Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
Day 41 of lockdown - these weeks seem be whizzing by. I guess because they're rather samey... thank goodness I can fill my days with work though it's not as good as being at the lab when the days are more varied.
I was inspired by Shaheen to make this colourful pasta salad. I thought the animation that Google produced was rather funny - it looks like a fly is landing in it, but it wasn't. This one included raw chard leaves from the allotment - lovely!
Nothing home-grown, but pretty and tasty. I was glad that Jamie is managing to buy peppers, celery and tomatoes. We bought these two packs of rice fusilli last month, from a health store. At that time, my last shopping trip, there was no pasta left on supermarket shelves.
I don't think it tastes any different from normal pasta. Although, last week I decided to cook the pasta for lunch before I started my first Zoom meeting of the working day.
Look how colourful it is pre-cooked
Then, at lunchtime I remembered it had been simmering for more than 2 hours!! It smelled like rice pudding and I had to throw it away. 🙁 My next batch was fine I'm pleased to say!
We received another vegbox from our plot, thanks to Neal, hence the chard.
He's cleared another quarter of our plot for us! So pleased, it won't be such a horrible mess when we finally get back there!
Having just passed the dreadful UK milestone of 20,000 deaths, with over 800 dying in hospital yesterday, I am surprised that some people are thinking of reducing lockdown. It seems far too soon. Having said that, Thames Valley Police have confirmed that it's ok for people to drive to our allotment so we (HAHA) have lifted the 'no driving to site' restriction. I hope people take the sensible precautions to protect others, as well as themselves, and continue to stay home.
Besides working from home, I've been looking out of the window a lot - seeing the rapid changes in nature and getting my vitamin D top-up :-)
Look at the flowers on the horse chestnut tree!
This is the closest I can zoom to with my camera, they really are pretty flowers up close.
And I saw my first swallows and house martins this week. I didn't manage to get their photo - just blue, blue sky. I still have to check the shape of what I'm seeing.
We were also looking to the sky in the evening. I counted 33 of the SpaceX Starlink satellites. I thought it was very exciting as one after the other they came into view. We didn't attempt a viewing of the Lyrids meteor shower - it's difficult enough to spot a meteor with a full-sky-view!
I did actually step outside the front door this week - only on to the doorstep because I spotted this one lone bluebell in our front 'garden' - it's not a garden, it's just dirt as our neighbours have a plan for it and we told them that we don't mind what they do as we're always up the allotment - that was true when we said it more than a year ago!
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.
The weather has been unseasonably hot and sunny. We're enjoying watching two pairs of jackdaws with their nests in the chimneys across the road. Their nest is actually in the right-hand pot, where we see them popping down on occasion. And last night, due to the lack of traffic, I heard owls hooting. Nice.
Day 27 of lockdown and it's the Easter weekend. I recently received this pretty card from my cousin - it's always nice to receive something unexpected through the post! (Thanks Jen)
In normal times we'd be planting our seed potatoes; ours are still chitting in the hall under their grow-light, but I don't think they'll get planted out.
The horse chestnut tree opposite has come into full leaf over the last week. It's always the first to bud and I can just see a few flower spikes developing.
I knew one day I'd re-cover our chairs, which are naturally 'distressed' :-). I've been meaning to do them for a while... It was worth keeping the material sice 2007 - I found the receipt in the bag. Well, you know how time flies!
I've done a bit of cooking. I made spicy parsnip soup last week with the parsnips from our Ethel's Pies veg box.
So tasty.
And made dauphinois potatoes (no cream) to go with a sausagey-tomatoey fry. The potatoes were nice, but a bit too much effort and 1hr 30mins in the oven. I used this recipe which is rather wittily written.
We've just had a nice cheesy-biscuit lunch using the beautiful bowls we bought on holiday - can't believe that a month ago we were still in Tenerife. How things have changed!
So this afternoon we're watching the 1990 World Cup football England/West Germany semi-final, whilst eating my Easter egg - thanks Jamie! Well, there are no new matches to watch and no Euro 2020 to enjoy. Crazy times.
