has been another of those fine, mild February days (after overnight frost) when we could probably have sat outside for lunch.  As it was, we sat and had our soup in the sitooterie while the cleaners beavered away elsewhere in the house.

As planned, the tomatoes are sown in the hot bot propagator.  Six Sweet Olive seeds as usual, and twenty San Marzanos, so we have a couple of spare seeds of the latter, having used one 24-cell tray.  I’ve pruned another five roses, and Martyn has taken a few more bits off the apple tree, both of us working in shirtsleeves.  I’ve also pulled out a lot of bittercress and grass from the rose border.  It’s early days, but as you can see below, it’s not only the weeds that are getting their ass in gear.

It ain’t all bad

It’s a bit sad to acknowledge what brings a degree of satisfaction these days.  Yesterday, it was a couple of loads of washing dried by the sun and breeze.  Today it was a bit of pruning out there in the sun: four roses are, I think, definitively pruned for the season, and the apple tree is no longer encroaching on the raised bed quite so much.  I’ll press on with the roses as weather permits.  Meanwhile I’ve brought the propagator in and am warming some compost ready for tomato seeds: Sweet Olive as usual, and San Marzano.

A couple of bits of good service lately.  On Saturday, the postie (not our usual Marcin) rang to deliver a packet for Martyn.  I asked whether there were any letters, since I had a hospital appointment the following evening, and hadn’t had the instructions.  Bless his cotton socks, he said he’d check at the sorting office (some miles away) and bring anything he found.  A bit later, there he was with the letter, and couldn’t be persuaded to accept a can of beer.  

Today, on instruction from the cleaners, I went in search of window-cleaning glop.  Nothing in Fortnums, so I had to try Sainsburys next door.  Not finding anything, I asked a chap who was busily replenishing the tea bag shelves, and between us, we still didn’t find anything.  Just as I went to leave, he rushed out with a bottle of the necessary.  I suppose people are keen to help the elderly and fragile…

New Year’s Resolution fulfilled

We have been saying for ages that it was time to get a cleaner.  Annie next door had recommended the mother and daughter team who clean for her.  Having had to stand down a cleaner introduced by a friend, we were reluctant to risk a similar embarrassment again.  But time marches on, and right at the moment I’m not up to a lot of housework.  Anyway, they went right round the house today in an hour and a half, and we look pretty respectable again.

How good to see the days lengthening!  It’ll be a while before the garden’s up to much, but the crocuses are showing colour, and the snowdrops and daffodils are in bud.  We have a few pansies and primroses in flower, so things are getting started.