But Baby it's cold outside

Is anyone else feeling the cold or is it just me? The Hubby certainly doesn't seem to really have taken it on board that it is in fact FREEZING!!! Apart from all the moaning he does in the evenings, he has blinkers on when it comes to the plots.

He had me down working away on Saturday digging over yet another finished up bed and adding manure and seaweed to it. (It's going to be a potato bed soon).  Have I mentioned before that I have an Adaza? It's fab, making working the soil much easier, I wrote about them way back here but when we where in France recently we bought one of our very own. I highly recommend it as it takes a good bit of the sore back element out of digging. Anyway once manured and mulched the bed was ridged up like the others; this seems to be really working well for us - on our clay soil the raised beds can get rather water logged but this winter, even with all the rain and snow, the water has been draining away much easier; if you haven't tried it, I recommend giving it a go.

Once that was over and I had drunk up a herbal tea to warm the cockles of my heart, we went over to 14b, to the scary part..... This half has had some work done to it but we really needed to break the back of it. The previous owner had rotivated this plot and then covered it all in very thick black plastic and left it. In turn we have ended up with some pretty decent soil and no weeds to speak of. Once the plastic was lifted the ground below is ready to go. Here we are putting a large 'permanent bed', which will be split in 2 and filled up with strawberries and squashes. These will stay in place for 3 yrs and then swap sides back and forth every 3rd yr from then on - permanently. This sort of bed and system may have a fancy name, if it does, I don't know it but you get the idea.

Of course by happenstance I got a phone call just as the harder work was about to begin (we had marked out the bed but hadn't started digging it) and Andrew suddenly really needed to speak to Bill, haha. We ended up not getting any more done there and packed up (but between you and me, I was so happy; we went and got a coffee and a biscuit instead, yippeee!). Sometimes Ecotherapy can be going to the plots, getting frozen and then rewarding yourself by leaving!

That night was my cousin's Hen Night so I needed to go out and wine, dine and party the evening away. Something I do not do and am still recovering from even though I didn't drink much alcohol at all and was on the tap water! It was a fabulous night but on Sunday I was in no state to go back to the plot and get 'stuck in', I'd only arrived back home at 3.30am. Andrew went though (crazy fool! it was so cold) and got some of the said bed dug. I slept and dreamt of dinner time - we were having lottie stew and all food is exciting at the mintue as I'm on a strict bridesmaid dress diet!! Haha.

More tomorrow ~  we were given Jerusalem Artichokes by a friend and I have to research and learn about them and then write it down here. Ate a couple last night in the stew - gorgeous.