Ooops! Forgot the title..

   The weather continues to be clear and sunny with a hard frost in the morning. Most mornings have been -3C at the front of the house and the ground is now unworkable because it it frozen! I cannot win at the moment.
   Having -3C every morning with frost has meant that my celery is now done for. The fennel is just about hanging in there and the root crops, parsnip, turnip, swede, orbis and beetroot are surviving. The few parsnips that I have dug up have varied between being very good and completely destroyed. The long period of soaking wet ground meant that some had started to rot and those are a complete right off. I have been raking up leaves and I have mulched the strawberries. I have also started a new leaf mould bed using the well rotted stuff on the poly tunnel beds. The plum tree that had broken branches due to an overweight of fruit has been trimmed and pruned. I need to get pruning the old apple tree! Despite saying to myself that I would get rid of it I have staked up an old pear tree. It has produced a number of new shoots which have fruit buds on them so I will give it another year. I have also had to stake up one of my new apple trees which is top heavy and leaning in the wrong direction. 
   The days are short and despite the sunshine not a lot gets done. It will soon be mid-winter and before I know it I will be sowing onion and tomato seed. Christmas is now just a few days away and the turkeys and geese have been dispatched. Looks like we have some very good birds this year.

Two geese and four turkeys.

Crack on!

   Gee! Two weeks has past since the last blog, not that there is much to say. The weather has taken a turn for the better. Cold, yes, frost yes, a little sunshine yes, but rain no! Hooray! Just need the ground to dry out a little and I will be able to do some forking. Famous last words those. Of course the frosts have got harder which means the ground is hard until the afternoon and of course once you get past three o'clock french time the day is pretty much over! Pah!
    Our eldest home reared chick now nicknamed by me as Big Chick, has been confirmed as a cockerel! He was spotted being seduced by a brown hen.
   In the poly tunnel the potatoes planted for Christmas have shown. I do not think we will be eating them for Christmas but if I can protect them we could have new potatoes early in 2014. Some french shallots (torpedo shaped) that I planted to see what might happen are starting to show. Winter leaves are now being picked and very nice they are too.  I have a good crop of coriander and the kohl rabi are swelling nicely. I am hopeful for a couple of spring cauliflowers.
   In the outside garden I have been trying to gather up fallen apples and rake up leaves. The chickens have other ideas. The oak tree is dropping leaves but there is still a lot to fall. I want those leaves for the strawberries!
   Heath Robinson has nothing on me! I fixed my front gate which was had a broken slat and the gate was sticking. Bit of spare wood, sand paper, some wood screws and old bit of plastic pipe and hey the gate closes without sticking or falling apart! 
   So all in all I have spent more time putting up Christmas decorations than doing gardening. Such is the way of things. Still, there is plenty to do if I get the chance so onward to Christmas!