Let the Sunshine In (Aquarius)

Back in May, you may recall that a few of us allotment holders started improvements to one of the town’s roundabouts. At that stage we didn’t realise that we were going to suffer heatwave after heatwave so some hardy people have been doing a lot of watering to keep it alive and to help the seeds germinate.

I think it looks pretty good, considering. I can see we missed quite a few borage seedlings and the plants haven’t grown as bushy as we’d expect if we’d had rain but at least it looks much better than it has for the last few years and will hopefully be even better next year… Britain in Bloom results are due in September.

I took that photo early this morning. I was hoping it would be a glorious sunny morning so walked along to the River Kennet at about 6:30am. It was lovely with lots of birds and I saw a water vole swimming across but it was rather cloudy so the photos weren’t as glorious as I’d hoped and no otters.

The weather has remained warm/hot, and dry, over the last week. Although on the one day that the temperature was back to average it felt decidedly chilly(!) and I missed the sunshine. And look - the overnight temperature fell to 3.5°! That thermometer is in the shade behind the polytunnel.

I’ve been to the allotment watering every day - apart from one, which is why we ended up with two very large courgettes in the trug! As well as our first cucumber of the year.

Those potatoes were from a rogue plant which grew in our onion bed. It got frosted 3 times but kept coming back. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many decent tubers when I first put the fork in. Not sure what variety it is.

A couple of hot days it was really windy, threatening our sweetcorn which now have cobs forming. The magpies have taken a liking to these on site so we’re planning some kind of cob protection.

The aubergine plant is producing lovely fruits - look at this beauty!

I used that along with courgettes, onion, tomatoes, garlic and passata to make a large batch of “ratatouille” and froze 4 portions. We had one with fried gnocchi the other night and it was delicious.

We went to a ‘Summer Evening’ event at the Newtown Road Cemetery in Newbury at the beginning of the month. The recorder recital was a bit awkward but it was a nice evening so we sat outside and then wandered around the graves which date back to 1850.

The Bat Talk was what we went for and it was very interesting. The expert, Linda Clark, brought her two tiny pipistrelle bats along for us to have a close-up look. They’re so sweet. These can’t fly so she has them at her home and feeds them mealworms. They can live for 12 years, I’m not sure how old these are. It seems we’re doing all the right things to encourage bats on the allotment, which is good news.

I’ve been decorating the hall all week, still a work in progress… It’s a cheery bright yellow as you can see. I still need to paint the cupboard doors, put up shelves and lay a laminate floor 😮‍💨 All because we bought a pretty lamp on holiday 😄 Thank goodness Jamie can advise, I’m not very practical with DIY-ing. 

The song title is in honour of the new paint job, provided by The Fifth Dimension. It’s a sing-along for a Sunday morning. Look at that groovy bunch 🤗 It can also recognise that the solar panels were being fitted at the allotments for our water pump - much better than needing petrol for the generator all the time - a bit more work till they’re in use, but nearly there. And we have a partial solar eclipse to look forward to next week - hope the clouds stay away for that bit of excitement.

Dream On

I’ve put that lovely full trug of veggies at the top of this post as I’m a bit moany! That’s our first aubergine of the year and the extremely meagre haul from our first Desiree potato - we would normally expect more than this…

Desiree

We thought it was going to rain yesterday afternoon. The sky filled with dark clouds, the weather apps showed rain all around but not a drop fell on us 😮‍💨 Our last smattering of rain drops was on 22nd June, 40 days ago, no wonder the allotment site’s central pathway looks like this and the grass crunches underfoot.

Of all the squashes, our butternut is struggling the most. It looks so depressed with its drooping leaves; it cheers up after a 10litre drink but by the next day it’s flagging again. There are lots of squashes forming so I’ll keep watering and give it a bit of feed later.

And the rudbeckia has looked sad all Summer - it’s mostly had to fend for itself as I’m not really watering flowers, which is why there aren’t many!

The two Baby Lou plants that I pulled before we went away produced plenty of lovely small tubers.

