Fairground

I love this section of canal in Hungerford - we cross the canal here on the back route to Tescos or to the train station. We’ve had a few trips out but I’m sorry to say the allotment hasn’t been visited for at least 3 weeks. I have my excuses ready … the weather has either been too wet or too cold and I’ve had 2 colds already this month. But none of those excuses stopped us going to the huge fireworks display in Abingdon.

It was amazing but the organisers got a lot of abuse because the massive bonfire (apparently) detracted from the show and then the poor souls wandering across dark fields trying to find where they’d parked (us included) caused more outrage on Social media, but not so much as the people who were stuck in traffic for 3hours and missed the fireworks completely 😖 They were the loudest fireworks we’d ever experienced and the display was in a 270° arc - really incredible!

Jamie was so tired at one point and needed a sit down - the only nearby seat was in the ghost train. Haha, it wasn’t that scary but getting back out of the little truck was more difficult than collapsing into it! Luckily we did have our allotment chairs in the back of the car so I retrieved them for the rest of the evening. The food stalls and fairground were a lot of fun too, but we didn’t go on any other rides!

We also had a trip out on what must have been the coldest day this year - to Longleat’s Festival of Light. We went on the boat safari and saw the sea lions but the other mammals (apart from humans) were hiding in their heated shelters - who could blame them?! 

And what a racket when the keeper threw fish to them! Amazing animals.

The only other animals we saw were the cute red pandas and the fabulous bats in the Bat Cave. Our friend, Linda, wouldn’t like it, as the bats swoop past your head at speed and they’re quite big, not like our little native ones. It was rather exciting and nice and warm but they were impossible to photograph. 

The light festival was good and the Christmas and food stalls were lovely along with the huge singing Christmas tree.

And last weekend we tracked down our favourite street food vendor ‘Vegan Street Diner’ so attended the Andover Christmas lights switch-on and also went to the Hungerford light switch-on event. Our lights are prettier but Andover’s event was more entertaining.

So we’re feeling very Christmassy now… with December almost here. The beautiful song title is brought to you by Simply Red - enjoy!

Jammin

I've been jam-making this morning! It doesn’t happen often.

It’s made with one of our Fig Leaf gourds (aka Shark’s Fin melon, aka Black Seed squash, aka Alcayota), a spaghetti squash. Funny to put a whole big squash in the oven, but that’s the start of the process and makes breaking through the skin slightly easier.

 I mostly followed this recipe but didn’t add walnuts and zested a whole orange as well as adding a slice. It seems to be extremely sweet with half as much sugar as pulp (I got ~500g from this squash).

It’s meant to be good with cheese which I need to put to the test… And a fig leaf gourd isn’t just for jam - this one was a good substitute for our lack of pumpkins!

I like the glowing reptile-type skin. I had a bad throat so Halloween was a bit of a subdued celebration plus we had to eat all the treats because no-one came to call 😊

We went to Newbury Racecourse the next day for the fireworks - it was fabulous! Though the 9km of walking was more than we would have liked, especially Jamie.

The fireworks will continue for at least another week. We enjoyed watching some from our doorstep last night and have a bonfire event later this week which we’re looking forward to.

We’ve even had a little visit to the plot to pick some leeks - the hedge, full of sloes and hawthorn berries in that low sunshine was so beautiful. The nasturtiums have re-flowered and the cosmos, verbena and nicotiana are all still in flower.

That was the plan for the leeks - a delicious cheesy leek pasta with veggie lardons. Unfortunately the leeks came from Tescos - this is how our leeks look….

That is the damage caused by the allium leaf miner. And this is its pupa. This pest has only been in the country since 2002 but it seems to be particularly busy this year from what I’ve read.

All those leeks need to be pulled (not composted on site) and the onions and garlic planted next to them may succumb too - though leeks tend to be the prime target apparently. I shall have to keep a close eye on this patch. So annoying - leeks are such a useful veg to grow.

Oh well, just another pest to be aware of…

We joined a HAHA versus Hungerford Twinning Association skittles evening on Friday which was a lot of fun. It was the first re-match since Covid and HAHA retained the cup. Yay!

