Wow, what a week, it’s been heaving this end, hopefully the same with you at your end. I’m not quite sure how we got everything delivered but we did and then had Friday and Saturday free to get potting again. This weekend looks promising again down here, not a lot of sun but dry and mild. Now the wind has dropped (Saturday evening) I will pop out and get a bit of weed control going, conditions are looking nice for it.

Just in case there is not enough to do at this time I’ve got a presentation to do to our PLATO Sustain group on Monday evening all about what we do and what we plan to do. I will need to do a bit of preparation I think, usually I just make it up as I go along but that is because I usually do that sort of thing on site and can use the nursery itself to illustrate points and prompt me as I go along. Having seen a few other presentations from the group I have opted to put something together on Powerpoint which I’ve never used before, it won’t be as slick but at least I can show a few pictures and tell a story.

Winter drew to a close on Tuesday with our last skittles game of the season where we pulled a rabbit out of the hat by winning 3-0 against the second placed team. It was our first 3-0 of the season and pulled us up 3 places from bottom to just about avoid relegation. A few beers and some chips for the opposition worked wonders. Caroline who is the team captain couldn’t play as she had spent the day at an old friends birthday bash at Taunton Races. I expected an excited response and reward for our glorious victory but all I got was how she had snogged Hugo Speer (famous actor for those not in the know). OK those weren’t her exact words but I know when I’m out gunned!

Thursday saw another trip to the big city to see Sandi Thom and her band who were great and very loud but the evening was made complete by a surprise appearance of Marcus Bonfanti as the support, who we have been wanting to see since getting his great album last year. Brillant young blues player and singer, check him out at http://www.marcusbonfanti.com/

Richard finished officially this week although you may be lucky enough to spot him helping out on the odd delivery for a few weeks yet as he has offered to help out occasionally to help fund the expanding family at home.

Eco news
I got interviewed on the phone by a journalist from the South East Farmer magazine this week about our wind turbines and all things renewable. Cleverly done, I didn’t even realise it was an interview until he asked for a picture at the end. I’m just wondering what I said now! I did pass comment on bank funding issues but I don’t think I was too ‘open’. Anyway I don’t think the readership is too vast! As someone doing an article on renewable energy stuff I was surprised how little background info he knew. He was asking about whether I believed the ‘experts’ that oil was getting in shorter supply and would get more expensive and he knew little of the Feed in Tariffs. I suppose after you focus on sustainable stuff for a while you assume everyone else is aware of the situation and the need to start doing something. When in fact most people are blissfully unaware and just complain when prices go up assuming that one day they will come down again. Watch out you boys and girls start planning now, the sooner you start preparing the more you will benefit.

Now could come a list of smug improvements we have made (like house insulation, wood burner, reduced electric use of over 28% on 2009 figures, reduced heating oil use on nursery and in house, reduced water use, smaller car, wind turbines on the way etc) and those we are thinking off (like a bit of solar generation, ground source heat pumps, rain water collection, LED lighting in growth rooms etc) but that would be rubbing it in. Oops too late.

Nature ramblings

Another first this week with the first sighting of a Nuthatch here. Unfortunately it was lying on its back with its legs in the air, definitely an ex-nuthatch. It looked in good condition apart from the lack of pulse and rather stiff demeanour, still that’s life, or not.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries