It’s raining again
I’m grumpy. I am sat here at my desk writing, with the rain and wind lashing against the window, wondering if this weather will ever stop. I can’t remember the last time I saw sunshine. It has been the wettest January for a hundred years in parts of the south. No mention of how Wales has fared yet but if someone tries to tell me there has been a wetter January …. well it just can’t be possible. A simple 5 minute walk to the post office or to pick some vegetables from the plot requires head to toe waterproofing and I am sick of looking like a trawlerman every time I need to leave the house. I’m even fed up of having to wear my beloved wellies. I’m not just grumpy with the weather I’m grumpy with myself for constantly banging on about the weather. As I commented to Flighty the other day, I’ve started to bore myself.
My muppet-like crocus
Back in the autumn I planted up a variety of bulbs for indoors. The narcissi, hippeastrum and hyacinths have all been and gone now but I planted up some crocus too. I love crocuses and their cheery flowers but hate the fact that they seem so easily damaged by the weather. I have found the best compromise is to fill some small clay pots with bulbs, put these in the greenhouse and when there are signs of greenery bring them indoors. They flower a little earlier with the extra protection, last so much longer,and I get to enjoy their flowers from the warmth of my kitchen. Well, that is if you get to them before the slugs do. Slugs in January, now that just made me even grumpier. The distinctive silvery trail ran across the top of the pots and the crocus stumps they had left behind. I’ve also discovered this odd phenomenon where some of the petals seem to have not developed properly but the distinctive orange stamens have poked out. It makes them look like mini versions of Beaker from the Muppets. Has anyone noticed this before? It doesn’t look as if I can attribute the blame for this to the slugs. Fortunately, some of the pots were untouched and I now have the flowers of Crocus ‘Cream Beauty’ appearing unscathed, so all is not lost and it looks like ‘Snow Bunting’ and some of the ‘Barr’s Purple’ have survived too. A couple of crocus in the garden have reared their heads but they really shouldn’t have bothered as they look forlorn and mud splattered at the moment.
Crocus ‘Cream Beauty’
The real delight of bringing plants like crocuses indoors is that you get to look at them close up. It’s hard to get close to something that might only be 10cm tall when it’s growing in the garden. In a pot on my window sill I can see the delicate markings on the petals but best of all I have discovered that crocus have a scent. You need to get right into the flower to catch a whiff of the perfume but it’s worth it. It isn’t a scent which permeates a room, which is a pity, but every time I pass by, I stop to have a sniff, and it’s enough to lift the spirits.
Some plants in the garden haven’t escaped winter slug damage. The flowers of snowdrops have been nibbled too, as have some primroses. It all makes me wonder about climate change and gardening. In 2012, we had no summer to speak of. Instead we had grey skies, cold days and lots of rain. Last year we had no real spring with cold days lingering on well into June. I remember vividly that first week in July felt as if we went from winter to summer. My memory of this is so good because I needed an extension on the deadline for my photographs for the book I was writing. It’s hard to conjure up summer when you haven’t had one yet. And, so far, we are yet to have a winter. No real frost, no snow and interminable amounts of rain. I’m wondering what 2014 and beyond are going to bring. Will we ever get to garden this year or should we start to farm cranberries?
The Cut Flower Patch
As well as the appearance of the crocuses something else which managed to lighten my mood was the arrival of an advance copy of my book. A small number of books arrived just after Christmas, ready to go out as review copies to newspapers and magazines. The rest will arrive in the coming weeks, closer to the date of publication. I knew the book was on the way, so when I saw a parcel in the postman’s hand and the label of my publisher on the envelope I got a little excited. I know it might seem a little odd that I sound surprised I got excited about it, but I am. I have seen the images and text so much over the course of the last year that I feel like I know them inside out, so I did wonder whether it would be a bit of a let down when the book finally arrived. I’m pleased to say that wasn’t the case, and to see it all together, as a finished product, did make me grin in a slightly inane manner for quite a while. Wellyman, bless him is actually reading the book, even though he must feel like he knows it all inside out too.
It’s been quite cathartic to write about my grumpiness but I can’t put off the inevitable any longer. I have kale to pick and it appears to still be raining so where are those waterproofs…..
wellywoman 
If its any consolation at all it has been raining for two days non stop here too. It has bubbled under the front door and in through some of the windows! Today a train was derailed by rain on the track on the line my husband uses to get to Rome, the line is now closed so he will have to find an alternative route home! Wonderful to recive the book. I am preparing my bed for cut flowers about 10m by 1,10. It will be irrigated so I just have to sow something suitable. I tried starting Cosmos which everyone in blogland seems to rave about (and I do like it) but no success with it germinating and its not just this year.
I had heard of parts of France suffering from dreadful rain too. Seems it has been a wet and mild winter even for Europe. As for cosmos, that’s intriguing as I have found them one of the easiest seeds to get to germinate. Where do you get your seeds from? I don’t sow mine until April as they are half hardy and grow quite quickly, but you’re obviously warmer than Wales. I can only suggest trying a different seed supplier.
I don’t blame you for having the grumps with the rain. I remember one year in Spain in Autumn it was raining more than ever that in the news they were actually telling people to remember they need to go out of their houses once in a while even if it were raining!
Lovely photo of the crocus, and big congratulations for the arrival of your book! That is a big excitement that must shoo away any trace of grumpiness. Have a great weekend!
:0 That made me chuckle. I feel a little like I need that advice. I work from home so at this time of year I get cabin fever. Thank you for the congratulations. 🙂 It did go some way to taking my mind of the rain. Hope the new job is going well.
By the way I love the cover of your book, I bet it’s gorgeous inside. I may try to search for a copy 🙂 Thanks, the new job is going great. Shall keep you and Mr Pianolearner posted 🙂
Thank you Sofia. I do love the cover. 🙂 I was lucky to get to work with a brilliant photographer and a few of mine snuck in too. The book is on Amazon but I don’t know whether you can get it in Europe that way. It’s brilliant news that the new job is going well. It can be so demoralising when you don’t enjoy being at work. I had a job like that a while ago. Take care x
As someone who regularly judges a book by its cover I am now greatly looking forward to buying a copy.
And as soon as I saw the title of your blog I started smiling because I’ve been bemoaning the weather in emails all day. Relentless isn’t it and I worry about soil fertility with the rain washing the nutrients away.
Thank you Sue. I’m so pleased with the cover. Relentless is the word. I have the same worry too. I think a big order of council green waste will be called for in the spring.
It looks fantastic, and I’m not just saying that because I’m biased, it really is. 🙂
Hahaha! Looking forward to getting my copy, too! And just in time to start sowing, weather permitting!
Stomping feet at the weather here too! It’s just not fair!!!! *sulks!
Exciting that you can at last hold your book in your hand! Cant wait to get my hands on a copy! I saw a hellebore bud today…that brightened a dull wet day! I think we had an hour or two this morning before the rain came again!
I do love the optimism of gardeners – how our spirits are lifted by the sight of a flower bud. It’s been sunnier today but with lots of heavy downpours and more is on the way on Wednesday. I’m beginning to think the only real way to grow in this country is with a polytunnel.
How timely and exciting within a rain filled day, I am looking forward to reading a copy of your book, our plans for the greenhouse space have changed and its now to become our first cutting garden, a new venture for me. The cover looks fab too, Good luck!
Wow! I love the sound of your new cutting garden. That’s brilliant news. Yes, its arrival did take my mind off the rain. 😉 I’m really pleased with the cover. Thank you. 🙂
It is pretty relentlessly miserable, isn’t it. I am faring better than you in that the soil here is free draining and we have had the occasional rain-free day too. But I am having to work hard at keeping myself motivated, I find I can forget about the lousy weather when I am choosing seeds and dahlias for a more colourful kitchen garden. But then I think about how mild and wet it is, and of how much the slugs will love it, and I find myself wishing I didn’t care about it all so much!
But – and it is a big but – you have your book, it is real, and I know I am not the only one looking forward to reading it. I just hope we get one of those perfect winter weeks of cold dry clear weather with brilliant sunshine to make snowdrops impossible to photograph and muddy crocuses open themselves up in woship.
I feel exactly the same about wishing I didn’t care so much. I love gardening but the weather over the last few years is trying that passion. There are times when I think about having a break for a year, going travelling a bit and not worrying about slugs, watering and germination but then I see a seed catalogue and get inspired again. I just wish Mother Nature would give us a bit of a break. Think it’s something we’re all going to have to get used to though. Hope you survived the stormy weather last night.
I think we all have the “grumps” with the weather, we will all have webbed feet at this rate! What a good idea to have your little bulbs indoors, saves them from drowning, must do that next autumn. I have just read a good review of your book in The English Garden, I’m looking forward to my copy, no wonder you are excited!
Yes, maybe we’ll evolve webbed feet. ;0 Oh wow! I didn’t know it was going to be reviewed in a magazine yet. I’ll have to try and get hold of a copy. Wish it wasn’t 3.55 on a Sunday and all the shops were shut. Glad to hear it’s a good review. I have been a little nervous about this bit. Hope you enjoy it when it arrives. 🙂
Congratulations on finally getting your hands on the finished copy really looking forward to reading it and learning from it, really proud of you and of course I’m aslo biased.
Thank you. 🙂 It’s good to see it at last. x
Oh, what an exciting moment for you, WW – and Wellyman is clearly very proud of what you have achieved too! I think the Midlands haven’t had quite as much rain in January as some parts of the country (about 85mm, according to our own amateur weather monitor), and we are fortunate not to have the squelch factor in our garden either – but we still have a leaky roof that isn’t patched yet!! I like the idea of bringing some crocus inside to enjoy more closely – although I would need to (and probably will) dig up a little clump to do so. Hope the grumps (and the rain) are soon gone…
Hi Cathy. Oh, not a good time for a leaky roof. We’ve discovered or guttering is blocked so it’s like a waterfall outside the back door. ;0 We’ve seen some sunshine today, in between the showers and it felt almost spring like. I just need to try to hang on to that feeling. Seed and bulb orders this week should do the trick.
Glad that boost of sunshine helped! 🙂
You have unending rain and we in the Northeast have unending snow banks. I hope spring arrives soon for us both. 🙂
I had heard the weather had been bad there. Yes lets hope spring is just around the corner. It’s February now so hopefully not much longer to go. 🙂
Congratulations on your book! And I like the thought of cranberry farming, or perhaps even rice? Rest assured that as soon as you make the investment, the rain will certainly stop.
Hang in there. I will send dry thoughts your way.
Thank you! My dad always joked that our dreadful summers were to blame on my mum buying new garden furniture. :0 Thank you for the dry thoughts. 🙂
I’m sorry to add to your grumpiness, but I’ve heard that the rain is in for the full weekend. It’s been raining all day again here, a dull day and grey skies. Your new book must be brightening your day up though, it looks fabulous, I can’t wait to read it.
Hi Jo, Today we have seen sun. In between more rain of course but it felt almost spring like at one point. Thanks about the book. I really hope you enjoy it. 🙂
In enjoyed the post and the photos. I’m so sorry the rain won’t stop, but on this end it won’t start. I don’t know which is worse. But this drought in the western part of the US is reaching critical mass and that’s not good. I sure wish you could send us some of your non-ending rain. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
It’s a pity we can’t send some of our rain your way. Any extreme of weather is worrying and difficult to cope with, especially if you garden or earn your living from the land. I hope you get some rain soon. 🙂
Thank you. We actually did get a little rain today. I pray it’s the start of even more to come soon. I hope yours has stopped for a while. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
Oh WW at least the big wet has not drowned your sense of humour 🙂 I’ve never seen a crocus croak quite like that – there must be a term for such a phenomenon but ‘Beaker’ would be hard to better. Your crocus ‘Cream Beauty’ look very much whiter than they should be. I wonder whether you have another bulb or maybe it’s down to the level of light when you took the photo. I’m grumpy too! I was all set to make your kale recipe this weekend but no frozen filo pastry to be found today so that’s put pay to those plans.
Hi Anna, No, I try to keep my sense of humour if at all possible. You’re right it’s not Cream Beauty but Snow Bunting. I could blame the light levels which were atrocious but it was my plant labels – never been one of my strong points. 😉 Hope you find some filo soon.
I have just read your post and pre ordered your book from Amazon – that seemed like a good way to cheer up this wet and evening evening! I am really looking forward to reading it.
Oooo! Thank you Julie. I hope it provides some inspiration for you. The pictures of my plot last year are giving me some hope for another growing season. 🙂
Yep.
Grumps here too.
Who would live in Wales, where the weather is so wet, they don’t even mention it on the weather forecast any more 😉
So looking forward to reading (and working from!) Your new book
K
If I could think of somewhere with a better climate I’d probably move but the world’s weather is so topsy turvy, I can’t think of anywhere. Hubby suggested New Zealand because they don’t really get frost there, so you can grow all year round. I’m not keen on having to go to the opposite side of the world though, and they have earthquakes. Thanks Karen I really hope you like it. 🙂 Lou
your book DOES look exciting!
Thank you Diana. #excited 🙂
atCongratulations on the forthcoming birth of the book – great cover design. I do hope it does well for you. Today’s post reminds me of when I moved to Glasgow, pregnant, on September 3rd and the rain stopped on December 19th, by which time I’d achieved whale status and no longer even wanted to get out into the garden. Fortunately I recovered once the bump had progressed to baby. Here even in the rain the pheasants are grazing on the snowdrops. Pass me a shotgun!
A slight hiccup in watering sometimes does that with indoor crocus flowers. If petals get wet and then dry just before flowering they can sort of bind together. Hope the rest are good. Indoor bulbs save our sanity in weather like this.
Thanks Kathryn. Wow that’s quite a long time for it to rain. I do wonder why we all do it, this gardening lark. Slugs, weather, pheasants, blight, deer, rabbits ….. 😉 Fortunately it seems like more crocus have survived the slugs onslaught than I thought and the others are opening normally.
Dear trawlerwoman, don’t be sad – surely this can’t go on forever. We had 1300 litres of rain per square meter last year – compared to an annual average of 800. Yesterday I finally HAD to do some weeding and cutting back because things start to grow but it felt like walking in the bog. Having all these bulbs in the house is certainly a good idea to lift the spirits! Not to forget your book, Louise – I think that’s so exciting. Enjoy the feeling and have a comfy weekend 🙂
Hi Annette. I would love to be renamed flip-flop woman because we’re being baked in glorious warm sunshine. ;0 I just can’t face going outside into the garden in the wet but hopefully things will have improved by March and I can give everything one big tidy up then. Having the bulbs indoors has made a big difference this year. Thank you about the book. 🙂
I think that most of us can cope with a bit of winter gloom but when it goes on and on and life revolves around waterproofs and mud it can be a bit too much. It is nice though to see that as the days slowly lengthen the plants start to respond. Our alpines are now just starting to make little flower buds and it’s a sign of better days to come
The longer days are making me feel more positive – at least we’re heading in the right direction now. 😉 I love alpines. Some of my favourite gardening places are the RHS alpine houses at Wisley and Harlow Carr. When they are all in the bloom it’s like a sweet shop with so much colour and yet, outside the gardens have yet to get going. Do you specialise in alpines?
Oh dear a grumpy Wellie! Not that I’m surprised as even I’m getting a touch dispirited at this damp weather. Thanks for the mention.
I’m really looking forward to seeing my crocuses, and will be growing some indoors for next year.
When you say about not having had a real winter this one has been more typical than the recent cold ones that we’ve had. It’ll change and we will get to garden this year. We don’t often get proper summers either. I’m sure that we’d all get just as bored if our seasons and weather were the same year in, year out.
It’s good to see that your soon to published book has cheered you up. I’m certainly looking forward to reading it. xx
:0 Not so grumpy today. We got to see some sun and it felt almost spring like. I know, I suppose this is more typical of the sort of winter we should be expecting – milder and wetter. Unusual to have so little frost perhaps. It will be interesting to see how our plants cope with this wet winter. Hope you’ve seen some sun this weekend too. x
I did see the sun for a short while today but rain is back again now. I’m fed up with it now too and we’ve not had it as bad as the south of England or as you in Wales. It just seems relentless and no end in sight.
What a treat to enjoy the crocuses, they look lovely.
Your book looks great too, very exciting for you.
Hi Annie, It has been a bit better today. I’m trying to ignore the weather forecast I heard on the radio today for the week ahead. I’m going to bury my head in seed catalogues and pretend I can’t see the rain. 😉
Sorry to say this, but at the moment the sun is shining! And we’re not too far from you, here in West Mids! But I don’t expect it to last. Any sunshine we have had recently has been blown away, before we can enjoy it. Thank goodness our soil is well drained, so I don’t have mud to contend with. I can feel grumpiness approaching too if Im unable to get out to do stuff soon! Well done on your book! You deserve to be excited! I will be looking out for it – after all I’ve set myself a target of a constant supply of flowering material in the house. Good luck!
We’ve had some sun today, in between heavy downpours but it was enough to raise the spirits. I have paths on the allotment so fortunately I don’t need to stand on the soil to pick any crops. I can hold off doing any gardening for a while and give everything a good tidy in March by which time I HOPE things have dried out a little. 🙂 Thank you about the book. I really hope you like it. 🙂
Somehow we seem to have just enough pockets of sunshine in between our showers, so it does not feel quite so relentless here – but I’m looking forward to the world drying out a bit!
Very exciting to have a real physical copy of your own book in your hands.
Oh a hint of sunshine would be lovely. Starting to forget what it looks like. 😉
Hope you had a whole weekend of sunshine to cheer you up, Lou. I had so much else to do at the weekend but couldn’t resist getting into the garden and spent the whole of Sunday there, wrapped up warm against the wind. Bliss! Being urban, I haven’t suffered with the rainfall – even my parents’ garden on the coast, being free draining and sandy, is relishing any rainfall! Sorry! Lovely to have a good review of your book in The English Garden, the first of many good reviews, I’m sure. Really looking forward to getting my copy – at this rate you’ll be on the best sellers list! Have a good week!
Hi Caro. There was a hint of sunshine on Sunday I think but normal service has returned with the river ready to burst again and some homes looking worryingly close to being flooded. Still I suppose it has to stop at some point. As for best sellers list, lets hope so.
I loved the bit about Beaker! Remember him well! Hope the rain stops soon – pouring down again tonight…
LOVE the cover of your book!
Congratulations.
The snow is melting here … trading in the snow boots for the wellies 🙂
Thank you Deb. I love the cover too. So glad to hear the snow is finally melting. It feels very spring like here today but it seems that we might get a taste of winter this weekend.
Your book looks great and I have just read a very favourable review from Ronnie which has made me prick up my ears. Sounds like my kind of thing. I have a cutting garden here and have taken three or four years to even begin to make it work. Last year was the best so far but lots of room for improvement. Getting anything to grow up here is a bit of a challenge but I am sort of getting there. More perennials and fewer annuals has emerged as my plan for this year. I have struggled to find a really good book about cutting gardens. I have and like the ones from Sarah Raven but the difference between her fertile Sussex patch and my wet and windy Welsh hill sometimes makes me feel we are gardening in different worlds.
Hi Louise, I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to write a review on your book and would just like to say it was an absolute pleasure. I’ve been out to buy some seeds and have identified my cut flower patch! I can’t wait to get started. x
Thank you so much Chel. Have fun growing your own cut flowers. 🙂 x