Starlings, snow and ancient arrowheads

Hi.

So I am so exhausted after another busy day of chores and going to the allotment and cooking and having dinner and a lovely evening with my friend G, and I am forcing myself to update the blog because I for one can't handle another backlog of unposted posts, and you for two can't handle reading such a long post.  I know because B just said "No I didn't read your latest one, it was too long."

So today despite all my good intentions of spending a whole day up at the allotment, it turned out to only be an hour and half, but a great hour and a half it was.  This is what the bed that I was working on looked like before I disrupted it:

And you can see the sprinkling of snow that we had in Hove. Not much, nothing compared to what my bro and sis-in-law in Northumberland have had, but it's snow nonetheless and you've got to love snow.  Well no you don't have to, but anyway I do.  This is what it looked like  by the time I left at 435pm:

Since at some point we are going to extend the bed pretty much up to the path, I thought I would do a bit of that today, and it made a change from digging.  So I dug up the 'turf' as me and B have been calling it but it's not exactly turf, but a layer of grass type stuff, lots of roots and a little bit of soil, though I was trying to keep as much soil in the ground as possible.  We've got a whole load of this 'turf' now at the bottom of the 'lotment which at some point we'll have to sort out. 

The sky was really pretty when I took this photo, but you can't quite appreciate the lovelyness of it.

So anyway it was deserted up at the allotments today.  Where I normally see at least a few people, today I saw only one other lone soul right off in the distance when I first arrived.  This was probably mostly because it was snowing today, and was bloomin' freezing, but also I guess partly because it's winter and also because most people aren't toodling around on a Tuesday afternoon, they're more likely earning a bit of bread.  Oh something really cool happened today.  I was walking to the top of the allotment to look for something to use as a semi-permanent border, and as I was just turning around to head back to the bed, all of a sudden this almighty noise came out of nowhere and for a second it scared me as I couldn't work out what it was.  Then I looked up and saw a flock of starlings flying right over my head and off towards the piers which I imagined was where they were destined for, but who knows.  If you've ever stood on the palace pier in town, or anywhere that starlings do their magical thing, then you'll know the incredible feeling of standing underneath hundreds of these sweet birds, all in unison and seemingly flying for some greater cause, but somehow at the same time it's as if they're performing just for you. 

I can't believe that I forgot to tell you yesterday about the ancient arrowheads I found last week!!! Here they are:

Ok so I know they're not really ancient artefacts from a forgotten past, but it's kinda cool to pretend when you're endlessly digging up stones.  I was starting to think today, as I was adding yet another stone to the collection I now have in a bucket as I dig the soil, that I would probably really liked to have been an archeologist.  Except that I did say to B the other day as I unearthed the arrowheads, "Oh sod all that brushing, look I'm doing it with a spade!" I don't think I quite appreciate the delicacy and laboriousness of the job. And plus I'm quite impatient.  No I don't think it would work.

Ok well, I'm still as tired as I was when I started this post and I am planning on getting up early and spending a lot longer at the allotment tomorrow, so I should go and get my sleep.  Hasta la vista xx

It's a long one!

Oh jeez, so here I am, totally knackered after a day of sorting out the flat, chores, going to the allotment briefly, going to yoga, making calls, cooking, and eating dinner, and now it is ten to midnight and I partly want to go to bed but also partly really want to update the blog as I haven't done so in about a week. So here goes...

The last time I updated was the day I went and took 3 hours to dig up a little bit of soil.  Well the good news is that I have since finished that first bed and finished two others. Yay! The bad news is that I've still got five to go.... But I'm getting there and that's the main thing.  Here is the before and after of the second bed I did:

I even made an attempt at temporarily bordering the end that B left open.  Which I was very impressed with.  Whilst talking to B about the blog the other day at the allotment, he said I should definitely mention a couple of things which he found quite funny.  The first is this.  My sis bought me two pairs of gardening gloves for my birthday.. and I put one of them on the day I started on the above bed,  they look like this:

And I went to put them on, thinking I had definitely put them on the right way. Well it was a few, maybe even five, minutes before I realised, like a lightbulb suddenly coming on in my head, that I had in fact been wearing them the wrong way round which happened shortly after I said to myself 'Oh that is a shame to get the nice material-ey side all grubby....' Lightbulb on. 'Oh, right!! Yeh, now it makes sense as to why there's this rubbery bit and that it goes on your palms! Oh. Dear. I need help.'

