Painting my fingers green

I've forgotten if I mentioned in passing that I have two new little fruit trees which arrived in the post about two weeks ago? They were my seasonal present from The Scientist, and I was very excited when they arrived. I'm pleased to announce that they are still hanging on under my irresponsible and slapdash care. Usually it's only the hardiest plants which thrive in our house, but this time I feel that I have to take things seriously. I'm very nervous about giving them the best possible start in life, and also a huge burden of responsibility for their poor little lives. I don’t know how you manage to cope with a real live Munchkin, Kiwi Sis!

Last weekend, after a few days spent in the shed communing with my bike (who I think is probably a bad influence, insubordinate individual that it is), the trees moved into their semi-permanent home on the patio. After reading the instructions sent with them by the nice people at Ken Muir nursery about five times, I went and bought some pots, some stakes, some compost and some slow-release fertilizer, and proceeded to pot them up. Both trees – one apple and one pear – are duo minarettes (not quite the ones in the photo, but similar), so they have two varieties of fruit per tree, and grow in a tall spindly shape. They’re well suited to being kept in pots, which is what I plan to do with them. At the moment they’re in the very corner of the patio against the house, and their stakes are also tethered lightly to the fence for fear of them being blown over. In current conditions they’re in considerably greater danger from rain than frost, but I plan to review their living arrangements every day, and if necessary untie them and move them back in with the bike if it’s getting a bit blowy or frosty (as it's supposed to from tonight, in fact). I may even go and have my lunch with them tomorrow just to make sure they’re not getting lonely.

The pusscats appreciated the return of me tinkering in the garden. Pookie-cam is currently showing a fine-looking specimen of a pook on next-door’s shed roof (piggle was a bit nervous about the camera pointing at her and wouldn’t come out of the bushes). Talking of cats, here is a very funny thing I found the other day.