Saturday, April 05, 2008
Bird time
Passed a male blackbird sitting on the road next to the hedge on the way to Cheam today. Just about the spot I saw a greenfinch last year. Clearly the a top spot for falling out of nests. Assuming that the blackbird was a fledging which had fallen out of the nest or who had forgotten how to fly, it was very big and fluffy - more or less adult size.
Arrived at Cheam to be serenaded by the greengrocer's wife as she weighed up my cabbages.
Back at home to see a very bold fox neatly jumping over the fence out of our garden. Maybe three feet high. Never seen a fox jumping before. Not clean over, more of a scramble over, but fast enough. And quite a handsome fox as they go round here. Bright and brown rather than dark and scrawny. Maybe food has started to reappear for them after the winter (leaving out of account the various ladies that put food out for the things).
To the allotment this afternoon, despite the rain and sleet. The seed potatoes have big white shoots on them and need to be put in - perhaps a little early but I have yet to find out how to stop the potatoes sprouting. The book says to put them out in the light as soon as you get them to chit them - a procedure which is supposed to speed up growth, which I think to be a bad thing in my poor soil. So I don't do that, just keep them dry, out of the frost and out of the light - with the result that I have big white shoots on then a week or two before I really want to plant the things. I wonder what potato growers do - because I can't imagine that they mess about with chitting. Perhaps they have climate controlled potato stores - cold but not freezing to discourage sprouting. Anyway, one row in, two to go and used maybe a quarter of the seed potatoes. With a row taking me several days, will I find the time and energy to prepare a fourth row?
Good crop of grounsel this year - the first time I have been much aware of the stuff. Especially in in the Western end of the perpetual beet bed. Can't think why they should like it there particularly.
I did find the time and energy to fit my new brakes. Got the old ones off and decided that they did not really need to be replaced after all: they are some sort of solid rubber, without the metal shoe I am used to, and could of gone on for a bit yet. So they are in the useful box with all the other bits and peices from bicycles past. Got the new ones on OK - deciding along the way that alan bolts and keys are a much better way of doing things than the sort of bolts that need spanners - but not as much braking as the old ones. Maybe they will get better when they are bedded down a bit. Or is it a case of the bicycle shop selling you what they happened to have in stock rather than what you really need? Or a case of letting them fit them so that they work properly?
Arrived at Cheam to be serenaded by the greengrocer's wife as she weighed up my cabbages.
Back at home to see a very bold fox neatly jumping over the fence out of our garden. Maybe three feet high. Never seen a fox jumping before. Not clean over, more of a scramble over, but fast enough. And quite a handsome fox as they go round here. Bright and brown rather than dark and scrawny. Maybe food has started to reappear for them after the winter (leaving out of account the various ladies that put food out for the things).
To the allotment this afternoon, despite the rain and sleet. The seed potatoes have big white shoots on them and need to be put in - perhaps a little early but I have yet to find out how to stop the potatoes sprouting. The book says to put them out in the light as soon as you get them to chit them - a procedure which is supposed to speed up growth, which I think to be a bad thing in my poor soil. So I don't do that, just keep them dry, out of the frost and out of the light - with the result that I have big white shoots on then a week or two before I really want to plant the things. I wonder what potato growers do - because I can't imagine that they mess about with chitting. Perhaps they have climate controlled potato stores - cold but not freezing to discourage sprouting. Anyway, one row in, two to go and used maybe a quarter of the seed potatoes. With a row taking me several days, will I find the time and energy to prepare a fourth row?
Good crop of grounsel this year - the first time I have been much aware of the stuff. Especially in in the Western end of the perpetual beet bed. Can't think why they should like it there particularly.
I did find the time and energy to fit my new brakes. Got the old ones off and decided that they did not really need to be replaced after all: they are some sort of solid rubber, without the metal shoe I am used to, and could of gone on for a bit yet. So they are in the useful box with all the other bits and peices from bicycles past. Got the new ones on OK - deciding along the way that alan bolts and keys are a much better way of doing things than the sort of bolts that need spanners - but not as much braking as the old ones. Maybe they will get better when they are bedded down a bit. Or is it a case of the bicycle shop selling you what they happened to have in stock rather than what you really need? Or a case of letting them fit them so that they work properly?
# posted by Jim @ 11:03 AM 
