Lots of great progress at Cilcain despite the late snow, howling gales and pathetic spring temperatures! It’s a struggle to get the seedlings to put on healthy growth with low light levels and the cold days (as well as nights).

Really the photos say it all….

FlintShare’s new growers were welcomed last night with their first FlintShare gathering.

We had a good turn out on Sunday with eight bodies working away. The greenhouse was the men’s domain and the pics show the great progress. We now need to figure out how to get the glass down to site intact! We’ve talked about lilos….

Well, it wasn’t easy! The ground definately wants to hold on to these and can you blame it?!

Lovely day on Sunday and Cilcain was at its tranquil best. We’re very late getting the spring greens and winter chard in but with a few sunny days we may get a crop in May/June just when we’ll need it most.

A small but very hard working group turned up on Sunday. The stars of the day were Trevor, the lizard, (who enjoyed a little snuggle into Vicky’s chest!) and a very fine Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. These turn into beautifully coloured magenta and buff moths in the late spring. They often feed on willowherb and like woodland habitats so Cilcain is perfect for them.

We dug the last of the spuds out on Saturday, Ambo and Lady Balfour. It was a perfect day for it – nice and breezy to dry the skins off. Considering the terrible blight attack it’s a surprisingly good harvest. You asked for bakers and bakers we have!! Sacks of ‘em.

We had a hard, but satisfying, day on Saturday.
Chris Giles brought a little Kubota tractor to site to test Marcus, Lucy and Sandi’s ford. He got over but it was a little scary and some modifications might be needed for regular use.

I wasn’t expecting anyone at the workday on Saturday but there’s a lot to do at this time, and it wasn’t raining, so had to go.