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.

Days

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 Clapping Song

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

Why Do I Keep Counting?

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.

Don't Stand so Close to me

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.