Heat Waves

Oh, I know I’ve moaned a lot about the weather over the last 6 months or so; too cold, too wet, too windy but the last 3 days really have been too hot! Even for me, a Sun worshipper. The early mornings are so beautiful and not too exhausting to carry watering cans around.

A few of us had an early-ish session on the roundabout on Sunday morning, before it got too sweltering.

It’s just about complete now, though Nia wants to fill a few spots. There are two outside rings of seed - calendula and cornflower. We’re away for a couple of weeks soon so I hope when we return it’ll be a mass of flowers… it would be helpful to have a few downpours.

We waited for storms yesterday; we could hear thunder nearby but it seems that a fierce storm emptied all the rain over Wiltshire and didn’t reach Berkshire, at least not Hungerford - shame, but the building clouds were impressive.

Watering is an unavoidable chore at the moment, the tomatoes are happy in the polytunnel but germination of our beans seems slow (nearly 2 weeks, though we’ve now seen that some have germinated but not appeared above ground yet). We decided to buy some dwarf bean and runner bean plants yesterday. If the sowed beans also grow then that’ll be a bonus. It feels like there’s too much bare earth showing at the moment, but it is only May so I think I’m being impatient.

The runner bean plants we bought are Painted Lady which are a red and white flowered variety.  As it happens we’ve just started seeing Painted Lady butterflies on site, they’re very pretty and quite large but I haven’t managed to get a photo yet. I did capture this lovely Small Copper butterfly that was in the polytunnel. Wasps will eat them if they stay in there so we always release them.

And this impressive male thick-legged flower beetle was on one of the perennial pot plants - it eats pollen so doesn’t cause any damage. No points for guessing how he got his name!

There are masses of bees and other flying insects about. They really love the purple thyme flowers but this bumblebee was determined to get something from this pretty poppy.

We’ve been waiting to see the great tits fledge - the parents have been so attentive. Taking turns to take grubs and caterpillars back to their nest in that storage area. They’ve not minded us working around them. The great tit is in that photo.

Here’s a little video where the parent flapping its wings seems to be encouraging the young to exit but then the other parent takes some food down to the nest. When we went back in the afternoon there was no sight of them so it seems we missed the little ones actually fledging, but it’s been nice watching the parents over the last few weeks.

The flower plot is looking pretty with pink verbascum, white valerian, blue Nigella and red poppies providing scent and colour. 

These wild poppies are so delicate and pretty but the flowers don’t last a day. Other seedlings are emerging but no flowers yet.

We were amazed to see that the remains of the tagetes French marigolds which were completely frosted and brown have actually re-grown! Good job I was lazy and didn’t bother pulling them! I definitely thought they were dead. 

Monday was incredibly hot - the hottest May Day on record, it was certainly about 32/33° on the plot and Jamie and I had a barbecue <phew>. We did start quite late in the afternoon and stayed till the Sun was about to set. It was so lovely, mostly staying in the shade and just enjoying the lovely warmth in between cooking.

I lay on the grass at one point, it was quite nice and cooling and provides a different view of the world, although it was rather itchy. Aah, just look at that beautiful blue sky.

My next post will probably be about Tenerife, unless something dramatic happens during our final plot visits this week….

The song title is thanks to The Glass Animals as the heatwave continues. 

A Matter of Time

That dark sky threatening our sunny High Street has been rather a feature this week. The sunshine has been blighted with heavy hailstorms and wind. The chilly temperatures have brought frosts and we’ve fleeced up the tiny plants in the polytunnel. Our plot visits have been rather short but I managed to complete the digging in one area - it’s always satisfying to see - it’ll be worked again as that’s where the spuds will be planted in a few weeks.

I’ve hoed and weeded the ‘orchard’ and the raised bed - I’m probably going to put some more herbs in so it’s a full herb garden and I also need to think about using them a bit more… 

At the moment these are growing. I’ll need to keep them trimmed, especially the sage, but it’ll be good if they fill out more.

We’ve sown a small row of carrots (Nantes) and salad leaf in the polytunnel raised beds. The plan is to be harvesting them before the tomatoes/peppers are growing. I’m pleased to say there is room for Jamie and me to shelter in the polytunnel- we’ve needed it this week!

I dug up the row of parsnips from last year - they had regrowth so I wasn’t expecting them to be much good, though they made a pretty good spicy soup - a bit too salty but we have to blame the chef, rather than the veg for that! I’m clearly a bit out of practice.

On Friday we attended a ‘Quiz & Curry Night’ with some allotment buddies. Delicious veg and chick pea curry for the vegetarians. We did reasonably well in the quiz, which was very well attended - fundraising for the Wetland Reserve project, which now has planning permission, so that’s an exciting addition for Hungerford!

Thanks to Forbes for the photo

Can you see us in the photo? We’re the ones waving at Forbes, the photographer 😊. It was a fun evening and we won this marvellous raffle prize of “Greek treats”! And Ivan won the auction for a fabulous hamper of goodies - we’ll be sharing much of that one sunny day soon we hope!

