​It’s nearly November – can you believe it?  2020 has been a tad stressful so far, and looks to continue to be so.  With all the to-ing and fro-ing about local and possible national lockdowns, it seems that the focus on Christmas is even more prevalent.  It’s bad enough when the mince-pies appear on the shelves in September [ridiculous] but the increasing discussions around what is going to happen over the next couple of months is getting a bit much.
 
So, here are a few tips from various gardening websites which might help to alleviate stress:

Above:  Temple Guiting Primary School - for 94 pupils

Below: Bredon School; just a tad bigger - and grander!

Above:  from lastlemon.com

I am still optimistically working in the garden, and today decided to harvest the remaining peppers - and pretty much clear GH2 in the process.

I also planted out some spring flowers in the veg patch - Cornflowers and Calendula are meant to be hardy enough to struggle through the colder months and provide some much needed greenery in early spring.  You see - thinking ahead!  Paul and I have already discussed the dynamics of the veg plot for next year...>*!

That is, of course, when the current planting will have come into fruition by March and April.  Over the past month I have also planted the following:

• Potatoes (for Christmas)
• Spring Cabbage
• Onion Sets
• Broad Beans
• Garlic

 These have joined:

• Leeks
• Parsnips (not many - very recalcitrant)
• Radish
• Turnips (don't hold out much hope here)
• Beetroot (ditto)

In GH1 I also have various seedlings doing their thing at varying degrees of enthusiasm;
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Chinese Leaves, Delphiniums, Parsley, more Calendula, Sweet Peas, Hot Peppers (fingers crossed I can harvest these soon), Lupins, and various other random plants which seem to have snuck themselves neatly in amongst the known varieties!

Still, a sprinkle of the unknown can make life interesting...

Folk lore’s natural predictions for colder weather includes some interesting pointers:

• “Squirrels gathering nuts in a flurry,  Will cause snow to gather in a hurry.”​

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• “Onion’s skin very thin, Mild winter coming in; Onion’s skin thick and rough, Coming winter cold and rough.”​

 

• For every day of fog in August there will be the equivalent amount of days of snowfall in the winter.

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• Pigs gathering sticks is a universal sign of a rough winter with lots of snow.

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• An abundance of acorns on or falling from an oak tree is indicative of a cold winter

 

• "Halo around the sun or moon; Rain or snow soon."

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So... there you go;  you learn something new every day!
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Or rather - 

Cheer Up Pepper-head! 

It is such a miserable and grey day I thought that a BRIGHT RED pepper would lift the spirits.  Well, it does mine!  This is because I have been assiduously watching and occasionally pampering my pepper plants, cooing and exclaiming over every small development whether it be an additional flower, bud or change in hue and intensity of colour!

It seems that peppers are day-neutral plants within photoperiodism spectrum.  And photoperiodism is the physiological reaction of the plant to the length of night or a dark period and daylight.  As day-neutral plants, their flowering ability is not determined by more or less light but as fruiting plants they do require at least five hours of direct sunlight daily but grow best with eight to 12 hours of direct sunlight daily.

Temperature is also key for ripening; bell peppers need daytime temperatures between 70-80F (21-26 Celsius) degrees. If the temperature drops much below that, the peppers might not ripen unless it warms up. When temperatures range from 50 to 55 F, the plant may also drop flowers and develop yellow leaves. On top of that, most peppers will protest if it gets hotter than 90F (32 Celsius).

Peppers are pernickety!  

I had two interviews last week; I was successful with the one (yippee!) but have to wait until the end of this week to find out about the other. 

​SO – I have been offered the role of VERY part-time Clerk to the Governors at a small primary school in a village in the middle-of-nowhere called Temple Guiting.  Have a look at https://www.templeguiting.gloucs.sch.uk/ - it is a beautiful place, with only 94 children, 5 teachers and 7 teaching-assistants.  It certainly won’t pay the bills but will be interesting and good experience.

Other job-related things can be rather dispiriting; for example, I spent about two hours on an application last week, sent it off and then the next day received a message saying ‘sorry but that role has been retracted…and we will update our website to reflect this’.  Hmmmm… NOT impressed as that is a WASTE OF MY TIME. Argh!!

I also did one for the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) yesterday, and it was enough to drive one MAD what with navigating all the civil service spiel and buzz-words.   For example, job vacancies have application process packs highlighting such HR models as STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or WHO (What, How, Outcome).  Then of course not only do you have to match the experience criteria on the job description but also provide evidence against Civil Service Ability, Behaviours and Success Profiles Overview. The Behaviours document is 21 pages long (admittedly it is split into different pay-grade expectations).  And as if it couldn’t get worse, I submitted the completed application form, to be immediately informed that I was required to "now complete a Situational Judgement Test", which would only take 40 minutes (it took 20). 
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I had to take this photo as I drew up next-door to 'his' van in the local CoOp carpark.  The dog actually made me laugh out loud with his grumpy demeanour and fangs on show!