Spring Fever...

A whole month has passed in a whirl of manuring, tilling, planting, swatting blackflies, finally getting the polytunnel finished and drinking lots of beer with visitors form the UK!
First things first. With much tweaking, the polytunnel cover is tight as a drum and even meets Richard's high standards. We now have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil and salad planted up inside plus strawberries, raspberries, onions, peas and potatoes, plus a few other bits in the ground outside. Everything is still quite dinky, but despite the hot temperatures during the day, it still can get parky at night, so we're holding off with some of the more tender plants.
The kids have hectic after-school lives, between guides, music lessons, cross country, art club and 4H, and so consequently, Mum and Dad have hectic after school lives too!
Our mudroom is the new nursery - as well as Breagh's latest crop of baby gerbils, we have twelve two week old chicks in a brooder - the layers of the future we hope. Next week we hope to pick up two Berkshire weaners, but they will be housed out of doors!
Spring has taken it's time getting here, the trees bursting reluctantly into leaf within the last two weeks, but the birds are busy (we've had our first hummingbirds), and things are starting to look pretty lush. And the big question - are blackfly as bad as the scottish midge? Our verdict? No. Pretty bloody annoying, but no, and more short lived; they already seem to be waning. But they do come out when the sun is shining, which can be frustrating.
We had two lots of visitors this month; Claire (my sister), Nigel (her partner) and Alex (Nige's son), plus Donal & Nicola and Eleana, Ceile, & Osin (their kids)- old friends from Arran. Having them here has had a number of effects, not least the fabby new propane BBQ which was a gift from Donal and Nicola (we had our usual humming and hawing about buying a proper one), but also we have been inspired to root out the burgeoning music scene on the South Shore and pick up our instruments a bit more.
It's been just great to have them around, and feels a bit empty to see them all away, but back to planting onions I guess....