Chew Lips

In recent years a wet Spring has rather drowned the tulips and made them more susceptible to attack from slugs and snails. This year they're more likely to wilt in the relative drought.

Wet The Bed

Strawberries need buckets of water. Researchers have been working out at what points in the growth stage they most need water so that they can just be irrigated then, rather than all the time. These have had about 150 litres in the last week which should be well worth the effort in a couple of months.

Survivors

A few Lollo lettuce survived the harsh winter under a sheet of glass.

Legumes

Broad beans and peas on their way up, cloches off.

Red White & Purple

Red currant flowers



Victoria plum blossom



Sprouting broccoli

Anemone

Blue Screen

Like a blank Etch A Sketch. I imagine that if you live in Slough or anywhere near an airport, the peace is quite eerie.

Rhubarb Rhubarb

Avril 14th

Couldn't let the day pass without one of Richard's finest moments ...

Let Me Out

Almost all of the tomato seeds germinated and now they're straining for some light, wanting to go outside rather than be cooped up inside on the bathroom windowsill. Little do they know that there's snow forecast and while this may be another false alarm it's not worth taking the risk. Round about this time of year I always catch myself singing a bit of Prince's 'Sometimes It Snows In April'. A shame that he notoriously keeps all his tunes close to his chest otherwise I'd post a link.

Tom Jones

No - not that Tom Jones. This one was born Ralph Thomas Jones in Yorkshire, around the turn of the 20th century and married into the family. When he wasn't at the office, he used his carpentry skills to make things, like the model of his work bench and tools that he's rather shyly showing off for the local newspaper in this photo from 1954.



Hey presto! Here it is 56 years later. The male equivalent of a dolls house.



Not sure why he didn't finish this steel locomotive, which is sheer precision engineering.

I make a mess of whittling a stick.

Intermission

Back from the dead

Huzzah! There shall be purple sprouting broccoli for tea - some of it has survived the winter and has risen Lazarus-like from the dead.