Meanwhile the UK has reached passed 10,000 deaths from Covid-19. Some of my work colleagues are transferring their space engineering skills to working on making ventilators (Well done to them) Every Thursday we're joining in the 'Clapping for Carers' from our windows. It's good to hear the sound coming from up the High Street.
Hence the song. Stay safe everyone x
I'm celebrating 12 years of my transplant this weekend. I rewarded myself this week by dying my hair purple - that's an excuse really.
Making the most of our sunny window
20 days home but I did have a trip out last week... I had to have a blood test. To be honest the hospital in Swindon was the last place I wanted to visit! But I was very pleased that I was the only patient in the waiting room - unheard of, it's often standing room only. And my kidney results remain stable, so now I'm in lockdown again.
Covid-19
A few weeks/months stuck at home are better than years on dialysis or death, so I'll try not to moan. I'd also prefer to be sitting here than working in a hospital - thank goodness nurses and other carers don't feel that way!
When I'm not working there has been a lot of HAHA email traffic. As advised by our local police and Council we agreed to ban driving to the site and, because a committee member needs to unlock/sanitise the gates and locks/lock up, the site is only open between 10am and 6pm. The measures were an attempt to reduce the numbers and time spent on the site - we don't want our site appearing like some other communal spaces where people are appearing so ignorant.
Measures in place on site
We've been disappointed by the reactions of some of our usually lovely plotholders. I kind of understand not heeding the STAY AT HOME advice, because we were told that allotment visits are fine, but staying all day and not wearing gloves? Really?! I wonder if those same people are joining in with the 'clap for carers' on Thursday evenings..! Of course most plotholders appreciate the difficult position the committee are in; we don't want to be away from our plots but imagine how we'll feel if a plotholder gets seriously ill, or worse.
Moving on... We ordered a veg box from a local supplier 'Ethel's Pies'. It's a good mix of vegetables and will extend our food supplies so Jamie doesn't need to venture out so often. He's mostly going to our small Co-Op and managing to get some veggie items that we haven't used before. The Vegetarian Butcher uses some rather unappealing names but these two soya-based products are delicious. We had a tasty Sweet and sour dish and a delicious curry using the What the Cluck.
And this Vivera plant-based bacon became part of a scrumptious cheesy pasta meal.
Stay safe everyone and enjoy the great song provided by The Killers.
Such a beautiful sunny day out there. But I received my text yesterday telling me to stay inside for 12 weeks - I'm 'shielding' myself from COVID-19 as I'm in the 'vulnerable' category due to my kidney transplant.
So far, I've not stepped foot outside the door for 4 days - the photo
below is the last one I took oustide. It's the River Kennet which was still over-full. I'm able to
work from home and having lots of video calls with work colleagues which keeps me occupied and Jamie's here with me so I'm not in total isolation.
The lovely sunny days at the moment are obviously making us wish we were on the allotment. We last visited 10 days ago and it was a sorry scene in the rain.
It's likely to stay that way for a while now. For the time-being the Government are saying that allotment sites can stay open, but I'm not convinced that will be the case for very long. So many people aren't heeding the 'STAY AT HOME' advice that it seems very likely that the 'go outside for some exercise' clause will be removed soon.
We're hoping that Jamie will get a chance to put the new polytunnel cover on the old frame before the tomatoes and pepper plants are delivered. Also hoping he'll get the potatoes planted which are still chitting in the hall. Also to pick the broad beans, leeks, onions and garlic that have been steadily growing since the Autumn. Oh dear :-( The grape hyacinths were a nice bright spot.
But mostly we hope that we, our friends, family and fellow plotholders manage to stay healthy during this disturbing time. Then we can, with luck, pick up where we left off in time for next year.
Not sure how much I'll have to add to this blog over the next 3 months or more, but there could be some unusual recipes based on what Jamie manages to buy from the shops(!) and, if he visits the plot, I'll get him to take some photos.
Please look after yourself and others
And the advisory song for the blog title is provided by The Police, which I think is quite funny, but the advice isn't. Social distancing is surely the best solution.
