8 Years and Counting

April 5th 2008 was an important date in my life. I was woken by a phone call at 4:50am and told there was a suitable donor kidney available for me at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. I had received this call twice before, but on those occasions the kidney turned out to be a more suitable match to other patients than for me. But, with thanks to the generosity of a bereaved family, it really was third time lucky for me. The actual transplant operation didn't take place till after 11:00pm. The recipient of the other available kidney went to theatre earlier in the day. It was a long day, with lots of x-rays, blood tests and other tests to ensure my fitness and suitability to receive the kidney.

I thought this was funny

My new kidney was a slow starter. It was a long 4 weeks of waiting for blood results to improve before I could finally stop haemodialysis. That was probably the worst period during my whole 'kidney failure experience' and I still couldn't eat all those tasty foods that were considered off limits whilst on dialysis for nearly 4 years.

One of my lovely nurses, Raji, connecting me up for a dialysis session

It was during my convalescence that a note was posted through the door asking if we would be interested in an allotment in Hungerford. We knew it would be good to have a more healthy pastime for my new lease of life, rather than playing games on and fiddling with computers. But it was a bit too early to know how I was going to feel after the transplant so we put our names on the list. It was almost a year after my operation that we received an email saying that a new site was opening in Hungerford and there was going to be a 'stone clearing session' and that afternoon we started digging Plot 7 Marsh Lane.

Since the transplant, and having the allotment, Jamie & I have a healthier diet and lifestyle. The transplant improved my appetite (a little too much perhaps!) and the allotment has gone some way to improve our diet.
I have been mostly healthy over the last 8 years (currently 17 tablets a day keep my blood results on track). I check my regular blood test results online through the brilliant PatientView resource which I understand is available to all UK kidney patients and I meet my consultant to discuss how things are going every 3 or 4 months.

Renal Patient View

Please register as an organ donor and let your family and friends know if you want your organs to be used to improve lives, should the worst happen to you. Your memory will live on through your grateful recipients and your legacy can be saving lives.

 

Finding Things

We had a great afternoon on the plot in the sun today - digging, sitting and chatting. Jamie found a marble and a coin - always a treat! This is the third and oldest we've found.

The coin is very light and quite small 23mm diameter. After a bit of cleaning, manipulation in a photo app and a bit of web browsing we figure it's a farthing. Four farthings made a penny, so not too much to lose. This is Britannia 

George II reigned from 1727-1760. The coin is dated 1740-something, can't quite make out the last number. But, once you know, it is possible to make out part of GEORGIUS and the II. And, I think it may be 1744, because there is a U in his name, rather than a V.   Cool!

We also found that our broad beans have sprouted - hoorah!

And our potato chits are going a bit crazy, so we really want to get them planted out in the next week or two...

What Katie Did

That was a stormy night! Lashing rain and howling winds. We were expecting destruction on the site, but it was surprisingly unaffected. There isn't much to damage at this time of year. There are a few flowers on plots but this tiny wildflower (the flowerhead is about 5mm) is making its own way along the stone pile.

Common Field Speedwell

Not much for a bee to enjoy but we have seen a few. Today this bumblee was put amongst our grape hyacinths when we found her on the grass.

Wildlife blog has more photos

Jamie was on compost-duty; merging the two bins on Plot3 and moving them away from the potato plot. We always end up moving our bins around the plots and then finding they're still in an inconvenient place!
I was sowing some seeds! I've sown coriander, dill and parsley into biggish pots in the greenhouse. I mixed some manure with potting compost from last years potato and grow bags. It may be a bit early, but plenty more seeds if these ones fail. I also sowed some Boltardy beetroot into modules.

I sprinkled Grow-More in the raised bed and covered it with black plastic so the earth will get nice and warm for sowing in a few weeks time.

Blossom bursting in the hedge

Last job of the day - empty last night's rain from the gauge!

Quite a lot for one night

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!

Booooiiinnnggg!

It's officially Spring!

And the sun came out for the Northern hemisphere's Spring equinox, as days become longer than nights (even though that's been the case for a couple of days actually. I guess it's some sort of astronomical licence).

We enjoyed listening to the birds who were singing sweetly in the sunshine while we struggled with roots, weeds, strawberry canes and stones. But Hooray! We managed to finish the section on Plot3. We're hoping to plant some potatoes here but there are a lot of roots to contend with...

A few plotholders and neighbouring gardens had fires today. We started one but the couch grass and raspberry twigs were still a bit too wet still so we left it for another day. Shame, I do love a bonfire.

We left with the moon to our East...

 and the sun to the West. I look forward to more of this Spring weather!

Preparing for Sprouts

What a cold, grey day, but it wasn't raining and it's March so we had a few hours on the allotment this afternoon. This is the plan for Plot 7 this year - rather more basic than previous years, but it's enough for now.

Today I worked on the Brussels Sprouts plot. We're having it the same size as last year, enough room for three plants.

Not too bad to dig and looked so much better as soon as the weeds and old swedes were removed. I dug some manure/compost in for a bit of added nutrition, but sprouts don't like too much.

And because it's for sprouts the ground needs to be trampled down - otherwise the sprouts will 'blow', that is, grow with loose leaves rather than a nice tight little parcel of deliciousness (I love sprouts!).

And finally, some weed suppressant which will be weighted down with bags of compost to make sure the ground underneath is nice and firm before the sprout plants are planted in a few months time.

Jamie was still fighting the raspberries and couch grass on Plot 3 to make way for the spuds. I think that will be my job too tomorrow...

Slurp, Slurp Soup

I made the parsnip and leek soup, but didn't bother with the spice. I thought it would be a shame to hide the flavour of the vegetables. Peeling the parsnips really brought the lovely smell out and the leeks being cooked in butter were lucky to get as far as the soup pot!

The parsnips were huge so, it's produced a rather thick soup and needs extra water adding as I heat it for my lunches this week, but it really is delicious. 

Consisting of:

  2 Parsnips

  4 Leeks cooked in butter till soft

  1 litre Vegetable stock

  Salt and lots of Pepper

I do like a simple recipe! But please don't believe my mousemat at work!!

Grow Your Own...

...or, if you're lucky, eat the generous offerings from fellow plotholders! Neal gave us some parsnips yesterday and today Jonathan gave us some leeks. Thankyou, that's a few meals sorted for this week!

We spent another sunny afternoon working on different things. Jamie was doing more digging on Plot3 - really hard work because of the tree/hedge roots. I sowed some salad leaf into a pot in the greenhouse, but my main job was to plant the Santero onions - about 40 of them. Each one had a sprinkling of onion fertiliser. The four rows are covered with netting to protect the early growth from birds. The rows are about 30cm apart with the onion sets planted about 15cm apart.

I think Mrs Blackbird already had an eye on the onions!

The garlic has grown well since the netted cloche was added a couple of weeks ago. It looks like the Flavor variety has grown a bit quicker than the Solent Wight, but there's not a lot in it.

Now, spicy parsnip and leek soup recipes...

Out with the Sun

We had a lovely few hours on a sunny allotment site today and it was nice to see fellow plotholders also taking advantage of the warm sunshine. We even saw some tortoiseshell butterflies and bumblebees so it was very Springlike.

I've re-discovered my Fujifilm camera, with the Super Macro button...

Well, these crocuses look lovely from every angle!

This is the remains of a squash, I think...

Interesting isn't it? 

It was amongst the green waste that we piled on Plot3 in October. Jamie dug it in to the bean trench today, along with some great home-produced compost - look at all those.happy healthy looking worms from our compost bin!

Jamie also transplanted the little rhubarb plant that wasn't doing very well on Plot3. It's on top of a hole filled with compost now, so perhaps we'll get to taste it this year.

I sowed 24 broad beans into pots - Masterpiece Green Longpod. We've not tried this variety before. We normally sow directly into the ground, but the mice enjoy them so much just as they germinate we've decided to protect them more this year. They're on a shelf in the greenhouse, under a plastic cover so we hope they'll survive till it's time to plant them out!

We left as the sun was going down and the birds were singing sweetly as they were going to roost.