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.

Looking Back

I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas and that 2024 brings you plenty of good times as well as an extra day in February. I’m hoping that 2024 runs a bit slower than recent years, but we’ll see. Thankyou for dropping by occasionally and I hope you enjoy the music, here’s a brief look back over last year, with some fave photos and my book list at the end. Happy to receive any book or music suggestions of course!

January 

The first planting of the year was some Egyptian walking onions. Unfortunately, along with all my spring onions, the slugs enjoyed them. I’ll try again though!

It was a wet start to 2023 (we couldn’t know how wet the year was going to continue!). We had at least one super frost, although no snow. The cold nights gave us some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

The allotment was providing us with carrots, Cavolo Nero and parsnips.

February 

Clearing and digging began in earnest as the ground dried up. We actually felt we were ahead of the game for a change.

And the Cavolo Nero kept providing - I think I’ll plant it again this year - and purple sprouting broccoli finally started producing the delicious flowerheads. A month later than 2022, but worth the wait.

March

Early March was when we got some snow. We had to get up in the wee hours to enjoy it; it (and we) didn’t hang around long.

Last year’s dried beans made for some tasty meals including these bean burgers, served with steamed purple sprouting broccoli - delish.

April

Finally time to start sowing most of the seeds that we’d ordered. Lots of different flowers for the flower plot were protected in the polytunnel. The chitted potatoes were also planted in the ground and a few in bags.

There was a mix of some warm weather among the wet and chillier days. April is a great allotment month, with lots of busy/chatty plotholders and plenty to catch up on, but thank goodness we have the polytunnel.

Along with the PSB, rhubarb and fresh chive flowers joined the meal plans.

May

Aah May! Still more to sow (including pre-germinated parsnips which were direct-sown) and so much growth with proper colour on the plots. The hedge full of flower and birds infuses a keen-ness to get tiny plants into the ground, but we hold off unless we have back-ups on hand.

It was a mostly sunny month so perfect for growing and working. OK, there was some rain but not altogether unwelcome.

We even started an early courgette in the polytunnel. It kept producing for months; we moved it outside in the Summer.

Delicious leeks were on the menu along with a few early strawberries.

June

It really was a flaming June - it was so sunny and beautiful, we thought it was a sign of a sweltering Summer, like last year, but that didn’t quite work out.

We saw bullfinches, a rosemary beetle and a previously unseen red and black froghopper, but even better were the plotholder gatherings!

And we enjoyed a sunny site Open Day.

Salads were getting more interesting with delicious broad beans, mangetout and radish.

July

Nia provided us with the sweetcorn plants as most of ours had failed to germinate and the watering regime was hard work …initially…

And then the rain came and everyone cheered, but the polytunnel still needed watering…

And the rain carried on for a bit too long, but we all agreed that the plants were certainly enjoying it.

And you can’t have lovely trugfuls and platefuls of veggies without some help with the watering!

August

There was more rain, more sun and more allotment events.

Sadly we said happy 95th birthday to my mum and later in the month said goodbye to her for the last time.

Remembering happy times on holiday and her love of gardening through our own flower patch now.

A bumper bed of leeks were planted as our seedlings had grown well this year.

Harvests continued to include asparagus pea, courgettes, salad, potatoes and beets.

September 

Extreme temperatures arrived along with our late beans. We had to buy runner bean plants as ours refused to germinate, but the borlotti and French beans grew well on the tunnel frame.

Super-harvest month! Most of the borlotti beans and yin-Yang beans were left to dry on the plants and then finished their drying in the polytunnel. The weather was perfect for it.

The Scabiosa Stellata produced their pretty seedheads and other flowers were putting on a fine show of late Summer colour.

Apart from beans, potatoes, salad we had sweetcorn, aubergine and peppers on the menu.

October

A few sunny days encouraged the last of the flowers to bloom ahead of the first frosts and we even had a barbecue! And we managed to sow our broad beans as intended.

As well as frost there was a lot more rain as the first Winter storms arrived. We got off lightly compared to other areas, but still completely drenching. 

Luckily our pumpkins were stored in the polytunnel by then and all the sweetcorn and beans had been harvested.

Sweetcorn, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, leeks and pumpkin were on the menu.

November

Yet another rainy month, so a very soggy plot for occasional visits and manure deliveries. 

Surprisingly we’ grown good parsnips this year; all the rain hasn’t caused canker and although some are multi-legged ones they’re tasty and some are very big. Much better than our attempts in recent years.

Squash, beetroot, parsnips and carrots provided meal ingredients.

December 

So here we are another year has flown by with happy and sad times to reflect on. 

Plans are in progress, with fruit trees waiting in the polytunnel and seed catalogues on hand. The weather is wet but warm so weeds are taking over, but we’ll get to them one dry day quite soon…

The nights are shortening and there are signs of Spring bulbs to look forward to. In the meantime we’ll continue enjoying our Christmas and new year celebrations. 

I have two new ‘My Favourite Books’ as a result of this year’s reading list: 

I realise I’m late to reading ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, after all it’s 85 years old, but it is amazing and sadly poignant in today’s world. Definitely worth a re-read in my opinion. 

And the ‘The Murmur of Bees’ is so beautifully translated from the original Spanish. With a touch of magic I found it totally absorbing and delightful.

Happy new year and thankyou for popping by 🙂

Song title provided by Keane.

Home

I'm on my final lunchbreak of 2023 - breaking up for Christmas in a couple of hours! 

It's not like it used to be - no driving home for Christmas (no, not that song) because I'm already home.

I just need to pack away my laptop and sit back down. With 3 days to go I must admit that I'm not feeling very Christmassy. Maybe it's the weather - it's been a very damp December so far and it's rather warm and windy today.

We've had a few December visits to the allotment - it's not very inviting, but we've pulled some great parsnips and we bought 3 tiny fruit trees - here's the Thompson & Morgan photo.

And here's the real thing 😆 I'm sure they'll be fine in a few months! They have buds already but they're waiting in the polytunnel.

The broad beans and garlic have sprouted which are welcome signs for next year. Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice so we're on our way to Spring now 😏

At each plot visit recently we've seen flocks of (probably) redwings - a regular Winter migrant. They don't stay still for long and have proved tricky to photograph.

Anyway, back to work (I think everyone else has already gone!). Have a Happy Christmas!

This jolly song is brought to you by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros!