This morning began in a grand way: a flock of black grouse decided to feed on the birches just opposite the livingroom windows.
They are not rare but it’s not so often they come this near the house.
A good day for sowing, we decided – the first day of the waxing moon. So we dragged the compost sack to the kitchen and started to fill various trays. Astonishingly, there was half a handful of lively worms in almost every handful of compost – didn’t know the manufacturer is so accommodating. – They might be useful in the trays, too, but as they are perfect baits in ice-fishing we removed them to our homemade worm farm.
Pekka sanded seeds (peppers) and I did the sowing. All in all, the result was not too bad: we have now in the trays all aubergines we intend to have this year: Bonica for medium-sized fruit, Kaberi and Jackpot for mini fruit; 7 seeds of every cultivar. No, we are not planning a veg stand at the marketplace – just enough for ourselves, family and friends.
As for the peppers, it was just a start – chillies Beaver Dam (mild), Gusto Purple (medium), Friar’s Hat & Jamaican Bell (variable) and Bulgarian short (HOT) are done, and so are sweet peppers Oda (purple), King of the North (red and yellow varieties), Sweet Chocolate (brown), Wisconsin Lakes (red), Ferenc Tender (white to red), Antohi Romanian (white to red), Sakura (red), Phoebus (yellow), Amyka (white), Sweet Astor (yellow), Gourmet (orange) and Alma Paprika (white to red). More will follow…
All tomatoes and snapdragons to do tomorrow (or in the next days); we are still discussing the case of leeks – if we are going to grow them this year we should sow them now but there are plenty of them in the freezer still.
At this stage the sowing feels almost a premature gesture – the forecast promises night temperatures of -15 for the weekend and heavy snowfall for Monday. We try to believe the old adage that in the spring the new snow means death for the old snow…
Below is Pekka’s version of the eclipse – taken through a triple-glass window.
Northbynorth 
Wow you’ve got s lot done I’ve only put my onions in trays and sown some chilli’s, hope the snow disappears soon for you. Great eclipse picture with the triple lens.
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Well, you know how it goes: you decide to be sensible about the number of varieties you have – and afterwards realise your interpretation of being sensible is apparently 10+ varieties of any given species; makes for a lot of sowing and labelling…
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What an amazing list of peppers you’re growing. It must feel wonderful to start sowing at last. Great photos of the black grouse, too. They are such a mountain and moorland bird here, it was a surprise to see them up in trees. Fascinating!
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Not much chance of finding food on the ground in wintertime (not much chance of finding the ground…) so the black grouse eat birch catkins and buds; the capercaillie eat pine needles and buds.
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Well grouse up trees, I’ve learnt something today! The eclipse looks to have been a lot more impressive with you than down here. How do you freeze your leeks?
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We don’t steam them or anything, just slice them into thin discs, put them in one-dinner portions in vacuum bags (as don’t want the frozen strawberries taste like leeks) and freeze them.
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New blog’s looking very nice. I’ve never seen grouse up the trees either! I can’t believe you have to consider whether to grow leeks. They are so versatile. I’ve upped the numbers from 30 to 100 this year. Happy tomato sowing!
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Well well well, we’ll soon have people enough for a grouse-watching party (they actually sleep in the snow but spend their days in the trees)! – Yes, we use a lot of leeks but last year we grew 300+ of them so plenty still in the freezer – add to that all the frozen spring onions in a second freezer…
We couldn’t resist the temptation to display our misty lake evening on the Misty Lake Theme.
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