Step On

I’ve been on leave for a week and have a few more days off. I must say that I feel like I’ve been off for a fortnight already - the sunny weather has helped. Although the easterly wind is rather unwelcome, it’s not so noticeable on the allotment site and has even been a relief from the heat at times.

We’ve spent most of the time on the allotment, obviously. It’s been fabulous. We enjoyed a barbecue one day and plenty of allotment lunches and chats with fellow plotholders.

As you can see, the Nigella has flowered and the valerian is filling the air with its lovely vanilla fragrance.

Wildlife reports are showing a distinct reduction in numbers of bees and hoverflies which is apparent on site, though we’re beginning to see a few more this month. We have seen a lot more dragon flies and damsel flies this year - including the impressive broad-bodied chaser in the first photo.

The robins and blackbirds are enjoying the mealworms we take with us each visit, but we have to stand guard otherwise the magpies sneak in and take the lot in one go. They attempted to break into the pot to help themselves yesterday - they’re always watching!

More excitingly, we have been hearing the bullfinches recently but actually spotted the male yesterday. We’re hoping they’ll bring their young out soon as we’re beginning to hear baby bird sounds from the hedge.

We were disappointed that only 5 of our Lark sweetcorn germinated so I put a message on the allotment’s WhatsApp group and fellow plotholder, Nia, came to the rescue with 20 Incredible plants! THANKYOU NIA! So now our plot is looking less bare. There are two Jack-be-Little small pumpkins in the corners which we hope will scramble between the tall sweetcorn plants (although I’ve planted the corn a bit close together - the blurb says this variety can reach 8ft!).

I’ve been planting nasturtium in various patches around our plots - the hot weather has kept the slugs away (so far). My other flower seedlings are still too small to plant out but I’ve sown seeds in the flower bed by the bench. This poppy is self-seeded by the polytunnel.

And these irises have been in pots for a few years but I’m not sure I’ve seen the flower before - interesting colour.

My iris display isn’t as stunning as Ivan’s which all visitors to the site can’t help but stop and look at - so beautiful.

I’ve now planted out the Florence fennel, Yin-Yang dwarf beans (our seeds from last year) and a globe artichoke, also from Nia. They’re in the plot with the oh-so-slow-growing mangetout, asparagus pea and beetroot (which I’ve had to net again because birds were snipping the leaves). There’s a lot of watering required, but so pleased that the plants are now in the ground and will hopefully start bushing out/growing upward quite soon

The (blue lake) French beans and Borlotti beans are planted in the old polytunnel frame and we’ve direct-sown Scarlet Empire runner beans as the ones in modules didn’t germinate. And Jamie’s planted out our sunflowers Tall Timbers for the Sunflower Competition 😊

Broad beans are imminent, if the wind doesn’t damage the tall plants and we’ve eaten two 🤭 strawberries so far… They’re netted to protect from blackbirds - there’s a lot of protection needed these days!

The potatoes have been earthed up; garlic has been fed with epson salts and soil loosened to assist the bulbs swelling before being pulled later this month. 

So that’s most of what we’ve been up to. I’m doing for the National Kidney Federation - 68,000 steps in June to represent the 68,000 kidney patients in the UK. That target won’t be difficult while I’m off work and if nature doesn’t join in with the watering!

The song title links to this and is provided by the excellent Happy Mondays. You’re twisting my melon man 😊

Wow

I took Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday off work, specifically because of the forecast heatwave and it was right. Phew, what a sweltering few days; over 30° in Hungerford and sunny. Lovely!

We spent some time at the allotment - it was so hot that there was only Jamie and me there much of the time. Us and the birds - just listen to that! What a joy to be back on the plot.

Neal said that we could have some of his lettuce seedlings. I chose the two red varieties - the green ones (Lobjoits Green cos) have all been nibbled - looks like by pigeons - whereas the red appear to be untouched (it's not that obvious in the photo, but trust me!)

I also planted the squash plants that Liz gave us (a patty pan and a spaghetti squash, I think) plus a courgette plant from Ivan - to replace one of ours that the slugs decimated. Jamie cleared some weeds from Plot3 and trimmed the long grass round the edges of Plot7, in the hope that it’ll keep the slugs away from our few plants - we don’t have enough to share this year! Unlike Ivan who always needs a wheelbarrow for his huge harvests - that’s the last of his strawberries.

He gave us a punnet of strawberries and a punnet of redcurrants. They were a colourful addition to my breakfast.

And I cooked the remaining redcurrants with sugar - they weren't as tart as I'd expected and only needed a couple of teaspoons of sugar.

I sieved the sauce - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall reckons you don't have to, but I wouldn't fancy eating all those seeds and skins.

It was delicious on ice cream and with scotch pancakes.

There were lots of butterflies on site, but they weren't in the mood for posing for photos unfortunately. I definitely saw some ringlets, tortoiseshells and peacocks among the usual whites. This Scarlet Tiger moth was easier to photograph as it came into our sitting room - dragging me away from my work :-)

As I write this we're in the middle of a hailstorm - the weather has changed: it's dazzling sunshine one moment then dark clouds covering the sky the next as the wind builds up - our poor plants, I wonder how they're doing. I hope to visit again during a lunchtime next week.

Jamie’s excited about my new project (NOT!). I saw this amazing embroidery of an allotment site (twitter.com/sewnbycollette) and was inspired, so immediately bought a selection of threads from Amazon.

Now, I haven’t embroidered for about 40 years, so mine is more, err, primitive, we’ll see how it goes... My sister kindly gave me some fabric and has lent me her old book. It’s our plot, as I’m sure you can see 😏 Well, I only started in yesterday {I wonder if it will ever be seen again on this blog :-D}

The ‘Wow’ of the title refers to various things from this week. I’m so glad that plot neighbour, Kate, told me about the stunning fields of white poppies which we could walk to from the allotment.

I didn’t expect to see so many fields of them - how beautiful! Having not walked far for weeks it was quite exhausting walking the slight incline, especially in the heat, but so worth it.

Shops and some restaurants are beginning to open up in England. Some people definitely seem to think that the time is right to get back to normal life, but I'm happy with just the occasional trip out and am not missing (non-internet) shopping one bit! Even the Government isn't suggesting a return to work for the likes of me yet - thank goodness! Great song from Kate Bush, obviously - sing along, or maybe just do the moves ;-)