As our house has slate floors throughout which can be a bit hard and cold for no shoes, I am making "Visitors' Slippers". Having boiled a few jumpers in the washing machine to make felt, I am sewing simple mule type slippers in various sizes. My first prototype pair are a bit untidy but the photo shows the general idea. I made mine with three layers of felt for the base but am told that a more waterproof sole can be made from an old yoga mat!
Seed sowing continues. The propagator is jam packed. I love sowing seeds, sieving the compost, using a presser board to firm the compost (or a jam pot lid when sowing in 9cm pots)before carefully placing the seeds and then more sieving. The very best bit is floating the trays and pots in a bowl of water and waiting for the surface of the compost to glisten! Tomatoes have been pricked out and the chillies have just germinated, even the ones from Home Bargains! This weekend, I have sowed chard, leeks, broccoli, beetroot, Nicotiana mutabalis ( a beautiful small flowered variety with marshmallow colours, guess what the variety is called!) various Primula, Monarda and .....Cotoneaster! The seed was saved and chilled from a lovely bunch of Christmas greenery my sister gave me! I was delighted when I came to sow the leeks that Carl, my seedy penpal sent last month had included an early and a late variety 'Jaune de Poitou' and 'Bleu de Solaise'. I have only grown Musselburgh before so am looking forward to trying these.
We planted red, white and yellow onion sets as well as shallots today. We decided to cover the bed with floating film as our Catlings are now experiencing the outside world. Freshly raked raised beds are the ideal spot for their toilette it seems!
Next post will be a bee gallery!
