Back to work

Today was my first day back at work again after a whopping 15 weeks' sick leave. I guess that isn't that much when compared to other people who have been far sicker than I was. Any rate, today was me doing a phased return, so 4 hours working from home. The time was spent just trying to wade through the emails. I'm surprised by how tiring I found it. I had just blithely assumed that because I was managing round the house and allotment, I would find sitting in front of the PC a doddle. Unfortunately it seems to require a lot more concentration and by the end of the four hours my concentration was waning and I was really tired, more than I'd been in a while.

Tomorrow sees me in the office for four hours, most of which will be spent in catch-up meetings. I hope I can take it all in!

In gardening news, I was amazed and delighted to see flowers on my tomato plants in the greenhouse. Poor things were a wee bit pot-bound since the salad leaves planted as an interim measure in the planters weren't quite ready to be pulled out and the tomatoes planted. However, since I have planted salad stuff outside (though the Gods alone know when they'll actually germinate), the priority in the greenhouse is the tomato plants so I pulled out some of the young plants (and used them in a salad) and stuck the tomatoes in the planters. Fingers crossed there will be some fruits!

Is it just me or is everything really slow to germinate this year? Carrots, peas and beetroot seedlings are taking forever to germinate. I don't know if it's the warm weather which dried out the ground, and I'm hoping that this current wet weather will trigger some action, though it's now turned a lot cooler and very windy... Can't have it all ways I suppose, though warm rain might be nice!

I've a notion to paint our allotment shed. I took a wander round the allotments the other day and there were a few which were brightly painted blue and red. I'm assuming that they sought permission though, checking the rules, there's nothing about regulating paint colour, only that the shed should be maintained. Anyway, I had a look at a coloured varnish selection in Homebase, and I'm really taken with a lovely damson shade. I think I'll nip in to the garden centre and check that it's okay to paint it, and that will be a weekend task. When it stops raining of course...