Horray ~ I won!

So the battle against Hayfever is won and I was able to go to my lottie with Andrew last night - yipppee! I didn't even take a camera, I was going to work hard and help get us back on top of things. It hurt leaving my camera behind but it was for the greater good, even though I saw photos waiting to be captured everywhere, they've gone now *shakes head sadly*.

But enough of that you want to hear about the lottie, don't you?? You do right?

First thing I noticed about the place was the climbing rose, it is just a delight this year with so many flowers and new shoots, it would guess she has settled in now. I'm looking at 2 of her flowers now in a tiny vase, just lovely. They're in there with my new rose we got earlier in the year (I'm hoping A. knows the name because my head is like a seive) which is so strong smelling and BIG, it's beautiful - I really do need to keep a record of names. (Pic at the bottom)

We have started to de-turf 24a, the grass paths are just a nightmare in the wet soggy winters (and springs and autumns and....) So, like 14a they shall eventually be bark mulched, it's just so much more workable, but we have to do it slow - you would think bark mulch was cheap but it isn't and those 3 bags you buy at once always just about do the area you had in mind.

'green' garlic is mild and delicious

I weeded, boy did I weed, two buckets full and a trug! Dandelions are threatening to take over the world I think not to mention poppies *blush*, that's my fault though... Luckily they were all just babies and the soil was perfect for lifting them. The cause was of  the major raise in weeds is of course the adandoned plots around ours but joy - 2 of those have been adopted by (hopefully) lottie crazy people and it won't get as bad again.

We ate peas straight out of their pods whilst having a little break. Oh my goodness how sweet and moreish. Just looking around I was so proud of Andy, our plot has such variety growing in it and we have been eating very well over the last months. It's just getting better of course now the soft fruits are ripening. We have another seed tray full of juicy plump strawberries that need eaten and last night when we came home, Mamma was making rhurbarb compote and we threw in our gooseberries and black currants (the darn birds got all the redcurrants this year again!)

There was one point last night when I thought to myself  'I'm really enjoying myself here', it was just after the gone-to-seed corriander tried to suffocate me. The plot was just warm enough to be working in a t-shirt, I could hear the birds and kids around the fields, that low hum of traffic in the distance and the donkey braying in a nearby field which always makes be smile. I had my head in the beans (weeding) and there was sweat on my back. I felt for that moment (grateful that the corriander hadn't killed me, though that intoxicating smell and its stems all entangled with me was yummy...) connected. I was working the soil, tending my plants and they were giving back. Yes giving back food but also exuding a sense of calm, a sense that I was needed, wanted here. To tend a plant is very rewarding, don't you think?

Sorrel and peas

Anyway, enough of my ramblings - I going to see if I have any photos from harvests etc that Andrew has brought home so I can make this post pretty :)

'that' BIG rose - it's much pinker today though

Have a fabulous weekend everyone ~ hugs and namaste xxx