The second thing B found funny which I had totally just absorbed into my every day experiences and initially failed to see the funny side of, is that on Saturday when for the first time in ages me and B were at the allotment at the same time I accidentally got a shovel out of the shed instead of a spade and attempted to dig the grass/soil up before B pointed out that in fact I was using completely the wrong tool. I should have listened to a tiny, but drowned out, voice in my head whilst selecting my tool for the task who was saying 'I think you might need one of those other ones.'  Oh well, you can't be good at everything and one thing I am definitely not good at is naturally and automatically knowing what tool does what and when you might need said tool. And by tool I also include gloves. Obviously.

Ok back to the allotment. Here is our new resident.  My sis says 'It's you!' If only my legs really were that skinny. Actually no I'm quite glad they're not, that would just look weird.

And this is a lovely rose at the entrance to our allotment:

I just suddenly had a thought that at some point we can grow our own flowers and cut them and bring them home to look all lovely in our flat. Though of course I would rather them live out their lives in nature, but if the veggies and herbs get the chop, well sadly so too do the flowers. Some of them anyway.  I'll let some of them live.

On this day (ie all the pics above) which I think was the 25th or something, I remember a couple of things. One of them and I'm sorry but this isn't going to be pleasant to read, but whilst I was digging the soil in this second bed I was just thinking about how during my work placement in Whitehawk I had asked one of the guys if he had ever unearthed any skulls or bones, and then literally five minutes later I dug up a sweet, dead, peaceful-looking, little mouse creature. I say mouse, it was actually (just looking up on Google......) ok well maybe it was a vole or I don't know what but I totally froze and didn't quite know what to do.  It was so sad and I don't know what it was doing under the soil, other than it either burrowed under the soil and whilst it was there it had a little mouse heart attack and died, or possibly a predator animal killed it and buried it for later.   Well anyway that was a bit sad.  And then a few minutes later I dug up a little screw driver.  So that took my mind off the dead mouse-vole.  Until a few minutes after the screw driver I dug up a dead ladybird and then I was back to thinking about the mouse again. 

I should add that after taking a stupidly long time on the first bed I managed to speed up for the second one. So that's good.  I was completely determined to get faster even if it meant not picking up every single 1mm of weed root.  I just had to let it go.  Every now and then at least.

Then there was Saturday. Here are me and B.

We both got quite a bit done on the weekend, as we both went Saturday and Sunday, B staying a little longer as I had to go to work both days so had to leave there about 2ish.  B managed to finish re-laying the path so that now it goes pretty much down the centre of ours and M's plot, as opposed to half way through ours.

Left is B not looking all that happy I'll admit, but he's probably just cold as it was about zero degrees C at this point.  I took this picture so that you can see the wood B put above the door, and also you can just about see the hook he moved to keep the shed door open as he was getting sick of the makeshift door wedge in the form of a brick.

As you may have noticed I have just discovered that you can place the photos to the left or right- amazing! Anyway, right is a pic of 'Monny' and 'Silvy', otherwise known as mine and B's bikes. Unfortunately you can't really see Monny (my bike) but it is amazing and I just got it for my birthday thanks to Mum and B and I love it. B is going to pave this area so that we can use this space to put our bikes.

Above are two pics of the third bed I dug over and I really hope you can appreciate the difference.  If you can't then I'm seriously doing something wrong.

