What a Difference a Day Makes

Saturday’s warm sunshine encouraged us to have a few hours on the plot. The ladybirds and bumblebees were out in number along with this lone peacock butterfly which was sunbathing on the grape hyacinths.

The little flowers provide a nice patch of colour and spread like crazy so there are small bunches in various places around the site where I’ve re-planted bulbs over the years.  The nectar lovers are mainly seeking out blues and yellows at the moment. The yellows are provided by daffodils and dandelions on our plots and the paths.

These two tiny tête-à-tête narcissi sneaked onto the pile of wood chips which have been left in the communal area - they’re so sweet!

Look at that lovely blue sky over the blackthorn blossom - what a welcome sight!

Our little fruit trees have all budded - I wonder if this will be our first year for fruit … I think this is the pear, it needs a trim - I’ll leave it to late-Autumn now.

We managed a bit of clearing and even a bit of digging where the potatoes will be planted. There’s an area where I pulled the leeks, due to leek moth damage, where we’ll probably put a few more potatoes too. (As I write this, I remember that’s where the mangetout was going 🤔 I need a better plan) The onions look pretty awful but the garlic still seems to be growing ok so far.

But nothing is growing as fast as the grass, so I strimmed all the edges on Sunday as fellow plotholder Clint kindly mowed the paths for us.

Sunday morning arrived with a beautiful sunrise and from our window I could hear a Great spotted woodpecker tapping away somewhere nearby.

We bought a couple of raised beds for the polytunnel so put one of them together in the afternoon; need to do a bit more tidying before we can fit the other one plus chairs and seed racks (and all the other bits and bobs) in. The rain was torrential so I was getting a drenching due to leaky polytunnel seams, but Jamie was helping from the director’s chair - even after it split 🤭

No sign of frogs or spawn in the tiny pond which was also getting a hammering from the rain.

I also managed some meagre pickings of purple sprouting broccoli - mostly picked from second year plants which was a little bonus. Hardly a feast, but enough to cheer up a rather boring pizza!

It was so nice to get back to a bit of plotting, but my legs and back are feeling it today. A few more sunny days would be welcomed to progress a bit more - we have a lot to do over the next couple of months but feeling positive. I told Jamie that my retirement plan involves achieving one thing every day - don’t want to overdo it 😃 - turns out that’s an actual strategy; I thought I’d made it up! Also it seems I may actually receive some pension income this month, after my original form was ‘lost in the post’ hmmm…

Song title provided by Dinah Washington - an oldie, but sums up the weekend’s weather. Now try to get that song out of your head!

Goin’ Back

We left rainy England in February and flew off to Tenerife - yay! Our first visit since February 2020 (immediately prior to Covid lockdown).

Look at Mount Teide rising above the clouds to greet us

We had a 5th floor apartment this time which gave us a great view for nosing over the apartments, pool and bar …

and over the rooftops to the sea and a big sky. We saw a couple of fabulous rainbows and a few starry nights, but missed the lunar eclipse.

When the clouds dispersed the temperature rose by about 5 degrees to the low 20s. We even went in the pool, though it turns out post-stroke swimming was a more traumatic experience than we’d expected - luckily post-stroke lounging is fine. There were quite a few rainy days, more than expected but some of the downpours were spectacular.

The plants were loving it. This bush was so beautiful in one of the parks with the Sun on it - Croton apparently.

And these yellow delights along the sea front - some sort of day lillies.

There are several flowered trees which stand out as they’re so stunning but the jacaranda mimosiflora is one of my favourites even before the most beautiful lilac flowers appear in the Summer. The foliage and huge seed pods create such a decorative canopy.

The nearby barranco actually had water pouring through like a river on a couple of days and the plant growth there is fabulous, with tree versions of what we consider houseplants - palms, umbrella plant and rubber trees. And the ever-present bougainvillea, such a gorgeous splash of colour.

The weather produced some huge waves which we could hear crashing against the rocks from our apartment. The red flags were out and even the surfers didn’t risk it. The little red crabs were clinging to the rocks for dear life.

We even saw a few land snails, a bit different from our common snails. I don’t think we’ve seen them in Tenerife before but perhaps they felt safe to roam because the only lizards we saw were tiny ones.

We saw and heard a lot of local birds including the African blue tit, Island Canary and parakeets. And we saw the swifts arrive - these are likely making their way up past Africa to Northern Europe, so maybe they’ll appear over the allotment soon! All too fast to photograph so here’s a pigeon showing off fancy feet with painted nails 😃

It was a different holiday from our usual - no bus rides to visit other towns and no long hikes but we walked into Puerto de la Cruz most days to shop, people-watch and enjoy coffee and cakes. We also ate ant our favourite vegetarian cafe, El Limon, so pleased to see they’re still open.

The thing about Casablanca Apartments is that they’re on a steep hill, so any direction we walk includes steps - soo many steps …

Or slopes - some very steep ones! We bought Jamie hiking sticks, which helped a lot, but we still had to resort to a taxi up the hill one day - it was worth it!

Most evenings we enjoyed on our balcony (I had to buy a jumper!), entertainment in the bar or in the games room. 

