Feeling Good

Today we had a workday at Marsh Lane. It's been a wet week so we were very lucky with a mostly dry day and even some lovely sunshine producing fabulous rainbows.

It was good to meet some plotholders who we haven't met before and enjoyed a tea break which included biscuits and Honey Rum - a welcome addition to any get-together :-)

Jamie and I spent much of the time preparing 'mini-plots' for people who don't want to grow much or who just want a taste of allotment life before perhaps moving on to a larger plot. We'll grass the paths between the mini-plots in a week or two. (Can't believe I didn't take a photo of them! So, here's a photo of the manure delivery instead).

I showed two new plotholders around - it's great to see our site population growing again. Other volunteers were getting on with cutting back the hedgerow, which should encourage it to burst into life very soon.

So, although tired and achey, I'm feeling good - thankyou Muse for this great version...

Go With The Flow

I had a flexi day today, so although drizzling, it was quite pleasant in the afternoon when we popped up to the allotment. We only went to feed the birds and pick some leeks and carrots. Whilst there we saw this...

At this point we were worried for the cat

At this point we were worried for the pheasant

We needn't have worried!

So it turns out that this cat probably isn't the reason why we found part of a pheasant on our plot a couple of weeks ago... Though the mystery footprints in our raised bed are most likely solved..!

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On Sunday I made watery carrot and leek soup and it was delicious, so I've made another lot today... Just a few simple ingredients...

Sweat leeks, olive oil, garlic and spices...

Chop up carrots (not too small)...

Heat them all up together - try not to eat too many at this point

Add the stock (half a cube in half a litre of water was fine)

There! That's what watery soup should look like.

I think the cooked leeks provide a bit more buoyancy for the carrots. So, go with the flow and no need to blitz those veggies every time.
Music (and slightly dodgy video) provided by Queens of the Stone Age.

Glory Box

Nice to see the crocuses making a show.

We've had two afternoon visits to the plot this weekend - both were dreadful. Yesterday we put our new storage box together - it's big enough to store loads of mesh and fleece as well as other useful items that usually end up buried somewhere in our flat or car boot.

Storm Doris had blown a lot of  'plot furniture' around the site. Today it seems Storm Ewan has started even windier - which made laying the weed membrane tricky! I wonder if our box will still be in place when we next visit.

One of the corners where all the bins gather...

The garlic seems to be doing well - all 30 cloves have sprouted and they had a bit of frost which is apparently required to encourage the cloves to form. You can see where a bird moved one of the cloves so 2 are growing next to each other :-) Last year's garlic is still being used regularly and I have one and a half bulbs left.

As I write this I'm having another go at making a non-blitzed soup - carrot and leek this time. I'm only using the green parts of the leeks as the white parts are going into our pasta bake tonight. There are quite a few carrots and parsnips left to eat, but the leeks will be used up quite soon.

This is the valerian which is growing back much stronger than it grew last year - I hope we get some vanilla scented flowers this year.

Portishead provide the music - a glory box is apparently where a girl stores her clothes, sheets, etc. prior to marriage - well, this glory box is full of useful bits and bobs for an allotment instead! Anyway, it's a great song.

Digging in the Dirt

There's evidence of a lot of activity on the site. Newly dug areas are appearing on lots of plots - excellent! A sunny day in February is always a bonus and encourages allotmenteers out of their hidey-holes.

Not just plotholders, it seems! Whatever made this hole in the compost bin had moved on. There are mole hills all over plot 3 so it may be something to do with that...

I bagged that up all that lovely compost for use in the bean plot at a later date - the broad beans and runners should appreciate that organic mixture.

Jamie spent the afternoon digging last year's bean plot, which will be for our sprouts this year. Look at that! He is very good at finishing off, when I'm busy packing up hoping to get home before the aches and pains set in too much!! Well, this is the first proper labour since the Autumn.

I pulled a leek and a couple of parsnips and have made spicy parsnip soup - mmmm, it's so tasty and so easy to make because I used curry powder, rather than making up the spicy mix. That should cover 3 days of lunches.
Peter Gabriel has kindly titled this song perfectly!

Change

We had a change of scene today. Rather than being at Marsh Lane we were at the other HAHA-managed site in Hungerford. We joined some Fairfields plotholders for a general tidy-up workday.

Fairfields is a small site with twenty-four 1-pole plots.

It was originally allotments for the people who lived in the surrounding old people's homes, but now most of those homes have gone and a new estate is opposite so the plots are available for all.

It's close to the Primary School and at the moment there's a primary school plot, a nursery school plot and a plot looked after by a residential home in the town. There are a few spare plots available for £12 a year.

The site has sheds (shed-envy strikes again) which were part of the old laundry buildings. I wonder what each of the little sheds were used for when it was a laundry? It has a nice view overlooking the town - there's the Town Hall clock.

Aah, it was good to be using tools out in the fresh air, even if it wasn't on our plot. The sun even came out for a while. Dare I say, it felt quite Spring-like! I hope it's the same tomorrow when we're intending to do some proper work on our plots! Here's a photo of our snowdrop - planted about 25 years ago, we finally have some flowers (2 so far)!

Title provided courtesy of The Lightning Seeds.