Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts

Friday 22 December 2023

Home

I'm on my final lunchbreak of 2023 - breaking up for Christmas in a couple of hours! 

It's not like it used to be - no driving home for Christmas (no, not that song) because I'm already home.

I just need to pack away my laptop and sit back down. With 3 days to go I must admit that I'm not feeling very Christmassy. Maybe it's the weather - it's been a very damp December so far and it's rather warm and windy today.

We've had a few December visits to the allotment - it's not very inviting, but we've pulled some great parsnips and we bought 3 tiny fruit trees - here's the Thompson & Morgan photo.

And here's the real thing 😆 I'm sure they'll be fine in a few months! They have buds already but they're waiting in the polytunnel.

The broad beans and garlic have sprouted which are welcome signs for next year. Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice so we're on our way to Spring now 😏

At each plot visit recently we've seen flocks of (probably) redwings - a regular Winter migrant. They don't stay still for long and have proved tricky to photograph.

Anyway, back to work (I think everyone else has already gone!). Have a Happy Christmas!

This jolly song is brought to you by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros!

Friday 4 August 2023

Talking in Tones

On 1st August, between rainy days, we planted 60 leeks. I think that’s the most we’ve ever planted but they’re such a handy Winter vegetable.

We planted them in the usual way; topping and tailing and dropping them in a deep hole so they hopefully grow with a substantial white bit, then fill the hole with water. They’re spaced so that a hoe can get between them.

Apart from dealing with the leeks, we’ve mostly been sitting and watching. 
The weather is dealing with most of the watering, we just do a bit for the weekly feeding and the items in the polytunnel.
Talking of the polytunnel.. it’s been a welcome shelter a few times this holiday! There are lots of peppers, tomatoes and aubergines forming but the plants aren’t as wild as they usually grow.
The sweetcorn has developed its male flowers, rather pretty pinky ones ones on these Incredible plants, though the cobs are expected to be standard yellow.
Talking of yellow, look at the lovely rudbeckia - we have several of these, all offspring from one plant my niece gave me probably 10 years ago. Beautiful.
And, talking of beautiful, here’s the female bullfinch. We hear their hooting call before we see them. Both parents are with their young at the moment. So lovely to see.
Talking of lovely… I did the Big Butterfly Count by the HAHA Wildlife plot yesterday. The numbers were rather low, less than we’re seeing on our buddleja at home:

















I was pleased to see that someone else had reported a count from the site on 23rd July - interesting to see the different species.

















Talking of interesting … yesterday was our Flying Ant Day. When the ants fly off to start new nests - see this link for more info. We have so many ants nests in the grass paths on site, I think they’ll have a long flight to find a new nesting site!
And, when did black ants start biting? I’m sure it used to only be the red ones.
Talking of biting … <ahem> here’s a couple of recent tasty meals.
Baked halloumi, courgette, tomato bake with potatoes and asparagus pea
Stuffed courgette with cheese, nuts and carrot with mangetout
And talking of mangetout… I pulled the remaining plants but have left the frame so the Cornell’s Delicata squash can grow up it. It’s gone a bit crazy, but that’s good as it’s the only Winter squash we’re growing.
And finally, talking of frames. We’ve picked our first French beans today which we’re growing up the old polytunnel frame. The Borlotti beans on the other side are winning at the moment.
The Charlatans provide the song title which is why I’ve been ‘talking’ a lot in this post. Enjoy!

Monday 5 June 2023

Step On

I’ve been on leave for a week and have a few more days off. I must say that I feel like I’ve been off for a fortnight already - the sunny weather has helped. Although the easterly wind is rather unwelcome, it’s not so noticeable on the allotment site and has even been a relief from the heat at times.

Dragonfly

We’ve spent most of the time on the allotment, obviously. It’s been fabulous. We enjoyed a barbecue one day and plenty of allotment lunches and chats with fellow plotholders.

Nigella

As you can see, the Nigella has flowered and the valerian is filling the air with its lovely vanilla fragrance.

