That was 2024

Well 2024 passed by in a whirl - a rather wet & windy whirl... I’m pleased to say we enjoyed two weddings, no funerals, a Euros football final, a happy general election plus a lot of working, gardening, reading and picnics. Here’s a quick-ish summary, with my reading list at the end.

January

We had a few frosty days, with temperatures down to -9° but mostly just wet. Oh dear it was very wet, with severe floods in nearby towns and rivers bursting their banks. The allotment was very soggy so not workable but we managed to harvest leeks and parsnips.

February

Another wet, grey and windy month but we got some digging done and planted our ‘orchard’ - 3 tiny fruit trees. And we had a HAHA workday. Plotholders happy to actually get outside to do something constructive - clearing Ivan’s communal fruitcage.

Nice to see the return of old friends 😉

March

Rain persisted but there was some sunshine. The ground was still too wet to achieve much so we hand-weeded to avoid compacting the soil. Hard work but always satisfying to see ground ready and waiting.

April

At last, some clear skies and sunshine! That’s what we like to see; fresh new growth and there were tadpoles in our little pond plus our first blossom on the cherry tree.

Brrr, it was really cold though. There had been a couple of frosts so we kept the fleece on hand to protect the strawberry flowers and anything else that didn’t appreciate the biting wind!

May

Days began to feel a bit warmer. Broad beans were being harvested and sowing and planting was well underway. The frequent torrential downpours kept the slugs and snails happy and they were the bane of many a plotholder; seedlings disappeared soon after emerging or being planted out. But what joy to enjoy some warmer Sunday picnics,  though we still had to wrap up warm as soon as the Sun disappeared.

And May provided our first wedding of the year - and an overnight change of scene. What a fabulously fun wedding it was! Congratulations to Sarah and Dan 😘

June

Our second wedding of the year and another night away, in a shepherd’s hut in torrential rain. This wedding was tremendous fun too - another non-traditional excellent event. Congratulations to Joe and Soulla 😍

Initially still cold enough for fleece protection we did manage to enjoy a mini-heatwave in the middle of the month.  Harvests were beginning to get interesting and some plants were very slowly beginning to grow, but the soaking soil soon solidified under the sweltering Sun causing more problem growing conditions. (6 months in, you can see it was a rather trying year!)

Flowers were finally showing themselves but everything was a bit sluggish - hoho, see what I did there🐌

July

Fabulous sunshine, torrential rain - that should have been great growing weather but sorry to say that molluscs seemed to eat faster than the plants could grow.

Having cleared all the broad beans there was mostly only salad leaf and turnips in the trug. There were some great times in July: England were in the Euros Final (just beaten by Spain), the general election (an end to 14 years of tories), Sunday picnics and the verbena bonariensis began to put on a beautiful display for months providing much needed nectar to the bees, butterflies and other insects.

And we were very excited to catch sight of the visiting fox on the wildlife camera! There had been evidence and we think he was after the pheasants that had bred on the site.

The last few days of July provided a few 30° days which were extremely welcome.

August

Summer stayed for a while. We even appreciated the rain when it arrived. 

Picnics were plenty and harvests were more varied: courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, beans, tomatoes and better salads. The zinnia eventually began to flower, but not quite the show I was hoping for. And the night camera showed we had a regular hedgehog visitor as well as a group of sparrows enjoying dust baths in the polytunnel.

September

Our first sweetcorn were picked - they were slow to arrive, short-stemmed and germination was poor but what we had was worth waiting for.

It was a thundery month with occasional flashes of lightning in more torrential rainstorms. And to add to the climate chaos we had our first frost - on the 15th September, not a welcome record after the slow start to the growing season 😒

But when the crazy weather wasn’t being thrown at us there was some lovely sunshine and excellent harvests of beans, carrots, peppers, courgette, garlic, Cavolo Nero and tomatoes.

