Glorious

 Got up this morning to gorgeous sunshine and hardly any of the sub zero wind , so pottered happily outside all morning . Broad beans huge propagator full sat outside on the garden bench , note to self must remember to tie them down before the next howling gale . Asparagus , leeks , celeriac and a few cabbages in the other propagator . All will sit outside till they feel like making an appearance , im in no rush for them , then the propagators will turn there hand to squash and cucumbers and jewel corn . Inside i will start a few tomatoes and peppers .

Much to my surprise sarcastic son , turned up asking for garden jobs , bear in mind hes barely left the house since before covid . I asked him what he wanted to do and he said pruning , apparently hes been watching lots of gardening videos on You Tube . Hes done wonders in the back garden near the house , but he got maybe 10ft away from the house and said he was going in now because he was starting to panic . Is this a sign that hes finally found a decent counsellor , the job center have fixed him up with one due to the total indiference from our GP .  He did say the new counsellor was nice and got that he has agrophobia with anxiety issues , she has told him to set little goals and it doesnt mean hes a failure if he cant complete them . Big difference from the last idiot he got who kept telling he was a failure at every turn and actually worsened his condition . Mental Health care in the UK is a soddin joke 

Looming

 Yes the start of the gardening season is upon us ..lol , even if its bleedin freezing out there and its a wee bit waterlogged. Sat and ordered the last of the seeds for this year  More squash , beans and beetroot , last years massive failures havent put me off , crap weather is a feature of the job and if the gloom continues it might not be much of a season this year but you will still get some decent titbits if nothing else . Lots of King Edwards waiting to go in and my usual orkney blues and pink fir apples all sat waiting and ive not bought any of them theyre all savings from last year .  i will start a few tomatoes this week just half a dozen seeds and pop a cucumber or two in , the broad beans and the leeks can go in a propagator outside theres no need to rush them . Subject to the weather i plan on chopping the big raspberry patch to the ground and drowning it in a huge garden builders bag of leaves and kitchen scraps then topping with grass cuttings in a few weeks . Ive plenty of raspberries in the freezer and in jars so a year off wont hurt .

 Not sure what is happening at the bottom of the garden due to the builders deciding to flail all my bushes off !! also caught them discusing sawing my willow tree down , i did point out its actually 3ft inside my garden . They slopped off at that point but i wont be suprised if they start building fires at the base theyve done that on other peoples bounderies , there was much muttering about scummy council house tenants . Thats State Housing to those of you abroad . Theres a lot of predjudice on that front , even the bleedin estate agent was saying they will struggle to sell the two houses facing us because we are council tenants . 

Highlights Lowlights

Another pretty boring week , looking out the window at the rain , at least it isnt snow . We have come to the end of  himselfs current hospital cycle and we have a whole month off , im awaiting appointments which may take weeks months or years , who knows . 

I was deeply impressed that i managed to get a whole 3kg of brown rice for the grand sum of £1.50  it was just in date , so ive kilner jarred it with oxygen absorbers and it will last me a year . You cant keep brown rice for much longer as it can go rancid . The dreaded crisp lady had a big box of wholefoods bags hidden amid the 100% unhealthy usual stock . On the prepping front do remember to rotate your stock , dried anything can be practically immortal , spices etc lose  there strength once unsealed but they are still usable if you add a wee bit more , the sniff test works best if it has no smell it has no taste , tinned goods last years past the date , anything with tomatoes not so long. it depends on the quality of the tin and lining , certain tinned fruit lasts longer than others . You cant tell by the brand the only way to tell is by opening one and having a look . Dried fruit is another near immortal if its looking a bit shrivelled soak it in a cup of tea and its as good as new . I'm on a mission for a wet day and will do a stock check , anything coming up to its usable lifespan goes on the worktop in a box and its added to the next couple of weeks menus. 

Chicken stew is starting to smell good , made with a couple of garlic chicken thighs and the juice and skin  from yesterdays chicken and veg , wilted celery a couple of sad carrots and a big tin of 5 bean salad that ive been trying to find a use for, it was years out of  date but when opened were perfect . So its stew and dumplings for tea ...it looks that sort of day

OOPS

 Well ive tried for weeks to avoid this but im afraid its got to be done  . Im going to comment on US politics even though its none of my business and you lot voted for this muppet . As a comparison , nobody here voted for Liz Truss we just got lumbered with her lunacy because the Tories never listen to anyone who wasnt a donor   What the hell is going on, the return of the orange one seems to be going well doesnt it?  Meanwhile Musk is runnng riot in his normal mr wonderful mode as he starts the asset stripping of every government department he can get through the doors of . Theres so much bullshit being pumped out by the usual suspects online its hard to tell what the actual truth is .  Musk is the real danger , he knows best and is only happy when destroying anything he gets his hands on . Bezos and Zuckerberg looked like a pair of hostages at the inaugerration and its made the news a giggle every morning when we get up . No matter how bad things are here in the UK this shambles makes us look good and at the moment we still have cheap eggs . For a country with so many guns is nobody a good shot?