Outside

Day 1 of lockdown - I've started again because yesterday we went for a walk (yay!) - at 4:00 in the morning to see the sunrise and listen to the birds.

It was wonderful! Walking through the dewy grass. Mist was rising from the canal and over Freeman's Marsh.

The birds were singing their dawn chorus - Jamie recorded this outside the allotment gates. I can recognise a crow and a pigeon(!). Can you recognise other singers in there?

We saw a muntjac deer, lots of rabbits and didn't have to practice any social distancing as there was no-one else out.

I got to see the measures in place to restrict the spread of covid-19:

the 2metre line markings on the pavements, sanitisation stations in the Co-Op and lots of warning signs.

So that was a lovely start to a 5-day break from work.

Jamie visited the allotment last week to bring some compost home to pot on the tomato and peppers. He enjoyed catching up with so many of our friends on the site and he took a few photos.
Look how dry the earth is! We really need a bit of rain!

Clearly this is Plot3 which Neal hasn't dug - thank goodness his kind work means that Plot7 doesn't look like this too. The photo shows the lovely netted cage that we put up last year - now protecting thistles and dandelions!

Our pond is certainly a haven for wildlife this year - there is a pond with a frog in there, honest!

I used some of the compost Jamie brought home to sow some micro-greens. They're under our red/blue grow-light. We've not tried them before, so quite interesting and they've sprouted in about 24hours. And Jamie's sown a couple of Tosca courgettes.

We're seeing the occasional plane fly over, but nothing like before, no wonder the air is so much clearer.

So now I have a few days to relax and it's so warm and sunny. The song is provided by George Michael.

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.

Life Goes On

62 days inside, sounds like a prison sentence! But it's not, and look... some photos of our plots.
Jane wanted me to see some of the flowers and there's Neal standing beside our enormous rhubarb on Plot 8!

There are just a few California poppies showing at the moment, but I'm sure the whole place will be covered in poppies and nigella quite soon. At least it'll look pretty, amongst the weeds.

I'm pleased to see the red flower re-emerge, it's in a pot and happily looks after itself each year - I can't remember what it's called - and in the front are snap dragons which are re-growing from last year so they'll make a nice colourful display. Will I get to see them in person? Not sure about that. I've started receiving daily texts from the NHS Coronavirus Service (seems to be a new service that started last Thursday). This was the most important bit for me - 'shield at home until 30 June'.

Actually, I count myself lucky. I'm glad that I'm not being advised to return to work. I sympathise with those who will need to return so soon - very daunting. Especially when the problem for social distancing is yet to be resolved in many workplaces and for people using public transport. I think people should wear face masks outside like in so many other countries - at least that would help reduce some spread. My cousin Jen made me this colourful one for when I finally get out - pretty huh?

Last week I was very busy with work, but Friday came round super-quick. I was enjoying salad lunches with more home-roasted peppers (my new obsession), baby leaf spinach and black olives. There's a bit of Quorn 'ham' in that plateful too.

I had an omelette last night with the spinach, peppers and tomatoes - I refrained from adding cheese, otherwise I won't get through the front door after lockdown!

And I made some pea soup last week - with tinned peas.

I don't think we've ever bought tinned peas before. It was tasty and so easy to make with just half an onion, a bit of garlic and half a stock cube as additional ingredients!

It's been a bit chilly this week - we even had a frost one morning when I looked out early; it's why we usually aim to wait till June before planting things out - we've been caught out by it before.

I've been joined in my window by a Lizzano tomato plant that was delivered by Dobies this week. We're hoping that the peppers will arrive soon and Jamie could make a visit to the allotment to pop them in the ground.

We'd normally grow them in tall pots and the peppers would be in the greenhouse, but not this year. We'll see how they do - we know the Lizzano doesn't mind being outside. Thanks to Neal's very welcome help we have Plot 7 is cleared for Jamie to plant them in. Look, he's even given us lovely neat edges!

And we're still getting deliveries from the plot, though this will be the last of the carrots and leeks which have gone to seed.

The song is provided by Gym Class Heroes - a very pleasing video.

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).

Third of May

Day 48 - have I mentioned that things are a bit 'samey'? What day is it? How did we get to May already?! What's happening out the window?

Aah, look at that little blue tit. They're so sweet. We have two who come and visit the feeder. They always take their bit of seed away and eat it in the buddleia bush.
Here's another regular visitor. He's much more timid than the allotment robins, but is happy to eat at the feeder, unless he spots us watching him!

Our other visitors are a giant pigeon, a blackbird and a dunnock. We heard a cuckoo the other day - a very common sound on the allotment, drives you mad after a while!

Here's a timelapse of some nice fluffy clouds - the sky hasn't been so blue so far in May. We've had some drizzly rain and it's rather chilly - good! It means I don't want to be outside :-)

You may not be able to see the hail in this photo, but look at the green trees now - lovely!

I've spent quite a lot of time on my laptop this weekend. Yesterday I was doing some HAHA admin - we have the longest waiting list we've ever had! 13 for Marsh Lane and 7 for Fairfields, however both sites only have a couple of empty plots which will soon be leased. Today I've finally updated the HAHA website for 2019 and 2020 (I have a few pics that people have sent me - would welcome more though!) I liked this one showing the social distancing in the car park - and some great clouds (from Ted).

I've done a bit of cooking, but nothing very exciting. However, I'm very happy with these peppers, roasted with salt and garlic.

I love peppers. We ordered three plants but they appear to have got lost in the post, shame somebody would have got a nice pressy! Anyway, these roasted peppers are going to appear in several meals. I had some for lunch today - such a tasty addition on a plate of cold tapas. We're eating a few more eggs than we normally do, as they're quite high in vitamin D which I may need a boost of if the sun doesn't come out again quite soon.

I finally received my letter confirming 'high risk vulnerability for Covid' - I had to phone my GP to get it; it should have arrived 3 weeks ago based on Government data - slightly concerning, but not surprising. Next day I received a call from the local Council, I told them I don't need the free food parcels, but I'm glad that we can now book a priority delivery slot from Tescos. It means that we could get some items that aren't available in the local shops and Jamie won't need to drive to Newbury.
The song title is by the Fleet Foxes - so I had to write the post today :-)
Stay safe everyone x

April Skies

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!

This great song is by The Jesus and Mary Chain.