The title song is of course provided by the late great Bob Marley - ah, what a song - singalong now 😊

Transformation

We’ve been watching the cygnets this year and noticing the plumage changes as they move towards adulthood. They join in the feeding frenzy when we feed them from the canal or river bank, but only the adults seem to spot the feed that lands out of the water 😊

The war memorial is one of their feeding locations, with our fancy new memorial bench, this tree also puts on a fabulous transformation display. The fallen leaves just add to the display don’t they.

Our neighbours, who are also plotholders, have an excellent display of pumpkins - their largest was 36kg! Amazing considering how dry the year was.

Our display of squashes is rather less impressive but I am hoping to make this recipe from at least one of the fig leaf gourds, but I’m not sure whether they are ripe enough to have the spaghetti-like texture. Will find out, I guess!

We’ve had a couple of plot visits since my last post - I weeded the plot where the onions and garlic have begun to poke through and have done a bit more clearing. Spotted this tiny sunflower that’s made a late appearance - the flower is only about 10cm in diameter!

We’ve had a delivery of Apsley Farms mulch which I can spread once I’ve cleared the planned area, but I need to dig a trench for all the foliage from beans, squash, etc and I can’t face doing that at the moment - we’ve had such a lot of rain it may be a nightmare job.

We got an absolute drenching when we visited the Welford Park Spectacle of Light on Sunday.

Four miles of wandering amongst beautiful fantasy woodland with lovely musical accompaniment.

We really loved it, despite the rain. I really liked these conical lights amongst the trees.

And this area was where we sat having refreshments. The spheres were really great but didn’t photograph too well. But just look at those huge lit-up trees - stunning.

It’s only a few miles from Hungerford - it’s where the Great British Bake-off is filmed. It was fabulous, rather expensive but worth the visit, the drenching and the aching legs! More photos if you fancy a peek.

And here’s another cygnet photo showing a bit more white plumage - the brown feathers moult apparently, though it looks like they’re changing colour to me 🧐

So, you can see why this post’s song title is what it is - by David Gray.

Too Late

Autumn really provides us with some lovely Sunrises and Sunsets. This was the view from our window one morning in September and there have been some excellent pink clouds at both ends of the day. At home we’ve noticed bats flitting about when it’s still quite light before dusk and after dark a hedgehog has been trundling through the courtyard.

The allotment is waiting to be cleared, but my heart’s not in it at the moment. That bed has the parsnips and beetroot but almost everywhere else needs clearing. We want to dig a trench under the old polytunnel frame where the climbing beans will grow next year. All the old foliage can go in there but I need to clear the squashes first - maybe I’ll actually do that today…

I’ve planted some daffodil bulbs around the orchard and in the flower plot and I did get round to planting the garlic at the beginning of the month - about 30 Czechmate Wight. Sprinkled onion fertiliser on the leeks, onions and those garlic cloves.

I pulled the last Pink Fir potato from there. Just enough for a couple of meals from some potatoes left on the allotment spares shelf, with 20cm chits! They were very tasty roasted.

At the end of September I cleared the small raised bed - the pak choi had all bolted and the Chinese cabbage disappeared - but I discovered the seed tray where I’d sown All Year Round cauliflower! I hoed and cleared (not dug, brassica don’t want dug soil - luckily!) an area in the brassica cage and stuck 14 seedlings in, so we’ll see…. I don’t know if the whole country is the same but we have hoards of whitefly - in the town as well as at the allotment.

There are still a few redcurrant tomatoes hanging on, but I’m expecting that this was the last meal that included fresh home-grown toms this year - they’ve certainly served us well!

Talking of food - we visited beautiful Oxford yesterday specifically for the regular street food market at Gloucester Green and to visit a museum. 

Gloucester Green didn’t disappoint - so much choice Nepalese, Thai, Lebanese, Italian, Korean with so many veggie options! I opted for a Persian halloumi bowl - so delicious- and Jamie had Chinese dumplings - yum yum 😋 

We browsed the shops including Blackwells Bookstore and visited The Covered Market for coffee and cake at Browns Cafe - it’s a must.

