Reviewing the Situation

On Friday night we had our Take-2 of Chinese New Year. So now it really is the Year of the Metal Ox. We added some star croutons and Spring onions to the Miso soup starter and had mushroom chow mein for the main.

 This weekend we had a plan... to get the shallots planted because the freezing weather of last week is moving on. And I thought I’d risk sowing a few seeds under a cloche - mangetout, beetroot and perpetual spinach, because they should be reasonably hardy.

Well, that plan changed when we got to the plot and found the ground still frozen and then we saw our broad beans 🥺

Oh dear! We’ve never seen such a thing. But it has been extremely cold, with an added windchill taking the temperature even lower than the thermometer recorded.

The globe artichoke looks sad too; I’m sure that will recover, though I’m not convinced that the beans will.

Although it was horribly cold, with some rain, we decided to stick it out for a bit so we tidied and moved some weed suppressant to make space for the potatoes.

Moving the Grow Bags was harder than it seems because they were heavy, wet and frozen. We got muddy and frozen ourselves!

We sat and had a coffee, then wandered round the site but it was too cold to think about doing anything else. Our watering cans full of rain water appear to have completely solidified and look how thick the ice was in a bucket!

I sympathise with the workmen who have recently been working on the site’s water system in the icy weather. Looks good doesn’t it? Better than the pallets which were starting to rot after being leaked onto for a few years.

I actually did a bit of HAHA admin this weekend too - long overdue, but I have enough of spreadsheets (much as I love them) during the working week at the moment. We did have a trip out last week though - to get my first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Newbury racecourse. What a treat 😄

And I drove Jamie to Hungerford Tesco - all the COVID-precautions have passed me by so I was interested to see the traffic light system on the doors!

We have the 2m distancing signs at the allotment, but social distancing has certainly not been a problem on site so far in 2021!

The song is from the musical, Oliver! and is certainly what we’re doing. Reviewing and waiting...for so many things to get better.