I’ve been potting up seedlings over the last few days. I’m doing it quite gradually because I like potting up seedlings and I haven’t really got all that many. I used to grow lots of plants – twenty, twenty-five years ago, I grew them for Ro’s school fete, where I always ran the plant stall. Other people brought along plants too, of course, but at least three-quarters of them were provided by me. I didn’t just grow from seed, I also bought seedlings from seed companies and potted them up, which was an economical way of having several hundred flower plants to sell on. I reckoned the cost of the seeds and seedlings, plus the pots and compost, were my donation and the profit to the school was a bonus. Check out the parable of the talents…
After that, I grew them for Al’s shop, but he sold that business four and a half – I think – years ago. And now I am trying to restrain myself and plant what we actually need. I like growing a lot of variety though and it’s not that easy. I’m restricting myself to three seeds of each tomato variety, for instance, when I really want fifty plants to care for.
The piano tuner says that the reason the piano goes out of tune quite badly is because there are various things that need tightening up – you may remember that it was pretty well totally rebuilt, at considerable cost, and everything replaceable was replaced. But since then, things have dried out and shrunk somewhat and so there’s wiggle room. At least it’s playable now, but he’s going to come and spend a day on it; for which he isn’t going to charge as he reckons it’s part of the renovation job.
Also due to be renovated is the roof at the back of the garage/workshop buildings. Someone is coming to look and advise on Friday – he can’t do the work for another year, but I’m sure he’ll help out with the running repairs – at present, there’s water in the coal shed.
In addition, I’ve taken on membership of our local and very young vineyard. I hope it will become a going concern, it’s a young couple who have invested all their time and money into it and they’re getting a good deal of support. English wine can be lovely, the first bottles of this one are due to be ready later this year and we’ll be among the first drinkers. This club membership is a present for LT really, though I’ve put it in our joint names, because after all, we’ll both be visiting the vineyard and drinking the wines.
I have a lot of books waiting to be read. I’m reading more and buying more but I’m buying quicker than reading. So nose down for an early night.
Wine Yard ?!? In Norfolk ?!
You see me very surprised.
What do they grow there ? I mean what sort of grapes do they use, what happens in the cellar – questions abound. English wine – who had thought …
Sorry to hear that the piano needs further maintenance, perhaps it is a bit too dry where it stands ?
There have been vineyards in Norfolk for a good many years, I visited one about 20 years ago and I bought some really good Norfolk white wine a couple of years ago – the red was rather less successful on that occasion. We will know more once we’ve visited the vineyard, but I can tell you they’re growing Pinot blanc, Pinot noir and Bacchus (which I understand is a German variety that does particularly well in Franconia). They intend to make sparkling wine from the Pinot noir grapes – you may know that English sparkling wine has been winning international awards in the last few years.
The piano is in probably the best room for it in the house, plenty of air circulation, no central heating, west facing with no direct sunlight on it – I hope that this work will put everything right. It spent some years in store in various different places and, being a pianola, it’s a more complex instrument than most pianos. It’ll have to stay where it is anyway, there’s no room for it anywhere else!
I’ll look up their website and put a link to it in the next post.