Here is B hard at work, moving the path.  And below are some more pics of the wonderful path-

It was on Saturday that B pointed out to me when I exclaimed, "Look, look, there's the lovely robin that's always around!" that "Yeh he's after the worms, didn't you realise?" "Oh. No. The poor lovely worms, we don't want him eating the worms, we need the worms! Oh no are we helping him to kill the worms by digging up the soil and also should we not have the peanut feeder as it will entice him in?? Oh but wait, maybe by feeding him peanuts, it will distract him from the worms?" B, laughing at me: "Er no, I don't think it works like that."

Sunday: I dug some more soil, and finished off the third bed.  By this time the ground was so solid that it did take a little longer than usual, but it was still a good couple of hour's work and I was sooo happy to finish the bed.  Tension arose when at long last we saw M since all that palava about us reclaiming what was rightfully ours. Actually having spoken to B tonight, he confirmed to me that it wasn't really all that tense, but it was a bit weird and we are a bit distant with each other.  He seemed fine and was chatty with us, and us with him, but things have just, well, changed.  I wasn't really that talkative anyway, what with my psycho-PMS-self bubbling at the surface and thinking about work, so I just got on with the digging and left B to do most of the talking and niceties. Here is me looking all chuffed with myself:

Actually this picture is a bit cringe, I don't really know why I posed like that. Anyway...

Here you can see B moving the fence at the top of the plots.  M has a space for his car here, which he wants so that he can, well, drive his car in.  When there was first talk of him doing it I instantly got all silly about it and hated the thought of a car being there when I look up from working the land, but actually I now realise that it won't be there that much and also it seems I can't escape cars however hard I try, and I can't be trying that hard given that I live in a city and in a country where the majority of people drive and own cars, so I should just shut up and live with it or else move to a desert island where there are no nasty machines...

Here are some pics of the path on Sunday:

Ok if you're still with me then well done, it's been a long one. If you broke to make a cup of tea, then got distracted and then forgot all about my little blog and then two days later vaguely remembered something about something you were reading but didn't finish....and then rejoined us here again, welcome back.  I have only one more day to tell you about and it is today.

Today I went for an hour and begun working on the bed which has the mystery fruit tree in.  Thus:

I saw E next door which was nice as I hadn't seen her in ages. She too was digging over a bed and we chatted about a few different things before she left me to it and I basically did most of this end of the bed and this time, so far, haven't accidentally dug up any tree roots.

I'll end with this pic of the sun starting to go down at about 320pm. I wish I could have stayed a little longer today to do some more digging and also to watch the sun set and the sky change.  But unfortunately I had to go.

So long. xxx

Back on track

Hey y'all,

Well I made it to the allotment today and was there for about 3 hours.  Somehow it took me that long to dig less than one of our beds..?! I am quite slow at doing things sometimes, but also the soil, or more accurately put, mud, was sticking together a lot so it made it difficult.  Plus I'm a bit too thorough I think as B told me when I saw him tonight that it would have taken him about an hour.  I didn't actually take an after picture as when I left it was already getting dark, but here it is part way through:

You can hopefully see the difference between what I've dug and what I haven't!

To the left is the shed and in between the shed and this bed used to be a couple of trees, which are now just sad little tree stumps.  Anyway, the point is that their roots are/were below a lot of the soil I was digging over, so that also added to the speed I could go at.  Or at least that's another handy excuse.. And who cares how long it takes anyway, the point is I'm doing it and (mostly) enjoying it.  I'm getting lots of lovely fresh air, and today it was so tranquil as I saw hardly anyone and it was pretty much just me and the birds.  Speaking of which I saw a beautiful little robin just before I left, it had a little nose around the bed I was working on and for about ten exciting seconds I was trying to will it to go to our new peanut feeder (birthday pres from my sis) in the fruit tree. But, alas, he wasn't interested. Here it is:

I found it a bit hard today when I was digging the soil as I kept unearthing worms and every now and then I freaked out because I thought I had chopped one in half.  Hopefully I didn't decapitate too many and I tried to put them back under the soil each time I rudely interrupted their lives. The creature related dilemmas and sagas seem to permeate these blogs, but I wouldn't expect it to be any other way.  Anyone reading, however, will probably find it completely ridiculous and strange.  But hey ho.

