A day off to catch up with things which need doing before the year runs away. The first really warm day of Spring and time to sort the garden out. It's a blank canvas to start with. Then we begin planting our chitted potatoes. First we sow two rows of 'Ratte' (right hand side) and two of 'Kestrel' with some blood and bone meal to give them a kick start. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so we don't need to water them.
My broad beans are doing well, but they can go in next week when the soil has had a good soak.
Next *we* get to grips with putting up our new polytunnel - big, big thanks to Andy's mum and dad for such a generous Christmas present. Really it's just like putting up a big tent. Not my department, but remarkably easy. Apparently.
As *we* busied ourselves, helicopters began humming overhead heralding the end of the first day of racing at the Cheltenham Festival and it felt as if this very long winter was finally over.
We didn't realise it would be quite so big! It is 6.5 ft high, 6 ft wide and 14ft long. Our polytunnel came from here, but recently I have seen the same models for less, in sales. So I advise shopping around if you decide to invest in one.
Actually, it feels huge inside. It is three times as big as (what is laughingly described as) the cottage's kitchen. It's bigger than our bedroom. And it eats up a lot of the garden, especially once I had finished planting my potatoes, (Duke of York and King Edward) using most of the right hand bed.
Andy is circumspect about the amount of space it uses. I don't care. Inside there is lots of shelter for my darlings......things are coming up at last. 
Hopefully this year we might actually get some tomatos, which will be snug under cover and safe from the tomato blight spores which thrive in the damp winds of our wet British summers and have literally blighted us for the last few years. And there will be aubergines, courgettes, sweet peppers, chillis, perhaps even beans trained up the poles and arches. What joy it is to be a gardener - we have big dreams, hope for the best and expect the worst. In the end, it is usually something in the middle.
For anyone wondering if I still make things, if I still needle felt, if I still paint - indeed I do; I do very little else at the moment, and am working very silly hours indeed. Things are getting somewhat stressful. I'm still bound by client confidentiality, so I will leave you to wonder what it is that is turning me into a nervous wreck. 