🌿💛8am - just before Sunrise 💛🌿

 

Through my bedroom window this morning .

The last Sunrise of 2024 

                    New Year's Eve .....also known as Old Year's Day  

                                                          🌿💛🌿

💛 Cornish Daffodils 💛

 

Stopped off along the road in Cury to buy some Daffodils . These are raising money for two precious charities iSight Cornwall and Penhaligon's Friends .

                           Lovely local Cornish Daffodils to lift our spirits !

                                                       🌿💛🌿

🤍 Winter 🤍

                                             "  I pray this 

                                                     winter be gentle 

                                                                and kind

                                                      - a season of rest

                                                          from the wheel of 

                                                                           the mind . "

                                                                                       John Geddes 

Sunrise 08:19 am 

Boxing Day - 🧅Sowing Onions and Passion Flowers 🌸

 

Happy Boxing Day !   Today's the day I am going to make a small start of sowing seeds  .

I am down on the Lizard in Cornwall , so please be aware that this may be too early for you .

Check for your own locality best sowing dates . 

                             I need to have a little tidy up in the shed . 

Apart from Spring Onions , I have only ever grown onions from sets . In the past quite successfully , but for the last two or even three years , not so successfully . Sets are not as cheap as they used to be and I can't afford to waste money , time and effort when they come up not much bigger than when I planted them !

I thought I'd give growing Onions from seeds a go and I want enormous ones this time round !

So someone advised me to try the Giant Onion Globo which is a nice large but flavourful onion ... and start it off on Boxing Day  . Today !

So here we go . If you have any onion growing tips , please let me know .

Now on the heated propagator on my bedroom windowsill . 

Next - Passiflora mollissima the pink flowering , also known as " the Banana Passionfruit " 🌸

I used to buy one of these plants every year from a chap at the Truro Boot Fair and then one day .....he stopped coming 😭😢😞

This is such a pretty pink Passion Flower 🌸I found this packet of seeds at the Happy Green Shop online . 10 seeds in this packet . 🌸Sown them all !   🌸 Love it !  🌸 Want it everywhere ! 🌸 

Took me half an hour to find that little water spray bottle .

All now on a heated propagator on the bedroom windowsill .

I made a note of my sowing dates last year and my next seeds to be sown will be the Sweet Peppers - "Corno di Toro Rosso" - on the 13 January .  These did very well last year  🌶️🌶️🌶️

I just hope and pray that the greenhouse men will come and fix the leaking greenhouse roof  .Especially now we're going into the coldest months . 

 They did say that they would come early January   😞

                My Little Red Books - very important  ⭐

                 Pencil to write on labels - ⭐

                 Labels - ⭐

                Squishy squirty little water bottle for indoors - ⭐ 

 Compost - ⭐- feels SO good to get my hands into the earth again ! ...Oh and the fragrance of it ! 

                 Heat  Propagator -  ⭐

                  Pans and lids - ⭐

                                             🌱   Seeds  🌱

                                                          🌿💚🌿

🌿 Leeks 🌿

 

                                           A little bit of blue sky !

Yesterday the wind was blowing across us from the South West . Brrr... today , it isn't frosty , but it is a very cold morning . The wind has swung around and is now coming from the North .

I'm planning on making soup today and a cheese flan with ....hmm... maybe mushrooms and broccoli .

They have done really well this year . I usually grow Musselburgh , Jaune du Poitou and Bleu de Solaise or Carentan . I think these were a variety called Large American Flag . I can't find it in my little red note book . I try to keep a record of everything I sow , grow and harvest , I seem to have omitted this year's Leeks . In my opinion , they all taste pretty much the same  . It being milder here , means I can grow the pretty French varieties ...blue and yellow .....which look gorgeous , but do all taste the same to me !

Musselburgh is the good old reliable one and better if you live further up-country and usually cheaper to buy . 

Anyway , I prepared these and put them in the fridge for later .

Peelings have gone onto an empty veg bed which I am covering with leaves , grass clippings and other lovely things to feed the good earth to make it ready for next season . 

  Sorting out the windowsill propagator and all the little pans and their lids .

Sweet Peppers , Cucumbers , Leeks and Tomatoes . And I am looking forward to growing some unusual Passion Flowers in the greenhouse next year 2025. (that's if the greenhouse builders have returned to fix the roof in time ...sigh ...)  

                                     We'll be sowing seeds again very soon ! 

                     ❄️🐌🐌🦡🦔🦦🦦🦊❄️🦊🐌🐌🦆🦆🐌🐌🦔🦔❄️

🐦‍⬛ Ten O'Clock Jack

 

                          There he is , waiting for me up on the roof .

                                 Flies down and runs to greet me !  Hello Jack ! 

                                        How are you today ? 

                               Will you come to my hand today ? 

   He's coming in very close to me , but not ready to take from my hand just yet .

                                      He chooses a grain of maize .

                   "Thankyou and good-bye 🤍  See you again tomorrow !"

Thankyou Sue ! 💐

 It worked ! YOU FIXED IT !  You are a star !  ⭐ THANKYOU EVER SO MUCH ⭐ xxx 

Marazion beach combing - fossils - part two 🦈

So here we are at Marazion and there is St Michael's Mount .

To the right you can see Penzance in the distance . When the tide is out , and I mean a very long way out , there can be seen tree stumps and roots which are the the remains of a 6,000 year old forest .

To the right of St Michael's Mount we are looking towards beautiful Marazion village and the causeway where you can walk out to the Mount or catch a boat if the tide is in .

I continue on with my beach combing ...

....and then my eyes were drawn to this !

Yes , I brought it home with me ! Now , If I had found this up on the Isle of Wight ,(and could this have washed all the way down here from the Isle of Wight ?) I can see bone capillaries . I would have thought Cretaceous-land dinosaur spike, horn , scale or tooth ...polacanthus maybe ....but Marazion ? I look up Marazion and find that there is an area of it that is Late Devonian . I know the Jurassic period very well from fossil hunting up in Charmouth and the Cretaceous with it's land dinosaurs at the Isle of Wight and we have had some amazing finds there , but , I really don't know anything about the Devonian period .

I did some research and found out that the Late Devonian Period is also known as "The Age of Fishes " So now I'm thinking ...😱 🦈 Dunkleosteus 🦈 tooth . This beast had teeth that grew out of it's jaw bones and self sharpened them as it opened and closed it's jaws . I remembered that there was a small geological museum in Penzance , but when I tried to contact them about maybe coming to visit , I was told it had closed down and no one seemed to know where the collection had been moved to .

It's all very exciting and I can't wait to get back down on the beach and see what else I can find ! By the way , our own local beach , Poldhu , also has remains of 6,000 year old forest when the tide is a very long way out, it is very soft and peat like and there is also an area of Late Devonian . I found a nice fossil piece of (we think) a pine branch . It was just lying on the beach . 🦈That's all fer now folks ! I should be writing Christmas cards ...lol ! 🦈

We didn't get blown away - Fossils - part one 🦖🦈🦕🦈

Thankfully we survived the storm . Just the usual , a tree came down up the lane and a neighbour's fence down , flowerpots and bin lids flying in from somewhere lower down the lane . Powercuts all over Cornwall , our lights were flickering and the internet kept cutting out on and off . We were o.k.

We have had a fairly settled week weather-wise and even a little sunshine . I have a new little friend . A Jackdaw . He is very tame and every morning at around 10am he is coming to me (in my bright red kagoul) for a handful of grain .

There he is sitting up on the telegrah wire . I know it's a rubbish pic and I am working on trying to get some better photos of him . Also Blogger seems to have changed the way we upload pictures ..I'm seeing lots of gobbledegook html I think it's called and can't see my photos until I click to publish it . Very confusing . My daughter is not here now to help me..she would know what to do . It's probably me ! I have probably done something wrong .

