Let the Sunshine In (Aquarius)

Back in May, you may recall that a few of us allotment holders started improvements to one of the town’s roundabouts. At that stage we didn’t realise that we were going to suffer heatwave after heatwave so some hardy people have been doing a lot of watering to keep it alive and to help the seeds germinate.

I think it looks pretty good, considering. I can see we missed quite a few borage seedlings and the plants haven’t grown as bushy as we’d expect if we’d had rain but at least it looks much better than it has for the last few years and will hopefully be even better next year… Britain in Bloom results are due in September.

I took that photo early this morning. I was hoping it would be a glorious sunny morning so walked along to the River Kennet at about 6:30am. It was lovely with lots of birds and I saw a water vole swimming across but it was rather cloudy so the photos weren’t as glorious as I’d hoped and no otters.

The weather has remained warm/hot, and dry, over the last week. Although on the one day that the temperature was back to average it felt decidedly chilly(!) and I missed the sunshine. And look - the overnight temperature fell to 3.5°! That thermometer is in the shade behind the polytunnel.

I’ve been to the allotment watering every day - apart from one, which is why we ended up with two very large courgettes in the trug! As well as our first cucumber of the year.

Those potatoes were from a rogue plant which grew in our onion bed. It got frosted 3 times but kept coming back. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many decent tubers when I first put the fork in. Not sure what variety it is.

A couple of hot days it was really windy, threatening our sweetcorn which now have cobs forming. The magpies have taken a liking to these on site so we’re planning some kind of cob protection.

The aubergine plant is producing lovely fruits - look at this beauty!

I used that along with courgettes, onion, tomatoes, garlic and passata to make a large batch of “ratatouille” and froze 4 portions. We had one with fried gnocchi the other night and it was delicious.

We went to a ‘Summer Evening’ event at the Newtown Road Cemetery in Newbury at the beginning of the month. The recorder recital was a bit awkward but it was a nice evening so we sat outside and then wandered around the graves which date back to 1850.

The Bat Talk was what we went for and it was very interesting. The expert, Linda Clark, brought her two tiny pipistrelle bats along for us to have a close-up look. They’re so sweet. These can’t fly so she has them at her home and feeds them mealworms. They can live for 12 years, I’m not sure how old these are. It seems we’re doing all the right things to encourage bats on the allotment, which is good news.

I’ve been decorating the hall all week, still a work in progress… It’s a cheery bright yellow as you can see. I still need to paint the cupboard doors, put up shelves and lay a laminate floor 😮‍💨 All because we bought a pretty lamp on holiday 😄 Thank goodness Jamie can advise, I’m not very practical with DIY-ing. 

The song title is in honour of the new paint job, provided by The Fifth Dimension. It’s a sing-along for a Sunday morning. Look at that groovy bunch 🤗 It can also recognise that the solar panels were being fitted at the allotments for our water pump - much better than needing petrol for the generator all the time - a bit more work till they’re in use, but nearly there. And we have a partial solar eclipse to look forward to next week - hope the clouds stay away for that bit of excitement.

Many Rivers to Cross

This is the tightly packed leek flower head which is protected by the pointy hat until it dries and pops off - or I release it. Most are white but some are tinted pink. I do love these pom-poms! So pleasing to pat as you walk by, but watch out for wildlife! The pollinators arrive en masse: flies, bees, hoverflies, beetles - they can’t resist a leek flower.

The weather has been hot, hot, hot again but the wind is annoying - really howling at times. I’m glad the towering hollyhocks (seed from my Cousin Jen’s plants) are still upright, but I’m not sure how they’re managing it!

The wind has been so strong that we can hear the army practising on Salisbury Plain (about 30 miles away). I guess the noise is tanks firing, it sounds like thunder. And yesterday we could hear live music from a Summer Event about 3 miles away, that was fun. 

You can see that heat doesn’t necessarily mean blue skies, but, although we’ve had a few torrential downpours, the weather has been mostly dry and the wind and Sun evaporate the rainfall quickly.

Everything needs watering and it’s hard work in the heat. Actually, not everything needs watering - the bindweed is doing just brilliantly finding its own water 😖 Wrapping itself around all the flower stems, it’s so annoying! I pull armfuls out every visit and try to get the root but it soon recovers - infuriating!

