Winter

It was bright this morning so we decided to visit the plot. By the time we got there it wasn’t very bright but it was very cold ... brrr. I’m only slightly sorry that the snow started about 30minutes after we got home.

The ground is far too wet to dig, but we decided to weed and trowel over the area where the shallots will be planted. Quite a satisfying bit of work. We’ll get the shallots planted as soon as it dries a bit. If it doesn’t dry off soon we’ll have to start them off in pots.

While we were working we noticed a flock of redwings; it was at that point we decided to do the Big Garden Birdwatch 😊 and had quite a good count:

No sign of the robin unusually and I didn’t attempt any photos. The kestrel was hovering over the site and then we saw him land on an aerial so I won’t add it to the official count.

Yesterday I went through all the seeds and have a planting plan, (I know! Haven’t been this organised for a few years!) Of course, it doesn’t include any offerings from fellow plotholders which I find so hard to refuse and there are a few things missing, but we know where they’re going eg spuds, toms, peppers,..

All the trailing squashes, apart from the pumpkin, are going to form my squash tunnel which I’ve been talking about for years! Ooh, it’s a dangerous thing... to make a plan in the middle of a pandemic, but fingers crossed. 

Something I planned for, and did yesterday, was to make some of Shaheen’s Sweet Potato & Cumin soup. I’ve had a taster and am very pleased that it should provide me with 3 or 4 tasty workday lunches. Thanks Shaheen! And a few leftover sweet potatoes to make some roasted wedges for tonight - yum!

The song title is by Tori Amos. The snow has stopped now and turned to cold rain with dripping wet trees. Bye-bye January.

Everybodys Got to Learn Sometime

I took a day off work last Tuesday, I’m determined to have at least one day off a month to break the monotony and it’s quite nice having a random mid-week day. We visited the allotment. Too wet to do anything constructive but I did get to play with some ice.

It looks so pure and I love the frozen bubbles.

I found three frozen circles, but my hands were also frozen so this is as creative as I could be 🙄

The thermometer in the polytunnel showed a minimum of -5.2°

We celebrated Burns Night on Monday, which was why I took Tuesday off. It’s a good excuse for eating, drinking, listening to some different music and watching a film (Whisky Galore, 1949). We are increasingly finding that we’re the butt of the very funny Daily Mash articles but..whatever!

It warmed up a bit over the last few days but now it’s just rain, rain, rain and it apparently feels cold so I’m staying indoors. It’s a shame, as I really feel like getting to the plot to do some clearing, but I don’t feel like getting cold, wet and dirty. Our shallots have been delivered; we ordered a long variety, Jermore, but COVID-19 is taking its toll everywhere and so they were unavailable and we’ve been sent these, Mikor.

The allotments lease is unfortunately a newsworthy subject again, but the date we’re ‘safe’ to is actually 31st December 2022 so it’s not quite as bad as it reads, but bad enough. For our amazing site to ever be at risk of development is a disgrace!

And there was a further mention of allotments in this week’s Newbury Weekly News... at a time when Growing Your Own has had a new lease of life. It is appalling that developers can use words to help win a purchase but then simply remove it at planning stage and still be granted permission. We’d rather stay at Marsh Lane (obviously) but permanent allotment provision should have been included in this development. And don’t get me started on the affordable housing aspect...! 😡

Sad... it may seem at times like the world is changing, but in fact it’s not.

Today’s song title is by The Corgis and it’s referring to my crochet plans... it’s a rather slow process, but I’ll get there... I hope.

That is what I achieved in 3 hours, following Bella Coco on YouTube... luckily I have some time on my hands..!

Once Around the Block

Look what we woke up to this morning! Such big fluffy flakes!

Finally some snow reached Berkshire, after seeing so many beautiful snow photos from around the country.

Actually the weather forecast did predict it, so Jamie was doing a snow check every hour until it arrived at 7am 🙂 We couldn’t resist going for a little walk in it, just round the block, to hear and feel the crunch underfoot - it’s just so special.

The catkins were highlighted against the monochrome environment.

We weren’t fully convinced we were going to see the forecast snow but thought we’d better protect our broad beans from getting crushed, just in case, so we had a very quick late afternoon visit to the plot yesterday - a good job we did! The broad bean plants can handle the cold but damage from the weight of snow definitely causes a set-back and we do hope to get an early crop.

