As Cold As Ice

Finally we've had some frosty nights this winter, so we went to see the plot this afternoon but not to do any work - too frozen. I mostly played with the ice while Jamie fed and watched the birds.

I think this looks rather galactic, but actually it's just our rain gauge...

 

This looks like a PhotoShop effect...

But it's the real world though the ice from a bucket...

And the birds were very lively. Starting with a beautiful male bullfinch, but he didn't hang round for long enough to get a photo with my small camera. So, it's mostly robin photos but I did also manage to snap this long-tailed tit - such pretty little bids.

Now, bring on the robins...

There were 3 trying to get at the food Jamie put out at one point. These two had an argument and flew off across the site.

Leaving just one to eat the worms!

Last Sunday a few of us from the HAHA committee enjoyed a lovely New Year's lunch with the Curridge Horticultural Society - very pleasant at the Newbury & Crookham Golf Club.

Then on Monday we had the HAHA general meeting. Lots of plotholders turned up to hear what the committee are trying to achieve and what possibilities may be available for us. The District Councillor, Mayor and Newbury Weekly News journalist were also in attendance.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/hungerford/17015/Allotment-holders--resent-being-.html

And tonight we have a HAHA versus Royal British Legion skittles evening! What fun!

Nice Weather for...

...Ducks!

It wasn't raining when we walked up to the allotment today. We knew it would be soggy after so much rain over the last week though. We did have one night of frost, but it's mostly been about rain.

At the Town Council meeting on Monday we heard that the housing developer is granting us a one year extension on the site lease - with the 'possibility' of a permanent lease if planning is granted on an entirely separate piece of land in the town. We have the HAHA General Meeting this Monday so it'll be good to hear how the other plotholders feel. 

So, it's great that we can start preparing for April now, but will likely have to look forward to this again in a year's time. 

Newbury Weekly News

Some things are still growing (not just the grass). This is one of the beetroots which Jamie sowed in late July (or possibly later than that)! Wonder if it'll actually ever bulb up?

We have started ordering. Jamie's ordered some tomato plants and I've ordered some stuff, including loofah seeds! We also have plans for spuds but more on all this when things actually get delivered!

I bet mine won't look as perfect as these ones!

We hadn't been on site long when it started pouring and the wind blew up. This year's robin hid rather than eating the food we took up for him and I hid too, thank goodness for the greenhouse! (It's the sound that's better than the video on this...)

 

I hope it's not like this for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of the month!

 

A Brief Visit

This was the first day we've been to the allotment since we received the awful news about the lease not being renewed and the news that the site had been broken into. We've both had colds and been busy with Christmas.
Here's a cheery photo from Longleat to stop this post being too depressing!

It started raining just as we were walking to the site, but it's still very mild. We were only dropping off some compost and checking that nothing had been taken from our plot - it hadn't been.

The site is looking rather neglected, although there are quite a few plots with vegetables, mostly leeks, carrots, parsnips and cabbages still growing. Obviously people aren't taking advantage of the dry, mild weather as we would have in previous years. So sad. We should definitely have sprouts and carrots and possibly a parsnip or two for Christmas dinner.

At least the pheasants are making use of the greenhouse. That's one of the dust baths they've been having in there!

We left in sunshine and met fellow plotholder, Vic and his family, popping in to pick veggies for their lunch. Let's hope our MP, Richard Benyon, can appreciate our position and provide some useful pressure to the landowner/developer when our Chairman and Treasurer meet him next week...

This is our treasurer, Ted, talking to BBC Radio Berkshire about our plight.

Home Again...

From our two week holiday in lovely Puerto de la Cruz in the north of Tenerife. It's such a beautiful part of the island and we feel so at home at the Casablanca Apartments.

With the fantastic El Limón vegetarian restaurant nearby in the old town and the bus stop just up the road it's the ideal location for us. The bus journeys are an adventure in themselves and you get to see great views and can peep into the lives and gardens of the locals! It was extremely hot and the hills and heat took their toll so we were quite relieved when the clouds were drawn down from the mountains - still sweltering but you didn't feel the burn quite so much!

Anyway, we're home now so we popped up to the allotment to see how it's looking. I'm pleased to say the sun was shining and though about 10 degrees down on what we've been used to it was lovely to sit for a while. The plots are not so overgrown as we'd expected - the clearing we did before we left was obviously very timely.

Some of the pumpkins are ready - a bit early but they'll keep and we need some for the Hungerford Food Festival next week. And the Cornells Bush Delicata squash are looking good.

The Lizzano and Sungold tomatoes have trusses of lovely ripe toms for us. Some of the tomatillos are huge and have burst through their lantern sheaths.  Thanks to our plot buddies (Neal & Ted) for keeping the greenhouse watered!

The gherkins haven't quite grown as intended - they were meant to be tiny cocktails gherkins...

An unexpected bonus is the radish rats tails. The plants appeared to be devastated by weevils but they had a new lease of life and they're now covered in flowers, bees and tiny radish-flavoured 'chillies'.

While we were away the local newspapers had photos from the Hungerford in Bloom awards. I don't actually call nyself 'Belinda Thompson' but it's all good publicity for the allotments!

July came and went

Another month passed us by :-( We've had some dramatic weather; hot, hot temperatures and a couple of amazing thunderstorms but not as much rain as a lot of people have had - though the sky often threatened.

We had a few visits to the plot and managed to pick a few veggies and get a few of our sickly seedlings into the ground and we've been pleased that the runner beans, carrots and beets are growing well. Though there aren't many bees around to pollinate the beans.

Funny that this year, when we've hardly grown anything, was the time that BBC Radio Berkshire decided to call (5mins before live broadcast) for a quick (1 minute!) radio interview. I was expecting them to ask about the plight of our lovely site but he actually wanted to talk about what we've been growing. Well, we all know you can't trust the media so I basically made some stuff up! Thank goodness for my fennel, which I've been boring everyone with this year!

Here's a sound file of my bit, if you're interested. Don't get too excited!

I did make the soup and it was delicious. Notice that I didn't claim to have grown the celeriac :-)

Finally I've had a few patty pans and the Zephyr squash have just started to look like they're meant to! The first squash on each plant just looked like a normal pale green courgette - maybe the plants were a bit shocked into producing a fruit a bit too quickly. They don't look like they're going to climb up the trellis, but hopefully there will be a few for me to try. Our Lizzano tomatoes are doing well and are super sweet - we've even managed to take some home, but most have been eaten on the plot.

I've seen the beautiful kingfisher flit across the site a couple of times! The neon blue flash is so eye-catching, but I'm not sure I'll ever be quick enough to snap it!

Cape Gooseberry

We had one late night at the plot to do a spot of bat-detecting - just look at all those insects and the ghostly form of Jamie! There were a lot of bats (most likely pipistrelles) at the top of site, but not so many by our plot, near the canal, which was rather surprising.