Red Alert

Day 70 indoors and Jamie & I have reverted to our former selves and spent yesterday playing video games - Landstalker, if anyone remembers that blast from the past! We'd rather be outside nowadays but will stick with the shielding plan, even if this ridiculous government doesn't understand its own vague advice "ooh, little bit of politics".

Today we have more gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. We really have had beautiful Spring weather, but I know our fellow gardeners are crying out for some rain. We had a tiny shower yesterday, but it was cleared away swiftly by the strong winds we've been experiencing in the last week. 

I've been playing with my 'microscope camera'. The images aren't as good as I'd hoped (not exactly microscopic!), but the spikey just-emerging tomato flowers are pretty amazing.

We now have two pepper plants in the kitchen windowsill too. Jamie is still hoping to visit the plot at some point, to plant them out. And he's said he'll sow some of my Gigantes beans too. Another fellow plotholder, Kate, very kindly offered to plant up our allotment now that Neal has dug it. It's a tempting offer, but it'll be good if Jamie gets up there so we've said no, for now.

A bit droopy on arrival. They're happy now

Both our allotment sites are fully leased now, with our biggest waiting lists we've had since the beginning. It's really good to show there's a strong need for communal growing spaces in Hungerford - I wish I was there to meet some of our newcomers, but at least I've seen some great photos of their activity, on social media.

I've done a bit of cooking, I used up some celery sticks to make cream of celery soup on Saturday. I used this recipe, using milk and flour instead of cream.

I fried the finely chopped onion and celery in oak-smoked oil. It's amazing, just like Campbell's condensed soup - it needs scooping out of the jug! Even Jamie likes it - he never normally likes my home-made soup :-)

We're still eating a lot of rhubarb. We actually have brown sugar to bake it and the syrup is delicious. We've discovered that chocolate icecream goes particularly well with rhubarb.

The title is highlighting the fact that this government think we can 'stay alert' to a virus, rather than stay home to protect ourselves and others - Basement Jaxx provide the great song.

Wait

As if working out what day it is isn't difficult enough! We've had a Bank Holiday Friday - we never have a Bank Holiday Friday! Our usual holiday Monday (May Day) was moved to Friday for VE Day, so now I think it's Sunday but it's Saturday. Oh, it's confusing!

This is 'Pip' our regular big fat pigeon; he struts along our hedge looking like he owns the place :-)

Day 54 inside - it's nice and warm with the windows open and the road is fairly quiet. Everyone is waiting for Boris Johnson's "big announcement" about lockdown tomorrow. With over 500 Covid-19 deaths per day over the last week, it's crazy to be thinking that there should be any reduction in England's half-hearted lockdown. We already have the worst death rate in Europe... I think we should just wait until the fatalities really reduce.

Anyway, enough of that depressing news. I'm pleased to report that our Silk Road Bush is full of flowers.

 It'll continue like this for several months.

I love it and the leaves are as pretty as the flowers.

And more good news. Neal has brought us round another delivery from our plot. The carrots weren't so good, but this rhubarb is so delicious - that'll keep us going for a while. I really should think of something more creative to make with it, but it's just so good roasted!

Another fellow plotholder, Ivan, has offered to help keep our plot 3 in order while we're away from the allotment - we're so looking forward to getting back there. But, for now I'll continue working from home -  Zoom meetings can be quite entertaining, whether for work or meeting friends, but it does mean you're never actually away from the screen. Look at some of my lovely colleagues - always quite animated ;-)

I haven't done any exciting cooking, but have re-discovered the delights of a cold baked potato in a salad - that was with the last of my roasted peppers and mushrooms. My lunches at home are much more generous than what I have at work!

On that note, I'll go and do some exercise... oh no, I think I'll read my book instead :-)
Stay happy and healthy everyone. Here's a fab song from Kym Mazelle and Dr Robert (of The Blow Monkeys - I'm  pretty sure I went to see them in the dim and distant past).

Days

Day 34 of lockdown. Today it's sunny; lovely and warm behind glass but the weather vane shows the wind is probably making it feel rather more chilly out there!

The HVFB stands for Hungerford Volunteer Fire Brigade which was apparently established in 1891, with the old firestation opposite our flats being built in 1893. It's a hairdressers now, but the owner keeps the weather vane in good working order I'm pleased to say.

We had a veggie box delivered from our plotholder neighbour (THANKS NEAL!) Some of our own carrots and leeks, with a donated cabbage and I think the rhubarb is donated too - unless that's from our plot. Wherever it came from, it's delicious! I roasted it in sugar and we had it with orange juice and honey rum yesterday.. mmm.

We may be locked in, but we're not suffering! I made carrot and cumin soup, with some added celery.

The carrots are a little past their best, as you can see by the internal splitting, but the soup is still tasty. I fried the onions in chipotle oil and it's very spicy hot!

The recent hot weather followed by some rain last week, which would have been very welcome for plotholders, has encouraged more green shoots - this is our Silk Road shrub. It's so beautiful when in full flower and I love its delicate leaves.

The horse chestnut is clearly going to burst into full flower soon.

I'm pleased to say that our chitted potatoes didn't go to waste; my sister has them and she also took our two grafted Aviditas tomato plants which were delivered by Dobies last week.
The song is by Kirsty McCall (we've been watching some old Top of the Pops on tv and are up to 1989). It's a great Kinks song, but I always liked Kirsty McCall.

