Not quite spring

Though it's now noticeably lighter in the mornings and evenings (finally!) spring isn't quite ready here.  I don't think that winter has been a particularly cold one, but my spring flowers aren't blooming yet, not even the snowdrops--of which there are about ten now.  Maybe one year I'll go out back and see a whole carpet of them.

One chicken has decided it must be spring, despite her and the flock still being locked indoors against bird flu;  she is laying an egg daily.  None of the other five, or the three ducks, have it in them yet.  We think the dedicated layer is the remaining rescue hen, as we can sort of tell whose egg is whose.  She's nearly five years old!  All the others from her cadre have died of old age by now.

I really ought to be sowing some early seed trays for my kitchen windowsill.  Currently it has a couple of leek bubils from a fellow allotmenter (there are another dozen or so on the patio table outside) and plenty of dust...

I did manage to start my peas and broad beans soaking/sprouting in bags in the garage.  I sprout them with a handful of wet compost and then sow them directly.  Although they would sprout quicker indoors I would then have to acclimatize them to the outdoors before sowing--I think it's actually quicker (and certainly less work) to just sprout them in the same temperature they will grow up in.  These are cold hardy so it doesn't matter that the garage door is always open.  I hung the bags from the beams just in case of rats, though thankfully we haven't had any sign of them for several months now.

We've had several storms pass us in the last few weeks with very strong winds and rain, keeping me indoors more than I'd like.  There's been some good sunshine too, usually when I get home from work ready to collapse in a heap.  I'll get it done, I promise!  Just give me a little more time.