Potting On

It was a bit wet yesterday, and I've got no further with the window painting, which will have to pause. However, work in the kitchen moved on yesterday. The two joists are now supporting the wall, which has gone down further, although there are still eight or so acros in evidence.

The kitchen units and worktop have moved into the workshop, where they fit beautifully along the walls—somehow, they're the perfect sizes. I've put melamine sheets (perfect examples of 'it'll come in useful someday') over the worktop cut-outs for sink and hobs, and I now have eight cupboards with shelves, and a lot of bench space.

I should say: I did have a lot of bench space. We then immediately started potting up the pansies (132 Cat's Whiskers, 168 Amber Kiss) and primulas (132 Candelabra), which arrived in 2–3 ml modules, and are now in a variety of small pots.

Also recently arrived were six honeyberries (edible honeysuckles, Lonicera kamschatika), and a collection of cottage perennials (four of each):

• Scabiosa 'Perfecta White'
• Hollyhock 'Chaters Mix'
• Kniphofia 'Flamenco'
• Lupin 'Dwarf Mix'
• Achillea 'Summer Pastel'
• Geum 'Lady Strathden'
• Delphinium 'Black Night'
• Lobelia 'Queen Victoria'
• Galliardia 'Arizona Sun'
• Papaver 'Garden Gnome'
• Aquilegia 'Winky'
• Aubretia 'Royal Blue'

These all, also, needed potting up, as did sixteen mixed cyclamen we picked up. On the same trip, we also bought our own pair of loppers, to help with the cotoneaster

Between this lot, I have no bench space left! I'm going to try to rig up a temporary coldframe on the back patio, with some bricks and old secondary glazing. That would give me some space for—for example—the pulsatilla seedlings that are coming on.

Oh: the 50kg of daffodils I ordered from Fentongollen arrived, as did the Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica. The former, I realise, is more like 1100 bulbs, which means for a long session of planting...

Lastly, we popped out between showers yesterday, and collected the apples from the hillside, along with as many sloes as we could find, and the ripe blackberries. The weather hasn't been good for blackberries, and there aren't as many as I'd like—but hopefully enough for some wine! The sloes were better than last year, and I'll start some sloe gin when I have time. The apples are also more plentiful than last autumn, and we'll put them onto racks tomorrow evening. The chutney-making will, of course, need to wait until the kitchen is once more useable!