Back to Life

We had a lovely afternoon on the plot - we were so pleased (and surprised) when we got there and found that most of the broad beans had recovered from their frosty battering last week. We were ready to pull them up and re-sow. Instead, Jamie added a sprinkling of lime to encourage growth and alkaline the soil.

I think today was the first dry day we’ve had in weeks and the Sun even tried to make an appearance. We avoided treading on the soil as it’s still really wet, though nowhere near as bad as some parts of the country. The air was warm and positively Spring-like so, although I shared this to the Marsh Lane Allotments Facebook page last week.....

Well, as the saying goes, don’t do as I do, do as I say... I sowed a row of Boltardy beetroot and perpetual spinach into the raised bed with the garlic. I retrieved our old cold frame, which was rather abandoned and harbouring loads of snails, slugs and a mouse nest, to give the seeds a bit of protection, as I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of the cold weather! That section of the raised bed was under cardboard for the last few months so was weed-free and, maybe, a little warmer than uncovered soil.

Jamie sowed some marigold seeds and put them in a bag in the polytunnel. I sowed some Shiraz mangetout into a piece of guttering, they can stay in the polytunnel to germinate and grow a bit. If successful, and the mice don’t find them, they should produce pods early enough to avoid pea moth larvae. 🤞 

Jamie planted 24 Mikor shallots on Plot3. We haven’t netted them, so the birds may disturb some of them, but they normally survive being pushed back into the ground if that happens. The blue tit and robins were singing happily today, another sign of Spring being on its way.

And our wallflowers are full of buds.

Aah, nearly March, not really Spring but time is moving on. I got another letter from the Government advising me to continue shielding until 31st March, but getting a bit of exercise is ok and visiting the allotment is so welcome. It’s good to see a few fellow plotholders, particularly as Ivan gave us some lovely fresh leeks. It seems that there will be some reduction in lockdown rules quite soon, so we may be able to start leasing plots again - our waiting list is looking healthy, which helps our cause for keeping the site.

The song title is, of course, referring to the broad beans and is by Soul II Soul. Nice.

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..!

Say Hello Wave Goodbye

This is the obligatory look back over the year - a year that certainly didn’t follow any plan and I don’t suppose there are many who aren’t happy to see the back of 2020 with high hopes for 2021. Even though the year has obviously been dominated by COVID-19, horrible statistics, social distancing, lockdown tiers and face masks this post is only covering my highlights. 

I read more books than usual and I think I’ll continue to do so, rather than just reading on holiday which is how our year started (little did we realise how lucky we were with our timing). 

Aah, those costumes and fabulous drummers! Carnivalesque - Such a fabulous time to visit Tenerife. 

Shielding and lockdown kept me indoors for more than 70 days, working from home was enough to drive anyone stir crazy... my hair bore the brunt of the boredom.

My first trip outside was at 4am in June to see the sun rise over Freeman’s Marsh. It was worth getting up so early.

The poppy fields just up the road were well worth another walk outside and the weather was beautiful.

It seems that 2020 was a good year for flowers in and around Hungerford.

Birthday trip to Chalk Hill

I was inspired to do some embroidery - the first time in decades. Loved doing it and love my sewn Plot7 but it seems that isn’t a hobby I’m going to keep doing.

Feeling creative I also did some decorative baking (after seeing it on the Veg Hog’s blog) - focaccia will definitely be made again.

I made a foraged blackberry and apple crumble. (Bear with me, I don’t cook much)

And even baked a cake, with a tromboncino squash donated by a fellow plotholder.

We did get to the allotment and enjoyed some lovely hot days, or lunch hours, up there. We even did a bit of clearing, but didn’t get much planted. Our generous allotment friends and my sister made sure we got fresh fruit and veg though.

Our sad overgrown plot

The allotments got a flurry of new plotholders and a substantial waiting list, as recognised by the local paper. (That’s our plot in the photo 😊)

2020 was also a good year for wildlife, particularly when the traffic was so reduced in the Spring and with the reduced air pollution because so few planes were flying. On the allotment we saw these great caterpillars - I was so pleased to find my first hawk moth and then found a second one!

Elephant hawk moth

Elephant hawk moth

Pale tussock moth

So, my blog was much more of a lifestyle blog, I hope it features much more of the allotment next year. This morning, for the last time this year, I hung around by the canal while Jamie went shopping. It was cold and frosty with just a couple of men working on their narrow boats and a family feeding the ducks.

So it’s goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, song title provided by Soft Cell.

Thankyou for visiting and we wish you all a Happy New Year 🥳 

Get Up, Stand Up

 Not a sunny bank holiday Monday, but perfect weather for actually getting some work done.

Our new poly tunnel has been waiting to go up since last year, so yesterday was the day to finally do it.

So from this abandoned-looking plot...

To this, aah, that’s more like the Plot7 we know and love. The old polytunnel is going to be used for a squash climbing frame (plans for next year).

We’ve spent quite a few hours on the plot during the extended long weekend. We even cleared some of Plot3, what a mess!

So, it looks better, but what can’t be seen is the million tiny seedlings just waiting for a bit of rain!

It’s a shame to be clearing really, as there’s so much wildlife finding a Winter resting place. I even found another elephant hawk moth caterpillar today! My macro camera has been working quite well. Jamie found this amazing caterpillar. The id has now been confirmed as a Pale Tussock moth caterpillar. More photos on my wildlife blog, which I keep separate for each new creature I spot.

And we saw a couple of Angle Shades moths. Pretty.

And loads of white butterflies,

...along with far too many slugs and snails..!

So, lots of grub for froggy to clear up (but surely they don’t eat snails!?)

We found these rather interesting Hare’s foot inkcap mushrooms in our compost bins last week, which I think are worth a mention. They’re helping to break down all the garden waste we’re putting in the bins, along with plenty of cardboard as ‘brown waste’.

And the song title, with the rather weak link to the blogpost is of course provided by the great Bob Marley.