Tuesday 8th April - here they are...

 The apple blossoms 

Back on Monday 31st I wrote about the leaves just appearing on the apple tree, adding that the apple blossom would arrive soon. If there isn't a fierce frost, or a wild storm, we should be getting plenty of apples. 

In the Vegetable Patch 

I've had a great afternoon in the garden, sorting out tubs for vegetables. I've now two tubs with crimson flowering broad bean seeds, and one each of Kelvedon Wonder and Ambassador peas. A triumph of hope over experience, perhaps. 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 

Three more tubs are ready for radishes, spring onions and lettuces. I was beginning to run out of steam so they will have to wait for another day.

What else shall I be planting?  My biggest two tubs, which I used to use as drums in my samba kit made of 'junk' items, are ear-marked for tree spinach and a witch hazel tree my gardener bought at my request from a garden centre she goes to. Then there's rainbow chard, my Albert Bartlett potatoes from the supermarket which are chitting nicely, and ordinary spinach. Finally there will be French beans as well. After that? Who knows. It depends on space and inclination and energy and opportunity. 

The first thing I did last Friday afternoon when we'd got back from holiday and had lunch, was to go into the garden for fresh air after more than three long hours in the car. After days of cold winds the air was relatively mild, and I sat there with my hands in the lovely warm crumbly earth planting my first two tubs of potatoes. Supermarket ones again,  probably 'la ratte', I forgot to check. It's not important (to me, anyway). I've half filled the tub, and will top it up with more earth as the shoots appear until it is full.

Music

The cherry blossom season in our road is almost over; I think when the estate was built fack in the 1950s they planted cherry trees at intervals in the verges along the road. The trees are slowly dying, but homeowners can pay for the council to replace them. Some of our closer neighbours have done so; I was just about to follow suit when BT or whoever arrived and planted a new telegraph pole outside our house! Well, we already had a street light in 'our' verge, so it's now really too crowded to fit in a tree as well!

Our next door neighbours were on holiday at the time.

'You should have asked them to put it somewhere else,' he said.

'They offered, but the only possible alternative was in front of your house!' I replied.

He was very appreciative that we'd agreed to have it outside our window. Although it can be a little embarrassing to hear an engineer clanking ladders and climbing up to the level of our bedroom window first thing in the morning when I'm getting dressed.

Anyway, back to the music; this is a traditional Japanese song called 'Sakura', celebrating cherry blossom season. 

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