October

Another very wet month but we had some lovely picnics by the warmth of the chimenea, watching bats and enjoying the wonders of the nightsky including satellites and a fab Super moon.

I stepped down from the HAHA committee after 14 years and I think it was good timing. It should give us more time to look after our own plots and still enjoy the friendly, social aspects of our lovely site.

We had a delivery of Apsley Farms mulch to slow some of the weed growth. Further frosts and sub-zero temperatures prevented any plans for digging and clearing. I’d protected my few squashes with fleece over the last two months, but picked them all in October. The festival squash was tastier than the butternut at this stage, but a bit of storage time increased the sugars in the butternut over time.

November

The phrase ‘cyclonic gloom’ entered our vocabulary - weeks of dull cloud-covered nothing. Probably the driest stretch of the year, but no chance for the squelching ground to recover as Storm Bert arrived. However at least one mild Sunday gave us the opportunity for another picnic. The cat joined us and provided a dead rat for entertainment…

Later we had some proper frosts and even a brief snow flurry - temperatures dipped to -4° so that was the end of the any remaining non-hardy plants.

December

So here we are with more wind, rain and frosts but not so unexpected in this month. I ate the last of the stored butternuts.

Christmas has been, and continues to be full of relaxation and fun. We only made it to the allotment once so far to pick some sprouts.

We’ve got signs of life for the year ahead with broad beans, garlic and leeks. Still hopeful that the PSB will provide some tasty heads in the next couple of months and I really do want some roasted sprouts.

2024 Books

I’ve read a lot this year, 28 books, probably because the weather made us stay inside more. These have been my favourites - see GoodReads.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hoping 2025 brings a bit more warmth and sunshine, a bit less wind and rain but just as many HAPPY TIMES. 

 Happy New Year!

The Christmas Song

Christmas spirits are running high now! 

Hungerford has held its annual Extravaganza - we nipped out to see part of the parade; it was a rather damp evening but the Christmas lights are pretty and the people were happy and cheerful.

I’m working on Monday and Christmas Eve but I’m really not expecting it to be busy and this is the view over my PC screen so it could be much worse ☺️ And then work stops until the new year - yay! We’ll have to nip up the allotment for some sprouts for at least one of the big meals but then we won’t have to move much - unless we want to 🥳

Over the last week we’ve met and exchanged presents with various family members, received some lovely cards and have wished a few people a Happy Christmas in town. The last couple of days have been frosty so wrapping up in hats and scarves adds to the atmosphere and it’s so dark with barely any sunshine and today being the shortest day.

Merry Christmas! Hope you have fun and/or relaxation, as you wish 😘 

Enjoy this song by Gregorian. See you on the other side 🎄

December

Well, that was quick! Now it’s December! It’s still wet, not sure it’s ever going to dry up! There are self-formed ponds on the site where we’ve never seen water-logging before. (Not our plot, yet)

We’ve only been to the plot for very brief visits over the last week. The robin is always. pleased to see us bringing his breakfast of mealworms. And there are carrion crows, magpies and a male pheasant with three females - not sure if they’re last year’s offspring, but they’re safer on our site than in the fields where we can hear shooting 😠

We’ve had a couple of very clear, frosty early morning visits. It is worth getting up early on these clear days - whatever the season!

The temperature was down to -4° on Thursday morning. The teasels really do look great. 

Some of the remaining plants look so pretty with their coating of frost.

Others less so! Our leeks and garlic should be able to survive this though.

Curly parsley is quite resilient but this may have been too cold for it to pull through. The different types of frost are interesting, aren’t they?

I’m not sure whether frosting increases the flavour of brassica anymore - I expect they’re bred to be tasty, but the sprouts were frozen on the stems under this leafy top.

It was a lovely early morning visit, but brrrr I was happy to get back home to get back to work! It made a nice change to have a sunny outlook even though I had to pull the curtains because the Sun is so low it reflects on my computer screen! But today I’m on leave - yay! Here are Earth, Wind and Fire to dance around to.