Lettuce greet the morning

My fingers were so cold when I got back from my vaccination last night that I decided I would bring my late-sown lettuces in from the leaky greenhouse. I'd never got round to planting them out so all I had to do was carry pots indoors.

I didn't bother to check the forecast but this morning I heard on the radio that at the Benson weather station, only 13 miles south of me, it was -5°C last night so I was glad I'd bothered - the lettuces seem quite happy on the windowsill of my unheated living room.

This morning the squash leaves on the soil (left after I brought in the fruit three days ago) were frost-wilted. So the cold had travelled those 13 miles to Oxford. That persuaded me to bring in the avocado sapling (on the floor in front of the lettuces, here) that I rescued three weeks ago from the compost heap. Its stem had got very contorted trying to find light so I am now trying to straighten it. I do realise growing avocados is a fool's task but I can't help it - it will be the latest of many that grow to an ungainly metre before I give up on it.