Well, it’s snowing now but the past few days have been wet and very windy. So windy in fact one of the trunks on an old tree just snapped in the wind. You can see how it’s smashed the fence on the way to landing in the neighbour’s field. Always sad to loose a tree or even part of one. Must admit the fact that it was covered in ivy probably added to its downfall. Much of the remaining branches have been stripped bare by our delightful red squirrels. 
I find February is such a frustrating month (by then desperate to get my hands in the dirt) but this year I’ve been indulging in some free online courses from Futurelearn I really enjoyed the one on Rabbie Burns and am looking forward to the one on family history (my other passion). Even so I’ve been doing some gardening jobs…
Just getting out my tins of seeds gets me excited- how pathetic does that sound. Now, I made a note in my diary not to sow too early or too much stuff so I’ve exercised some self-restraint. I’ve sown some beetroot in modules and that’s in a polytunnel. The rest of the modules are in the back bedroom for the time being.
I’ve sown chillies, nasturtiums, sweet peas, onions, leeks, aubergines and tomatoes.
Some signs of life already….hoping to get the flowers, onions and leeks into the polytunnels by the end of the week. Please don’t go all leggy on me.
More parsnip and swede from the garden with the second half of the precious haggis, peas are frozen and not from the garden. To be honest I thought the swede would be like wood by now but it cooked up well.
I’m becoming a crazy ‘collard’ woman I just love this veg. Next week we’re going to have black garlic and collard pasta I’ll report back. Last week it was collards with more squash (bigger portion this time!) potatoes and corned beef pie.
Finally, that polytunnel just keeps on giving I’m still eating buckets of salad. Leaves, beetroot and fishcakes – more exotic fare!
Before the next blog I need to weed and plant up the onion bed plus get a new area cleared and weeded for planting up jerusalem artichokes. Anjafinne we’re trying jerusalem artichoke chips and fish tonight thanks to your suggestion.
Jen's Jardin 
No need for sadness when you’re already starting to sow! And you’ve got parsnips this year – hurray. Where did you manage to find haggis in France? I’m still waiting for our collards to reach eating size, the slugs got quite a lot of them this year.
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Sadness for the tree – hate losing trees. We only ever shop for food in France except for steel cut oats (I get them shipped from the UK 22KG at a time). Friends bring us out Macsween haggis when they visit – we freeze them and enjoy them over the winter with root veggies. Miracle parsnips at last – started in modules then planted out.
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That’s funny that you get haggis as guest gifts. When we lived in the States, I tried to make one myself, which didn’t turn out too badly – better than the one from the American butcher who had added ham and garlic to it!
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It be honest I prefer white pudding but these friends are English so they’d have to cross borders to get me a proper white pudding. Sometimes they bring me a Lee’s Macaroon bar 😉 Hmm ham and garlic in a haggis sounds disgusting. The only thing I miss from the States is Pepperidge Farm Stuffing never been able to duplicate the recipe.
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I hope the artichoke chips turned out OK – the oil needs to be very hot for them to be nice and crisp on the outside… Here it will be almost a month before any sowing – but looking at my hoard of seeds is one of my favourite pastimes at the moment.
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Glad to find you here Jen (as well as on FutureLearn!) Hi from Brittany. You may yet inspire me to get growing… when I retire 🙂
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Looks amazing. You’ve inspired me !
Jo. (Jopo)
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