Here is another pic, which shows all the hard work B has been putting in lately, and luckily he is much more speedy than me at getting things done.

Didn't see M today. Seems like he's been a little busy though as the compost area at the back is pretty full.  (I like to keep tabs!).

Ok well that's all folks.  I'm hoping to go back to lottie tomorrow morning for an hour to finish off the bed so I can at least say one is done! And then it would be good to get some rye or mustard seed sown (green fertiliser).

Adios! xxx

Allotment abandonment

I have been to the lottie once since I've written on here, and even took a few photos, but unfortunately other things have been taking precedence of late, namely my new job, birthday party preparations and..well actually the only other reasons for me not going to the allotment are my lack of motivation and, quite importantly, the rain we've been having.  One of the main tasks at the moment is preparing the beds that B has lovingly created, which involves digging the soil, and the one time I have been in the last week that proved quite difficult because of the dampness of the soil.

Anyway, I had a fantastic present from my lovely friend in Hong Kong which came from her Mum and Dad in Kent which consisted of several bags of seeds!! Which is very exciting and it's lovely to know that the seeds have come from a garden I know, and love, and having sampled their produce on lots of occasions, I know that as long as we don't totally mess it up, the veg should be really tasty.  So we've now got some seeds for next year which are:
-runner beans
-rhubarb
-sunflowers
-french beans
-spinach

Brilliant!

I only learnt about a month or two ago whilst on the food growing course at Whitehawk how you get sunflower seeds.  I was wondering about it beforehand, and then we got to cut the flower heads down and let them dry out in preparation for removing the seeds easily. We also tried some of the seeds straight from the flower (or is it plant?) and they were yummy.

Next time I come on here I'll put up the photos I took the other day.  B's been really good at getting to the allotment after work and spending even just half an hour there before dark sets in.  I found out the other day that a friend got an allotment on the same day as us and theirs isn't that far from us which is really cool.

B reckons M is going to pack it in before long, as he's a bit of a city boy at heart.  I don't really know, but time will tell I guess. 

xx

Back to Earth

Hey y'all,

I went to the allotment today! And boy had it changed!  B had done an amazing job and he definitely hasn't burnt the place down.  So that's good.  And this is how it looks now:

Unfortunately I could only spend about 45 minutes there today, and I had the same thing as before where I'm enjoying what I'm doing so much that I don't want to leave.. And also my slight ocd tendencies kick in when I do anything, like weeding, or digging, and I can't bear to leave what I'm doing until I've finished, and done it all perfectly.  But that's pretty hard to do when it comes to gardening, unless what you have is a paved area with a few bonsai trees, but then that wouldn't really be gardening would it?  What I'm saying is perhaps all this gardening and food growing malarkey might just help to curb my perfectionist ways.  I just find it hard though..

Anyway, my personality defects aside, when I overcame my surprise and joy at all the marvellous things B had done at the allotment, I got on and started to clear the area around our solitary, lovely, as-yet unspecified fruit tree.  Here she is:

I wasn't really sure if I could dig near to the base of the tree. Ok so as I just wrote that sentence I realise how blindingly obvious it would be even to a 5 year old that no, it probably isn't a good idea to dig near the base of any tree, lest you pull up its precious roots.  Anyhoo, I came to this realisation when I accidentally pulled up one of the tree's said roots, and then worked out that, yes, I should create a circle around the tree which I would just hoe, and then dig the rest which would hopefully not be near the roots.  But I didn't/still don't know how big its roots would be.   I hoed and dug and pulled and arghhhed (back hurting) and revelled in the lovely surroundings and blue sky until all too soon it was time to go.  I'll be back there tomorrow to finish up clearing around the tree and then onto more jobs after that.

Here is the after shot:

The soil is very different to the site in Whitehawk where I did my recent food growing course.  (Whitehawk is on the other side of town, in East Brighton and up on the hill).  The soil there is quite chalky.  But this soil on our lottie is really different, not sure what you would call it, but it's a different colour for a start and definitely a different texture.  I'll have to ask L, the site rep, what it is, he'll be glad to impart his allotment wisdom on a mere lottie learner such as myself.

