Joss sticks in the greenhouse

The air has been very still today....a bit of a novelty for north-west Cumbria. The trouble is that when the air is still out come the midges and it becomes impossible to work outside. And before anyone calls me a wimp I can tell you that we have Scottish midges on this side of the Solway and they are, size for size, the most vicious creatures on earth.

So, it was into the greenhouse to try and get some work done away from the midges....except they were in there as well. My solution: surround myself with burning joss-sticks in the hope it would keep them at bay, and it did.  And before you ask why does a middle-aged man have joss-sticks in the house I can tell you that I have no idea. They were just in a kitchen drawer and have been there for years.

Well, with the radio on and incense in the air I was transported back about forty years to a time when the last thing on my mind was gardening. But I did manage to get some work done and have now trimmed up the onions for store. I'll leave them on the wire shelves a while longer before putting them in string bags just to make sure they are thoroughly dry and I can weed out any dodgy ones. Thirty-seven pounds was this year's crop and that should see us through to next spring.

I also sowed some more lettuce and spring onions in containers for overwintering in the greenhouse. They'll stay outside until we have frosts forecast then they can come in as I don't want them to catch cold!

No garden pics today just some crystals. One of the things I do when not pottering in the garden is collect mineral specimens. Both activities involve getting covered in muck....something my mother always said I was good at.

These are fluorite crystals from Coldstones Quarry near Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire.