When I’m cleaning windows

Friday 29th January 2021

​Thankfully the weather warmed up a bit today reaching a balmy high of 9 degrees meaning we could crack on with the job of cleaning the greenhouse. The we and I are quite royal as I watched Anne set too with a bucket of warm soapy water from the safe distance of the flower bed by the gate venturing close enough to take a picture before retreating back to the drier task of finishing pruning the apple tree and weeding, citing social distancing as the reason not that I didn’t want cold mucky water running down my sleeve as always seems to happen to my when I clean a greenhouse. 

While Anne worked  away I dug over another square metre of the flower bed removing a big bucket of grass and dandelion roots with the odd buttercup geum and  wild strawberries thrown in too and rescuing a mullaine hopefully it will have a tall yellow flower spike this year. Feels good to be putting a plant in rather than just digging them up. I’m amazed at how lovely the soil is to work and how many worms there are. 
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Turning one fork over revealed these 6 beauties

​Earlier in the week I found (in the utility room of all places) my pruning saw meaning I could finish the apple tree taking off a damaged branch allowing me to reach the rest of the 3 D’s (dead, diseased and dying) and any crossing branches. ​

Pruning tool, pruning saw, loppers, secateurs, shears

Dead and dying wood

Crossed branches can rub and cause a wound

 Wounded branch where disease has entered 
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As we left Plot 33 (late as usual. I’m sure time runs differently up here, it only feels like half an hour not 2) the sky started to drizzel I think the gardening gods are smiling on us.