No dig diary, 26th February 2022

Very busy day today, kicking off early doors with the builder coming over to replace the roof tile that went AWOL during the storms. He left with a box full of swede, cabbage, parsnips, sprouts and leeks so I think we both ended up happy.

I intended to sow some early cabbage, calabrese and celery today but discovered that I’d used all of the module trays that had big holes in the bottoms of the cells so I had to modify a load more.

I’ve sort of struggled with calabrese in the past because it all seems to be ready at the same time and much as we all like it there’s still only so much you can eat at once. This year I’m going to try sowing a small number of seeds, but every two or three weeks to see how that goes. I have no idea what the stimulus is for the plant to decide it’s going to flower so it still might not work, but there’s only one way to find out.

Plenty of the seeds I’ve sown over the last couple of weeks are germinating now. Some of the broad beans (one of the few things I don’t sow in modules) are very close to having seed leaves emerge.

Then there are peas, beetroot, spinach and radish.

And the onions seem to be doing pretty well too after starting off in the propagator. Clearly they want more light as they all seem to be developing a slight lean to the south.

I must take a photo of the garlic in the polytunnel tomorrow. Most of the plants seem to be 6″ to 8″ tall already! Hopefully that means we’ll have a good harvest later in the year.

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Caught red-hoofed!

I checked my trail camera for the first time in a few days today. Looks like a gang of Roe Deer are sneaking in to eat my curly kale!

They can’t deny it. I even have video footage of one of them eating the plants!

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Swimming, 24th February 2022

Sigh. So yesterday was great. Today I just felt soooo tired. Perhaps because I worked hard yesterday, but most likely because I didn’t sleep at all well last night.

I really struggled to make the target time today with two failures, one on rep six! 🙁

I didn’t even bother doing the 25m set. At that point I was just too worn out to carry on. It seems unlikely anything good would have come of it.

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Swimming, 23rd February 2022

Today was a rather different day from last time I swam. It seemed to be one of those rare occasions where I couldn’t swim slowly even if I tried. For the first time I made it through the first five of my 50m reps without dropping outside the target time, and whilst I was expecting, based on previous performance, that a failure would follow shortly, it just didn’t. At least, not until rep thirteen when I couldn’t tumble turn because I could up with another swimmer as we came to the wall and for safety I had to open turn instead. Event then I was less than a quarter of a second outside my target. Whilst I didn’t feel that I had to skip the next rep I did so anyway, probably mostly because I was actually feeling quite tired, but it did also move me away from the swimmer I’d caught up with. Even so the only occasions when my average time has been faster have been when I’ve had more failures or a longer rest interval, so I’m very happy with that.

Even better news was that my 25m reps were just as good. In fact I’ve never swum so fast and completed all the reps in the set. Perhaps I’ll think about reducing the rest interval for those now.

I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow now.

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Swimming, 21st February 2022

Allegedly the boilers at the pool are fixed, though it certainly doesn’t feel like it when you get into the water. Fortunately it’s not too bad after a few lengths.

I missed Sunday’s session thanks to the pool being closed because of a shortage of life guards so I was hoping today would go well. As with last Monday however, there were a few people in the lane who were really circulating rather slowly and I didn’t always feel that it was safe. I did in fact almost swim over one swimmer because I didn’t realise how fast I was catching up on them. To be fair, some are very good at coping with faster swimmers. Oddly they’re often the faster ones themselves. It’s hard not to feel as though it’s the slower ones who have the attitude that they’re going to swim how they damn well like and it’s everyone else’s problem to avoid them. Unfortunately that won’t really cut much ice if I can’t see you and end up colliding with you going almost twice your speed. Especially as I’m not that far off twice your weight as well 🙁

Anyhow, it went ok-ish and nobody died. Under the circumstances I did the best I think I probably could have done. Hopefully it will be better on Wednesday when I go next.

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Storm Eunice damage

Our house is in quite an exposed position being pretty much on the top of a hill with little to shelter it from the wind in any direction, but despite being on the edge of the Met Office’s “red” warning area we seem to have got off relatively lightly.

One of the greenhouses has developed a slight lean that will need sorting out when the weather warms up and the roof was ripped off the tree house, but the most awkward damage is a bit of the wrinkly tin on the workshop roof that ended up flapping about and now needs replacing, and this:

It’s tough to see, but there’s a dark patch just to the right of the chimney in the third course of tiles from the ridge, where a tile isn’t. It’s rather more obvious from inside.

The worst thing about this is that the tiles haven’t been made for decades, so they’re irreplaceable. By sheer chance however it must have slid down the roof and into a small hazel trees which broke it’s fall leaving it in one piece on the ground.

Because the house is built on sloping ground and the cellar is effectively above ground at the point below the missing tile, it must be about seven metres to the gutter and a further two to the hole. Way too scary for me to want to play with ladders. I’ve tried replacing the tile from the inside, but there’s too much danger of dislodging another so I’m going to have to talk to Baldrick and see if he has any cunning plans.

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No dig diary, 20th February 2022

More brutal weather today and lots of rain too. I was determined not to waste the day though, so I got out for a few minutes when the wind dropped for a short while and planted out my shallots (Golden Gourmet). That was pretty much all there was time for before everything kicked off again.

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No dig diary, 19th February 2022

It’s all been a bit crazy because of Storm Eunice, but I escaped to the greenhouse (which has developed a very slight lean over the last few days that I’ll have to fix in the summer) for a short while today and sowed many different kinds of lettuce, ten cells of each, three seeds to a cell (or thereabouts). I’ll thin them to a single plant once they have germinated.

These might go into the polytunnel, but could well make it out in the main vegetable plot if the weather is warm enough when they reach a suitable size.

I was also pleased to see that some of the seeds I sowed only a few days ago are already germinating. The onions are really kicking off.

The peas for shoots are starting to make an appearance.

and the radishes are on the go as well.

It’s so nice to see plants growing. It feels as though the year as now beginning.

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Swimming, 17th February 2022

I don’t know why, but today was just awful 🙁 I even had the fast lane to myself! Regardless, I just felt so tired and there was no power in my arms. One to walk away from and forget 🙁

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Swimming, 16th February 2022

I was late booking my place in the lane today, but when I did so, less than an hour before it started, there was only one other person booked. I was quite surprised when five people turned up 🙁 Given that the weather is fairly wild at the moment perhaps a few triathlon competitors are trying to get some swimming time in. It did make things a little tricky and initially I struggled to find a rhythm, but after four or five reps I got into the groove and things went pretty well from there. I did have a couple of “fail” reps, but I didn’t count them as in both cases I’d not been able to turn properly because of another swimmer at the wall.

The 25m reps were fairly tough afterwards and I did have one failure on rep 14, but that was the only one.

Thursdays are rarely busy, so with a bit of luck perhaps I’ll get a clear session then.

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