I think it was Tennyson who coined the famous phrase: 'In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.'
Well, despite the cold (which made the garden birdwatch uncomfortable to say the least) there is plenty of evidence of spring on the way. Snowdrops, a few narcissi, crocuses (yes, maybe that should be croci but it sounds like an alligator with a marble caught in his throat).
I ordered seeds for the garden up on the terrace and they arrived yesterday along with some seed potatoes. I am quite excited about these. The plan is to grow herbs, Tomatoes, potatoes and broad beans this year. And maybe some carrots too.
All this is going to entail a lot of work. The potatoes are going into buckets to make it easier to harvest them (doesn't that word 'harvest' sound grand? Don't believe a word of it - most likely I'll get a few handful!) as are most of the tomatoes, although I have a cunning plan to place these all the way down the front path so they will be easy to pick. Nobody ever ventures past the front gate, so they should be pretty safe.
The worst problem I ever had with stolen vegetables was when I had an allotment. I can't say anybody was tempted to steal what I grew since most was eaten the moment it ripened (and sometimes before) but some people had real problems, especially if they were growing strawberries.
My great grandfather came up with a novel solution for this when he discovered boys were scrumping for apples down at the bottom of his garden. He covered them in 
manure
Now what I really want to know is - did anybody actually eat them after that? 
D
