Well yesterday was a bust!  Day one of my super long Easter weekend was rainy.  And not just a little I-can-still-go-out-and-plant-potatoes rain, but all out pouring, drenching, I-think-it-hailed-a-little, stay-in-all-day rain. And today is not much better! Big boo for British weather this weekend.

Instead this weekend is turning into one for audio books, guitar playing, and potting up my seedlings.

I did get out to the garden earlier this week and things are coming along nicely.  My favourite right now is the peach tree in the greenhouse.  It’s the first of my trees to flower.  I haven’t decided whether to leave it in its pot or plant it in the ground inside the greenhouse.  It’s a dwarf variety that apparently will produce fruit when grown in a pot.  Since indecision is sort of a decision after all, I’ll probably do nothing and leave it where it is.

My spring bulb mix has begun to bloom, starting with the daffodils.

The garlic is looking good.  I’m thinking I may have planted them too close together, so I may thin them a bit before they get much bigger.  And if you ignore the weeds, you can see that the shallots are getting bigger!  Note to self: weed shallot beds.

While on a trip to the local garden centre during last weekend’s rainy afternoon, my impulsive shopping habits reared their ugly head and I came away with a gooseberry plant. Who was I kidding, no one goes to a garden center to just “browse”.  I’m not even sure what gooseberries are.  I have absolutely no memories of ever trying them.  But they sound yummy, and it was only £6.  I like that it’s thorny and can protect itself (lets hope) from the woodland creatures that haunt my allotment.  This one is a regular run of the mill gooseberry plant (invicta), but I have some Incan berry (or cape gooseberry) seedlings on the go as well.  According to James Wong they are easier than tomatoes to grow…. Ok James lets see if you’re right!

On another note, Friday is market day in the town square and my favourite stall is, you guessed it, the flower vendor.  It’s really more of a plant stall, since they sell everything from cut flowers to asparagus crowns and onion sets.  Thursday, fake Friday, I bought my first cut Ranunculus of the season!  These are my favourite cut flowers.  We don’t have them in Canada, so they were an absolute delight last spring when I first made their acquaintance!  I remember calling my mom and telling her all about them like a giddy school girl.  These tall ones are from Israel, the vendor said they are known as poor man’s peonies, and they last almost two weeks in a vase. Since moving to the UK a year ago, I’ve had flowers almost everyday.  It’s that little thing I do for myself that makes me smile amidst all the rain.