Fire

These pictures are from last weekend's Fire Garden event in Newbury, hosted by the Corn Exchange.

 

It attracted a good crowd and the live music was great.

Lots of flaming structures and mechanical items spotted round the town centre and along the canal.

We went on Sunday evening as the previous two days had torrential rain, as has much of the last week. We only made it to the plot last weekend to pick a few bits.

The tomato plants in the polytunnel have finally succumbed to blight and Jamie cleared them out yesterday. It's quite nice having a polytunnel that we can get into again, though the ripped cover won't provide us with much protection from wind and rain this Winter!

I actually used some of the borlotti beans that we grew and dried last year. I soaked them overnight and then, after cooking, I marinaded them with soy sauce, smoked paprika and some olive oil. Warmed up with a few tomatoes and some of the Gigantes beans made for a couple of very tasty lunches.

Yesterday was actually a pretty warm day with plenty of sunshine so while Jamie worked (and disturbed a few mouse nests) in the polytunnel I did some planting - Cristo garlic is in the raised bed. We got about 20 cloves from these two bulbs.

And then I planted 3 rows of onions - we bought this mixed pack from Thompson & Morgan.

And I sowed two rows of Aquadulce Claudia broad beans. The rows should be close enough so we can use a net cloche if we get any heavy snow this Winter.

Our leeks alongside are the skinniest on site, so I think we'll be eating baby leeks next Spring at this rate!

Over the last couple of weeks we've been eating Erika potatoes - a really tasty white variety. We need to remember to grow them again next year - they were planted in a bag and had no slug damage or scab. And  yesterday Jamie emptied the bag of Estima potatoes - they look good, but we haven't eaten any yet.

Yesterday evening was our annual skittles challenge between HAHA and the Hungerford Twinning Association. There was a good turnout with plenty of food and raffle prizes included. HTA were hosting this year but HAHA won overall - 3rd year in a row, they need to get some practice in :-)

Right now I'm making butternut soup, with a huge butternut grown by our plot neighbour Kate - there's plenty left. I'm roasting the butternut in small chunks. The onion I fried in butter and have added some garlic, turmeric, cumin and soy sauce along with plenty of pepper. With all those flavours I won't need a stock cube.

Actually, right now I'm eating some of it - delicious! But I've just remembered I'm out for lunch tomorrow. Not to worry it often tastes even better a couple of days later anyway :-)

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown provides us with the songtitle. 

 

33 Crows

OK, I'll admit it may not be quite 33 but there was a big flock ('murder') of crows in the tree opposite our flat. They just kept flying in, a pair at a time. Then something spooked them and...off they went.

As you can see we had a nice blue-sky weekend. We should have spent longer on the allotment, but we didn't get there till late on Saturday afternoon. We did sow a packet of Bonita french marigolds, Suttons broad beans and some salad veg though, so at least we achieved something.

The Blackthorn in the allotment hedge has flowered and it is was a proper Spring weekend.

The moss is looking rather stunning too - I need to charge the batteries on my macro camera to see these in all their miniature glory.

Our shallots have sprouted - yay! But still no frogspawn in our pond :-(

Last Wednesday I joined Ted, our Chairman, on a stall at the Hungerford Town Council meeting. The room was edged by all the volunteer groups and about 100 people turned up to find out about what we all do for the town. It was quite a good format - and we got interest from a new plotholder.

And on Friday night we had a HAHA versus the Rest of the World Skittles match - it turned out that the 'rest of the world' consisted of Steve and as there wasn't a huge turnout we decided to play as individuals rather than teams. It was a lot of fun and we made about £30 (after paying for the room) for HAHA funds so it was worth arranging this little off-site social gathering.

We didn't make it to the plot yesterday as we went to Newbury and then went for a walk around Bowdown Woods near Greenham Common - it was so beautiful, just a couple of weeks and the whole place will be full of bluebells.

The title is provided by Kula Shaker - great song, if a rather spurious link to this blogpost :-)

All the Small Things

The wind was really strong again today after a further storm over the last few days - Storm Gareth this time. We had a delivery in the week so had to go to the plot to transplant these tiny begonias.

They're the tiniest plug plants I've ever seen, but they look healthy and are going to be Funky Pink, Funky Orange and Funky White. They're mostly going to be for the HAHA Plant Sale in June, so we've potted them on and taken them back home - they won't appreciate the cold temperatures we're expecting over the next few days and couldn't survive in those tiny modules for much longer.

They look happier now they're potted up in some new compost with a suitably labelled lolly stick. I also potted on the sweetpeas which Ivan gave me a couple of weeks ago. I had already pinched the tops out so they look like they're going to bush out a bit more. Jamie said they could be planted out, but I've no idea where they're going yet and there isn't a clear bit of earth even if I did know!

