May Day Weekend

Saturday 30 April & Sunday 1 May 2011

We took a break from the boatyard and stayed at Goat Bottom for the weekend.  The weather had warmed up and the garden needed attention, which could be done around a bit of boat varnishing: from left - revived chart table top; cockpit table top; and round table top for the outdoor set at Goat Bottom - we'd spent the winter carrying it out and putting it away all the time, as the plywood was untreated.

I planted out some seeds, a mixture of things from the seed box (which is a little rat-chewed from when we had a rat in the old apartment, and I've had the seeds for quite a while, so it's anyone's guess what or whether anything will come up.  One of the containers is a mixture of seeds wrapped up in a paper napkin that were a present from Mad Robbie in George's one night.  I remember he was very enthusiastic about them, but not sure what they are.

Under the solar water heater I planted tomatoes, as the ones I had at the apartment didn't seem to like the sun - the tomatoes were blotchy with patches of thick skin (good for purée but not for eating) so I thought I'd put these where they'd only get the sun till about 11 am.  Also some Marigolds - old wives' lore reckons the flowers repel tomato pests; and a row of little lettuces, not quite killed by being left in their container too long.  I also sprinkled some rocket and mixed salad leaf seeds to follow the lettuce.

The Celtic burial mound (as Dave considers it) got planted out with herbs - oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, chives and parsley; as well as little plants of capsicum peppers, courgettes, aubergines and a few more lettuces.

I tied up the peach tree to the shed wall properly.  Despite it's handling, this has just about survived and has a few little peaches coming.

These are the big bags of compost that Robbie had sourced from one of the garden centres and bought us 15 bags without telling us!  He'd had a look at our local soil in the Celtic burial bed, and was very concerned.

Dave did some generator maintenance

I wandered round the field and came across this incredible thing

The chickens watched everything that was going on with interest, and willingly ate up all the slugs I came across.

Then Thelma and Bob decided to leave their enclosure (not really sure how) and go free-range.  Louise clearly wasn't part of the escape committee, as she was left inside, tweeting forlornly.