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Conguero, donchyaknow?
Mon Apr 14 22:58:16 BST 2008
It's been all go at thesecretdog towers these last few weeks, largely due to my starting to learn to drive (for the second time!), and also starting to learn to play congas with these nice people.
Taking up the congas has been particularly intense and challenging. I've been a musician for ten or twelve years now, but since the first few years I have really been developing incrementally and in subtle ways. The congas have been completely different: a whole new instrument, concentrating entirely on rhythm and rooted in an unfamiliar musical culture -- it's like nothing I've ever done before, and I love it! I'm finding it tough going, but utterly compelling.
Spring is springing
Out in the garden everything is starting to look much more alive. The daffodils are pretty much knackered by now, but the peony I shifted from one end of the vegetable bed to the other in January is coming on strong. I've also plopped in a few rosemary and lavender plants to encourage bees in the summertime.
In addition to this, the seed potatoes I bought from the Shipley Potato Fair back in February went out in a big tub trug planter this weekend. They were already sprouting pretty vigorously, so I hope they take well.
The award for My Favourite Plant(s) Of The Moment probably has to go to my tomato seedlings. I planted them around three weeks ago in a propagator cunningly constructed from an old clear plastic biscuit box. Despite the rather less than ideal temperatures in our house (garden book: "Tomatoes need to be at a minimum of 25 degrees C to germinate"; our house: 16 degrees C on a good day) I got a whole nine plants out of the eighteen seeds I planted. This weekend I transferred them to a set of pots, again cunningly constructed, this time from toilet roll tubes. They're cheery little beasts.
Finally, it seems I have hit on the way to keep the cats from treating my veggie beds as litter boxes (praise be!). The secret? It's low tech: simply stick some stout twigs into any exposed earth in the garden. It appears cats dislike a stick up the bum just as much as anyone else.