Flirting with February

It'd appear that we're already in mid February - goodness me how did that happen!! There's always such emphasis on January starting and resolutions forming, I think February gets a little bit forgotten about. It is such a short month, after all...but still quite important.

After two years of waiting, we finally got our allotment at the end of last year. Last weekend, Gav donned his heavy gloves, grabbed an axe and disappeared into the heath. To tackle the brambles from our neighbouring allotment, and trim some dead wood from the little apple tree that I will spend my summer relaxing in the shade of while reading a nice book, of course!!

This is all what makes February exciting, the preparations for summer are starting all over. Every day as I leave work recently someone has said "it's nearly 5 o'clock...and still nearly light out!" until yesterday we could triumphantly claim 5 o'clock had indeed passed but we were enjoying daylight (albeit sunsetting) hours. When we're out walking Pepper (nope, not bored of that chore yet) you can see the snowdrops and other bulbs making their presence felt and it feels like the daffodils are just around the corner. I found myself in a garden centre pondering exactly what we should grow - I feel some onions, potatoes and beetroot are likely candidates, alongside my obligatory field of tomato plants. I am sure that we will get totally over excited and then learn the hard way about what actually works on our little patch of ground but I am looking forward to working with the seasons again and getting into a natural rhythm of digging, planting, tending and eventually harvesting the results of all our hard work. After several years of working hard, especially through the summers, when Gav would temporarily relocate to living in a truck on the road, I am very excited about spending the summer together and hopefully encouraging our healthy active lifestyle that we know we really want. We're also very pleased to have seen another little dog running about on the allotment so our newest family member will be able to enjoy our patch too; I'm hoping that she'll be a great scarecrow in the crucial seed-planting stage.

Talking of Pepper, she's doing great. Pepper has settled nicely into our home and perhaps a little too nicely into our sofa. She's going to be a lot of fun this summer and plenty of excuse for us to go out and play on the beach or the Broads in coming months. If anyone knows how to make a dog chase things though, we'd appreciate any tips you have...