With a Little Help From My Friends

On Saturday morning we held our annual plant sale on the Town Hall Steps (or veranda, as it says on the invoice).

Happy HAHA Helpers: Alison, Marthy, Liz and Andy

Our plotholders did us proud again, with so many quality plants...

Flowers...

Vegetables, cut flowers, grasses, succulents and hanging baskets....

The stall looked lovely along with the volunteers donning our HAHA aprons. The sun shone occasionally and it stayed dry so we had a good number of passers-by who stopped to chat and/or buy. And lots of dogs to stroke too!

And we made £280 for the HAHA coffers! Leftover plants were passed on to a plotholder who is holding a tea afternoon in aid of macular degeneration. The remainder are available for Marsh Lane plotholders for a small 'honesty box' donation and we're planting up flowers in pots to pretty-up the site for our fete next month. I couldn't resist buying a couple of plants myself: a Spaghetti squash and another Globe Artichoke - I know that I need to protect it from the wind (and slugs) this year.

Yesterday (Sunday) Jamie and I cleared the untidy side of the polytunnel and planted up the 3 Aviditas tomato plants in their bags. They look a bit straggly at the moment, but I'm sure they'll recover.

I planted out the Gigantes runner beans and I'm hoping that the Yard Long beans will be available to plant out during the week.

We picked a handful of our strawberries but they were too delicious to make the journey home! I picked salad for my lunch tomorrow but the pak choi and rocket have flowered, so I'll pull them out and sow some other salad in its place - probably another job for next weekend.

We've been baking our rhubarb recently, it's very tasty: sliced, covered in sugar and in the oven for about 30 minutes. It's nicer than how we normally cook it in the microwave.

Look at our big frog sitting on top of the little one!

They seem to be good friends :-) The song title is provided by Joe Cocker.

Eighth Day

I've been on leave for a week, we've been busy with other things but have also had time on the plot and achieved some stuff, though there's still plenty to do. We still have a few potatoes chitting at home - they're going into bags on the plot, at some point...Looks like an alien with his hands up "I come in peace".

We've had sunshine with some rain and the nights have threatened frost and also reached -1° so we've been fleecing and de-fleecing most mornings and evenings.We have plenty of weeds growing but have cleared areas and taken bagfuls home for the green bin.

But flowers are providing lovely bright spots. We have way too many of these Californian poppies, but they're so beautiful!

And the chives are all flowering so the bees are very happy.

We've potted on all the french marigolds and also some supervivum (houseleek) for the plant sale.

We've braved putting them outside under netting but we are fleecing them overnight if a frost is threatened - it's easier to deal with than in the greenhouse though and they need to toughen up...

The strawberries have so many flowers and tiny fruits forming that we don't want to risk them so they're fleeced each night too. So far they've kept their yellow centres so the frost hasn't got these..

But as well as protecting things and weeding we've been planting - broad beans are in...

Salad is planted in the raised bed with the onions.

And today I planted up a smaller raised bed with Boltardy beetroot, Red and White Salad Onions and Purple and Pink Asian radish. I spent some time yesterday digging out the masses of weeds in that part of the plot. I dug out another part of Plot7 on Bank Holiday Monday - here's a timelapse... you can see why it takes me a long time to dig... apart from having to pick roots (from the hedge) from almost every spadeful it does appear that I do quite a lot of chatting :-)

While I was doing that, Jamie was clearing a large area of Plot 3 and dug the runner bean trench.

It's nice that we're beginning to see areas which are free of weeds. And the beans are planted into pots in the greenhouse - Benchmaster and I have some Pickwick dwarf runner beans that another plotholder gave me.

Our rhubarb is growing monstrous and we've not eaten much of it yet, but did give some to a friend at work to make some rhubarb gin...

We had some torrential rain but no thunder. Anyway that sums up our last week and a bit, and so Hazel O'Connor provides the title track (it should be 9 days, but well, you know..!)

We Started Nothing

Back to work last Wednesday for me. I was glad that it was a short week; it was such a struggle getting up early. The weather finally turned cold with some frost and I thought today was going to be awful, but it was actually quite pleasant on the plot this afternoon - though I didn't stay long.

Altocumulus clouds

I only visited to show a new plotholder around and pick a few carrots. The sun didn't show itself, but as you can see, the clouds were interesting and there were quite a few plotholders busying themselves with clearing and tidying their plots. I found this in the greenhouse - some little mouse or vole showing off to a prospective mate, perhaps? I know they like to pull leaves down to conceal the entrance, but this feather isn't a very good concealer!

Our plots look a mess, but it's nice to see some new growth - our Spring bulbs are pushing through in all the pots.

The garlic is looking happy.

The broad beans are much taller than we intended them to be at this stage - the weather has been so mild that they've just kept on growing in their mesh cage.

One of the rhubarb plants is showing signs of life but the other two are still in hibernation.

Meanwhile the weeds and grass are continuing to grow...

I did a tiny bit of clearing and put some kitchen waste and dried out stems into the compost bins. At least two of the bins have tunnels leading in through the bottom; presumably for rats, though I stirred the contents up a bit and nothing leaped out at me - thank goodness!

I brought the Honeyboat squash home as I may use that later in the week. I thought I'd check whether the black-skinned turnips are still edible - they look good on the outside, but...

No good for eating - so that's a shame. They'll be more rat-food, I mean, compost.
The song title is by The Ting Tings and it's true, but we really must start soon!

Happy New Year and thank you for reading - this is our 10th year on the allotment, so I hope it's a good one!