At least we know the polytunnels are secure after the work we did on them yesterday. temperature is 10 or 11 degrees Centigrade according to the weather station but it feels colder, and the wind, consistently in the 20 mph range, particulalrly when accompanied by showers, isn’t improving matters. I don’t mind the cold and I can tolerate rain but I don’t like wind. When I worked on markets we always noticed the same thing – people would come out in the cold and most of them would come out in the rain, but the wind really used to keep them at home.

We just had a short thunderstorm and I suspect we appear on this map. We’re one of the northerly yellow crosses.

This morning we potted up parsley (flat and curly leaved) and tarragon, an endeavour that started going noticeably quicker once we turned on The Jam. You need something that moves the job along without causing too many spillages.

The tea plantation is moving ahead nicely – new leaves are appearing and that first brew can’t be far off. I would invite you all for a taste but it’s unlikely to make more than a couple of cups to start with and it wouldn’t be worth the trip. You may notice that there’s half a leaf missing; it came off in my hand while I was admiring the soft new growth. I ate it to see what it tasted like because james Wong has a recipe for tea leaf and cucumber sandwiches. It didn’t taste of much but I wasn’t surprised as his recommendations have a habit of sounding better than they taste. It may be that I expect too much, or that I have no taste buds, but I have a growing suspicion that I am merely a gullible dupe in a global marketing operation.

Apart from that it’s been a day of mixed fortunes. We’ve done quite a bit of tidying up but it’s been at the expense of planting and admin so the feeling of achievement is diluted by a vague feeling that i could have done better. One school has emailed to confirm a visit, and another has called to cancel because they can’t get buses on the days they want. Despite there being thousands of buses in the country and 365 days in a year schools seem to run their visit policy  on tha basis of limited dates and even more limited bus companies. This isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem.

For me it’s frustrating, and I imagine it’s worse for the teacher, who has just put a lot of effort into organising the trip. As for the kids – they will just have to stay inside instead of coming to the farm to hunt insects and bake a pizza for lunch.

That is life on a care farm!