4 months for nothing...

Well what a weird turn of events.

It seems that the allotment we have been working on for the last 4 months actually belongs to someone else!

Apparently the co-worker of 'our' plot turned up to her friend's plot the other day and was very distressed to discover that someone had totally changed everything and the locks had all been changed on the sheds.... So she got in touch with the reps and the council and it seems that the allotment that belonged to her friend had been given to us and Mikey. I think it's the fault of the site reps, or at least that's what the council guy said to me on the phone.  They should have never showed us the plots as they belong to a guy who has been really ill in hospital and he had informed the allotments that he wouldn't be able to come and tend his land.  Although I have just thought, why the flip hasn't the co-worker been up working at the site in the last 4 months and before that???

Anyway it was all a bit weird when I was told all this on the phone yesterday and I think I might have agreed to go quietly and pick another plot which the council will 'tidy, strim and possibly rotivate' for us very quickly.  Baz was way more angry than me when we saw each other in the evening and he was straight onto the phone to our semi-arch enemy Mikey, getting the lowdown and the highdown and acting all brothers-in-arms and his words afterwards are "We need to stick with Mikey, cully!" which is ironic seeing as our hearts drop when we see him coming up the track when we're at the allotment because we haven't forgiven him for him acting like a 5 year old back in November when we asked for our fair share of the land and he likened our situation to North and South Korea (us being North incidentally) among other insulting things.  Well it seems that North and South Korea are willing to put their past differences aside!

I'm not sure what will happen but it does seem really hard that we've put so much work in, going up all through the winter, and it's all been for someone else.... I don't really care that much as there's a hell of a lot worse going on around the world- people being shot and killed for nothing more than standing up for their basic human rights- so if we have to start again in another plot, well so be it.  But in the context of our little world in Brighton, well I guess it's frustrating and annoying and now that I have just realised the weirdness of the co-worker not going up there, well it all sounds a bit fishy now.

Anyone got any thoughts? Ha ha I am presuming anyone other than me and Baz read this. Well, it's worth a shot.  Time to send another email reminding people of my silly little blog......

xxx

Digging....

So I've been to the allotment THREE times in the last four days- amazing! As Baz's mum told us: 'little and often'. 

Me and Baz even got up there together on Sunday, though it was getting late, we weren't really in the mood, Mikey turned up and my digging didn't really get anywhere as it had rained the day before. However, Baz sorted out the water butt situation:

and we extended another of the beds, I think number 7 along. 

We also had a walk around the other plots which was good. 

Yesterday and today I've been doing, yep you guessed it, more digging. I've now finished the 5th along, I've left the tree bed as we're still working out exactly what we're going to do with that, it's funny me and Baz keep having different ideas for what we want to do, but I guess that's part of it, working out what we both like and want and coming to compromises. 

Here's the bed we extended: 

..the before and after of the bed I dug over:

..some flowers I transplanted to under the tree:

I straight away thought they were forget-me-nots, but I'm not really sure...

...and this is how our plot is now looking from the front:

Pri-tay, prit-ay, prit-ay good!

Mum bought Baz some seeds for his birthday which was the other day, so we now have more things to sow!! Exciting..

xx

friends again

So not only did I manage to get up and leave the flat before 3pm today, but I also managed to go to the allotment and be there before 12pm!! I started digging at 1130am and went until about 115pm. It was a glorious, sunny, blue-skied day today as you can see in this first picture.
I dug the whole of the third bed along today. I was quite impressed with how quick I was going at first, and then at about the half-way mark I seemed to enter into another dimension in my head and was daydreaming so much that I slowed right down.  A couple of times I tried to speed up but it was no good, I was lost in dreamyland, so I just accepted my fate and pushed on.
I always amaze myself with how slow I can be to grasp something.... So in the last week or two I have gone back to the first two beds that I dug over back in November/December.  So today was the third one and about ten minutes in, a little lightbulb came on in my head and I realised how I could dig over the soil without treading on the lovely soil I so lovingly dug over a month or two ago.... Yes!! I knew there was a reason why we made the beds this size!! It was so we could reach them from either side! Genius! I felt very chuffed with myself when this realisation came to me and off I went digging away from one end to the other, and then coming down the other side, all the while not treading on the soil.
It's these little feats in life...
Here are the before and after shots of the bed I did today:

oh my goodness I really need to work on my blog skills...! Just took ages trying to position these photos and write text next to them, and in the end gave up! Anyway, not relevant...

I saw two other cyclists at the allotments today! That was exciting.

We have got a very temporary, makeshift compost bin in the form of a plastic box with bin bags over the top, which I put together the other day because there is basically a huge open container where we (me, Baz and Mikey) have been putting all the green waste from the allotments, but the other day I looked in it and found that Mike has been putting any old crap in there, and by 'any old' I mean plastic, polystyrene, metal, yep pretty much any old rubbish he's been coming across. So we shall share no more. (The container is half on our side and half on his side). This is what I'm going on about:

I do realise we need to sort something out soon for a permanent compost bin! I've read loads on composting, but not recently so I need to go back to the literature and sort something out with Baz when we're next up there together.