I harvested our garlic in the week - all from two bulbs, amazing! We’ve starting cooking with one although it’s still a bit green. The rest are drying in the polytunnel now.

Apart from that we are eating mangetout, broad beans and shallots. I’m expecting asparagus peas to be included in my meals next week. I don’t usually grow a long row as Jamie doesn’t eat the pods, but they’re such a pretty little flower. I’m hoping the plants will grow a bit more upright like they did last year, but may need to provide some support. The radishes have gone a bit woody now. I’ll try planting a few more but I want the original plants to go to seed as they are pretty with white flowers and I like eating the pods. I’ve netted the beetroot again as the pigeons/pheasants are really enjoying the leaves this year.

The tomatoes, cucumber and aubergine plants have started to spread; both outside and polytunnel plants and all the beans - climbers and dwarf- are looking pretty healthy; they’re loving the sunshine as much as us. A couple of the Tahiti Melon squash I sowed direct last week have germinated on the old polytunnel frame on Plot3 and the Sharks fin melon plants have grown more leaves - I’m expecting a jungle from them. Both are varieties of squash, not melons. The Alvaro melons on Plot7 are sitting quietly forming roots before the top growth takes off (I hope!).

On these really hot days Jamie and I have started walking down to the river after dinner, only a few minutes away, to sit and watch the wildlife.

It is a beautiful section of river - the River Kennet - with trout and other large fish as well as plenty of bird life. The other side of the stone road bridge is a private fishery. I got told off for reading my book there about 30 years ago - it still smarts! Otters have been seen here, but not by us - yet… We’re still waiting for news of the Kennet Valley Wetland Reserve which will be across from that wooden walkway, if the plan is approved 🤞 

The River Dun sprouts from the Kennet and runs through Hungerford. This section, with the swan gliding by, is at the War memorial and is one of our stopping places when walking into town. There are plenty of benches for just sitting, it’s just a shame the road is so busy.

Anyway, back at the allotment we had a Sunday picnic last weekend - nice to get back to them. We lit the chimnea because the temperature dipped and we were competing with wind and rain, but we stuck with it, with umbrellas and a windbreak! So British 😀

It’s meant to be hotter today, with an amber heat alert. It was just about 30° in the shade yesterday - phew. Look how dry the earth is and the yellowing grass.

The potatoes have flowered, we don’t have many planted so it’ll be good to get a decent haul from each plant. They look like Nicola flowers, but I think that is where the Kestrels were meant to be planted - or perhaps they’re the Duke of York… oh dear, we really must work on our labelling!

The song title is provided by Jimmy Cliff - what a voice. Singalong, but don’t scare the neighbours!

The Walk

It’s been a wet month, I’ve not been inclined to move very far and work has been keeping me very busy but yesterday we had a long walk in the chilly countryside. It had been a very frosty morning and the temperature remained close to zero, but we were dressed up warm and it felt ok in the sunshine.

We walked a 6-mile circuit to Chilton Foliat, which is a neighbouring village.

It was very beautiful and near the River Kennet much of the time. This was looking West from the Fairy Bridge. The river is swollen and very fast-flowing at the moment after all the rain.

Rather strange to see a lone cygnet but he was enjoying eating the watercress.

We saw some excellent clouds during the walk - I think these are cirrostratus.Edit: Turns out they're cirrocumulus clouds.

And this photo is showing a Sundog (like two small rainbows either side of the Sun) they occur in cold weather and under the right circumstances. This parhelion effect is produced by the Sun’s rays being diffracted through ice crystals and ‘diamond dust’, described by the Met Office here. 

Part of the walk is up this hidden footpath which runs alongside that huge field. One of our previous plotholders has a dedicated bench along there, over-looking the fields surrounding Hungerford.

We’ve seen hares in that field before but yesterday the most interesting wildlife we saw was at the start of our walk - this little muntjac deer.

It was a very cold day, but so pleased that the Sun was shining to show off the Autumn colours in all their glory.

The allotment is looking far less picturesque, this was 2 weeks ago and today has been very dank.

