It’s a perfect summer day for me, bright but not too hot, no distractions from getting stuff done and I’m not the England goalkeeper!  Poor chap, he will be waking up this morning knowing that one tiny lapse in concentration will haunt him for the rest of his life, still luckily it is only a game. I hope the start of the World Cup doesn’t kill the interest, activity and wallet opening associated with the outdoor pastimes, the weather seems to be in our favour still, with a nice bit of rain and cooler temperatures last week. We still have a lovely range of stuff to sell, with all the summer lines now starting and the herb range wider than ever. We have cut back quantities now as things slow up a bit but things do look pretty yummy. (Don’t chew on the lemongrass too long it can bite back a few hours later!)

The planning application comments period ends on Wednesday (16th) and we now have quite a collection of positive inputs which is great. It does take a few days for the comments to appear on the website sometimes so we won’t see the full response until later in the week.

Met the new bank manager this week which is always a bit of a tense occasion as everyone tries to suss each other out.  He seemed very on the ball and customer service orientated, so hopefully we will get lots of support and encouragement and not too much hassle.  Luckily the figures he was working from showed a significant improvement in performance from 2008 (shockingly bad year for us) to 2009. Despite the slow start we have made more improvements this spring, so we hope to keep in his good books.  He was delighted that we were getting out of producing for the multiples as he had seen the soul destroying effects that these customers can have on companies of our limited size.  I must say nursery life is quite exciting again now we have taken control back for ourselves rather than running it for their benefit. We seem to be pressing all the right buttons for the bank at the moment, let’s hope we can keep it up and perhaps even make a profit!

Eco Update

Another month has slipped by, and the meters are read again and we have now reduced our electric consumption this year by 19.79%.  Hurrah, this means that if we ever get the planning stuff sorted we could produce our entire needs with the turbines and possibly have a bit spare to put back in the grid.

Planning application for our three small wind turbines. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

Consultation ends on the 16th June. So please if you have a view express it on the comments button on the planning website. Thanks.

Nature notes

I have seen an adult moorhen feeding around the nursery for weeks now and yesterday disturbed her with a well grown large youngster, so she must have had a nest knocking about somewhere on the nursery.  We usually get a nest somewhere on site, although we don’t often get a successful outcome, so that was nice to see.

Red Kites over three times this week.
Lots of young goldfinches fluttering about following the parents around, scrounging food (sound familiar?)
Housemartins doing lots of house building, they are gathering mud from around a puddle we keep going for them in the yard.  The natural soil is a bit light and crumbly for them and they seem to prefer the yard surface which has a higher clay content.
Swallow chicks have hatched, looks like 4 heads peaking out.  A second pair arrived last week, but don’t seem to be able to settle on a nest site.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries