Waiting and watching

Back to the docs again yesterday where the doc agreed that I am making progress, albeit at glacial speed. So I've been signed off for 4 more weeks, in the hope and expectation that that will see me, finally, ready to go back to work. I think that's about right, I definitely do feel like I'm entering the last lap, feeling like I'm being more "me". Can you believe that that'll be 14 weeks since I came down with Flu?! I'm still tiring out really easily, but in between feeling much more normal. So, more rest/exertion balancing, and "social tolerance" (as the doc put it) build up. In other words, trying to get out a bit more in busy situations - I've been a bit of a hermit these last few weeks but if I'm to not be totally overwhelmed by being back in work in an open plan and busy office, I need to get used to being in amongst people again.

Pity, in a way. I've enjoyed the peace, but I'm lucky in that I can have a bit of both hustle and bustle but also retreat to solitude and peace. A lot of people I know don't have that luxury, either due to location or circumstances.

Growing-wise, there's not been much happening. No, strike that, there's not much I've been doing, I think Nature's being pretty darned busy without needing my input! I'm an observer at the moment, as much due to the weather as anything else. March roared out like the proverbial lion, and April has come screaming in, with gales and pouring rain. It's warm though, which is the weird thing - if it weren't raining I could be out in shirt-sleeves quite comfortably. The best of Scottish weather though: you don't like this weather? Stick around for 15 minutes and some more will come along...

We haven't been to the allotment for a few days because of the weather, but to be honest at the moment there's little we can do. It's just a case of waiting for the soil to warm up sufficiently to put in some things like fennel, spinach, cabbage, and of course beetroot. Our beetroot crop last year was a roaring success. We'd discovered roasting it with a bit of garlic, thyme, olive oil and balsamic vinegar (try drizzling olive oil and balsamic vinegar over a chicken, and putting in with the chicken in the roasting tray some root veg (including beetroot and new potatoes), and roasting until the chicken's done, it's beyond delicious), and D pickled some. This year he wants to pickle more so we're giving more space to the beetroot - both the traditional burgundy-coloured variety and a golden one, which when roasted, is sweet and mellow.

The plants in the veg boxes outside and in the greenhouse are slow to germinate, probably the temperature is a bit too erratic just now. The plants in the house are doing well though - the little smout of a butternut squash that had just two small leaves, is now 7" high and developing leaves as big as my palm. I'll wait another few weeks and then move it to the greenhouse to harden off. The onions I put in seed trays are doing incredibly well too: shoots so big I've had to take off the seed propagator cover. They'll need to go in the ground soon.

So yes, things are moving apace, and doing very well without intervention from me. It's a strange feeling - for me - to be an observer rather than a participant, but you know, that's not a bad thing really.