Whats the Buzz

I was very tempted to be lazy yesterday and remain inside but I'm so glad we ventured out. 

As you can see, my macro camera decided to work really well a few times. I love these photos of various insects (Green Bottle Fly, Ivy Mining Bee and Sun Fly) on the ivy flowers in the hedge, it really was full of life. (I’m going to update my wildlife blog with more info).There were lots of other creatures that the camera didn't capture, including wasps, spiders and various other hoverflies. 

We stayed for longer than expected. There was a chilly wind,  but Plot 3 was nicely protected so we got on with more clearing and enjoyed the Autumn sunshine for several hours. The area is cleared but not dug so, if it doesn’t go cold, it’s going to be covered in weeds again. I’m just going to keep hoeing it.

That's the old polytunnel frame and I intend to use it for a squash tunnel next year (if things work out better than 2020). So holes will be dug and filled with manure in the Spring. I‘ll need to add some more trellis for the squashes to hold on.

Work has been silly-busy and it makes the weeks whizz by. We managed to pop to the plot for a bit of fresh air on a couple of lunchtimes, just to pick the last of this year's meagre harvests. They’ve been very quick visits, but it wasn’t ‘sitting’ weather anyway.

I cut off the only spaghetti squash that grew on our plant - quite a big one. And Kate kindly let us have one of her lovely Festival squash. They can stay in the polytunnel for a bit.

We had a MacSween veggie haggis in the week. We used it as stuffing for a large courgette,  it needed a bit more flavouring for my taste (I prefer the Stahly haggis). But with the excess I made this layered dish, with potatoes and tomatoes, courtesy of my sister, and our courgette on top, topped with cheese. Now that was tasty!

We added fleece protection around our 3 Speedy French beans in the week. They're the only ones we grew so don't want to miss out on eating them. As it turned out,  we didn't get a frost, but the temperature dipped to about 3° on a couple of nights. 

The song title is from the film Jesus Christ Superstar. Man, I do love those hippies 

Purple Haze

 It’s been a hot weekend and we’ve had two busy afternoons on the plot.

We managed to do a lot of clearing and some proper digging - I do like digging, though my body’s aching after more activity than it’s used to these days! The ground is so dry, I don’t know when we last had any rain. Here’s the before...

And here’s the after, and Jamie dealt with the edges. That area has been limed for broad beans to be sown in a few weeks time.

We still have lots to do. The enormous, spiteful bramble got me a few times, but we’re getting it too! Slowly, but surely.

I retrieved and potted up some strawberry runners as the strawberry bed has grown wild this year.

We hoed and dug up some enormous weeds around the Raised bed, where the garlic will be planted as soon as it’s delivered. And I cleared around the pond and planted some iris into the ground; it’s been pot-bound for over a year so I hope it will appreciate the freedom.

We actually saw a big dragonfly today, but it didn’t fancy visiting our pond which is in need of some more water. The frog doesn’t mind though and we may get some rain this week. At least we have the polytunnel for shelter when the rain does finally arrive. And we’ve got the fleece tunnel ready to protect a couple of the Speedy french beans which are just about to produce some beans for us and may coincide with our first frost - doh!

The courgette plants are still providing for us and Neal gave me some beetroot today (thanks Neal) Also my sister is supplying tomatoes still (thanks Joanne) so I made these nice spicy tomato noodles for lunch this weekend. And we’ve got a big bag of potatoes to use. We had a dish made with mash, cheese, ‘This is not bacon’ (which, to me, tastes like kippers) and peas - mmmmmm, so delicious! (But I forgot a photo, shame because it looked nice too).

Please forgive another globe artichoke photo, but that colour! And the bees are loving it and really did appear to be in a purple haze at times! One of those bees was in there most of the afternoon.

Did you see what I did there? Thanks to Jimi Hendrix (obviously) for the title. (And the crowd at the end of this video is great 😀)

Fields of Gold

 How much do you like sunflowers?

This much?

Or maybe this much?

What a stunning sight! My sister has been urging me to go and see them in nearby East Garston and finally yesterday I got the chance without work or traffic getting in the way!

It was a rather windy but very warm day. The fields have been planted specifically for Winter bird food - see more info here. Look at them nodding their heads :-)

I couldn’t resist having this as a separate post, I hope you like the photos, with the title song provided by Sting. If you hear of a sunflower field near you, it’s definitely worth a visit!

Free Falling

I’ve been working from home for 6 months now. I know lots of people don’t get on with it, but I’ve found it ok. It’s a bit intense, with too many meetings and I miss the general chit-chat and the random corridor chats but I’ve found I’m more productive with work and at home - look, I even made a blackberry & apple crumble! I haven’t done that in a few decades 😀

The blackberries were from the allotment hedge and the apples were windfalls left outside a house we walked past at the weekend (Thanks!). It’s very tasty and I had some for breakfast. I added some almonds to the crumble, but can’t really taste them, I should have added a few more.

