I took this photograph of the Silver Birch when the sun came up this morning.The temperature was hovering around minus six and all the trees were looking very Christmassy.

images by Steve Robinson

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here are sweet peas,on tip-toe for a flight

With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white,

And taper fingers catching at all things

To bind them all about with tiny rings

Keats

Although it is a bit late I am going to chit some saved Sweet Pea seeds and set them in the lean to for overwintering in the hope of some early plants for next season. The seeds are mixed as it would have been impossible to separate the varieties when collecting them. 2009 was a terrible year for us for Sweet Peas but 2008 was great so lets hope next year will be another good one.

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. author unknown

Yesterday we had a bit of an adventure. We delivered two silkie boys to a lad in Bishops Castle. We had never been there before and the whole journey, including getting lost on the way home, turned into a great day out. We stopped to get our bearings outside a lovely pub where we had a welcome rest, a drink and something to eat before we set off again to get home. We went miles out of our way coming back but saw some lovely places including some hop fields which brought back some good memories from childhood for me. We drove through the Hope Valley which was really beautiful in the Autumn sunshine. We also drove through Church Stretton, a beautiful place and well worth another visit in the future. My son Adam went there once on a field trip from university and I remember that he rang on his mobile to tell me about the wonderful views. He was right too. All in all we had a great day with some laughs and met some really nice people and a little dog called Sophie.

Rob leaves for Poland this afternoon so another busy day ahead for us.

The 12th is usually a sad day for us all as it is the anniversary of the death of Glenn’s partner Lindsay. http://tinylion.spaces.live.com/

 Along The Road by Robert Browning

I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chattered all the way
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne’er a word said she
But oh, the things
I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me

We finally decided to invest in an incubator and went for the RCOM20 from P&T Poultry. Our savings have taken as much of a battering as the allotment this week as we have also bought some plastic tubing and some netting to build a tunnel. 

On Tuesday morning I checked on Pecker, who was initially sitting on three duck eggs and six Wyandotte eggs,  and she was down to three intact eggs.  I took the last three from her and popped them under Misty, our other sitting broody. The hatch is due next Tuesday 1st April. The first try we had this year was with some Silkie eggs and the broody ate them and then with what happened with Pecker’s clutch we decided not to risk any more eggs.

I have sixteen eggs here now. They are a mix of Silkie and Pekin so we are hoping for more success with the incubator. 

We popped down to the plots today even though it was blowing a gale down there we managed to dig over a couple of beds ready for planting up.

How could we tire of hope?
- so much is in bud. Denise Levertov

To Autumn – Keats

The leaves are starting to fall and there is a feel of Autumn in the air this morning. I love the Autumn even though it means the end of the growing season for most things. I really must soften the soil around the swedes and give them a water and a feed today. I also have some overwintering brassicas to plant out. The rest of the grim potato harvest is yet to be done. The strawberry runners are still waiting to be potted too. Autumn may be knocking at the door but there are still lots of jobs to do on the plots.

Although when I set off to the allotment the sky was overcast and it looked like rain I enjoyed two hours of warm sunshine and managed to tick a couple of the jobs off our list.  After picking a few runner beans I weeded and hoed the swede bed and prepared the bed next to it for the brassicas. I transplanted all but a few of the overwintering greens and then gave the whole lot including the adjacent sprout cage a good watering with soapy water to get rid of the white fly which had already settled on to the new plants. Before leaving I covered the new row with wire cages to keep off the birds.