We have had short plot visits each week and the broad beans have germinated. I pulled a parsnip, which had no canker, that’s a rare feat for us! I brought the squashes and parsley home to avoid the frost, but the parsnips should only improve with a bit of frosting.

I had two meals of this mushroom and chestnut casserole - so delicious! Mmm, and look at that roast parsnip - yum yum! And the other meal included a couple of the tiny pumpkins cut into slices and roasted.

I expect my next post will be in December and the Christmas lights are being switched on tonight in Hungerford. It has certainly felt Wintry this week, but definitely still looked like Autumn for our lovely walk.

Enjoy this great song by The Cure.

Don't Stand so Close to me

Such a beautiful sunny day out there. But I received my text yesterday telling me to stay inside for 12 weeks - I'm 'shielding' myself from COVID-19 as I'm in the 'vulnerable' category due to my kidney transplant.

So far, I've not stepped foot outside the door for 4 days - the photo below is the last one I took oustide. It's the River Kennet which was still over-full. I'm able to work from home and having lots of video calls with work colleagues which keeps me occupied and Jamie's here with me so I'm not in total isolation.

The lovely sunny days at the moment are obviously making us wish we were on the allotment. We last visited 10 days ago and it was a sorry scene in the rain.

It's likely to stay that way for a while now. For the time-being the Government are saying that allotment sites can stay open, but I'm not convinced that will be the case for very long. So many people aren't heeding the 'STAY AT HOME' advice that it seems very likely that the 'go outside for some exercise' clause will be removed soon.

We're hoping that Jamie will get a chance to put the new polytunnel cover on the old frame before the tomatoes and pepper plants are delivered. Also hoping he'll get the potatoes planted which are still chitting in the hall. Also to pick the broad beans, leeks, onions and garlic that have been steadily growing since the Autumn. Oh dear :-( The grape hyacinths were a nice bright spot.

But mostly we hope that we, our friends, family and fellow plotholders manage to stay healthy during this disturbing time. Then we can, with luck, pick up where we left off in time for next year.

Not sure how much I'll have to add to this blog over the next 3 months or more, but there could be some unusual recipes based on what Jamie manages to buy from the shops(!) and, if he visits the plot, I'll get him to take some photos. 

 

Please look after yourself and others

And the advisory song for the blog title is provided by The Police, which I think is quite funny, but the advice isn't. Social distancing is surely the best solution.

Upon a Winters Night

It's Christmas Eve - Merry Christmas!

We've had a very busy month. It's been extremely wet, but luckily on a few important dates it didn't rain so it's been a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. We had our usual trip to Oxford and I had some delicious tofu Singapore noodles in the Gloucester Green street market.

Then bought a few pressies at the Christmas Market before having a cuppa in the Covered Market - visiting some of my favourite places in the City.

The beautiful Elisabeth Convent (Belarus) convent - I should have bought more there

Back in Hungerford we saw Will Young (local singer) switch on our lovely Christmas lights and enjoyed the Christmas Extravaganza, including being in the lantern parade - this year we made the HAHA lanterns in the shape of snails.

 

Somebody paid me £4 for mine at the end of the parade! I gave it to The Big Issue seller.

Kerry's is now residing on her plot - although it's a skeleton again because the rain removed all the paper.
We managed to avoid rain at the Newbury lantern parade - huge compared to the Hungerford one, but we're hoping ours will grow and more people join in in future years.

It's been a very wet Autumn/Winter so far.

 

That's not the allotment. It's the River Kennet in Hungerford which is very full and fast-flowing at the moment. We did actually visit the plot yesterday and it was very soggy, although it was a crisp clear blue sky day. We only visited to pull some carrots for our, now traditional, carrot lox which we'll have on Christmas Day. We have our big Christmas meal late this evening.

Here's the latest addition to our Christmas tree. Unfortunately we had to buy sprouts but we may get some from the plot for another meal this Christmas.

We had lovely visits to family and lots of shopping trips. And this is a photo from our window as the sun set at the end of the shortest day of 2019. Hooray, we're on the way back up now - but I wouldn't mind a bit of snow before Christmas holiday is over (or maybe just at the end of the holiday so I can't drive to work)!

Here's a lovely version of this song performed by Cara Dillon. Enjoy and Happy Christmas!