Messer-thingummy-branter-sums

They're actually called 'mesembryanthemums' and are a riot of colour at the moment.

Left out in the cold (frame)...

The back yard in Farnworth is a wind-blown chiller for plants, even the white painted wall hasn’t made it much warmer and drier although I think it has helped in some small way. what has been useful is the option of planting things out on an allotment and it was there I took the ogorki last week to place in the cold frame. This is a bit of a rickety structure but solid and with a plastic roof should keep out the worst of the weather and let the heat build up to produce, we hope, a bumper crop of pickleable fruits.

We have two types of ogorek: gruntowy and zaprawowy. Both should yield plenty of small, knobbly cucumbers that are perfect for pickling. Fresh they are among the best things I’ve ever eaten and would be purchased almost daily in Poland. Usually bought with strawberries although, I must point out, not eaten simultaneously.

To finish off the day at the plot, we decided to try some early potatoes. Not many to a plant, so obviously not quite ready, but the ones we did get were very tasty and lasted as long as it took to get them home, wash, boil and eat them. As the seed potato was still solid, we put it back in the ground. It might not give us any more spuds, but you never know and part of the fun of gardening is doing things that seem right at the time.

A sting in the tale...

We were warned last week about the wasp’s nest in the shed. As I am now the unofficial family expert on bees, wasps and other flying insects, I felt it my duty to go and inspect. While everyone had seen the one hanging up on the shed rafter, they were slightly unnerved to know that one enterprising wasp had built a nest on the fleece hanging up. The fleece was issued by Pilkington’s architectural glass division so maybe that was why the house of paper was constructed where it was.