Goodbye January

 Hello dear friends , well I have had a dreadful time this week with flu....it's been a bit of a nightmare actually , with a bad reaction to some pills I was given to take ...  I,m still coughing....but thanks to a good Doctor  , I am still here !  :)
I wont be going to dance class this week or shopping with my good friend ...nor will I be going to spread the nasty flu virus around at church this Sunday . ....although I might just pop in to do the flowers . I think this will be the last week of flowers until Easter now  .
 Anyway I couldn't let the month slip away without mentioning my lovely leeks . Look how well they stand up to the cold and miserable weather .

 Of course  I always make the mistake of trying to pull one up by hand , only to have it snap apart . It's o.k I managed to save the best part of it !

                             It is always better to gently fork up leeks .

  They are a reasonable size......I,m not growing to enter into any show ...these are just perfect for us to eat .

 So I just smarten them up and hasten back into the warmth of my kitchen again .

 I recently came across one of these old Boot Scrapers and snapped it up ..another job to be done when the weather improves .

 Meanwhile the weather and the sea is wild and turning bitterly cold as we slip into February . February and March being our coldest months here .

 There are signs of Spring though if you care to look for them . Pretty raindrops falling from the Sticky buds on the Cornus controversa variegata ..."the Wedding Cake Tree " .

 One of my sweet daughters sent a Tesco crate full of healthy goodies to build me up again .  My other daughter sent  nourishing homemade leek and potato soup .... mmmmmm .... sweethearts both of my lovely girls !
 I have enough citrus fruits to make marmalade , lemon ,n,lime curd , Sticky Lemon Drizzle cake ..maybe ..as well as the obligatory honey and lemon drinks !

 My January Kitchen windowsill .From left to right I have a nice sized specimen of a Leuchtenbergia principis cactus . In the large vase is a Bromliad that finished flowering , it had a large yellow inflorescence ....which I have now removed as it finished . It is putting out shoots and will need re-potting very soon . next back pot is an unknown bulb that I found under a dead plant as I tipped it out to throw away . I re-potted the bulb and here it is coming up . Looks a bit like a Tulip..but maybe it could be a Lily of the Valley . Then all my Pelargonium cuttings the last ones that I did end of Autumn . Then all the Air plants that I still haven,t mounted on hanging wires ,so they are still sitting in the old Hyacinth vases ...and they too are putting out pups ( shoots )  . The air plants have a weekly warm bath ...by the way . So everybody is looking happy and healthy  :)

                                  Wild sea down at Poldhu this evening .
 There was one surfer in amongst the waves this evening  , the sea looked too strong for him we thought .

                                                  Goodbye January !