Ohhh, what a holiday we had! Such a lovely time to leave the UK and fly off to our favourite place - Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, of course.
We were lucky to get there; the severe calima (dust storm) had stopped flights two days before and the island is now in shutdown due to the coronavirus. The calima was the worst the island had seen in 30 years and the 100km winds caused a lot of damage with huge trees and branches felled. The big clear-up was happening while we were there.
The calima caused some of the carnival to be postponed, which actually worked out well for us (sorry to be selfish). We've never been to the famous Puerto de la Cruz carnival before but it was GREAT fun, with events running day and night (though we didn't stay to any that ended at 6am!).
The first event on Ash Wednesday was 'The burial of the sardine'. A huge crowd gathered and then we followed the giant papier mache fish through the town; up and down the hills dancing along to the fabulous drummers.
This was the 'funeral parade' and locals were dressed in funeral garb and swooning/crying dramatically along the way. It was very funny.
At the end of the parade, the giant fish was carried to the beach and burned on its funeral pyre while fireworks ended the evening.
We visited the capital, Santa Cruz, for a day.
It's a working port, with cruise ships as well as freight. I love this photo with the mountains in the background and the lido in the foreground as well as the auditorium.
This lovely Market (mercado municipal nuestra señora de Africa) was a nice place to stop for a drink and a snack. Look at all that lovely produce!
Look at all those potatoes! Looks like a Potato Day :-)
It was very hot walking about but we enjoyed the palmetum (an arboretum with different palms from around the world). It was planted up on a pile of waste in 1995!
We saw some hoopoes, but didn't manage to get a photo unfortunately, so this picture will have to do.
We had 'recovery day's between trips. I love these steps in Puerto de la Cruz - they're big on Agatha Christie as she stayed there a lot.
And there were plenty more carnival events back in Puerto, including hundreds of crazy men, in very high heels, running an obstacle course through the cobbled streets.
That event drew huge crowds - it seems the spanish really love drag! But remember, if you're ever attending anything in Spain... 8pm start means 10:30 :-D
Personally it was the drumming bands that I loved the most.
And the costumes, so imaginative and colourful.
The Carnival Queen float was beautiful.
But the runner up's wasn't bad either!
And so many in the crowd were dressed up, so we were glad we took our wigs with us :-)
We took a bus to La Oratova, up the mountain from Puerto, it was exhausting - so many hills - but plenty of plazas to just sit and watch the world go by.
The Botanic Garden was closed because of fallen trees, but we didn't see much damage in the town.
Tenerife towns are kept very tidy by street cleaners but they had their work cut out with all the palm branches which were down and piled up along the roads. And bougainvillia multi-coloured leaves were piled everywhere, but some flowers were left on the trees - so beautiful.
We visited our favourite beach (Playa de Bollullo).
A long walk from our apartments but worth it. Sad to see the damage that the calima had caused to the banana plantations though they should recover and there were plenty of bananas being harvested. The sea was too rough to swim - It gave me a good excuse because I can't stand the cold water anyway!
The evenings were a bit chilly for me, so I was glad I'd taken a jacket, but the days were generally about 23° with a couple hitting 29° <phew>
We had a final carnival parade, which was postponed from the calima weekend, so that people could make the best use of their costumes I suppose.
We spent a lot of time sitting by the sea, enjoying the heat, watching the big waves, surfers and
generally people-watching - love this old chap with his dog and his life in his case.
We do love Puerto de la Cruz.
I hope we can make it back there quite soon. There are so many more bus rides to take us to towns that we haven't visited yet. And we really need to get back up Mount Teide!
Sorry this post has gone on a bit but it was such a fabulous holiday! It felt like much longer than 2 weeks and we certainly did a lot of walking - much more than we do when we're not 'relaxing'!
Our thoughts are definitely with the poor people who are finding their flights cancelled and some flights turned away half way to their destination - how awful. Let's hope the virus moves on quickly and things can get back to normal quite soon. The blog title song is provided by Ed Sheeran.
