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!)