In no particular direction

There's a little symbol on the French weather website to show the direction of the wind. It's a sort of little arrow chasing its own tail and is supposed to indicate that the wind may come from anywhere but will be so light that it doesn't really matter where.

I feel like that arrow. There is a huge list of tasks, many of them quite enjoyable, nearly all of them useful and productive and I have plenty of time to do them but my nose is constantly turned in just the wrong direction to get started. I'm going to try to make an exam timetable next, something that I can make ticks on when stuff gets done but I wish there was a way of increasing my motivation positively. There seems to be no point in anything.



Garden news; the potatoes are all up and looking good. Earthing up is just one of those little tasks I should be getting to real soon now. The garlic, shallots and onions are doing their thing, the parsnips are coming along well and the jerusalem artichokes are showing green but none of the beans, runners or french, that I planted on the 1st May have come up at all. It's now nearly three weeks and I'm getting a bit worried. It's not too late to start some more but with my luck I'd end up wasting good plants when the first lot suddenly make an appearance.



The broad beans are flowering, lovely things that they are, and I particularly wanted to get a picture of them up here because I've noticed on a few sites (and I think if I recall correctly Roger Phillips Vegetable Book*) that there's an idea that this variety, Red Epicure, has red flowers. It doesn't, as you can see, but the seeds are a beautiful mahogany red and taste very good too.

The pumpkins haven't germinated well, from an expected 9 Whangaparoa Crown plants only three have shown up, only one courgette has germinated and there are no butternuts at all, although the very last two Muscade de Moschata seeds both came up.

The sweetcorn is disappointing too, only 10 or 11 plants from 30 seeds sown.

More successfully I have lots of pickling cucumbers and quinoa, far too many melons and a nice start of basil. The first of the tomatoes have been planted out, Latah just beginning to flower, although I now realise the allotted space for tomatoes is going to be a touch too small so I'm having to reconsider where some of the later seedlings will be taking their final places.

Also planted out today, artichokes, a bit small but they should do and some flowers, aquilegia and marigolds just to brighten the place up if the much predicted hot summer ever gets here.

*I don't have this book to hand but I'm sure I remember this because it irritated me. I also noticed there's a new edition of this on Amazon, but I don't know if it's been updated.