Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” is coming to our TV screens in the near future. I believe it will be on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. I’m looking forward to seeing how it translates from the book to the screen.
Month: March 2017
Potting On Tomato Seedlings
I spent a little time yesterday afternoon potting on my tomato seedlings. They’ve reached the point where they now have a good set of “true leaves” and are ready to be moved on.
[A quick aside. “True” leaves are the first leaves on a seedling that actually look like those on the adult plant, and not the “seed” leaves that are the first to appear. Potting on seedlings before they have their true leaves can mean that the seedlings won’t survive the transplanting, and it is more likely that you’ll damage the seedling moving it to it’s new home. I’ve seen a few pictures in the last few days where a keen gardener has potted on a seedling without true leaves. They might be lucky, but the seedlings stand a better chance with the patient gardener.]
I start by getting the new modules ready, filling them with good quality, multi-purpose compost. I know roughly how many seedlings there are, barring clumsy fingers, so I prepare all my modules beforehand.
Next I prepare a hole for each new seedling. One per module using my handy dibber pencil.
Then carefully I tease them out of their current home with the tip of the same pencil, being careful to keep as much of the seedlings root as possible. Being gentle and not yanking them out of the soil, will reduce any transplant shock and help them to establish in their new modules faster. Also handle them by the leaves and not the stem. Picking them up by the stem, can break the stem and you’ll loose the seedling. It seems a little
counter-intuitive but it works.
When I’m done, I move the module trays into gravel trays to help with watering, and give the seedlings a little drink around the top of the compost. Again being careful not to drown the seedlings and squash them under a deluge of water.
These now go back indoors to a warm and sunny spot e.g. a windowsill. They’re not ready to plant out yet, it’s too cold and they’re not big enough. I’ll probably pot them on again once more, before putting them in their final growing spot, once they have their first flowering truss.
The Unreported Issues of Breadmaking
If you’re trying to sell a house there’s some advice that says you should brew coffee or make bread just before a viewing to create a favourable atmosphere (and nice smell).
What no one tells you about making bread is that the smell can also be a massive distraction.
You’ll know if you’re a regular reader that we have a breadmaker and bake our own bread in it. In fact we’ve just recently bought a new one to replace our old, much used and worn out machine.
This morning I put the breadmaker on, in order to bake a loaf, so that we could have some later on with the soup that I’m planning for dinner this evening, and also possibly a sneaky bread and jam treat for lunchtime.
It is however a massive distraction. Not because it’s a noisy machine, far from it. It’s the smell, the gorgeous aroma of bread baking in the kitchen, which happens to be right next to my office, where I am trying not to drown in my own saliva, and instead concentrate on work. The timer says that there is about 50 minutes left to go for this loaf before it’s ready, just in time for lunch. Before then however I have a phone call to make and things that I need to focus on.
Nothing like freshly baked bread to help focus the mind!
Electronic Scrapbook 