Wildlife reports are showing a distinct reduction in numbers of bees and hoverflies which is apparent on site, though we’re beginning to see a few more this month. We have seen a lot more dragon flies and damsel flies this year - including the impressive broad-bodied chaser in the first photo.
The robins and blackbirds are enjoying the mealworms we take with us each visit, but we have to stand guard otherwise the magpies sneak in and take the lot in one go. They attempted to break into the pot to help themselves yesterday - they’re always watching!
Magpie
More excitingly, we have been hearing the bullfinches recently but actually spotted the male yesterday. We’re hoping they’ll bring their young out soon as we’re beginning to hear baby bird sounds from the hedge.
We were disappointed that only 5 of our Lark sweetcorn germinated so I put a message on the allotment’s WhatsApp group and fellow plotholder, Nia, came to the rescue with 20 Incredible plants! THANKYOU NIA! So now our plot is looking less bare. There are two Jack-be-Little small pumpkins in the corners which we hope will scramble between the tall sweetcorn plants (although I’ve planted the corn a bit close together - the blurb says this variety can reach 8ft!).
I’ve been planting nasturtium in various patches around our plots - the hot weather has kept the slugs away (so far). My other flower seedlings are still too small to plant out but I’ve sown seeds in the flower bed by the bench. This poppy is self-seeded by the polytunnel.
And these irises have been in pots for a few years but I’m not sure I’ve seen the flower before - interesting colour.
My iris display isn’t as stunning as Ivan’s which all visitors to the site can’t help but stop and look at - so beautiful.
I’ve now planted out the Florence fennel, Yin-Yang dwarf beans (our seeds from last year) and a globe artichoke, also from Nia. They’re in the plot with the oh-so-slow-growing mangetout, asparagus pea and beetroot (which I’ve had to net again because birds were snipping the leaves). There’s a lot of watering required, but so pleased that the plants are now in the ground and will hopefully start bushing out/growing upward quite soon
The (blue lake) French beans and Borlotti beans are planted in the old polytunnel frame and we’ve direct-sown Scarlet Empire runner beans as the ones in modules didn’t germinate. And Jamie’s planted out our sunflowers Tall Timbers for the Sunflower Competition 😊
Broad beans are imminent, if the wind doesn’t damage the tall plants and we’ve eaten two 🤭 strawberries so far… They’re netted to protect from blackbirds - there’s a lot of protection needed these days!
The potatoes have been earthed up; garlic has been fed with epson salts and soil loosened to assist the bulbs swelling before being pulled later this month. 
So that’s most of what we’ve been up to. I’m doing for the National Kidney Federation - 68,000 steps in June to represent the 68,000 kidney patients in the UK. That target won’t be difficult while I’m off work and if nature doesn’t join in with the watering!
NKF Best Foot Forward
The song title links to this and is provided by the excellent Happy Mondays. You’re twisting my melon man 😊

Monday 20 February 2023

Painkiller

After a busy working week it was great to have two days entirely laptop-free and to be out in the fresh air. I'm looking forward to early morning pre-work plot visits, but not quite at that stage yet!
Robin
Saturday was very windy with Storm Otto passing by to the north of us. It was grey and damp but it wasn’t cold or maybe that was because we were trench-digging. We managed to finish off the bean tunnel preparation which we started last weekend.
Plot 3
I did some clearing on the HAHA wildlife plot including cutting back the buddleja and mallow. I didn't want to clear all of the dead groundcover as we're due a coldspell so the wildlife needs some protection, but there are some unwanted weeds on there that need clearing otherwise they'll take over.
HAHA Wildlife Plot
Now that I've cut back the old flag iris leaves I can see new growth in the bog garden. A few bulbs are emerging and perhaps with a bit more light there will be some flowers next weekend.
Meanwhile, Jamie weeded the brassica cage on Plot3. I had the last of the Cavolo Nero with a gnocchi meal at the weekend, but we're still waiting for Purple Sprouting Broccoli harvests - we were tucking into it in January last year.
Weed-free brassica plot
You can see by my shadow that that photo was taken on Sunday which was a marvellous sunny day. Such a contrast to the day before - Otto must have blown all the clouds away!
Marsh Lane hedge
The hedgerow was full of birds with 3 robins competing for our mealworms along with the obligatory magpies, dunnocks, long-tailed tits, a male bullfinch. Kites, gulls and buzzards were overhead.
Robin
Such a beautiful blue sky and lots of plotholders turned out to make the most of it. We were all pleased and amazed at how warm it was for a February day and so welcome on a weekend! It's good to see areas of plots looking loved and ready for a new year of growing.
Flower garden
That's the flower garden in front of our bench. It has a few perennials just beginning to show fresh growth and the ever-present nigella seedlings. There are bulbs growing in most of those pots but only one tiny iris flower on show at present. The Christmas rose Hellebore that my sister gave me is still full of flower at home though and there are plenty of snowdrops around, just not on our plots!
Christmas Rose
I’m very happy to see that my Egyptian onions have sprouted in the polytunnel. I hope a slug doesn't discover them, they're only tiny at the moment.
Egyptian Onions
The last bit of clearing and digging that I did was round our rhubarb - we should have split it before now. I hope that's my last year of saying that and we actually do it! It's not budding yet but we'll give it some manure and that may get it started. At least it's free of nigella and weeds for a while.
Rhubarb ready to go
After a few more chats with plotholders we took our aching bodies home. What a lovely weekend. Not exactly relaxing, but very welcome work - ooh my legs! Hence the song provided by Turin Brakes - enjoy.

