May is blooming

 On our return from France we found that the garden had decided to put on a bit of a show for us.  Plants that were still in bud when we left have burst forth, much appreciating the recent rains and warm temperatures.

Also things are taking shape in the allotment. Yesterday we bought home a good haul from our autumn planted brassicas 

We have here sprouting broccoli, pak choy, chard and two cabbages which were a bit slug damaged but I picked through carefully and we had one with dinner last night. Can’t really get much fresher.  We picked some onions which are suffering from the dry winter and spring, as they are starting to put out seed. So whilst we won’t get to store them we can at least enjoy them. The broad beans are podding up, peas heading up their sticks, strawberries putting forth berries and all the seedlings and potatoes seem to be doing fine.  We have beans, corn and squash plants to go in over the next week then we can hopefully just keep on top of the weeds and watch things grow.  And of course enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Allotment day

After a damp start the day turned out nice. Still breezy but I was able to get my wash hung out before we headed over to the allotment. 

Our garden trolley is certainly proving handy for carting stuff about without having to use the car - bale of compost, tools, plants etc

First to go in were the brassica plants, I made little collars to go on them to prevent root fly let’s hope they work

Peter hates to throw things away, we’ve had this coil of blue piping stuffed down the side of the house since we moved here, not sure if it was left or came from the previous house.  Anyway, cut into suitable lengths and with a piece of garden cane stuffed up each end it made perfect net supports 

Under the white fleece I planted red and white onion sets. If they all come through we will have plenty of onions.

We replanted the rhubarb crowns and these are marked by the tyres, which hopefully will keep them neat and tidy.

I have broad bean seeds to plant in pots to get started and I need to find some garlic. I think that will be it on the planting front until the raspberry canes arrive next month. So apart from checking in from time to time and pulling out any weeds that dare to grow there’s not much else we can do for now.  Of course we will keep collecting the horse poo as it’s available, Peter made a bay for it using some of the plastic fencing that was on the plot.  I like to be tidy.

It was good to get my hair done by Will again we had a great catch up and I’m really happy with my cut. Life is much easier now I have accepted the natural curl in my hair, just a scrunch dry or leave to its own devices. 

I decided to make a from scratch vegetarian Indian meal tonight. My go to is Madhur Jaffrey for Indian cooking. Her recipes always work so well.  I made a Chana Daal, a Beetroot dish and Cauliflower with black mustard and fennel seeds - I substituted Romanesco for the cauliflower, out of the three dishes this was the best. The only problem with making from scratch is the time it takes - 2 hours by the time the daal is finished but so worth it.  I’m sure there will be no vampires in our room tonight, so much garlic!

Comment? What comments

Firstly I would like to apologise to those people who have recently (since end August) left comments on my blog. These for some reason hadn’t shown up in my email box. I had got comments from regular email contacts but not from others. Luckily not too many of you, I do appreciate it when people take the time to leave a message, so thank you.

Today has been a really weird day, grey moody skies with very warm temperatures and strong winds. I was dressed completely wrong.  We visited Peter’s mum and wished her happy 94th, it’s a great age.  We then popped over to Homebase to pick up some garden netting and they had all their seeds reduced to half price.  They are good til 2024 so we picked up a load,  in fact I’m thinking I may go and get more.

We are forecast a wet day tomorrow so will put off going to the allotment til Thursday when we will plant out the brassica plants that arrived this afternoon and also pop in the onion sets.  We can also start off the broad bean seeds too.  Going to need to make note of all the forthcoming planting dates to keep ahead of the game, it’s been a while 

All free today

Friday again already, the weeks just fly. Today we headed over to Waterbeach in search of the free soil improver. They had lots. The security guard on the gate said “good morning young lady” I could get used to these compliments, though I’m sure he says it to everyone! 

Peter and I arrived before Rachel so we had 12 bags filled and waiting by the time she got there. 

Glad it was a nice day, as this stuff is smelly and you need the windows open!

The improver is now spread over the beds on our plot and I have winter cabbage, rainbow chard and sprouting broccoli plants on the way. We will have something in to over winter. Need to get some onion and garlic sets and we will be done for now.  

