Morning all,


Bit nippy out still, but I’m ok tucked up over the office heat at a barmy 9C, at least I’m out of that cold wind.

The garden is still pretty squelchy so I can’t envisage a mad rush to get out there until we get a bit more of a prolonged dry spell. The forecast doesn’t look brilliant for dry weather with another big storm coming in next week but hopefully it will go a bit further north and just leave us with a nice turbine turning, drying breeze.

With a week of better weather we are pressing on with loads of plant trimming to be ready for the main spring flush of growth . Many plants are already showing sign’s of serious activity despite the cold which must mean spring is close. The snowdrops in the garden are looking great and the odd aconite is showing a bright splash of yellow.

This week I have been out and about a bit seeing new stuff. At Wired Wessex, a local business networking group I learnt about shooting video as a promotional tool for small businesses. Apparently Google now scores website videos very highly in their ranking of websites so getting one or two on your site can dramatically improve hit rates. Naturally to make the best impression you need it to be professionally made as we were told by the presenter (a man who runs his own video production company) and doing it yourself could easily lead to commercial disaster. The session was very impressive and I’m sure he is right about trying to make the right impact but the investment doesn’t look that small in a business our size, so I suspect we may have a play ourselves at some point when I can find some time. The cost was very politely skirted around but apparently is the equivalent of a cup of coffee a day (I assume for a year). Now I thought that was pretty good when my coffee only costs 10p a cup but I suspect that in the real world real people pay someone else for their coffee and it comes out at £2.50+ or £900 for a sub 2 minute video. There were some very convincing arguments about how it could sell your product 24/7 but we would have to have a lot more spare cash to warrant that sort of spending at the moment.

On Friday we were very lucky to get invited to a wedding of a relative in Chelsea Old Church in the middle of London. Had to do some emergency shopping to find a new shirt as all my collared shirts seem to have shrunk. Picked up a nice one with a tie in the sale’s reduced by 2/3’s. I don’t get out much as you might have noticed but going into this strange environment was quite an eye opener. Travelling through Sloane Square and Chelsea was astonishing, I have never seen so many Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s, Range Rover’s, Ferrari’s, Maserati’s and slinky Merc’s, how the other half live! It was a lovely wedding, the church site dates back to pre-Christianity and King Henry 8th had one of his many weddings there. It was rebuilt after being hit in the war but still had loads of original bits re-glued together inside. We had real fanfares and part of a brass band playing as well as a fantastic choir, it was a real celebration. Champagne tea behind Harrods (in ‘rooms’ not between the bins) finished off the day for the oldies while the youngsters went off to party into the night. All home and tucked up before midnight so fresh for hockey on Saturday.

Back to the soup diet tonight to combat overstretched waistband (and collar).

Nature notes

Tawny Owl seen last night perched on the loo block keeping an eye on the pond area, I kept hearing it close by in the early evening but not spotted until yesterday, must check to see if there is any frog activity yet.

If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries