On Mummabear's Kitchen Windowsill

             One Cherokee Purple Tomato seed germinating yesterday morning !

                 Today  ....... lots of Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds germinating .

                                               On my kitchen windowsill .

Love

                    Wishing all my friends a happy and loving St Valentine's Day !

Vegetables from Mummabear's Garden Today

Today's harvest from my vegetable garden  - Red and Green Curly Kale and Leeks

Charmouth again .

          We managed to slip away for a mini holiday of two days in Charmouth .
  Sunny and sheltered from the north wind on the beach here  , fossil hunting and my husband was very lucky this time , to find a little Ichthyosaur vertebra .
 I gathered driftwood and firewood to bring home with us .
We popped into Groves Nursery Bridport where I filled brown paper bags with bean seeds and onions .
 Lyme Regis for sharing a portion of fish,n,chips from the kiosk along the far end of the seafront near where the yachts are . A very generous portion , steaming hot , vinegary and salty on our fingers ..racing back to enjoy them in the car before the snow began .
The snow was lovely to see , sadly it didn't last .
Then off to Axminster to rummage in our favourite antique shop which also has a fabulous selection of secondhand books , Coffee and cake in The River Cottage Cafe  .
 Driving home we cut across Dartmoor, to see more snow on the hills .

                          I took lots of photos of trees  and ... er ....pink sheep .
Sigh ....it was good to get away , even just for these  two days .
   Today I sowed three pots of Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds and put them on the kitchen windowsill to germinate .
                                           Tired but happy ....over and out  :)

Violets Along The Cliffs - Mullion

So our Sunday walk took us along Polurrian Cliffs to Carrag-Luz ,  the Love Rock . We were delighted to find Cornish Violets ,the sweetly cherry scented  Petasites fragrans or Winter Heliotrope , the coconut scented Gorse which I missed taking a photo of and the lovely Narcissus cheerfulness . Back to the Polurrian Hotel where the lovingly tended gardens are full of exotic plants . Coffee for him  and hot chocolate topped with whipped cream'n'marshmallows for me and shortbread biscuits to share with one tired little Jack Russel .

Mummabear's Veg Garden 2017 begins !

The weather has been beautiful here in Mullion .Here are just a few of the flowers in my garden today .

However the weather was dreadful last Thursday and I didn't get to go shopping with my friend due to a horrible toothache ... yep ...dentist instead ...so more antibiotics and root canal treatment sometime in the next few weeks  . Grateful the dentist could see me so quickly ...I feel so relieved and the pain is settling down now .

So I,ve been resting on my bed , reading and sorting out my seeds for this year , doing a bit of planning and found a new little red book to keep track of it all .

I was thrilled to receive a parcel from the USA with these very interesting Squash seeds (Thankyou so much Nancy, sending you a little something in the post x )
   I will tell you about these later on , as it is still too early to sow these yet .Got to keep these in a cool dry place until then .
 I sorted out some Leek and Cucumber seeds , seed compost , grit , trays (in America you call these flats ) and pots.... I like to get these going now up in my unheated greenhouse .

A lovely blue sky by day this time of the year means it will be very cold during the night , so I have insulation unrolled up along the greenhouse rafters and all my plants are covered with fleece . If we get warning of it being really cold , then I will also throw sheets of newspaper over everything over night and uncover in the morning . I burn 8 hour candles in the hanging lantern and there is another ceramic lantern raised on bricks on the floor if needed .
 Thursday was a horrible windy day with torrential rain , but it seems to have settled back to our usual lovely Cornish sunshine with the occasional few days of mild drifting fog and mizzle .

For those who are interested , the Cherokee Purple Tomato plant is looking a bit sad , but is still green . It is just an experiment really  All the other tomatoes withered , died and were tossed on the compost heap ( actually on the new Pumpkin Bed )..but this Cherokee Purple was looking so healthy and very much alive at the time , that I thought I might see if I could  keep it going . It is now almost time to sow tomato seeds after all .
 I took these photos through the dirty glass of the greenhouse sorry , not good pics !

Cherokee Purple Tomato plant is reviving after being given a little drop of water .

 Then I sowed my Leek seeds one tray Musselburgh , one tray D'Hiver de St Victor and one pot of  Bleu de Solaise ..which do reliably very well for me here in the far South West Cornwall .  Musselburgh Leeks are reliable pretty much anywhere in the UK .
So easy to grow ! Also very easy to save seed from and the bees love the flowers .
 I also filled two 4"pots with seed compost and carefully pushed in up on edge ( to prevent the risk of rot) three Marketmore Cucumber seeds in each pot . I covered with a little bit more compost and some horticultural grit ( to keep hungry snails off ) .

 I squeezed them all into my crowded greenhouse and feel quite pleased with myself getting the new growing season off to a good start .

 I like to keep notes and record what I do ,varieties I,ve sown and planted . I make notes on how well things do and the failures ...It makes a good reference for the following year and then I can think about why things went wrong and can do better the next year .
      I,m known as Mummabear by some in the family ! :) Daisy Debs to you...oh ! o.k. O.K you can call me Mummabear too if you want ! ha ha ha ! :)

                                      Today's simple notes in my little red book .
Today I have both sown Leek seeds and harvested those I grew this time last year .

    Beautiful  Bleu de Solaise Leeks ready to harvest in my vegetable garden today  .
       Are you planning your veg garden 2017 yet ?