It has been another fruitful day. I had the intention of just doing fun stuff today, but was itching to tick off a few things. It’s a bit addictive!
First thing I started on, was replanting the leeks and lettuces that I had planted. I have not had much luck with growing plants in the house. Every edible plant I try and grow, gets attacked by greenfly. I can’t tell you how many parsley, basil, chives and rosemary plants I have lost to the little suckers. I am literally at my wits end. I know I can spray them with evil poison, but that defeats the object of growing your own healthy stuff, doesn’t it?
I am seriously considering a purchase of some ladybirds. Apparently they are greenfly’s nemesis. In fact, I am going to put that on my list!
So here are my leeks (they look very chive-like at the moment) which I am trying to nurse on my study window sill. And here I was thinking I shall move them away from the kitchen where the evil greenflies live. But I am sad to say, I have just spotted some on all my study plants too.
The man at the farmer’s market told me just to spray the plants with a mixture of dishwashing liquid and water. I am trying that, but not too sure whether it is successful or not. My poor parsley seems to be on its last legs. Tim is encouraging me to go with the poison option.
Does anyone have any advice for me before I resort to this, please?
Let’s hope the ones I planted outside will do a bit better. Only time will tell.
Other things I have done: I booked our car hire for our trip to South Africa in December and completed the form for the Royal Mail asking them not to bombard our post box with unwanted junk mail. My gosh, how long did it take me to book the car – so many choices and options! As we are going to a game reserve, I needed a car that wouldn’t fall apart at the sight of its first dirt road, but which wouldn’t break the bank. Seemingly these are mutually exclusive … especially once you have added on waivers, one-way fees and extra driver costs! The word “rip-off” springs to mind.
And then the most exciting thing I did today, was start planning our late summer holiday. We are going back to the Balkans so see a little more. Last time we went to Mostar, Bosnia, we really loved it. In a perfect world we would have taken 3 or 4 weeks and seen a lot more, but I think we’ll just have enough time to do Albania.
I can almost hear people squinting, and scrunching up their noses, saying: “Albania? Why Albania?”. Well, from what I understand it is beautiful, unspoilt, cheap and a bit of an adventure.
It seems to have natural beauty, beaches, mountains and culture.
It does seem very tricky to get to, and to get around once you’re there. But just look at these pictures – wouldn’t that entice you too?
If you look at a map, you’ll see that it is south of Croatia – same coastline extended further down, and just north of Greece. As both Croatia and Greece have beautiful scenery, it makes sense the bit in-between to be worth visiting too.
In fact, I think we will need to fly to Tirana, Albania’s capital, then make our way down to Corfu, and fly back from there. But the flights are the one bit that aren’t cheap!
Now let me go and finish another item on the list: cook a salmon curry using my new curry spices I brought back from South Africa …
Leave a Reply