16th February

It’s felt like Spring today. A few minutes of sunshine brought raggedy bumblebees out to the heather and a thick smog of birdsong in the woods. I’m hoping the warmth might give the Rocotos a kickstart. In ideal conditions they should take around ten-fourteen days and we’re on the twelfth day now. It has been a bit cold in here, I guess. I have to resist the temptation to poke around in the soil.
I’ve finished sowing the seeds, the habanero going in yesterday and the Ring of Fire and tiny Cayennetta going in this morning.

I’ve colour-coded the chillies. You might be able to see from the photos. The Rocoto are in grey, Habanero in orange, Ring of Fire green, Cayennetta black. I have a good number of leftover Habanero and Ring of Fire, which I’ll plant later and see about swapping for other plants later in the season. I quite fancy making chipotles so might see if I can find someone with a Jalapeno plant or two.
While I was looking for these old pots to clean out I found the base of a propagator that Sarah picked up a few years ago and I’ve put the Habaneros and Rocoto in it. The Habaneros say they want a bit more warmth to start with and the Rocotos went in earlier, while we were still getting occasional light frosts, so I thought they might enjoy the extra heat.

In total I've planted 10 x Cayennetta, 9 x Habanero, 9 x Ring of Fire, and 9 (maybe 10) x Rocoto.
It’s a busy book week too. Up in Manchester to talk at the Poetry Library, then releasing a new Guillemot book this weekend, and I just got the cover image back for my talking animals book out later in the year. Book foreshadowing and Spring foreshadowing all feel hopeful…
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