Baby Lou

They’re mostly clean but one had this interesting damage. I’m not too sure what caused it but I’m surprised that only one tuber was affected. It went home to the green waste bin. Nb. Don’t Google Image it or you’ll be faced with numerous nasty human skin disease photos 😷

We’ve been enjoying these and the Orla potatoes in various meals including skin-on wedges for a fab easy meal with dips or baked Camembert. Yum.

And this pretty dish used up a few more veggies. It was loosely based on a Greek dish - Briami. (That’s red onion rather than aubergine by the way)

I’m trying to keep on top of the tomatoes and courgettes but Jamie’s already bored with them. I’ve frozen 2 portions of passata - 500grams of tomatoes produced 250ml of passata.

and I think I’ll be making more quite soon - these are our most recent harvests…

And everything I cook also includes onions/shallots and/or garlic - ideal really 😋

Onions and shallots drying

The sweetcorn have finally started forming their tassels and the water run-off from watering them is helping the Maximilian Sunflowers, as if they need help! They are pretty bobbing their heads in the breeze. This quarter of Plot7 is still looking the most alive.

The Baby Bear pumpkin plant on Plot3 has produced 3 orange pumpkins already and there seem to be 3 more just beginning to change colour so they’re visible amongst the foliage. We won’t harvest them till the stems have completely dried off.

This post turned out as less of a whinge than I expected. Who can moan when we have all this lovely veg, blue skies and a bore hole providing us with water. The hosepipe ban doesn’t affect us as we use watering cans - usually ~12 x 10litres to do our 3 plots. Backwards and forwards to the water trough - phew and that’s why I don’t need a gym 😉

We’re noticing the emergency services are much busier at the moment and there have been at least two field fires near here, though I fear they may have been aided by humans even more than climate change. Terrifying wild fires in France, Spain, Greece and other countries should be incentive enough to be careful but unfortunately some people are very stupid.

The fabulous song is of course by Aerosmith, from 1973, can you believe it?! And we’ll keep dreaming of rain for the timebeing….

Down to the River (to pray)

We’ve had a break from watering whilst staying at the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve for a couple of nights. We were staying in ‘Chiffchaff’; one of five very well equipped shepherd’s huts in Warblers Meadow. Such a lovely spot.

Each hut has its own little pond beside the outdoor seating area. It was hot and sunny so it was wonderful sitting there in the evening shade watching dragon flies, butterflies and moths. I was particularly excited to see this large Jersey Tiger Moth.

Jersey Tiger Moth

We could hear the geese, gulls and an oyster catcher over on the reserve and saw various birds flying over. Our little pond was visited by moorhens with at least two chicks and even a muntjac deer. The first evening we were gifted with a stunning sunset.

We were using the Merlin bird id app to recognise birdsong around us - mostly reed warblers. 

Unfortunately my good camera, with the zoom, not only thinks it’s May 2012, it also struggles to get the correct white balance so this is the best (bad) photo I got of a warbler. 🙄

A reed warbler - probably

And when the birdsong paused it was so quiet - much quieter than home. I opened the door at 5:30am and watched from the bed as the Sun made its way round the corner. Then we got up to enjoy the breakfast bake hamper in the morning glow. Just lovely.

It was delightful and we intend to return. On the first evening we drove to nearby Sharpness to see the docks and the River Severn. What a view.

We had a day walking round the Slimbridge Centre - around the ponds with walkways. The ponds were clearly missing the rain like all of us but the bird life didn’t seem bothered.

Especially as you can buy bags of food for them. We enjoyed feeding the geese - with their pinchy beaks.

Greylag goose

And the pretty flamingos were nice to see. Can’t help thinking of Alice in Wonderland!

Flamingos

Look at the “beautiful plumage” on this Emperor Goose which was in the Arctic Adventure area of the park.

Emperor Goose

Walking around was rather hot and exhausting so it was great to return to our nearby hut. It’ll be nice to return to Slimbridge and go further afield away from the main centre to see the wilder lakes and waterways if possible, though we fear the canoe safari could end in disaster for at least one of us!