Our seed potatoes were delivered yesterday, so they’re now chitting in the hall - just a few Nicola and Kestrel.

We still need to check what seeds we have in our stocks, definitely getting the feel of Spring even in the cold and snow! I’m looking forward to cooking with our own home-grown harvests again. I made onion and butter bean soup with Ivan’s giant onion - it was lovely and creamy.

And had delicious halloumi with red onions and peppers in the week. Mmm, halloumi...

The snow has melted from the trees and roads but is remaining on the rooftops so it still looks pretty. I’m glad we were able to see it falling and have a walk.

And it meant I could use the great song title by Badly Drawn Boy from the amazing The Hour of Bewilderbeast album.

Blue Monday

Aah, the sky was blue this morning and the sun was shining - that made a welcome change. There are many fewer planes flying nowadays but the contrails were in full view this morning which shows the air was cold up there, but not so cold at ground level as it has been recently.

I was looking forward to being outside after pretty much sitting still all week inside. We drove to the allotment and were the only people on site for a while. I weeded the garlic in the raised bed.

Jamie took the covers off the broad beans and weeded that area and I dug the area behind, though I didn’t manage it all. It was nice to be outside and digging. Several of our plot neighbours arrived but we were all well socially distanced. We were pleased to hear that Ivan has had his first COVID-19 vaccination - I’m expecting mine in February if all goes to plan.

Jamie cleared the rhubarb and surrounded the huge plant with a ring of manure to give it a boost after it was left to its own devices last year. We really need to divide the plant later in the year.

The larger birds were active today mostly gulls from over the Marsh, magpies and buzzards being quite noisy overhead. We saw a couple of robins but they weren’t as busy or inquisitive as they usually are.

We left as the sunshine had gone and it started to get chilly. We’re expecting a lot of rain this week. The plot was already very wet. So the question is... do I read a book or carry on practising crochet before I embark on extending the sleeves of my beautiful cardigan..? Or maybe I’ll make some onion soup as Ivan gave us these lovely veg as we left the site. The onion is huge, it weighs 472grams!

The song is by New Order - I used to hate this song, but quite like it now. Tomorrow is known as ‘blue Monday’, but try not to feel blue - we’re moving closer to Spring and vaccination so it’s best to stay positive. Take care and stay safe x

Shield

Welcoming 2021 ... and I return to shielding as the whole of England is locked down with COVID infections and deaths hitting the not unexpected peaks as a result of at least one new strain, Christmas gatherings and general Winter health. Oh dear, not a great start to the new year 😔

That photo is from when we visited the plot last weekend to get some fresh (a bit too fresh for me) air, drop some green waste into the compost bin and feed the birds.

We haven’t had snow, but we’ve had plenty of frost and freezing temperatures. Look at the frozen rain gauge! We really need to buy a new one but that can wait. The anemone flowers aren’t meant to flower till May, I don’t think, so I don’t know what they’re up to!

I made a tasty chunky soup with swede, carrots, onion and Brussels sprouts - it made for a very tasty working-from-home lunchtime meal. Yes, I’ve been ‘back’ to work for a week after a most enjoyable Christmas break. It got busy rather quickly though!

Today we drove to site to put some COVID information signs up on the allotment notice board. We didn’t go to our plot as we had stuff to do at home and I’m not sure that sitting having a coffee in our polytunnel can really count as exercise! I had to do some HAHA (Hungerford Allotment Holders Association) admin yesterday; updating the allotment registers and waiting list before emailing all the plotholders to remind them of the restrictions. (I still need to update the website, but thought I’d write this instead). As per the previous lockdowns the site will stay open, unless the restrictions are tightened. I hope to have a bit more time on the allotment this year so that I get out of the flat a bit more - we’ll just need to time it to avoid busy times.

I had some good news in the week. Thompson & Morgan listed my little blog as one of their Vibrant Veg Growing Blogs 😊 I hope to include much more growing in it this year! We ordered some seed potatoes, tomato and pepper plants this weekend, so that’s a start... but we got that far last year...We need to work out which of the unused seeds from last year will still be viable and then we can start planning...

So that’s how the year has begun. I hope soon these posts will include more good news - like a vaccine date and our next site gathering - won’t that be great when the day comes!! In the meantime, here’s the title song by Deep Purple to enjoy.