We really need a good few days to get onto our plots and start clearing before the weeds completely take over. Today wasn't the day for that though. As well as gales we had some cold rain - this lovely lighting appeared just before the rain.

I was hoping to see some pond-life today, but no froggies yet - just a lot of water snails.

And the South-East corner of the site has been collecting debris as usual during these windy spells! Notice the grape hyacinth that we transferred to the grassy knoll last year - I hope they'll spread all over, they're so pretty and the bees love them.

We weren't on site very long, it did get rather chilly. But we had some nice chats and  got a few things done - just not on our plots, still it's only early.. One more thing... if you're near Hungerford next Friday - you're invited...

The blog title is provided by Blink 182 - I can't help but like this song though the video is a bit ..er.. funny...

My Favourite Game

Well, it's Spring now and it was quite a pleasant day but the ground is so wet we didn't do any digging. I tidied up the purple sprouting broccoli plants and picked our first ever harvest of them. I'm hoping there's still time to get a few more sproutings from them - it seems they're late to sprout for many gardeners this year.

I picked a few more leeks for dinner tomorrow night, they were spare plants that I planted in a cluster rather than composting them and they've grown pretty well. A few good-sized ones and some tiddlers. The french garlic is looking happy considering it's been crushed under snow twice this month! It shouldn't get too used to this milder weather as we may have further snow by next weekend...

We had great fun last night at the HAHA Skittles Evening. With 36 people attending it was a perfect amount and there were a few non-plotholders.I was in charge of the scoring but as you can see from the photo below I had a little help from our Chairman :-)

The marigold seeds we brought home during the coldest weather are liking it a bit too much inside - they've nearly all germinated and we don't dare return them to the plot just yet...

And the potatoes are chitting away but we're not going to risk planting them out for a few weeks yet - even if it is traditional to plant them on Good Friday - just a week away.

We threw a couple of seed potatoes away as they had strange white growths on them - though it didn't really look like mould. We hope it hasn't spread to these other ones...
So, the blog title is based on the skittles evening - maybe not my favourite game but for an off-site plot holder gathering it's a great one! And so is this song from The Cardigans...

Black and White Town

The freezing weather returned! And we have even more snow than we had at the beginning of March.

Modified photo of icicles from the roof of our composting toilet

On Friday evening we retrieved our recently-sown marigold seeds and wrapped fleece round the shelving where our broad beans are trying to germinate. The fleece and four litre bottles of water are keeping the temperature at about 1° higher than the non-protected thermometer, but will it be enough? Perhaps we'll have to sow a third lot of beans this year...

Look at our pots...

And our chives...

And the site!

There were lots of tracks in the snow - nothing very interesting but we rather liked this meandering trail - bird or mouse?

We saved a panicking thrush from a brassica cage and then checked ours. We cleared the snow to stop it ripping the netting and, hooray, our purple sprouting broccoli is doing something at last, but it was too cold to stay and harvest anything today.

You may have noticed that my camera decided to use macro for the photo above and focused on the netting - now, if I was trying to do that you know it wouldn't work! I tried photographing some of the freshly fallen snowflakes on Friday and nearly caught them, but I need a bit more practise.

It was a very chilly walk back home. The thermometer in the greenhouse showed 3.3° but when the wind blew and whooshed snow about - BRRR! And we may be due more snow tonight - we're not used to this in Berkshire!!

The Doves provide the title track. The pure white snow and black roads made me choose this song.

Also, if you're in the area on Saturday....

Autumn Arrived

Summer turned to Autumn last week - now the nights are going to be longer than the days, although the signs have been appearing for a few weeks now.

 Some of the plants have shown a recent spurt of new growth as it's been a reasonably warm September.

We're still eating plenty from the plot and I'm not yet bored of roast vegetables but Jamie has been for a while now. Sadly, for him, the courgettes and Patty Pans just keep on producing :-) He's happy that it's Hungerford Food Festival at the weekend because he's got the excuse of saving veg for the HAHA stand - not all the veg though!  

COME UPSTAIRS AND VISIT US IF YOU CAN!

https://hungerfordfoodfestival.com

This little trayful includes our first Kohl Rabi of the year - it was very tasty just roasted along with the other vegetables and those are some Silverskin onions which failed to produce enough for a jar of pickled onions because of the sluggy start to the year.

We had an allotment holders skittles night at the weekend - it was really good fun. Not so many people turned out as they did in January, but there were plenty of us to have a good entertaining competition.

HAHA versus the Royal British Legion and HAHA won :-) And not just because I was recording the scores - with a little help from my friends!!

Thanks for the photo, Kerry