I just remembered that I was going to tell you about our recent fossil finds .Yes , so we got away for just two days of dinosaur hunting up at Charmouth .

Hubby found a small but OMG awesome piece of a Rhamphorynchus beak last time we came , so now it's my turn ! I did find an Ichthyosaur vertebra but he's still the winner .

Unfortunately the tide was out but the nights were drawing in and it became too dark for us to see . I came home with my usual bundle of driftwood , seaglass , heart stones and a couple of nice old bricks to hold down netting up in my vegetable garden . I also felt that we didn't really have time "to get our eye in " as they say ....but we'll be back !

So then we came home and went for a McDonalds and a coffee sitting in the car watching the waves at Marazion . I went for a little wander along the beach .Marazion is well known for semi-precious stones , which wash in from places far away . We don't find fossils here . So I'm just beach-combing , looking at all the different seaweeds ,semi-precious stones , looking for sea glass , funnyface and heart stones .

And off I go, deep in thought and in my own little world ....

....jelly fish and sea weeds ...

.... and funny face stones .....

...to be continued ......

Storm Darragh - on the way ⛈️

The calm before the storm .

I spent the morning lopping down any branches overhanging the summer house .

Then climbed in and lopped any hazel branches that might rub and displace the roof tiles on one side of the garage .

The hazel branches will be trimmed up , tied into bundles . I'll use these for supporting peas and beans next season . I haven't cut them all . I want the branches on the other side to grow somewhat larger for Runner beans .

Working fast to get things done before the bad weather comes in , but I couldn't help but stop to have a closer look at this beautiful mushroom .

Got a cover over this variegated and not so hardy Agave . It blew away in the last storm , but I found it and this time I have pushed in even more supports to hold it down .

Agave salmiana ferox has outgrown all my cloches . It is quite a tough one . I began putting some fencing around it , with a view to maybe throwing a tarpulin over it and some branches to hold it in place , but then I decided that this incoming storm is going to be more of a wind event and I think it will be o.k . I don't want it's beautiful sexy dark green leaves to get scratched or damaged at all. If I am wrong , then I will dash outside and cover it . I am hoping that this Agave will flower next year .

My Sweet Peas have germinated under the teepee I put over them . I tightened up the string around it and made sure the canes are pushed in deep and secure .

Covered over the garden seat with a tarpulin and moved it into a more sheltered spot . Storm Darragh is a red wind warning - danger to life with gusts of up to 90 mph . Take care everyone . So incase you wondered where I'd gone ...last month was horrible ....all manner of things going wrong such as the heating and hot water boiler breaking down , the kitchen tap not running properly which is making washing up a miserable task ....the men coming to replace one half of the new greenhouse roof and the replacement one also leaking ....they have agreed to replace it again , this time without a roof window , they say they can't come until January . So I have not been able to bring all the cactus and Epiphullum collection back into the greenhouse . I have had to remove the winter insulation roll stuff that is laid across the rafters , because the rain is coming down all over it . I have a deep tray into which the rain is running into .I hurt myself shifting heavy furniture so moving all the plants back in only to have to move them out again and then back in agian when thework is done is out of the question ! I know , it's all silly minor stuff going wrong as things do for everyone . I didn't want to fill my garden blog with all this misery .....so now I have ..sorry ! 🤣 The plants are all over the place ..in the shed ....in the porch ...on windowsills around the house . In the bigger picture I know people have alot worse things to deal with . I know . I know ....sigh ...and my heart goes out to you . The garden and the greenhouse is my happy , calming , peaceful and Spiritual place . (PTSD-not so bad now-still creeps back occasionally )

So , you'll be very glad to know , that's all fer now ! Cheerio and take care in the stormy weather . ⛈️🌧️ Next time I'll tell you about the fossil I found at Marazion ! 😀