It has been icy today – a freezing wind, with snow and sleet. The sycamore is refusing to draw up any sap at present and I don’t blame it. But because I am worried about running out of frozen veg (that’s all the beans gone, most of the courgettes too) I decided it had to be wild spring greens today.

I dredged the largest of the little shoots of comfrey out from under the hedge and laboriously picked tiny leaves of ground elder wherever they were to be found (this covers most of my garden actually, but the best bits are round the compost heap!). Still noy enough, so I added several young dock leaves. I’ve stood up in front of numerous SWRIs (Scottish Womens Rural Institute) and stated that dock is edible at a pinch, but this was the first time I’d tried it. I boiled them all quickly together and had them with a slow-roasted cock (au vin, elderflower to be precise) for dinner. Last night’s dinner was adventurous too – eggs florentine, topped with my home-made curd cheese. Stomach must be shrinking – I couldn’t manage it all and had some for breakfast this morning.

Not much else to report – still bored to racking sobs with every “herbal” or weed tea I try; I went for gold with an infusion of dried apple and lemon balm, a favourite garden herb that smells overpoweringly of lemons and can be used in cake-making (when one is allowed flour) and let’s say it DID taste of something, but I woke early this morning from a glorious dream of REAL TEA with milk…… ah well less than 5 weeks to go now……

Andrew returned from the sunny south today and was delighted to find the peach coming into leaf and the apricot in flower bud – this is unexpected good news as he told me he wasn’t going to let it fruit for another century (or something). And I love apricots almost as much as I love tea. He didn’t bring me any wild food from Devon or any filched vegetables from his brother’s garden (difficult on a megabus anyway) but did bring me some Somerset apple juice and a couple of sponsors (Thanks Di and Betty!)