there's usually a point at which the new stuff becomes very real...you spend winter deciding and planning, and everything is pounds, pence, euros and cents, metres and feet apart, and compass alignments, then two things happen



the bill comes (last week)

then the stuff comes....monday, noon, the posts and wire for the vineyard arrive

i've been looking for other things of interest to stop me from taking any more pictures of artichokes in the winter



but it didnt last long

i'm a little afraid for some of the climate change fruit - it's just not cold enough, things are starting to wake up, and february always has a trick up it's sleeve



most of the buds on the peaches, nectarines and apricots are swollen, and the branches are flushed more strongly with colour....if they get any further along and we get a hard frost, who knows if we'll get fruit



even the recently arrived mulberries, replacing those lost to last years slugfeast, have a little plumpness to the buds, and mulberries were always the cclocck by which you set the end of any danger of frost...we'll see