B had done an amazing job on the shed, he totally sorted it all out inside, and voila, here it is:

I very reluctantly left my wellies in the shed today because I'm duffing up my lovely purple boots each time I wear them there, so I thought if I took my wellies and left them there I could just put them on instead.  But the size of the spiders in that place is ridiculous, and I was trying to figure out a way that would deter them from crawling into my boots... But in the end I just placed them on the top.  And I'll just hope for the best.  I was thinking of laying some conkers around them as I recently witnessed an arachnophobe placing conkers around her office to ward off the lovely little critters.  But I partly forgot about finding some, and also I thought I would just be brave and risk it.  If I can attempt to conquer my slight perfectionist ways, hell I can conquer my slight arachnophobia too.

Couple more pics before I fall asleep on the keyboard:

This is the back area where the famous fire was:

And lastly let us spare a thought for this lovely bush which is no longer.  At least not on our plot.  It lives on on our neighbour, E's, side...

B cut it down today to make room for our new beds.  To hell with nature- CUT IT ALL DOWN!! That's one thing I don't really like doing you know- cutting down plants.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think it really hurts them, but I just feel a little weird about it.  Just ask my sis, T, about the time that we were setting up Mum's Christmas tree in the lounge a few years ago, and she'll tell you how frustrating it was that I wouldn't twist the fixtures on tight enough because I didn't want to squash the base of the tree....! I think I just need to tell myself it's like giving a human a haircut.  And that doesn't hurt or harm them.  Not unless you count the part where the junior who's drying your hair after the haircut is scalding your scalp with the hairdryer and you feel too bad to tell them because you're more concerned with not knocking their fragile confidence than protecting the skin on your head.  Which happened to me once. Many moons ago when I still frequented hairdressers.

Anyway, I'll just have to remember to practise good after-care if I cut any plants or trees down and hope that the tree spirits forgive me.


Ok really must go now.  Goodbye xxx

Ode to lottie

Oh lovely lottie,
Oh where art thou now?
How I have missed you,
Through my days o'er the brow.

But fear not, I'm returning,
To whence I was once,
With energy new and soul burning
May substance spring up from your earth.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

ok haha, poems and odes aside, I'm coming down South (or daan safff) tomorrow, so hopefully in the next few days I can visit the allotment, assess the damage from the fire (only joking B) and get stuck in.  That might be literally, if our soil's turned to mud with all this rain... I have had a couple of heated and interesting conversations with B over the phone about the 'big talk' that happened on Saturday between M and B; and the subsequent, next-day apologies and forgivenesses, and hopefully resolutions.  Was thinking on Saturday night that we were going to end up in some sort of petty feud with our lottie neighbours, but actually I think it's all alright.  For now anyway.  Who knows what I might stir up when I get back and involved in the discussions...  No not really, I just want an easy (allotment) life and if M wants a few extra inches, well, what the hec, life's too short.  (I say that now of course, when I'm miles and counties away..).

Ok well, I've really not got any exciting allotment news, so I need to go now and come back when I've got some actual news or juicy (geddit?) gossip.

So hasta la vista baby x x

The woman who wasn't there

Well, I'm many miles away in Northumberland, but my thoughts are with my allotment, in between playing with train sets and making baby noises at my beautiful niece.

Really looking forward to getting stuck into preparing the beds and finding things to sow/plant, from next week.  And seeing what it all looks like after the big fire.  Hopefully the shed will still be there when I get back...

I'm hoping to get some tips from my sister-in-law and bro while I'm up here, as they've been growing food in their garden.

Ok well I'm with you in spirit, lottie. Farewell!
xx 

Planning

Went to the allotment today but not for long and it seemed to get dark so quickly after the clocks went back on Saturday.  Which is all a bit depressing.  But nevermind, with each day that passes, we're one day closer to the days starting to get longer again. I think. Now I'm just getting all confused.

So this is a picture of in front of our shed, which I took partly because I knew it would be fascinating to all you (two) readers, but also so that I can look back and see the huge progress we will have made in, say, a few weeks or so when we will have cleared it all up.

Do you like how I placed the spade there to make it look like I was busy?  Actually I'm not sure why that's there, but anyway...

So I got there about 15 minutes before B at around 4pm, so I cleared the last of the plastic bags from outside of the shed to the front of our plot, to join the rest of the rubbish, which we've been told will get picked up by the council at some point.  I also moved a bag of compost which gave me a couple of mini heart attacks as these giant-bodied spiders were crawling around on it, and I just wasn't quite prepared.  (Ok, so I just looked online for a picture to show you and it has disturbed me so much and I am now feeling like I have spiders crawling all over me, so you can just imagine for yourself what they looked like.  Brrrrrwwww).  Let's change the subject quickly.  There was a lovely weed growing out of the top of the bag and it was a bit like this-

After my arachnophobia attacks, I did ten minutes of clearing some weeds in front of the shed and then when I was just about to go and unlock the gate for B, there he was.  So we set about doing what we had met for: deciding the fate of our plot.  As in how we were going to set up the beds and how many, how big and where.  After some sort of intense discussion last night, it was surprisingly easy to come to a decision about the layout.

We kind of have two sections to our allotment- the front bit where you enter which I guess is about 2/3 and at the moment there are crops/plants/weeds growing there in beds, some big containers with water in, a fruit tree and a couple of conifers which we're going to get rid of, and the back bit which has the shed in.  The back bit is going to be a bit of a mess for a while I think, and we have a dilemma as to whether we should divide the back bit up into two or keep it communal with our lottie neighbours.  We have a similar issue with the front bit in that our side is quite a bit narrower but there is a path running between ours and M's and we sort of agreed the other day that we could leave it as is.  M has mobility issues so that was one reason why we were happy to leave it.  But actually, the anally retentive me came out and was measuring the width of the two plots, and I started to think that, actually, I want our half!! B has now agreed, which would mean moving the path (which is made up of stone slabs) and altering M's beds.  There's also an issue with the front of the plot, because I think M is going to build a car parking space and we need to sort out the entrance to both our plots...

Decisions, decisions and lots of dilemmas.  Anyway, B should be seeing M on Friday for their bonfire night hoedown, so hopefully he will explain our new intentions.  And I'm off to see family tomorrow night, so it will be just B visiting the allotment for 6 days, and he needs to get on with digging and starting to create the new beds.  Hence meeting today and deciding on the layout.  We are going to have 8 rectangular beds in total for growing food and one circular one around the fruit tree which we're going to grow flowers on.  I'm sure we'll also grow flowers elsewhere too.

There was no sign of any frogs today.  I imagine they're all off having a get together and sharing tales of being confined to water tanks and compost bins, and the bizarre giant creature who set them free..

Ok that's all for now.  I'll leave you with a picture of me and B, and a picture of B, which I know could have basically been taken anywhere, but trust me, they were taken at the allotment this afternoon after we miraculously came to an allotment-related unanimous decision. Adios!! xx

(spot the rose in the background which is at the front of our plot!)

Another day, another frog rescue... Plus harvesting and DIY!

Hi,

First thing's first, the frog rescue op.  Here is the lucky escapee:

Isn't he/she cute??! Although it's also in total shock here as it's just going through the same realisation as yesterday's lucky ones that there is a world out there.  And poor thing looked so skinny from surviving all its life so far in a compost bin half-filled with water, and possibly being the only survivor of its clan.  So not only is it in shock and seriously under nourished, but its also in mourning probably.  Anyway he/she is out and about now, who knows how long they'll survive out in the big bad world, but at least they will have lived a little. And met me, which of course is an added bonus. Although on second thoughts I probably seemed like some sort of giant alien to them and who knows maybe they wanted to stay where they were.  Hopefully not though.

