September

I see that my last post mentioned the arrival of some "welcome rain". We've had rather more than that over the last week, with some torrential downpours. I decided to do a bit of clearing indoors, but didn't get farther than looking up some recipes - for someone who rarely cooks I have quite a lot of recipe books!

We've been eating the Kestrel potatoes over the last week - very good for mash and also spicy potato wedges (which I'm preparing to have cold as I write this - olive oil, paprika, turmeric, chilli powder, chives, salt & pepper all mixed up in a bag before emptying onto the roasting tray) and tonight we're having them baked.

I made some more of the smokey marinade for the Gigantes beans which lasted a couple of weekday lunches - so tasty.

The weather has been sunshine and showers all week so we've been treated to some beautiful rainbows (this was from my window at work - the photo doesn't do it justice).

Today we got another soaking on the plot. This is the view from the polytunnel where we had to shelter - it's not obvious from the photo exactly how heavy the rain was. And it seems that next week is also going to be wet with some stronger winds thrown into the mix - hope those polytunnels and sweetcorn are still standing by next weekend! And I hope it's not too wet for the Food Festival next Sunday :-{
Luckily I had my fancy new boots on - a gift (thanks Alfie!) I certainly wouldn't pay that much for wellies, but they are lovely and comfy as well as looking great.

We only went up today to get rid of some kitchen waste to the compost bin and to pick more sweetcorn and beans.

Mmm, cooked sweetcorn with butter - nothing better, but you can see here that not all of the kernels formed on one of the cobs - we clearly should have done a bit more hand-pollination on these. We think the cobs on the other side of the block will have got more of the pollen because the wind more often blows that direction.

Here's something you don't normally expect to find at the end of September - the birds are certainly enjoying this unexpected treat!

My next post will be in October so I thought this song finishes off the month nicely, by Earth, Wind and Fire (don't even try not to sing-along).

Feeling Good

Today we had a workday at Marsh Lane. It's been a wet week so we were very lucky with a mostly dry day and even some lovely sunshine producing fabulous rainbows.

It was good to meet some plotholders who we haven't met before and enjoyed a tea break which included biscuits and Honey Rum - a welcome addition to any get-together :-)

Jamie and I spent much of the time preparing 'mini-plots' for people who don't want to grow much or who just want a taste of allotment life before perhaps moving on to a larger plot. We'll grass the paths between the mini-plots in a week or two. (Can't believe I didn't take a photo of them! So, here's a photo of the manure delivery instead).

I showed two new plotholders around - it's great to see our site population growing again. Other volunteers were getting on with cutting back the hedgerow, which should encourage it to burst into life very soon.

So, although tired and achey, I'm feeling good - thankyou Muse for this great version...

Glistening Droplets

Well, I was meant to have finished blogging for the year, but can't resist after a short visit to the plot to pick parsnips and carrots.

The frost and fog had cleared and the dipping sun was just at the right angle.

All the netting was glistening like diamonds.

Just beautiful!

And we got our veg, after a bit of a fight!

Across the Marsh in March

It's an early Easter this year, so a bit too soon for our spuds to go in. We had a lovely Good Friday, digging on Plot 3, but yesterday and today have been rainy so no digging. We've walked via the allotment both days though; we're waiting for our broad beans to germinate; the salad leaf has sprouted already. Today we ventured through rain, wind and bright sunshine across Freeman's Marsh and back through town when this amazing rainbow appeared.

Buds are emerging on the trees and shrubs so it won't be long now...

Looking forward to the rhubarb which is normally one of our first harvests.

The birds are pairing up and singing their little heads off in the hedges - masses of robins, starlings and blackbirds, but I can't resist a photo of the swans who look so clean against the dark water today.

The recent rainy weather has made the marsh very wet in places.

I love these grass tussocks alongside the stream.

Red kites are always flying over the allotment and this one was enjoying the windy weather over the marsh today.

Back home now and we've just had some loud claps of thunder - Storm Katie announcing herself I think! I hope there's some lightning when it gets dark!

Rainbows and Carrots

We took some compost up the plot - including the cellophane wrappers from our Quality Street (it says on the tin they're compostable - made of corn starch apparently) Interesting to see whether they do actually dissolve; we've found the biodegradable plastic bin bags take longer than 18months to dissolve so we don't use them anymore.

We cleared the original carrot trench - which we sowed in April! Most of the remaining Rainbow Mix carrots had split wide open, so they went in the compost bin, but the Early Nantes looked so good we had to take them home.
Also picked some spring onions, which have been in the raised bed for months, parsley and one of the green cabbages - we were hoping to have some lovely coleslaw. However, apart from the slugs which were tucked well into the cabbage there was mould on the edge of the leaves throughout. So, that went into the compost bin and I made carrot and parsley soup instead! The carrots were really tasty even though they'd been in the ground so long.

Now, when we walked to the plot it was reasonably sunny. While we were up there there was a torrential rainstorm and we got soaked. Walking back we did get to see a lovely rainbow though!