Perishing

It's seriously cold now.  The frost has got into the pots in the greenhouse as well as creating wonderful patterns on the glass, highlighted here as a shaft of sunlight catches them.   Unfortunately, very little sunlight hits the greenhouse in these short days with the result that the temperature inside stays very low throughout the day at the moment.  Too low for some of the South African bulbs and possibly threatening others.  I've brough a tray of the most vulnerable into the porch and resorted to using an electric heater to lift the temperatures and ease the freezing.   It is not a cure all, just a couple of 30 minute blasts of heat which brings the temperature at bench height to 5C for a while during the day.   Tonight the temperature has dropped to -5C and the heat just lifted it to zero.   Hmm.   Hopefully not too many losses but they'll only show themselves in time.   Back in 2010 when we had over a fortnight of -10C in Norfolk, with daytime temperatures never above zero, I lost almost all the previously hardy plants in my greenhouse to that December freeze but in a lot of cases the damage only showed itself in spring when the lost root growth caused the bulbs to fail to grow on properly.  At least this is nothing like that.

An hour at pottery this morning, finished glazing my thumb pot.  Lunchtime at Jamie's and a frosty run in the ball field for Meg and Bella then a long video call with Ruth while a new support worker started today.  My role to help break the ice ... ;-)   Seems like it went well.   I prepped a curry for Jamie and I as we chatted.  Finally a short evening in Kings Cafe covering for someone who is unwell.  Ironically it was a group who'd booked a curry night!

Earlyish night tonight as Jamie has a wheelchair services appointment tomorrow in Wrexham so we're making a day out of it since that's a two hour drive from here.