Well, hasn’t the weather over Easter been lovely? You’ll have noticed it’s been unusually quiet here for a bit. Despite plans to catch up with myself and the tasks - and posts - I planned, I found I needed some much needed time away from my blog, and so I did just that. Work too has been quieter in the run up to the four day weekend and I think that also contributed, strangely. I’m pretty sure it will be gearing up again for the rest of the week, but it was good to enjoy some headspace and time to think, and really reflect on which is the way forward.
This Easter there’s been time at home, and some family time. I’ve cleared my way into the greenhouse, which was just as well as I brought some plants home from dad, and we’ve even had time for some gardening. I’ve also found some time for some crocheting, although that wasn’t without its challenges.
The lacy scarf i shared last week had been growing, but I wasn’t happy with the starting chain which was too tight, and pulling. I think I needed to hear mum say to undo it. I knew that was probably the answer but to unravel nearly five inches worth wasn’t really my plan A. However I’m pretty sure if I didn’t I’d have regretted it. As it goes I’m back up to, and past, where I was before, and it is much better for having restarted. But still, it was a little painful.
Norfolk and its big blue skies are best in the sunshine, and on this visit the fields were full of yellow rape flowers too. I think that makes it even more beautiful.
Mum had been extra busy preparing for Easter, there were Easter Bunny egg cosies for our duck eggs on Sunday, and later that day we started on, but didn’t finish, a rather large cake!
Back home on Monday, the weather was still good, but not quite as good as in Norfolk. The seedlings I’d brought home from dad had survived what turned out to be a longer than normal journey, mostly due to Bank Holiday and good weather traffic - while it’s nice to have the weather, they don’t always mix, do they? So now in my clearer-than-it-was greenhouse, there’s a couple of tiny squash seedlings, and a couple of slightly larger courgette seedlings.
It was good to see our lilac starting to flower. I’m hoping it’s got plenty more flowers to come, and this year it’s due for another trim, but not before its finished flowering.
And with two green bins to fill, we decided to make the most of the weather. The plan was to tackle the shape of the pear tree, but as it was a bit of a struggle to get the ladder out from where it was padlocked to the forsythia, there was a quick change of plan. The forsythia, which had finished flowering, was taller than we usually keep it, and so the ladder needed to be at its full extension, which meant the first step was about mid thigh-height for me, and so I delegated ladder duties to MOH. Which meant pruning also became much more of a communications exercise!
But still getting the ladder into the right place proved tricky, and at times a long cane was used to point to exactly which branch and where it should be cut. The operation was further complicated as the forsythia has our large, and very prickly yucca plant beneath it. Thankfully I’d hit on the brainwave of covering that with our patio table cover, but only because it was still out drying having finally been removed from the table. It was just as well, as after slightly overstretching MOH toppled, while still up the ladder. It was definitely a slow motion fall, I’d seen it coming and was able to slow down the topple but not stop it completely.
Thankfully MOH was OK, however the yucca fared less well and so one of the stems needed to be removed. Typically it was the stem that was the most upright, but given the circumstances that was the least of my worries. The stake has been repositioned and the plan is to gradually try to correct the tilt, to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t, it seems that the yucca has made its own succession plans, as two new plants have started to form, and you can see them in the photo below to the right of the stake. My longer term plan for the yucca is to nurture these and any others that appear.
So quite an eventful time gardening, and our bin filled even more quickly than we thought! Now that we’ve started gardening we become driven by the green bins, and how much we can get in them, as the larger, thicker cuttings take much longer to break down on the compost heap. There is, plenty to do, and I’m hoping there’ll be some chances this week for some seed sowing and pottering in the greenhouse.