After a tiring day we decided to visit a nearby ‘Ship Graveyard’ in Purton. Turned out it involved more walking, along a stretch of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal - much wider than our Kennet and Avon Canal.

The graveyard is where boats and barges were beached in an attempt to prevent erosion of the River Severn banks as this sign explains.

Seeing the hulks in their final resting places was rather poignant, but comforting to see how they’ve grown into the landscape and become part of it.

There were some remains of timber-framed ships above ground further along from where we stopped.

More info about the Graveyard is here.

We had to clear out of the hut by 10am so took the easier motorway route home so we could stop off at the tiny Severn View motorway services. After a coffee we were told there’s a “7 minute walk to the viewing area”. Well, it took a bit longer than that, uphill in the wind and Sun with already aching legs, but I think it was worth the walk - “if you like bridges” Jamie adds here. Well, luckily I do! 😊

The suspension bridge was opened in 1966 by the Queen - coincidentally the year I was born which is why we enjoyed this Birthday trip 🥳 Before the bridge, access was by ferry. There’s a newer bridge now, but this is the Severn Bridge I always think of.

The song title is sung by Alison Krauss - no-one was praying on our little break, but it’s such a lovely song and a great scene in the film 🙂

And now I should get moving to see how our allotment fared in our absence. Still no rain…

Emergency!

Don’t panic - there’s no emergency! The title is because this is blog post number 999 - my (mostly) allotment diary since 2011. We’ve had Plot7 since 2009 and my records were originally in a notebook but an electronic record is so much better for re-capping, comparing and especially for the photos. 🙂

This is the hottest, driest year we've experienced and the plot isn't looking its best. Even the weeds (except bindweed) are struggling to grow this year.

The bunting is only providing colour, rather than support, now that England were sadly beaten by Argentina in Wednesday night's semi-final. It's been such a great World Cup such a shame for our lovely team.

A happy squad after winning the quarter final

The flags aren’t the only bit of colour but, with barely any rain for over a month now, it’s certainly not the happiest looking plot. Watering the individual plants is so much less effective than the whole area getting a good drenching.

But, if you look closer, there are spots of joy amongst the dry soil and grass. You can see all the self-seeded snapdragons around the edge of that front bed.

And these crinkly daisy flowers in a pot of lobelia - this is one of the perennials I grew on.

The sweetpeas, nicotiana and verbena boriansis are still attempting a show.

The hollyhocks are standing tall, surviving the strong winds that we’ve had this week. New buds are still opening and the bees love them.

The Maximilian sunflowers have begun to flower - smallish flowers on tall stems. They should be pretty, drought tolerant and long-lasting but I have just read that they can grow 8ft tall and come back each year - hmmm, I think I sowed them in the wrong place at the front of that bed 🙄

Under them are the tagetes that were resurrected after the frost appeared to have killed them. The six plants are full of flowers.

We’re enjoying lots of potatoes at the moment. I pulled the remaining Orla plant so we used the largest ones, which were still quite small, to make these tasty double-baked potatoes stuffed with cheese, shallots and chives. So tasty. We have two Baby Lou potato plants to pull and then I’ll be able to plant the leeks in that spot.

This was a nice trug with ingredients for a puff pastry tart, but the puff pastry looked dodgy so we ended up cheering up a boring margarita pizza instead. That’s the last of the broad beans though - too much effort to find so many beans have weevil damage. I really need to get round to Autumn/Winter sowing again this year.

And there are more vegetables waiting in the wings - the beans for drying are on their way, though I don’t know which beans they are at the moment as the germination was so sporadic so my neat rows got a bit confused.

And we have mixed pickings of runner beans and French beans this evening.

We’ve already picked the occasional tomato but they’re ripening in numbers now. They’re so sweet, I think these are all Rubylicious except for the one Crimson Plum and there may be a Honeycomb in there but we were expecting them to be more orange.

The weather continues to be very hot, in the mid-twenties so pleasant especially sitting under a sun umbrella. Morning and afternoon watering continue and no rain forecast for the foreseeable.

999 provide the title track (see what I did there?) and what a great blast from the past.