A Week of Frustration!

Finally, its stopped raining, the sun has come out and the ground is beginning to dry out. First job on my very long list last monday morning, was to give the hen house and run a good clean out. Its been difficult in all the rain, so the girls deserved a nice freshen up. 

I was happily shovelling chicken poo and scrubbing out the house in the sunshine when I realised I had left the sawdust in the shed. As with most sheds ours has become a bit untidy over the winter. I therefore needed to lean over a lawnmower to pick up the large sack of sawdust, I had to twist a bit and so as I picked up the sack bent at the waist the inevitable happened. Something popped in my back.. 

Good job no one could hear me as the air turned blue.. And basically that has put an end to most outdoor activity this week. I have managed to do a few very gentle jobs in the greenhouse but thats all. 

I bought more seeds this week.. Yes more. and once again they were chillies. This time Dorset Naga. I bought them from Sea Spring Seeds who developed this variety. They claim they are the hottest in the world. Chillies, are measured by something called a Scoville Heat Unit or SHU. The Dorset Naga falls into the super hot category and was measured last year to generate between 544,000 and 1, 032,000 SHU. They also say they are difficult to grow and late to mature. Well I like a challenge, so I hobbled down to the greenhouse and planted 5 of my 20 precious seeds .

Some of my other chillies were getting very leggy in the propagator so I decided to put them in bigger pots and let them try and fend for themselves without the heat. 

They are now resident on the windowsill in the summer room.

And finally more leeks. I planted the first lot in individual cells. Nothing happening there yet. So this week I decided to use some of the 100 or so empty toilet and kitchen rolls I have been saving all winter. As they are card, my plan is once grown, to plant the whole thing so the roots wont be disturbed. 

Once a seed was popped into each roll, I watered, then wrapped it up in cling film, as I didn't have a lid that would fit over this lot. 

And that is the sum total of my weeks gardening activity. As I was feeling sorry for myself, I made short work of the little creme eggs that came from Rebecca in my Seedypenpal parcel.

In other news, as luck would have it we managed to get tickets for Top Gear again this week. I really wanted to go and wednesday dawned with me feeling not too bad, I was able to almost stand up straight so off we went. 

Of course I should have known better, standing for about 6 hours did not help at all, thanks goodness for heated seats in the car on the 2 hour drive home. And I have certainly paid the price since. It was worth it though. If you are in the UK make sure you watch sunday night. I wont say who the star was but we were delighted. Here's a small clue.

And finally I mentioned a few weeks ago it was Jim's turn this summer to be able to live a  dream, so we are awaiting the arrival of our TR6 sports car which is under restoration. Andy, the chap restoring it sent this picture and said that she was back on her feet!! 

Looking a bit better than the last photo I think you will agree. 

Well thats it for this week. The sun is shining and I am going to try and get outside even if that means sitting in the summerhouse reading my book.