Puppy pick and mix

Spent some time with friends and their puppies this weekend. I think the pics speak for themselves…

And still it comes

We’ve had snow here for over a week now.

It was first forecast to last just a couple of days, but by the weekend it looked like it was here for a bit so we ventured out and “did a shop” (AKA any excuse for a Starbucks!).

It snowed some more over the weekend, but by Monday the OH confidently announced “I think we’ve seen the worst of it”. Tuesday morning he let the cat out and said it had snowed a little more overnight. When I asked how much he said about an inch. It wasn’t until I took the dog for a run [read as swim through the drifts] that we realised it was more like another 4″.

It snowed pretty hard throughout the day yesterday, and a little more overnight. All the time, the daytime temperature had remained around freezing, so we now have some spectacular icicles. Despite the steady thaw we still have about a foot and a half of snow on the flat, 3′ where ploughed and the drifts and cornices up the road are head-height.

Really can’t believe I read this on the Met Office website this morning:
“If you have seen snow recently, please let us know…”

We’ve also discovered that clearing a path in the snow obviously effects the delicate balance of the universe somehow, for no soon have you finished, it starts to snow again!

As I was getting ready to take the dog for her swim this morning I looked out the front door and there was a lovely blue sky, just starting to colour up with the sunrise… and a bloody great big snow cloud building on the horizon. Needless to say, it reached us before we got home again (that’s another daily occurrence just now) but madly, we don’t mind.

I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it.

Growing sweet potatoes in Scotland

Anyone else out there mad enough to grow sweet potatoes in Scotland? North East Scotland?

3 years ago, I decided to buy some slips. I know, they grow in warm climates, but I like a challenge. They’re expensive, but I thought I’d give them a try. They arrived early July, I rooted them, planted them and waited. The results – pencil size pointless waste of time and money.

I decided not to bother buying slips again, so the following year I tried to grow my own slips from a shop-bought sweet potato. I know, the slips you can buy have been developed to grow in the UK and those grown in Peru… in Scotland… I know! The results were worse – the slips didn’t start growing until June/July, meaning they wouldn’t have been planted until later than those the previous year.

This year, armed with the heated propagator I was given for Christmas last year, I decided to try again. So, in January, the halved, shop-bought sweet potato was set in the propagator, suspended in water, wished well and left alone.

I really thought I’d failed. It did nothing for a few months (except turn the water manky). Then, around March time, it started sending up slips. I’m guessing it was to do with light levels (not sure if that’s right, as moth people I’ve heard of growing their own slips do it in an airing cupboard). So, the slips got rooted, potted, and finally planted in the polytunnel through black plastic in the sunniest spot.

Today, I dug them up (had a few about a month ago, but dug the lot today).

The Results: about a 300% improvement on those designed to grow in the UK. These were as fat as a thick thumb on average. I did notice the ground appeared to be quite compacted though.

Knowing my capacity to think “next year, I’ll do…” and then never quite getting round to it, I decided to prep the area they’ll be planted in next year (yet, a 300% improvement can only mean I’ll be trying again). So, gave it a deep digging, broke the soil down well, added a couple of large buckets of 4-year-old leaf mold I had bagged and stored and half a dozen buckets of 2-year-old compost. Lightly forked it over and watered. Hopefully the worms will finished the job over winter, but I’ll see how it’s doing in spring and add anything else I think it needs before I cover it with black plastic to start heating up.

Watch this space – next year I’m aiming for a bucket full! Yeah, I like a challenge!!!

Don’t you just love banks

Had to phone up to activate a new bank card today. After all the usual security questions the “customer services operative” then launched into a cross selling schpeal…

“I’ve been asked to tell you about XYZ”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have time to discuss this today”
“I’m sorry, I’m having trouble hearing you”
[Funny, you didn’t have any problems 2 minutes ago] “I said I’m sorry, I don’t have time to discuss this today”
“So I’d like to tell you about…”
“So you’re not going to bother to listen to me then?”
“I can now confirm that your card is activated. If you’d like to hear about…”

Click, brrrrrrrr

Spanner in the works

That time of year again when blog posts become scarce. All the usually gardening and poultry tasks to be attended to, plus the allotment and bees to see to. Been thrown some curved balls by the weather too to deal with. There’s quite a bit of other “stuff” going on too round here at the moment just to keep us on our toes.

Last week when I checked the bees I took my guru along (after sales service he called it). Hive full of bees all looking very happy and healthy, brood, egs, feed, pollen, queen etc. No signs of swarming.

Today when I checked – hive full of bees, starting to bring in some honey, pollen, capped brood, erm, no queen (not unusual – she goes for flights and sometimes just has too many attendants to spot her), but wait, no eggs either. Bugger.

A quick call to the guru confirmed what I suspected – leave the hive alone for 2 weeks and they’ll rear a new queen. Bit of a pain as it’ll set the hive back about a month and I was hoping to make a second colony with a controlled swarm, but they’ve already started raising there new monarch and with no eggs in the hive she’s unlikely to swarm, so fingers crossed.

All part of the learning curve.