Is it mean to say that Jamie’s stroke has levelled the playing field a bit for pool games? I lose a few less now🤭 And I won first place in the car racing game (just in case he’s reading this 🏆)

Suffice to say we had a lovely break from the monotony of February. 

We returned home to fog but see more signs to encourage us to think of Spring and I seem to have brought quite a bit of food back home to keep the holiday dream alive. Mmm, cactus jam and Rooibos tea - yum!

Oh, and did I mention? We’re going back in June - well, as we’re both retired.. and hopefully see a bit more sunshine. Better get working on that allotment next week!

Song title provided by Carole King.

First Time

Yesterday: It didn’t rain and it was Valentine’s Day so here’s a 7-spot ladybird sporting a love heart (not AI!).

After more than 3 months of hibernation we took advantage of a dry, albeit freezing, day and visited the plot. I was pleasantly surprised at how it looked - my expectations were low but it’s definitely looked worse.

I was so pleased to see the daffodils are almost ready to bloom in the raised bed. And around the budding fruit trees in ‘the orchard’.

The Apsley mulch has really helped with weed suppression; there are thistles, dandelion and cranesbill but not the grass which is such a pain to weed. We still have a bag of mulch to spread and to replenish other beds. 

One of the last plot visits I made before Christmas was to pull the leeks which had been decimated by leek moth larvae. I was over the moon to see that the garlic appears to have got away without damage, though I think the onions haven’t fared so well.

This is the raised bed where the shallots did well last year - there’s a few of those weeds I mentioned…

They were easily pulled and after an additional layer of mulch and compost this year’s Yellow Moon shallots have been planted and surrounded by a sprinkle of onion fertiliser. We’ve covered it with enviromesh to help protect from various pests. 

This plot with irises and bulbs hasn’t been mulched and is trickier to weed - look at that mess - ugh - but hopefully the flowers will put on a pretty show to distract the eye (the 2 crocuses haven’t quite achieved that) 🤭

This brick provided the brightest spot of colour in the sunshine - look at that lovely moss.

I need to study mosses a bit more, they’re so interesting en-masse or up-close. Looking at the moss world website I think this is probably a common variety Ceratodon Purpureus but don’t quote me!

The birds (robins, blackbirds, long-tailed tits, magpies) were out in number and a kite was circling overhead. There were also two hot air balloons in the clear blue sky - brrr, it must have been very cold up there. We found a couple of 7-spot ladybirds, including that one in the top photo with the heart, soaking up the rays and this wasp was snuggled in the polytunnel.

Aah, she’s holding her antennae down round her face (it can only be a Queen if it’s hibernating). I’ve updated the wasp entry on my Wildlife blog, if you’re interested.

There’s the Sun receding back into the gloom, but it was a lovely couple of hours and we felt revitalised as a result - though we were very pleased to go home for a coffee and a nap.

The title song is provided by Macy Gray recognising the first visit to the plot in 2026 - enjoy ☺️ 

Any Colour You Like

Finally something vaguely allotment-y to post about now that it’s February, though we haven’t actually made it to the plot yet mostly because of the incessant rain.

Having said that we did venture out to Marlborough to a plant-based market - it’s the first one they’ve held (I think) and our favourite Vegan Street Diner hot dog man was there so we couldn’t resist. We had a few snacks and bought some vegan soap as well as cakes to take home.

It was very cold and wet but we had a nice walk through the Priory Garden and enjoyed seeing the squirrels scurrying amongst the snow drops and watched (water?) rats in the river.

On Saturday we visited Pewsey for their Potato Day. There was a good turnout and loads of spuds to choose from - in the rubber buckets - as well as a large selection of seeds and herbs. 

It’s always tempting to buy too many seed potatoes as each tuber was 50p but we were quite restrained as we don’t need many and having done no prep (yet) I decided against buying any plants. These are the potatoes we selected.

Desiree and Orla we’ve grown before but Paris and Baby Lou are new to us. They’re all chitting under a grow light in the hall now so we have till April to prepare the ground, though some will be planted into bags - looking back it seems that Orla are a slug-favourite 😖

We also bought some Yellow Moon shallots to plant in the raised bed again - they did well last year (though that doesn’t mean much) and were good to use as spring onions as well as for cooking and pickling later in the year.

I received some treats from my Hastings cousins for my retirement. It’s always fun to get an unexpected delivery from the postman!

Some fabulous cosmic-styled gloves, fairies and lovely scatter seeds for the plot from Jen - if the flowers are as successful as last year’s hollyhocks I’ll be very happy!

I’ve been keeping myself busy in retirement by doing some clearing and I’m painting the bathroom door. The man in the shop thought I was nuts when I asked for a pink paint to be mixed then abruptly changed my mind to blue after he showed me the available shades of pink. It wasn’t till I started painting that I realised, from the whole selection, I’d unwittingly selected a perfect match for our car 🤭 

Stirring stick/car comparison

Talking of lovely colours - I filtered the sloe gin that we made using sloes from the allotment hedge in September last year - it’s so sweet and delicious! We have another jar to filter after this one.

We have another full day of rain expected so I’ll finish my painting and maybe will check on the plot at the weekend - there may be some parsnips to pick (she said hopefully).

Pink Floyd provide the title track - enjoy ☺️