The allotment takes shape

After so much navel gazing on Saturday, Sunday was a day of spring sunshine and work outdoors! I have been hard at work in the greenhouse ( watched over by Miu, sitting in his second favourite place - his most favourite place is on top of my parsley plants , but I have threatened to water him if he sleeps there)
I love watching seedlings emerge. When I worked at a nursery my favourite part of the day was checking the propagator in the morning to see what had come up overnight. Even pricking out trays and trays of seedlings is satisfying. I'm not so good at watering them though!
I have lots of vegetables started - tomatoes and chilli peppers, french beans and cucumbers, swiss chard and a couple of early summer squashes, and of course, my favourites - sweet peas. I am determined to stuff my garden full of them this year.

In the afternoon we all worked on the allotment. Steve has been digging every spare moment he has ( which sadly is not often!) but he has done a great job preparing the vegetable beds. The scruffy bed at the front of the picture shows the remains of the Kale (self seeded) and the leaf beet which has kept us going through the winter. I managed to get the first lot of potatoes in the ground, and while digging over the old potato bed, Steve and the girls managed to find enough small stray pink fir apples for supper.

There was even time to clear 'the jumping lane', which had been rendered impassable by drooping and fallen branches. We used the logs to make new small jumps. As the bracken grows up, this path becomes a tunnel, and it is brilliant for trotting small ponies down and gaining confidence in jumping. It is impossible to run out, and almost impossible to turn round, so there is no choice for them but to keep going. Having said that, I thought I had better just pop down it on Red and check it out, and he was convinced the track was covered in monsters. He shied and spooked and thought about trying to climb the bank instead of jumping a 9 inch log. Needless to say, he DID go down the lane and over the logs, but I was glad the children weren't watching me!
I have also been awarded the Passion For Painting Blog award, by Gail Ragsdale and Carol Buck, both extremely skilled painters themselves. Do check out their blogs!
I am supposed to list 7 things I love, but I think you are probably sick of reading about 7 things I love - I have posted several different lists!
I am going to nominate one painter to pass it on to - Ellen Morrow,, whose work is truly exceptional, and whose love of watercolour shows in every piece she paints. You must go and look at her work! ( but don't buy her crow pieces - I am saving up to buy one, one day!)