So, frogs aside, had a good few hours at the allotment today.  Did my usual trick of taking about two hours to leave the flat, having faffed about and done loads of other necessary and unnecessary jobs in the meantime... Anyway, got there at 130pm, having got there on foot today as B's bike is out of action so he borrowed mine to get to work.  It took 25 minutes to walk there which ain't bad at all. I loved arriving at the site and wandering past everyone else's plots- like M said to me on our way out today "You can see everyone's personalities reflected in them".  I just like seeing how people make use of their space and seeing different sorts of environments everywhere.

Oh one more thing on the frogs- after taking out Froggy, I had to make an escape route for any others who were lurking under the surface who I didn't spot.  And this was harder than you might imagine due to the shape of the bin and the fact that I don't have the most logical brain, but I got there in the end with the use of an old bit of a branch and bits of plank.  I wasn't sure if this would mean critters entering as well but, anyway it's done now.

I'd been to good ol' Wickes this morning to exchange the padlock and hasp and staple (no I didn't know they were called that and I'll probably never remember that again) for better ones than I got yesterday.  Jeez, I never imagined it would be so hard to decide on what lock and hasp and staple (!) to get for a shed, although I am incredibly indecisive and have limited tools-and-stuff knowledge so that might have been why.  I was all set anyway to fit it all on.  And away I went, though I kind of, well maybe 'did it wrong' isn't accurate, more that I didn't quite do it the way most people do it.  But the point is it's on now and who cares if it took me three times as long as it should have?

Here is me feeling overjoyed that I managed to saw through a piece of wood, so that I had a piece to attach to the inside of the door so that the screws I was screwing in from the outside had something to screw into:

I look a bit happier than the frog don't I?

Sawing isn't something I've really done before, so that took a little while to figure out how to do it most effectively! I also didn't have any nails with me so I looked through the dusty old toolbox from the shed and what did I find in amongst hundreds of screw and bolts and spanners?  Two nails! So I attempted to bash them in to fix the wood on.  Let's just say it's not perfect, but then what (or who) is? It is now a shed with a lock on and that's all that matters. Plus I feel a massive sense of achievement.  And due to my errors and timewasting, I was able to pass on my new-found padlock fitting knowledge onto M who arrived just as I was finishing, and he was very grateful indeed.

I sorted out some more of the stuff from the shed as well.  I just had one more box to go through so that's done now. Yay.  And I half sorted the tool box which I was going to let B do as I'm pretty sure he loves to empty and refill toolboxes, well there's half left if he wants it. 

Harvesting!! We saw yesterday that there is some kale and chard growing in one of the beds.  So I started to pick the kale.  But it was totally covered in these little white flies.  I just looked them up and they are indeed called white flies. So I left the kale and we can deal with that later.  I went to look at the chard and it was white fly free so picked some (which we'll be having for dinner, lovingly cooked by B) and then decided I should weed all around the chard and also take off any dead leaves, as well as thin them out a little because down one end there were loads clumped together.  Here are the before and after pics:

There were a lot of prickly weeds! Not nice when you haven't got gloves on. Whilst I was doing that, a guy came over and chatted to me who has a plot about 20 down from me.  He was really friendly and he gave me some tips.  F suggested we plant some mustard seeds, as they're a green fertiliser, and if I wanted any seeds he can get them for me at a good rate.  I was thinking of sowing something that would be a green fertiliser- when I was on a recent food growing course in Brighton I learnt about doing this and we saw some rye being grown for this reason.  So that's something we need to sort out too...

I've printed off some stuff to read up on from a vegan organic website so that's what I'll be looking at tonight.  I'm also trying to get hold of some onion and garlic sets, though I learnt the other week that you can just buy healthy looking bulbs from a shop and plant them, but either way we need to get them in soon.  People keep saying "broad beans and peas!" but they're pretty much my least favourite vegetables so I don't have much enthusiasm for sowing any.  However, B does love peas and the poor guy doesn't ever get to eat them because of my weird aversion to them, so we really should put some in.

Ok that's me done.  Thanks again for reading.
xx

oh lastly here is my wood in the process of being sawed in half: