Wednesday

Today, it was William’s last full day with us, until half term, and I can’t believe that he’s starting school next week! 

And so, out came the teacher in me! 

We did some ‘left to right’ activities… and writing his name. He was pretty good at all of that and now that he’s holding his pen/ pencil correctly, his colouring is pretty good too! He also knew exactly where to start each letter when writing his name!

He’s only 4 years and 4 months! However, he’s getting into good habits and that’s so important.

 

I can’t wait to see him all dressed up and ready for school! 😄

Meanwhile, how lush and healthy looking is this:

I’ve been nurturing this since March! It’s a Poinsettia and probably the best Poinsettia I’ve ever had! It went on and on …and on…until March… and then I took it to the greenhouse, chopped it back to about 4 ins and then I re-potted it. There it stayed, but in the cooler part of the greenhouse, where it has thrived.

I’ve now been researching what else I should do. Apparently, to ensure that it flowers at Christmas, I have to control the plant’s access to light in the autumn, (as flowering is triggered by a short winter day length). 

In early September, I have to cover it in black polythene, from early evening until the next morning! This means that the Poinsettia will have total darkness for about 14 hours.

I also have to ensure that a constant temperature is kept, of around 18 degrees C.  

And then, from early November, I have to stop manipulating the light source so that the flowers start to develop for Christmas. As the Poinsettia loves humidity, I need to make sure that I keep on top of that too!

Just to say that what people think are red flowers, aren’t actually flowers but they are called the bracts. The actual flowers are the very small, yellow, ‘ball-like’ structures in the middle of the bracts. 

That’s all there is to it! 🤣😱🤔

We shall see what happens ! 

Everyone keeps saying that they are noticing signs of autumn, although I can’t really say the same apart from a few yellows/ orange colours making their presence felt in the garden…

‘The Lark Ascending’ rose; Helenium ( bought a few days ago) ; Dwarf Sunflower (sown from seed); ‘Schoolgirl’ rose; ‘Roald Dahl’ rose.

And finally, today we had rain! It’s amazing how a morning of rain can ‘green up’ everything as well as add some water to the pond. 

At lunch time, when it had stopped raining, I popped outside and I noticed a number of bees in the garden! 

I’m glad that I did a very late, second sowing of dwarf Sunflowers…this is the first one to bloom and the rest are queueing up to do the same!