How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Aah, what a joy to see blue sky and sunshine. Working on the plot it certainly felt Spring-like (ok, so I did need a big jumper and coat but still..!). The sunshine brought lots of plotholders out of hibernation and we spent several hours on site both days. You can see from the shape of the polytunnel that it was still extremely windy but even that cold wind wasn't too awful. We’ve partially dug and weeded various parts of the plots but it’s hard work compared to the working-week, when I only walk about 35 steps most days 😖

I showed some new plotholders around the site and they quickly snapped up a 3-pole plot which had been left in perfect condition by the previous plotholder - at 90, Ron had to give up his plot and I'm glad that it's gone on to an ex-gardener who should keep it looking well-loved. We have quite a few more plots to re-let so are just working through the waiting list now. I love showing people round, especially on such a beautiful day when the site looks welcoming, even in February.

The Wildlife plot gained a plot sign and another plant - an oxeye daisy which spreads easily and forms big clumps of tall flowers that the insects love. There were quite a few insects around including bumblebees and ladybirds, but they're fighting for the few spots of colour that are just appearing.

The Wildlife plot also gained some nice stepping stones from a plot which was recently released from another of our long-term plotholders. I'm sure she would be pleased to see them put to good use on a communal area.

This is the robin that hangs round the Wildlife plot. He (we think it is a male as he sings a lot) comes extremely close and took a mealworm from my hand, but wasn't willing to stand on my hand just yet. The robins near our plot are much less tame.

We had a nice taco meal the other night to celebrate our un-wedding anniversary. It was very tasty but they are a messy thing to eat - I wouldn't want to eat them in public 😀

Last week I had a couple of days off, but the weather was wet and windy so we couldn't do much. We picked some leeks and the single purple sprouting broccolli plant is still providing me with some tasty greens. The leeks went into a cheesy leek pasta dish and we had another lot in a stuffing for baked potatoes. 

I used the PSB along with mushrooms that I marinated in a harissa sauce - I really like the Rose Harissa flavouring, just spicy enough for my palette and it's a great colour.

Today I'm working so don't mind that the weather has returned to grey drizzle (I am on my lunch break at the moment - avoiding watching the sad depressing news about Ukraine. For goodness sake, Putin! Haven't we got enough to put up with, with COVID-19 still hanging round?!).
Florence and the Machine provided the song title.

All These Things That I’ve Done

This week has been all about the weather. Storm Eunice hit on Friday and there was quite a lot of news of trees down in the area but our power stayed on so I could work all day; just looking out each time there was a huge gust. I saw several lorries full of wood clippings where they’d been clearing fallen trees. 

We walked to the allotment yesterday and noticed gaps in hedges which weren’t there before. The lamp post in the photo above must have been entwined by that branch a while ago, but it was the first time I’d noticed it. 

At the allotment we were pleased to see our polytunnel still standing and only a bit of minor damage. Others weren’t so lucky… here’s one of Ivan’s polytunnels 😔

Plot3 was fine but we’d gained a couple of dalek compost bins.

The North-East corner of the site had even more debris so a few of us did a bit of tidying in the hope that plotholders will retrieve their stuff before the next storm arrives (we have a yellow wind warning today).

I’ve felt a bit washed-out after my fourth COVID19 jab last Sunday, but I hope that’s a sign that it had some positive effect on my anti-bodies… The previous day we enjoyed a few hours on the plot. I divided the beautiful geum into several plots.

I hope they grow and flower as well as the original plant did. I potted on the bay laurel that my sister gave us for Christmas, I’m not sure whether it’s edible bay leaf or not at the moment. Joanne also gave us a lovely little holly bush that we’ve planted on the wildlife plot; the birds will appreciate those berries I’m sure.

I did a bit of cooking, using our festival squash and Borlotti beans, as an adaptation of this recipe. That covered me for three meals. Not too sure about using cinnamon in a savoury dish though…

I’ve updated the Wildlife blog which includes the video (which I spent hours faffing about with!) of visitors to the pumpkin which we left out specifically to see who would eat it. Here’s one of the stars of the show - so cute!

I’m looking forward to this free talk in the week. I’m enjoying reading this book at the moment. The memoir includes so much from my life too, with Greenham, Beacon Hill, Combe Gibbet and other local areas of interest along with historical, nature and political interest. It even includes Thomas Hardy references, so it really hits the spot for me!

I struggled to find a song title but chose this one by The Killers (who needs an excuse for a Killers song!)

Year of the Tiger

 This dwarf iris provided a spot of colour on an extremely wet and windy site yesterday afternoon.

It didn’t seem like a day for being outside but working for a few hours on the HAHA wildlife plot was actually very pleasant. We put a wigwam up for the birds to perch on. We noticed that the bullfinches seemed to like standing at an angle when we were watching them last year.

There are lots of baby plants emerging so we wanted to remove the unwanted ones in order to make room for the ones we want - there must be hundreds of seeds in that soil! We tried to only pull grasses, docks and some of the other more intrusive weeds that we recognise. Jamie's cleared the bog garden. Some of the irises have spread well, but other plants we bought have disappeared without trace.

These are a few of the wildflowers that we think we recognise from the plantlets... of course, I welcome correction if you know better.

Rosebay Willowherb and Jacobs Ladder

Foxgloves and Teasle (hopefully) or is it Bristly Ox Tongue?

Cowslip at the top and (possibly) Hairy Hawkbit (left) and Corncockle (right)

As you can see, the cowslips are just flowering. I guess the plants should be divided at some point. The plot doesn't look much at the moment, but up close there are loads of nigella, feverfew and scarlet pimpernel seedlings as well as a few pockets of bulbs, which I think are grape hyacinth, so the bees will be happy when they flower in a few more weeks. In the meantime the blackbirds, magpies and robins were very happy with the bit of trowelling that we did.

When we got home I made some soup using part of the last Crown Prince squash with leeks and celeriac from the plot. 

I was disappointed with the other crown prince this year so I hoped this one would be a bit more tasty. I wasn't too convinced when I had a taster, hence the addition of curry powder! I think I'll use the Festival squash instead when I cook my next squash-based meal.

At the weekend we celebrated the Lunar New Year with a tasty Chinese veggie meal. It was delivered frozen a couple of weeks ago and it was fun opening all the parcels. I must say that the mushroom and veg buns are my favourite and I prefer the fried gyoza to the veggie dumplings. There was way too much for the two of us, so filling! We really should have only cooked half of it.

The cardboard steamer wasn't quite as successful as we'd hoped, as the gyozas stuck but it was a fun parcel to receive. We need to take our excitement where we can these days 😏 Saying that, I have my fourth COVID-19 vaccination next weekend, so that's a trip out of Hungerford! - fingers crossed it provides me with a higher anti-body count than I'm currently seeing.

Saturday was a much nicer day, but we only had an hour on the plot in the sunshine, this was the view through the hedge to Freeman's Marsh.

Anyway, the predictable song title is provided by Myles Kennedy.