So cold was it in the potting shed all last week that I was able to turn the fridges off because the ambient temperature was colder than their thermostats are set at. The good news is that I was able to save the electricity cost to run them, but when I was working in the shed I needed to have my little fan heater on, which heats an area no more than 2 feet from where it is located, so I was probably using more electricity than if the fridges were on, and it still didn’t really warm me. This week it is going to be so mild that the fridges will have to be plugged in but I won’t have to employ the heater. Swings and roundabouts innit?

I started writing this at about 9.30 – I normally start it, do this and that, come back to it, clean the chicken coops, write a bit more….you get the idea. Anyway, the point that I am trying to make is that at the time of writing this line the weather is relatively benign. By the time I complete the blog and send you your email reminder, it is forecast to be raining, 11°, and winds of 50+ mph! Make sure that you have a supply of candles easily accessible, because some of us are quite likely to be plunged into darkness…again. Our weather is nuts, it yo-yos up and down like a fiddler’s elbow (who doesn’t love mixed metaphors/similes?). It was only on Thursday that I had to give up on harrowing the bottom patch because my tractor couldn’t pull the harrows through the soil, it was as hard as concrete and I would have broken the implement had I persisted. It was the most penetrating frost that I can recall in years, and then 3 days later it’s going to be in double digits overnight! Needless to say I didn’t do any pruning in the orchard, my icy fingers wouldn’t have coped with gripping secateurs and the pruning saw, and the fresh wounds may have well shocked the trees in the -6° overnight conditions. The strong winds of this week may again prevent me from starting this important task, I don’t want to be up a ladder in storm force winds. I actually enjoyed the week of cold, particularly when the sun shone, the greenhouse warmed up a treat for my lunchtime break, it felt like healthy weather.

That links nicely to my health check last Tuesday. The good news is that generally everything is sort of ok. Blood pressure was fine, my BMI is in the ‘good’ range, albeit at the upper end of that range, and my cholesterol is a bit high, but not worryingly so, I could just do with tweaking a few things on the eating and drinking front. I was advised to do some strenuous exercise, but I don’t think that anyone at the surgery knows how physical being a market gardener can be. Granted, a bit of cycling, running or swimming wouldn’t go amiss, by my poor old knees won’t let me run anymore, I find doing lengths of the swimming pool absolutely tedious, so it looks like I am going to have to pump my tyres up. I’ll just have a lay on the sofa while I think about that.

At least I know that my reflexes are still in good order. On Friday morning, in the half light, I had just made a delivery in Hartest when I had to step on my brakes to allow a herd of deer to cross the road. It was just round the bend after the village green, and one doe appeared in the road, quickly followed by another, then another, and another. Then a brief pause before more appeared from the hedge and joined the rest of the herd. A buck was about the last to cross, he had a splendid set of antlers, decorated with long grass and foliage picked up when squeezing through the hedge. It was at exactly the same spot that I had a similar encounter a few years ago, so it must be a regular route taken by them.

Another nature note comes from early last week when I saw a Stoat out the back of the greenhouse, beyond where I feed the birds. It was only visible for a couple of seconds before disappearing down the fence line. (Photo credit: Norfolk Wildlife Trust)

Lots of citrus again this week – Lemons, limes, Seville oranges, regular oranges, Clementines and Blood oranges. Apples will be Spartan again – that’s what they were last week, I had just forgotten to change the name in the shop. Greens will be Brussels sprouts, curly kale and Savoy cabbages. There will be washed carrots, parsnips, swede, sweet potatoes, beetroot (I pulled the remainder of my own crop last week), leeks, squash, mushrooms and both types of onions. There are Marfona potatoes and red Cara, as well as Pink Fir Apple salad potatoes, which only need scrubbing rather than peeling – life is too short for peeling a Pink Fir Apple, and the fibre in the skin is good for you.

Oops I’ve done it again. I now have 10 days to make a start on and complete my annual tax self-assessment for HMRC. Why? Why do I always leave it so late? I think that I am worse than ever this year. Perhaps it’s my version of extreme sport, where one lives off the adrenalin rush. If anything is to raise my blood pressure it is this.

It’s now 12.00 and the wind is picking up, and I still haven’t been out with Nellie, so I’d better crack on. Actually maybe I’ll leave it there for this week, I’ve probably said enough.

Have a good week, I hope that the gales don’t blow your smalls off your washing line into next door’s garden, and that you stay safe.

Phil