Veg plot - day 6, and a pleasant visitor

More seeds arrived today. Beans, peas, winter squash, cabbage, cauliflower, rapini, peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, leeks, corn. Yay! All open-pollinated types so I can save the seed, with instructions on how to save said seeds.

So I was in the utility room this afternoon sowing peas in a module tray and vaguely watching the bird feeders through the window and thinking about moving more topsoil, when I spotted this pretty little chap.

It's a male siskin, small finch, likes coniferous woods. Apparently also likes sunflower seeds, judging by the amount of them it got through.

I've never seen one in my garden before. In fact I've only seen them in Scotland, at RSPB Loch Garten - although they aren't uncommon, they just don't visit gardens much. I remember chatting to the girl on reception and saying I hadn't seen siskins before and she replied, "Oh I like siskins, they're like little highlighter pens." I can see what she meant, although to me they look more like a little brownish-grey streaky bird that someone's used a highlighter on. They are almost fluorescent in the sun. The females are duller.

I hope he sticks around, because then Michael might be able to get something better than my crappy record shots. Especially as the sisk isn't timid. It sat in the apple tree for ages as I trundled backward and forwards with wheelbarrows full of soil, singing a pretty little scratchy wheezy twittery song. I liked him.

And yeah, I shifted more soil. Half a ton, because the muscles still feel rather used, I'll do at least another half ton tomorrow. It's cheaper than going to the gym anyway!

And I'm getting more and more excited about growing stuff. I've drawn out plans of my beds and I know exactly what I'm planting where, because I need to organise myself. Needless to say, it's all colour coded.

And now I need to order onion sets.