At Last a Hint of Spring to Come

At Last a Hint of Spring to Come

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I can’t believe it has been nearly a month since I wrote anything on here. Even longer since I posted a recipe on the Cheap Meals Blog.

What have I been doing in that time. You may be thinking - Digging beds, sowing seeds, rebuilding walls, cleaning plant pots, washing the algae of the poly-tunnel, re-potting the strawberries, pruning the fruit bushes, forcing the rhubarb. I wish!!!!!

These are all things I should have done and haven’t. I can mainly blame the weather. It has been atrocious here, as it has for most of Britain. We have not flooded again, so I can be thankful for that but the ground is so waterlogged I can’t even walk on it let alone dig it. It has not even been that cold this winter; the occasional cold spell but hardly any time below freezing at all. What is preventing me getting out and about is the wind. It is worse than usual this winter. Not destructive storms force winds but almost a constant gale force. It is all people seem to talk about when you go down town. It has been really hard on the shipping this year and affected freight and ferries alike.

Today is so different – not much wind and dry and even a bit of sunshine. I have managed to go out and do some cleaning in the hen houses and have a good wander about looking at things.

The bulbs are doing well in the poly-tunnel. I thought I had lost them to rot when it was flooded for a while but some of the daffodils are so advanced they are showing flower buds and today I even spotted the first tulips and hyacinths poking through the soil. I can’t wait to see them in bloom. Am I sad to get excited over the prospect of flowers?

We need to be despatching some more cockerels soon as the poor younger hens are suffering from their advances. As for the older hens – they have become complete hussies since Ant died and follow poor Dec around constantly. All of them fawning in front of him, begging for food and chasing any younger hen away who might compete for his attention. He almost seems eager to escape them at times.

Sadie has been very unsettled by the wind and barks at anything and everything and is driving us nuts. As usual the cats do not seem perturbed at all – except to throw Sadie a dirty look when she disturbs their siesta with another bout of barking.

So what have I been doing this last month? Well I have joined a couple of online writing groups. These groups pay you a few pence here and there (if you are lucky) when you post articles, and more if people click the like button. One of the sites InfoBarrel is a little more high brow than the other and the articles I have written there are mainly about the sites to be seen on Orkney. Bubblews is much less formal and people write anything from what they had for breakfast to in depth articles on the meaning of life. Very different from each other but they have certainly helped to pass the time during this winter. I am not sure how much time I will be able to devote to them once the garden gets going though.

If you would like to see what I have been up to then :-

Here is a link to my InfoBarrel stuff - http://www.infobarrel.com/Users/MEPark

And here is one for Bubblews - http://www.bubblews.com/account/143832-mepark