Germination progress

The sweet peas are germinating en masse in their jar. The Swan River daisies have come up in embarrassing profusion and will need thinning out; I have been 'thinning' the lettuce seedlings by eating them, but ought to plant up a second batch. Ditto the rocket.

The Oriental poppies popped up suddenly this morning, having been completely invisible yesterday. Two and possibly three of the six calendula seeds I planted have germinated, and half a dozen flax seeds (assuming it actually was flax!)

There are several seedlings among the limanthes, and germination this morning in the second tray of marigolds; I think a few of the frosted ones are managing to put out true leaves between the stubs of their dead seed-leaves, although that tray is mainly occupied by self-sown corn-marigolds -- and what looks like coriander that I definitely didn't plant in there, although the coriander that I did plant hasn't come up yet!

No sign of activity as yet among the rudbeckias or nasturtiums, ( chillies )

( Tomatoes )

The one surviving honesty seedling has been trying to flower despite being only a few inches high, so I have transplanted it into a deeper pot. Ironically I think I have another self-sown honesty plant popping up in the wildflower trough!

"Hell Bent", Leigh Bardugo

I was a bit sceptical at the end of my review of "Ninth House" as to how desirable a sequel was likely to be, but I went to the trouble of seeking out a copy of "Hell Bent" and then paying repeat visits to the library until it was finally back on the shelves for me to borrow. Unfortunately, as I had feared, this book isn't nearly as successful as its predecessor; it's not *bad* as such, and as with the previous volume I consumed it more or less non-stop in a couple of days of breathless reading to find out what happened next, but on its own it definitely wouldn't have inspired me to go looking for more in the same vein.( Read more... )

I'd probably still be up for a sequel to see if the author can recapture the spirit of discovery from the first book, but overall this one felt more like generic urban fantasy, and from the indications in the final chapters I'm not optimistic that a concluding trilogy volume is likely to be any less so.