Sunday 31 May 2020

Photo diary: week 22, project 366

It's the last day of May. Tomorrow is the beginning of a new era for school, as some of the years are going back. Eddie's year is not one of them, so we will continue to study at home. I don't think I'm ready psychologically to send him to school anyway, and we have now a nice pattern of homeschooling, and actually learning quite a lot.
Our next door neigbours still continue their persistent banging and frequent drilling. It was nice to have a relatively quiet weekend.

Looking at last Sunday's photo of tomato plants, I can see that they've doubled up in height and width since then. These are the tomatoes I've been growing from seeds. Not sure which variety they are, as I had two different packets of seeds. They didn't germinate well, or maybe I'm a rubbish gardener.

Rocket is doing very well. We've had some for salad yesterday and today. I was surprised that all the seeds have sprouted, as the packet of seeds had an expiry date from 8 years ago and I even thought to throw it away. But the tomato seeds were new, and should have fared better than they did, I had three plants out of a dozen of seeds.

Chez Maximka, growing tomatoes in gro-bags

I haven't walked in the flood fields in a long time. It's so peaceful there, with birds singing their hearts out.

Chez Maximka

Eddie is a big fan of Liz Pichon's series of books about Tom Gates. He has quite a collection of Pichon's books, and would love to read more. In fact, since the photo was taken we got two more books for him. I tweeted the photo of Eddie with his book stash to the author. She was very kind in her reply tweet.



Sorting out some old stuff, we found a LED lighting unit for one of Ravensburger 3d puzzles. The puzzle has been broken but the light still works. Eddie liked playing with it late in the evening. He looks like Zorro here.

Chez Maximka

The Moon was up and early in the blue sky.

Chez Maximka,

Thomas Taylor, the author of Malamander and Gargantis, was running a children's drawing competition on Twitter. You had to do a squiggle, and then create a sea monster out of it.
Eddie tried his best to draw a monster. But I got the dates completely wrong. I thought the closing date was the last day of May, but the competition closed on the 27th. I was sorry for my disappointed child, and it's entirely my fault.

Chez Maximka, children's art

We have lots of these weird wild irises in the garden. They are quite elegant, but slightly creepy.

Chez Maximka, English garden

Hope the new week of the eased lockdown is not too scary, and that we are all keeping safe.


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

17 comments:

  1. That monster is so cute! Love it.

    I always believed that growing tomatoes is hard, so I don't think I will ever try it. Herbs and salads are very easy and I like growing those. This reminds me that I haven't grown anything this year, but I did a bit of gardening.

    Easing of the lockdown makes no difference to me, I'm still acting as in lockdown. I don't understand why some services do not open now, like libraries, at least for picking up and dropping off books. With a couple of screens for staff, everything would be safe. It's unlikely (unfortunately) huge crowds would gather in libraries, making the 2m rule impossible to follow. It was the same with the tip. Now that is open the only thing that is different is that they allow only 3 cars at a time. Why were they closed is puzzling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Anca! I have been growing tomatoes for many years, but usually buy ready plants in the garden centre, though I did grow them from seeds as well in the past. One year I had way too many, and offered to anyone who wanted tomato plants. You have to watch them for caterpillars and blight, but otherwise I find them not too difficult to grow.
      I agree with you on the libraries. I don't see a huge crowd going in.

      Delete
  2. Bless you for getting the dates muddled up, I love his drawing, but don't be hard on yourself we are juggling more than usual right now. How nice you had a reply from the author, mine love those books too x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Karen, we were so chuffed to get a reply from Liz Pichon.

      Delete
  3. Lovely to see Eddie's picture - I just wouldn't have told him that I'd messed the date up, then said he hadn't won ! Love the picture of the moon - it's so clear and detailed. I planted a load of old seeds with Pierre and basically, nothing has come up - except for a lot of something that looks like grass !?! Your plants at least look impressive ! We're back to school tomorrow - hope the kids respect the rules (but somehow I doubt it !)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't think I would have been ready to send my girls back to school and college either.
    Your tomato plants are doing great. Mine are still teeny tiny! This gardening lark is all new to me so there is a lot to learn.
    The flood fields look like a lovely place for a walk.
    How lovely for the author of the books to tweet you back. That is a fantastic collection. x

    ReplyDelete
  5. How lovely of Liz Pichon to respond to you on Twitter! We used to love the Tom Gates books too. I wish my kids still read them, so that I could enjoy them myself. It's amazing how quickly your tomato plants have grown, and great that the rocket seeds have grown, even though they're so old. Love the photo of the spooky Eddie.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good luck on the plants! Aww thats so sweet of Liz Pichon! Great picture of the moon. Oh no, it's a shame because the sea monster looks awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your tomato plants are doing great. I've never grown anything like that. I am so bad at gardening. The flood fields look like a lovely place for a walk. How lovely for the author of the books to tweet you back. My oldest loves those books xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shame about the picture competition. Eddie's picture are so good. N quite liked the Tom Gates books, although I think he's gone off them now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I cannot believe next door are still having work done... any idea when it will finish? I hope it is over soon so you can finally relax!
    My daughter is a huge fan of Tom Gates books too, I don't think her tower rivals Eddie's though! That is an awesome sea monster drawing - we are all getting dates, times and days of the week mixed up at the moment, don't worry! I'm only vaguely keeping track as Emmerdale is on 3 times a week, that helps a little! ;) Sim x #Project366

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a shame about the sea monster competition! The picture is very creative though. Sorry to hear there's a lot of noise from next door - it's frustrating when you are stuck in. It's a pity you didn't get more tomato seeds - one year I used compost from the council (which included composted food waste) and had tomato plants springing up all over the place even in pots that I had planted other seeds. I find that they are a bit hit and miss to germinate so this year I bought some plug plants as well as growing from seeds and now I have rather too many plants. It's a pity you aren't closer as I'd drop some off.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your tomatoes look like they are doing well, loving the artwork too!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh what a shame about the date mix up. Eddie did a great sea monster. How lovely that Liz Pichon replied to your tweet. Looks like the tomato plants are coming on nicely and glad the rocket is doing well too. #project366

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tomato plants are doing better than ours! How lovely to get a shoutout from an author! #project366

    ReplyDelete
  14. The tomato plants look good. I grew some from seed and gave them to the parents.

    Oh no re the date mix up the monster he grew is fab!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am not ready to send mine back either. Its funny isnt it how some seeds do so well and others not. Our rocket which was a similar age also germinated very well and yet cant get raddish seeds to do anything. That monster is brilliant, hopefully there will be another competition to enter soon x

    ReplyDelete