Back home we vacuumed both cars and left the windows open for a bit to get rid of the smell!

Sometime was spent tidying the front garden. Peter removed a self set tree which was taking over a border and I pruned my roses and moved some foxgloves. Replanted some bulbs that a local cat had removed whilst using our border as a toilet!

Following this we changed and went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful afternoon

All in all a good and productive day

We’ll take the compliment

This morning we have been into town for our annual flu jab. Asked twice for our age as they said we looked too young to be 65+. We are happy with that, it made our day. Hopefully there will be on adverse reactions to the vaccine, though my arm feels a bit tender and I’ve a bit of a headache. Popped a couple of paracetamol so hopefully that will do the trick.

Yesterday we went out to collect some free soil improver from the Amey waste site at  Alconbury to be told they no longer do it there and we needed to go to Waterbeach, 20 odd miles in the opposite direction. To say we weren’t happy was an understatement, I wish companies would make sure their websites are up to date, it would save many a wasted journey, we can’t have been the first.

Instead of making a further journey we decided to go to the allotment and mark out the beds.  Kids have been over there again and our plot had acquired some watering cans, which we removed to the watering station and hope the owners recognise them!  I’m sure when we go back all the stakes and string will have been moved but we took the chance. Photos don’t really show the beds well, but I drew up a revised plan when we got home

I ordered bare-root raspberry canes today, these will be ready to go in in November 

Gus loved his hat and hasn’t taken it off yet

That’s it for today. Think I’ll do some baking this afternoon I feel in the need of cake

Allotment day -2 - We made fire

We got to the allotment today. We had a fire. I have tried three times to get the pictures in the correct order but failed. 

The top picture is a bucket full of rhubarb. There was so much, it certainly took some digging out. Lots of it was rotten so these live bits will be replanted and we will see what we get from them.

We managed to find enough old carpet tiles amongst the weeds to make a boundary pathway between us and the next plot, their plot is a bit wild as they have just started a family so time is short and they’ve not been there often. 

Our plot is at the back of the site so we have no one behind us, just a wide grass pathway which the council keep cut.  They also trim the hedges which is good. 

In the second picture you can see Peter starting to dig out weeds along the communal pathway that divides our plot from the adjoining one.  I think we will possibly put in some fruit bushes along there or maybe I’ll have that part for my flower patch.  

It was a good mornings work. Good to come home and get clean and smoke free.  Clothes washed. Late lunch. 

We have treated ourselves to a collapsible trolley for carting tools, chairs etc as we are trying not to use the car but realised we can’t carry everything we need.  It will come in handy for family trips to the beach etc so dual purpose.

I’m off to the Knitting and Stitching show tomorrow with Rachel. Hopefully I’ll have some goodies to share with you. 

Allotment day - 1

It was a productive first day on the allotment.  

We spent four hours clearing brambles, old carpet, rotten or overgrown fruit bushes. Broken wood pallets, plastic sheeting. You name it, it was there. We did discover a compost bin and a border fork, so that was a bonus.  

It turned out the plot wasn’t as big as we first thought. As it and the adjoining half plot were so overgrown it was difficult to see where each started and ended. However, over the last few weeks whilst we were away the other half has been worked on so we now have a clear division. 

Fortunately the soil is very light so the weeds are pulling out easily.  We decided to remove all the fruit bushes as I said, as they were overhanging the pathways and so old. We will replace with new plants in a more central location.

We have left a nice fire stacked and ready to burn on our next visit. Took home two builders bags full of plastic and metal and a wheelie bin full of stumps and stuff that will take too long to burn. Whilst we are allowed a fire it has to be during certain times and can’t be left.

We had to drag Rachel away, she would have carried on clearing. We even worked through lunchtime we were that focused. Hoping it will be good for the waistline.

We have rain overnight and tomorrow, so I guess Peter and I will go back on Wednesday to carry on clearing.  Once we have the plot cleared we will then define the edges and mark out the space.  It’s going to be fun seeing what we can grow