We walked to the plot because the East-bound M4 was closed all weekend so all that traffic had to drive along the A4 and was queuing for miles, we didn’t fancy getting caught in that for the sake of a mile walk! You can just about see some of the traffic in this photo from the site’s entrance.

It was a lovely sunny weekend and we spent a good few hours on site both days. We did lots of weed clearing, trimmed the edges, dealt with the compost, hoed everywhere and enjoyed the sun and wildlife. I was given two kale seedlings (Thanks Min!) so planted them in the netted area on Plot3 - the weed seedlings are happy with all the extra space so we’re going to have to hoe it regularly. This is an extreme close-up of a tiny section of ‘bare’ earth!

Jamie spotted this great looking Herald moth on the back of our bench. I love the wing-shape.

We’re still enjoying runner beans which are very long but surprisingly not gnarly yet.

These few went into a stir-fry, made with peanut satay sauce and Naked Glory ‘roast tender strips’. I hadn’t tried them before and they were a really tasty veggie-protein fillet to use as a ‘meat replacement’ - I’m not keen on that phrase but it’s hard not to use it sometimes.

It’s sweltering today (Monday) and it was nice to have a quick lunchtime visit to the allotment - I won’t be able to do that when I eventually make it back to the lab. Talking of which, have you seen the news about life on Venus? Well, maybe not life as we know it 😊

 https://stfc.ukri.org/news/stfc-helps-scientists-find-hints-of-life-on-venus/

Tom Petty provides the title track, though I added the 'g' because I'm just not that cool to get away with it and Blogger can’t handle apostrophes in titles :-D 

Afternoon Delight

We’ve had two lovely afternoon visits to the plot this weekend. We’ve had no rain to speak of but some great clouds interspersed with warm sunshine.

Yesterday I spent most of the time admiring the hedgerow, it’s full of berries.

We always used to say it’ll be a hard winter when we’d see this many berries, but I don’t think it’s true... we’ll see...

The topmost photo in this post is young ivy berries - the birds love them. I think it looks like the Covid-19 virus. Talking of that, I went to the hairdressers in the week! I kept my mask on throughout the visit and the salon staff all had face shields. The Government are trying to encourage civil servants to return to the office  but I don’t think I’ll have to, I hope not anyway.

Jamie and I were both cooking this morning. He was making a tomato sauce, with tomatoes from my sister’s greenhouse. Our tomato plant on site went down with blight along with everyone else’s, but at least we had some tasty fruits from it. And, as you can see, I was making another decorated focaccia, with olives, peppers and basil this time. 

It’s very pleasing to make!

We’re still getting a regular supply of courgettes and Ivan gave us some of his Red Rooster potatoes yesterday...

He had plenty to share!

And Neal gave me a couple of lovely beetroot which I roasted and am having for lunches, I’m keeping them in the fridge in vinegar and pepper. They’re so delicious and made a colourful cold snack with runner beans and roasted peppers today.

The beans are leaning after the unseasonal strong winds we had a couple of weeks ago, but they’re still going strong. In fact, they seem to be producing another lot of flowers and beans at the moment.

The title song is provided by Starland Vocal Band.

Get Up, Stand Up

 Not a sunny bank holiday Monday, but perfect weather for actually getting some work done.

Our new poly tunnel has been waiting to go up since last year, so yesterday was the day to finally do it.

So from this abandoned-looking plot...

To this, aah, that’s more like the Plot7 we know and love. The old polytunnel is going to be used for a squash climbing frame (plans for next year).

We’ve spent quite a few hours on the plot during the extended long weekend. We even cleared some of Plot3, what a mess!

So, it looks better, but what can’t be seen is the million tiny seedlings just waiting for a bit of rain!

It’s a shame to be clearing really, as there’s so much wildlife finding a Winter resting place. I even found another elephant hawk moth caterpillar today! My macro camera has been working quite well. Jamie found this amazing caterpillar. The id has now been confirmed as a Pale Tussock moth caterpillar. More photos on my wildlife blog, which I keep separate for each new creature I spot.

And we saw a couple of Angle Shades moths. Pretty.

And loads of white butterflies,

...along with far too many slugs and snails..!

So, lots of grub for froggy to clear up (but surely they don’t eat snails!?)

We found these rather interesting Hare’s foot inkcap mushrooms in our compost bins last week, which I think are worth a mention. They’re helping to break down all the garden waste we’re putting in the bins, along with plenty of cardboard as ‘brown waste’.

And the song title, with the rather weak link to the blogpost is of course provided by the great Bob Marley.