Blog Archives

Looking Forward

15/1/2025

I think we are all agreed that it is good to have something to look forward to? So with that in mind, at the weekend Paul and I booked and paid for two trips -

Frankfurt - to see friends at the beginning of March
Florence - 20th wedding anniversary in June.

Originally we were meant to go in 2020 and it was all booked-up but obviously had to cancel because of the international Covid lock-down. So, because I'd already identified a decent hotel, it's been just a case of matching up some flights and pressing the appropriate booking and payment buttons.

Having said that, there are limited direct flights to Florence (can you credit it?) and instead there are more to Pisa which then involves trains, buses or taxis for transfers. Now, being of an age where we can't be bovvered with certain things (people, attitudes, faff) we've opted for an additional night's stay, travel with a reputable airline, reasonable flight times and despite an hour's stop each way (at Frankfurt airport funnily enough), we are landing at Florence airport. In the grand scheme of things the difference in price is negligible and it also affords us more time in the city itself. Win-win!

YIPPEE!

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No Need to Hurry...

5/1/2025

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“No need to hurry, no need to sparkle, no need to be anybody but oneself”.

I think that these words by Virginia Woolf should resonate with all of us particularly at this time of the year!

*Virginia Woolf also wrote in her diary on the 2nd January 1931:

Here are my resolutions for the next 3 months; the next lap of the year.
To have none. Not to be tied.
To be free & kindly with myself, not goading it to parties: to sit rather privately reading in the studio.
To stop irritation by the assurance that nothing is worth irritation
Sometimes to read, sometimes not to read.
To go out yes – but stay at home in spite of being asked.
As for clothes, to buy good ones.

So, with this sage advice in mind…

I’m always itching to start sowing seeds, but I am trying to be patient! However, all the professionals intone the benefit of waiting until there is more energy available from the sun in terms of both light and heat. Without these optimum conditions seeds and seedlings will struggle to germinate and get going. Actually – that advice could be applied to this particular human-being too!

So, instead, brew a decent cuppa, grab the seed box and do an inventory of the miracle giving paper-pockets already in your grubby hands…
It’s worth creating a simple crop plan to see what might be for the visionary season ahead, working out rough numbers for each bed to help work out how much trawling of the garden-centre or on-line shop might be required.

Are there a stack of unopened packets having become a tad over-optimistic about available time and space, last year?!
Are there those that are so out-of-date they should be tossed into the compost bin? Or into the hedge as usually happens at No.6.
Perhaps you can pass on any varieties which didn’t do well in your soil/growing conditions, or half-finished packets that might not be enough for the whole season, but a neighbour could use.

However, it’s always good to have some back-up seeds, like radish or turnips, as they are good ‘fillers’. Having said that, I have never successfully grown either of these vegetables! As you know my modus operandi generally involves planting out what I think are particular seedlings and then they seem to morph into something else… case in point for summer 2024, my enthusiasm for and nurturing of the difficult-to-grow Florence Fennel - which I was showing off about to everyone – which turned out to be run-of-the-mill normal fennel, but at least it wasn’t dill which looks pretty much the same and would be even more embarrassing!

Oh well. So, on this dull, grey and cold day I’m donning multiple layers and the posh Barbour wellies and trudging off to the greenhouse for take stock! With a cuppa - obvs.

*taken from a piece by Alice Vincent in 2021, for the Penguin books website.

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