The Rain Has Got Its Hat On

Mud. It is the defining characteristic of my environment. I returned to my land in mid-Wales last week after a winter in Dorset to find the rains had turned it into a quagmire. No surprise there. Unfortunately it's worst just around where my caravan is sited as after heavy rains a little stream appears behind it from up the hill and has nowhere really to go, just pooling in the area between the caravan and polytunnel which is of course where I am stomping around the most. A few corrugated iron sheets now form a crude path.

Given the terrible gales over the winter I had been preparing myself for the worst but bar a couple of broken panes in the greenhouse, everything was surprisingly in good working order. Although the solar panel had been blown over onto its face, once back in position it continued to charge the caravan battery just fine. The tap fed from the stream still worked, the long pipe hasn't got blocked anywhere. The huge net over the garden remained intact. The polytunnel was standing just where I left it.

The first time I've seen snow on my land! It melted by midday

My caravan awning had to be erected again, no small feat solo but thankfully I had the assistance of my girlfriend Anna who had come up with me from Pilsdon for a few days. It was swiftly filled with the junk I had stored in the polytunnel over winter but at least I can now see where the veg is going to grow!

It is exciting to be back and sowing seeds for the season ahead. I've got tomatoes, broad beans and mange tout on the go already, mostly in modules and seed trays but yesterday about a hundred broad bean seeds of three different varieties were pushed into a recently-manured and rather soggy bed outside.

Velociraptor tracks

It's also challenging to start up afresh here after getting used to taps with hot water, washing machines, meals mostly cooked by others, readily available drinking water, central heating, decent dry storage space and a snooker hall. That's all a memory now - or did I dream it?

I aim to get my drinking water from the rain-filled water butt by the greenhouse, though putting through a gravity filter first just in case. Not wanting to risk the standing water in the butt which had lots of little flies buzzing around the top, I emptied it out and rinsed it and am now waiting for enough rain to fill it up again. I'll be drinking shop-bought water till then. I don't trust the stream water given the not-so-remote possibility of a sheep having died in it further up the hill.

Storm clouds loom over Aberdovey

I'm reconnecting with neighbours and friends here who now see me as a kind of bellwether of spring like the cuckoo. They say it's been a horribly wet and windy winter and are glad to see the back of it. Personally I will be happy once the ground has dried out and I can walk around without slipping and sliding like a deranged ice-skater. Bring on the sun!