Project 365 day 54: Tiny Catkins

We've had catkins in the garden all winter: the young self-sown (or squirrel-sown) beech trees near the shed are festooned in long, beautiful golden ones, but those are for another day. For Tiny Tuesday, these are tiny, brand new ones about two centimetres long, on a much more exposed tree. Over the past few days, after many weeks of rain, snow, cold and more rain, the sun has come out, the air is warmer, and suddenly my messy garden is full of buds, tree flowers and new shoots.

Today I've sown 48 tomato seeds (Cristal, Golden Cherry and Orange Bourgeoin, which is a new experiment this year) and 24 aubergine seeds (Bonica), in three trays of modules which fill my only heated propagator. I'm a little late starting this year, and aubergines are slow to start growing and need a long season for a good crop, so I hope they will germinate quickly. I will be cycling a succession of vegetable seeds through the propagator from now until May. I've also been trimming and preparing more of our rather weather-weary cavallo nero, which I'm freezing to preserve as much as possible of the large crop before it starts running to seed. Today we have eaten freshly dug leeks in soup made with our potatoes, and brussels sprouts with tonight's black bean stew. There is not much else to harvest now, P has dug the last few large beetroots, and we have just finished last summer's onions, but we still have a well-stocked panty and freezer to help us through the transition to spring.