That’s all for now, hoping to get a bit more plot-time over the coming week, which marks 2 months since I retired. I must admit, it doesn’t feel too different (yet), though I have forgotten everything about my job 🤭 The song title is provided by The Killers in acknowledgment of the clocks changing to ‘British Summer Time’ today.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Saturday’s warm sunshine encouraged us to have a few hours on the plot. The ladybirds and bumblebees were out in number along with this lone peacock butterfly which was sunbathing on the grape hyacinths.

The little flowers provide a nice patch of colour and spread like crazy so there are small bunches in various places around the site where I’ve re-planted bulbs over the years.  The nectar lovers are mainly seeking out blues and yellows at the moment. The yellows are provided by daffodils and dandelions on our plots and the paths.

These two tiny tête-à-tête narcissi sneaked onto the pile of wood chips which have been left in the communal area - they’re so sweet!

Look at that lovely blue sky over the blackthorn blossom - what a welcome sight!

Our little fruit trees have all budded - I wonder if this will be our first year for fruit … I think this is the pear, it needs a trim - I’ll leave it to late-Autumn now.

We managed a bit of clearing and even a bit of digging where the potatoes will be planted. There’s an area where I pulled the leeks, due to leek moth damage, where we’ll probably put a few more potatoes too. (As I write this, I remember that’s where the mangetout was going 🤔 I need a better plan) The onions look pretty awful but the garlic still seems to be growing ok so far.

But nothing is growing as fast as the grass, so I strimmed all the edges on Sunday as fellow plotholder Clint kindly mowed the paths for us.

Sunday morning arrived with a beautiful sunrise and from our window I could hear a Great spotted woodpecker tapping away somewhere nearby.

We bought a couple of raised beds for the polytunnel so put one of them together in the afternoon; need to do a bit more tidying before we can fit the other one plus chairs and seed racks (and all the other bits and bobs) in. The rain was torrential so I was getting a drenching due to leaky polytunnel seams, but Jamie was helping from the director’s chair - even after it split 🤭

No sign of frogs or spawn in the tiny pond which was also getting a hammering from the rain.

I also managed some meagre pickings of purple sprouting broccoli - mostly picked from second year plants which was a little bonus. Hardly a feast, but enough to cheer up a rather boring pizza!

It was so nice to get back to a bit of plotting, but my legs and back are feeling it today. A few more sunny days would be welcomed to progress a bit more - we have a lot to do over the next couple of months but feeling positive. I told Jamie that my retirement plan involves achieving one thing every day - don’t want to overdo it 😃 - turns out that’s an actual strategy; I thought I’d made it up! Also it seems I may actually receive some pension income this month, after my original form was ‘lost in the post’ hmmm…

Song title provided by Dinah Washington - an oldie, but sums up the weekend’s weather. Now try to get that song out of your head!

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.

Think for a Minute

Dear Clouds 

Thankyou for bringing us some proper rain - real torrential showers. We were happy to avoid puddles, admire rain pouring from leaking gutters and water hammering out of down pipes. 

We’ve been very happy to see the earth on the allotment looking a rich brown colour instead of pale and dusty. The plants say “thankyou” too.

I was very happy to be able to make holes that didn’t fill up with dusty soil as soon as they were dug (using a bulb planter). Thanks to Neal for the baby leeks, we now have 27 planted.

Just one thing, Clouds…. Did you need to have the biggest cloudburst just as the Hungerford Carnival parade was setting off and then disperse leaving sunshine as the parade finished?! Terrible timing! Most of the remaining crowd were sheltering under the railway bridge.

The Town and Manor cows 😀

Anyway, the rain saved us from a lot of watering for a couple of days which was a welcome break. I’m on holiday this week so I’m glad that it’s still warm, not sweltering, and we seem to have a few more dry days lined up for plot-days. And, we’ve picked our first tomatoes.

The beans are getting there, although we only see one(!) tiny bean so far on the Scarlet Empire runners…

Ahead of the rain, I pulled the shallots. They’re now trimmed and drying in the roof of the polytunnel before they’ll be pickled. They’ve done well this year - mostly due to the lack of slugs, I think.

Some of the small ones went home along with a potato harvest - the contents of one bag and two from the ground. They appear to be Nicola and Kestrel but who knows? Not me and I planted them!

Some of the potatoes and shallots have been used in several meals already. Roasted vegetables with paneer also included peppers, but mostly home-grown ingredients.

And I used a chargrilled pepper paste to marinade the halloumi for this delicious roastie.

The raised bed, where the shallots were, has been topped up with soil from the potato bags and topped with Apsley Farms mulch. We’ve sown a row of radish and we’re going to sow some pak choi for over-Wintering.

The zinnia are flowering now and I’m dead-heading regularly to encourage more bushiness - such a pretty flower. And, as you can see with that tiny hoverfly visitor, they are good for pollinators.

The nasturtium on the other hand have proved irresistible to flea beetle this year - the heat has helped their numbers and they are being very destructive. Some plants on site are black with them and when you get close they all ping off in different directions. Nasturtiums are often used as sacrificial plants, but I was hoping to enjoy some leaves myself! The tiny beetles are also enjoying the radish, which are finally going to seed. I hope I can still pick some pods for a spicy snack.

The Sun is just breaking through the cloud now so we shall head for the plot for a bit of pottering, sitting, watching and thinking. The Housemartins provide the lovely song title, aah.