April Showers

April showers actually started on Saturday - but close enough to April - and the only day that we had any rain in March.  More like heavy drizzle that soaked into the ground and gave everything a good drink,  not 'running off the land type' of rain that does no good at all.  Then the next 3 days were lovely again and today it's cloudy with more drizzle.

 During the nice days we've done the first of the summer season pool cleanings, a yucky mucky dirty floor,  dust and grit,  leaves that we'd not managed to scoop off before they sunk.  It  took quite  while despite having a good pump,  we have to stop when the filter/basket is full,  empty it out and then continue.  One of us brushes the floor,  the other one is 'spotter' for checking how full the filter gets.

We put lots of seeds into soak overnight then planted them up yesterday afternoon.  I soaked the big seeds,  cucumber,  squash,  courgette, sweetcorn and also the tomato seeds.  They were all seeds from last year's harvest,  don't normally soak tomato seeds but they were all sticky and I couldn't separate them without soaking first.  Also in the raised beds and  protected from the little critters that eat so much down there,  are coriander, beetroot and radish.  The lettuces are still cloched with upturned 5 litre water bottles,  as is the smallest coriander plant.  The biggest coriander that went in during October is now over a metre high and must not have juicy enough tops for eating.  Also the kohlrabi has been ok now for a month or so.....and the rocket has never been eaten,  nor has the garlic.  Fussy critters down there!

Our make do and mend chairs are all finished,  looking very good too,  so then we looked at the cover of the sun umbrella as the top of it rotted through a year or so ago  and it fell off.  Fell down actually.  Big hole in the middle of the fabric so no way would it stay on the umbrella frame.  Fortunately we'd been given an umbrella and although that one's frame was bigger  (but has now broken,)  the fabric top sort of fitted our original frame - with the help of a few clips here and there.  But we hadn't thrown the original cover  away and in my sewing box I found some cut-off trouser legs (trousers turned into shorts)  and I've made the biggest and strongest patch ever seen!  John has got a hole punch thing and managed to get through the umpteen layers of fabric.  Now we just need the sun to come back out and we can remake the umbrella.  The top unscrews then when the cover is on,  the screw cap goes back in place.  Quite simple really.