I had an idea today for what we could do in the bed that has the fruit tree:

well, it's not really much to look at! But basically unlike the other beds we've got this one is too wide for us to reach from either side so I was thinking that we could put a ring around the tree, using all the stones I've unearthed whilst digging, plus the other bits we've got by the shed, just wide enough for us to walk on and then bring a little path from it down to the other end. We still need to look into what might be good to plant under the tree.... Some sort of flowers.

Ok I've waffled on enough. If all goes to plan and it doesn't rain then I should be heading up there again tomorrow. Oh the life of the unemployed!
I'll leave you with a few more pics I took today... xx
(oh the title is to do with the fact that after neglect and lack of interest on my part, I feel that me and the allotment are, well, friends again.)

our first water container (on right) was full so I moved the pipe into this. I know it looks like it's going to fall over but it's sturdy, honest.

Oh my god I can't wait until there's actual things growing!!!! These pictures are getting so boring... x

I'm back!

hey..
I went to the lottie yesterday and did an hour's worth of digging over the soil. I've been finding it really hard to motivate myself to go lately, but then everything else is a bit of a struggle too...so it's nothing personal against lottie, just a general January blues type thing. But hang on, it's no longer January! Maybe now that it's February things will start to look up for me and lottie!!
Baz also hasn't been up that much, but he's been more present than me. He's done an amazing job on the path and moved an apple tree for Mikey which I hope he's bloomin' grateful for (can you detect a sense of bitterness..? -pun not intended-). He's also extended all the beds.
Anyway so I've dug over the soil again on the first two beds nearest the shed and I'll work my way along until they're all good to go, or should that be good to sow?
Not feeling very inspired to write I'm afraid so I'll love you and leave you with these pics....x

 oh yeh, not sure what this is sprouting up, but I liked the fact that there was life springing up in our allotment. It looks to me like chard or something, but could that be growing now?

  

December Schmember

Well it's been a while folks... I've been to the allotment once since my last post, and there was an almost-visit but I forgot to take the key and I'd already been home once for my bike light that I'd forgotten so I gave up that day. Anyway the one time I've been, I went for just 45 minutes and did a little bit of digging. The only remarkable thing that happened is that I unearthed two pieces of white bread, the end bits of a loaf.  As if someone had only just left them and covered them up in soil.  That was a bit strange.

November means birthday for me and December is silly Christmas time, and what with this freezing, snowy, icy winter we're having, oh and work, well it all amounts to not much down time at the allotment.

It has been in my thoughts a lot though. Not just because we recently got our annual rent bill for it the other day (£30), but I've been thinking a bit about the upcoming new year and when we finally get to sow some seed!!! Can't wait. And I can't wait to start spending time up there, one of the things it does for me personally is sort my mind out a bit, what with all the peace and quiet, birds singing, distance from shops and tills and people and computers and artificial noise and roads and all the other stuff I often get annoyed with, and the therapeutic effect of digging and other activities.

In case anyone is out there in the nether world of blog browsing or guilt-induced-family-and-friends-reading: Happy Yule, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Have a good one xxxxxxx

here is a random pic for you of the Pavilion in Brighton with snow on from the other day.  I work just behind it xx

New sign!

Yesterday we popped up to the allotment for a little bit.  Baz erected our new sign:

which we lovingly painted on Saturday night. The only problem is that it's a bit hard to read from the track so think we might have to move it to the front of the plot.

Baz then built a water collection contraption which I was very impressed with:

We'll get a larger container at some point and maybe include a second container somehow.

I cleared the area around the rose plants and cut them back a little, though I didn't really know what I was 'supposed' to do so didn't do too much.

et voila:

Will try to get up there again this week to get on with some more digging, though with all the snow and rain it's just too wet at the moment.
xx

Digging in the snow!

Hey. So it was snowing quite a bit today in Brighton/Hove and of course as you do in these wintery, snowy times, I decided to go to the allotment.  I had planned on going really early, but I actually ended up being there between 2 and 4. I only spotted one person and one animal's tracks leading up towards our allotment, and no ground-travelling creature had gone along the road that goes to the last row of allotments where ours is.  Yesterday I was getting quite excited about seeing animal prints in the snow.  Well I only saw one set of prints and they went from the bottom of the plot, into our bed nearest the shed and then back again, but I couldn't tell you what critter it was. Yes I know it is probably a bit insane going digging in your allotment when it is snowing, but to be honest it wasn't any more difficult than the last few days.  After I had scooped up the thin layer of snow from the soil, it was just the same as it was before. I am really chuffed because I have now finished the bed with the fruit tree in it, so that means I'm half way through!! Four down and four to go.  I'm so knackered and have to go and make dinner now, then work tomorrow so I will let the photos do the talking for the remainder of this post...... xx