Little shoots in the wet garden

The greenhouse thermometer records the 'high' (57.9F) and 'low' (32.4)

 

Puddles in the garden!

The weathermen are delighting in forecasting a succession of storms for the UK at the moment - there always seems to be another lurking in the Atlantic, heading our way!  It's howling a hoolie and pouring with rain as I type this evening, and further north (so that's basically the rest of the country, really!) it's a lot worse.

The winter greens selection looking good - and wet!

During the brief dry spells, we headed down the garden to check on things and were delighted to see lots and lots of little green shoots in the garlic beds.

New shoots coming through

This is the garlic that germinated a couple of weeks ago

It's always encouraging to see signs of new growth, especially in the dismal days of winter (and we're only a couple of days away from the shortest day now), so to see so many little shoots emerging raised the spirits.  We've both been feeling a little down for a few days, for a number of reasons, and this small ray of hope has perked us up.

The seedling on the left is not looking too happy

Lavender cuttings - and a weed!

I also checked on things in the greenhouse - not a huge amount going on, to be honest, but the lavender cuttings are still looking OK, and one of the two apple seedlings seems to be fine, and has put on a couple more leaves.  The other seedling doesn't seem to have survived, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for the other.

We had to buy a new hard-drive today.  The laptop I use is becoming more and more slow and unpredictable, and we have been worried for some time that we may lose the files and photos that are currently saved on it, so action had to be taken before a disaster hit.  We'll download all the files we want to keep, and then spend some time sorting through everything - maybe a job for next year.  

We met up with a friend yesterday and went for lunch at the Propellor Inn, beside the little airfield in Bembridge.  The meal was lovely, and sat in front of the wood-burning stove, chatting and eating, was a very pleasant way to spend time indeed.  We shall be returning there again!