Busy in the greenhouse

 

It needs a tidy up and the glass scrubbed down, but it is starting to warm up in there and the plants I put in there when it was colder, are doing nicely.  The Hollyhocks were £5 the pair from Tesco, and the Lupins 3 for £12 at the Old Railway Line garden centre.  The seedlings in the centre are Lupins at the back and a tall white perennial I bought Tam the seeds for from Old Bladbean Stud Gardens (I follow them on Facebook).  Their seeds are really sensibly priced and I have lots more to start.  I chose Phlomis Russelliana and Phlomis Tuberosa from the little brown envelopes that Tam had put some seeds in for me.

Other seeds started are two trays of Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans (that is the sort I have grown all my gardening life).  Cosmos - Sulphur (which is a dye plant too), Seashells mixed and Double Click Cranberry.  Scabious, double mixed; Echinacea Hot Papaya - not sure if there were more than two seeds in the little bag of them which has been in the fridge all winter - they need chilling and I didn't know this when I sewed some last year.  I hope they come anyway, but it looked like I had chaffy seed-outers rather than actual seeds (bought on Fleabay).  Then lastly tall Delphiniums (also from Old Bladbean Stud Gardens).  

I didn't go off the premises today as I had a gippy tummy earlier on - it hasn't been quite right since my, ahem, procedure last week, so I guess it will take a while to settle down.  

However, as a positive I did find out how to watch the Cheltenham Festival (horse racing) on my tv.  Since giving Sky up I have had to look for live tv programmes on the Apps for various channels, which is not straightforward.  I have scarcely watched any racing on tv since for this reason and because it reminded me that Keith was no longer here.  He watched racing regularly and if I wasn't busy, I would sit down with him.  We always really looked forward to Cheltenham, and seeing the best steeplechasers and hurdlers in the country competing against one another.  So I spent the afternoon writing a letter to a friend and watching the racing.  Plus I baked a new-to-me cake - an apple gingerbread one using 2 chopped fresh dessert apples instead of cooked apple puree and using treacle instead of syrup.  It is cooling now.  I also baked a loaf which didn't work out as it should - a half and half rye and white flour one.  It didn't rise well but it tastes ok.  I had to guess at the setting as the one it said, on my Panasonic, was going to take SIX HOURS!  So my fault entirely, but I put it on a setting which gave 3 1/2 hrs which is how long it said it should take.

I will nip into Tesco tomorrow, after the Tip (which is just behind Tesco), and get more cat food - they won't eat the fish variety at the moment - and a shopping list 5 lines long for me.  Oh, and a bottle of wine for when the girls are here at the weekend (Mother's Day on Sunday, when we are going out for our meal in Hay-on-Wye.)

Mopre racing tomorrow afternoon so I will carry on with my embroidery.