We wandered along streets - a bit dodgy for Jamie at times - admiring the architecture and considering the history in these cobbled alleyways and walls - so beautiful. And spotting the weird features and gargoyles on many of the buildings.

We heard music and when we turned into Broad Street we stumbled across another street market - what a stroke of luck! Being surrounded by so many different nationalities and languages makes Oxford such an interesting city to sit, watch and listen. Oh, and have a little drink of course ☺️

What a lovely, exhausting day! Now, as we’re well into October and it’s not windy or rainy I really should go to the allotment… Carole King provides the great song because we didn’t make it to the museum on time! That’s ok, we’ll be back.

Hung Up

I finally used the macrame kit my sister gave me a while ago (sorry Carolyn, I think it’s been used as a monitor stand for a few years 🤦‍♀️). I must say it was rather fiddly and I did have to unravel the plant hangers a couple of times. I definitely didn’t follow the instructions properly but they look alright and no-one will look that closely 🙂 Anyway, they’re perfect for that little plant and a re-homed spider-baby plus I bought the white pot for 50p from the Antiques Arcade in Hungerford - bargain!

While I was getting into knots, I grew an affinity with this (not so) little lady Cross Orbweaver spider weaving her web on our window. (I could have done with some extra limbs for the macramé). Sorry for the blurry photo, taken through double-glazing - no way I’m getting close even if we did bond! I’m not a spider fan, but she is fascinating to watch. She sleeps under a leaf and waits for the day to warm up a bit before fixing her web and sitting waiting for anything to cause a vibration, then she’s up and on them. She spent a long time dealing with a leaf; I’m not sure if she ate it or tossed it aside but I did see her deal with a butterfly, which was rather disturbing.

Since my last post the weather has turned dry and cold - especially overnight. I picked all the outdoor melons as the foliage had died back and a frost was threatened - I’m hoping one or two of them will ripen at home. The melon in the trug was from the polytunnel and was so ripe you could smell the sweetness. And it was delicious.

And finally I’ve had some beetroot - so incredibly slow to bulb up this year. I’m trying to blame the weather but I know I should have thinned out the seedlings earlier - along with so many jobs that didn’t get done properly this year, but…. Plot7 did win third prize in the plot judging, I think maybe there wasn’t much competition!

On the last sunny day a week ago I planted 48 Snowball onions - lovely white ones. I put a net over them to deter birds/mice/squirrels from digging them out. The leeks and onions are going to be joined by garlic quite soon and the whole bed is going to be highlighted with salsify judging by the number of seedlings I found. Well, they have a pretty flower, so I don’t mind as long as they don’t get in the way and perhaps I’ll actually get to eat one next year.

I think plot neighbour, Neal’s, busy Lizzie’s are evidence that there was some frost on site, but it’s only hit a few susceptible plants so far.

Our flower plot avoided it and even got some nicotiana which has been attempting to put on a show for months. 

And I do love the Cerinthe Major and the sedum which the bees were enjoying today too.

Our scattered sunflowers have taken advantage of what little Sun they’ve seen over the last week but they didn’t know where to look for it today!

The sunshine and showers earlier in the month have encouraged everything to re-grow - this was a bare patch of earth 4 weeks ago, now it’s a whole bed of nigella, valerian, cranesbill geranium, bindweed and probably a few other things - some welcome, others less so… I’ve been hoeing quite a bit but I think that’s just helping the seedlings, until the weather gets really cold - which I don’t really want!

So from that green foliage to the lovely colourful chard - it seems to have enjoyed the raised bed after a dodgy start. It’s so pretty - I just wish Jamie liked the taste of it 😊

We’ve just passed the Autumn equinox now so the days are getting shorter. Pull those curtains and snuggle in, surely all the fruits and berries mean we’re in for a hard Winter…. Brrr, we’ll see…

Here’s Madonna, it’s a singalong- enjoy!