Monday 6 February 2023

Celebrate

Red Sky at Night
January sped by and on the non-rainy evenings we enjoyed some amazing skies. The red stripes of this one were so much more dramatic than the photo shows - so beautiful. January offered us two excuses for celebration. Burns Night provided us with a delicious Stahly's veggie haggis and Jamie's version of neeps & tatties, followed by a Scottish film (this year, Shallow Grave).

Then the Lunar New Year, welcoming the year of the Rabbit, meant we could have a tasty mix of pan-Asian (I don't think we can claim it was chinese) fare, including these Itsu bao buns which are the most delicious! Followed by Chinese film Lian Bian (King of Masks).

Perhaps that's why the usually longest month of the year disappeared in the blink of an eye and now we're into February. It's started mild and not too wet so we've had two weekends of some allotment work. Jamie cleared the strawberry bed which has been entirely swamped by bindweed over the last couple of years. We're going to grow the strawberries in growbags this year in the hope that we can recover the area underneath. And I planted up the Egyptian onions (aka tree onions, walking onions) - look how tiny they are!

Tree onion bulblets
I should have planted them on arrival but the weather was too cold and unfortunately some of the bulblets were past their best - I hope I at least get a few to grow. I found out about them in a book I received at Christmas from my nephew - it's a little set of old Gardeners Companion books by Dr Shewell-Cooper (I can't help reading it in a Mr Cholmondley-Warner voice, from Harry Enfield 😃). I've also found this useful advice online from the LovelyGreens blog.

Big Garden Birdwatch
The last weekend in January meant it was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch weekend. Unfortunately the Sunday wasn't a sunny day and the birds weren't very active, but we saw a few. All of these are regulars at the moment and there are actually 3 robins who are getting very aggressive with each other.
At the weekend the weather was quite reasonable, especially in the Sun, and like many other plotholders we decided the time had come to do a bit of ground preparation. Most of the beds look like this... weeds and lots of grass growth. The wet weather has made it easy to pull most of those weeds though and after a couple of hours both days we now have a cleared potato plot with sulphur sprinkled and dug in.

Aaah, freshly cleared earth is such a happy sight! We seem to have created a cliff at one end of the plot - I'm sure that'll settle a bit 😆

Freshly dug earth
It was lovely talking to some of our new plotholders and old ones who we haven't seen since before Christmas. Ivan gave us a couple of plants for our flower bed - an iris (obviously) and phlox. They'll wait a bit before going out as we're expecting another cold snap.
Nut Loaf recipe with cheese and wine
We had some nuts left over from Christmas so I made this nut loaf - this is my version, adapted slightly from this one online. In fact my hairdresser mentioned it a few months ago - nuts, cheese and wine, how could I resist?
It made a big loaf and we had it for dinner 3 nights in a row. I really liked it, very tasty - hot or cold. As with most nut loaves, it refused to hold together but I would make it again (maybe half the size though!)
It's frosty this morning and once again I am pleased I don't have to go and scrape the car before driving to work. Plus I have a short week which is always a bonus! Have a good week all and enjoy this song by Pitbull - this post has a lot of celebration in it so it seems appropriate.