Progress is joyful

Is there a happier sound than that of a wee, elderly dog barking in her sleep? I think not. And that is the sound I awoke to on Sunday morning, which led to a dozy smile upon my face. Maggie is the best thing we ever did - it's soon to be her adoption day celebration!

But the allotment is what your here for so I shall spill all the juiciest bits.

Sunday at the plots was a mixture of more soil prep and a mystery; our wheelbarrow had been pilfered! I was fine and dandy weeding the paths and pots with my trusty trug by my side, but Andrew was suddenly heard to call out "Where's the wheelbarrow? I need it." Well, my friends, this lead to a minor panic and a walk around our field, looking in ditches and checking to see if someone else (in a fit of wheelbarrow necessity) had borrowed it. Oh how we looked and tweeted to relieve the pain a little.

The day when on without our dear friend and we were sad. But wheelbarrow-gate was still haunting us. Deflated we left for some late lunch and lo! on the drive out Andrew's 20:20 vision spied our barrow and he jumped out of the car and rescued her. She had indeed been kidnapped/wheelbarrownapped but we had her back - joy! Just look at that loving glance...

Where the wheelbarrow wasn't (left) and when we finally retrieved her (right)

So back from our lunch now and Andrew spread thick mulch all over our raised beds *with the use of the wheelbarrow. And now 24a look fabulous and tidy to rock!! I'm doing my best with 14b and later it was mulched a bit too.

glorious - no?!

Monday came quickly and seeds were been sown in the house shed when a letter from the Council - a warning letter, telling us that our plot would be taken from us if we didn't start cultivating it. What?? There were attempts at phoning the department, tweets were twitted and an email sent all asking how on earth could this be happening! Oh, a dark cloud hovered over our home that day and so soon after the stresses of wheelbarrowgate  :(

In all honesty I was devastsated after the amount of effort I had recently been putting in, just getting to the plots in the first place. Stupid, stupid people.

Well thank goodness it was Pi day in America (you know how they write the date wrong - well it was 3/14/2016, like 3.14 = Pi) and we took the opportunity to drown our sorrows in pie, apple and cinnamon pie at a local, lovely cafe. It helped. We came home and worked in the back garden.

Uuumm - pie :)

Tuesday and back on the plots, there was pruning of the blackthorns and blackberry, plus tying in branches etc. I cleared the damnable old squash bed which had yielded not one squash for us last season but had plenty of grass, nettles and dandelions in it now (thanks neighbouring unused plots!) I tell you, it took hours to do that one bed! And I was exhausted.

A cleared bed, an exhausted me

Wednesday saw the Gault's out and about at Castle Ward and Downpatrick, away from everything and just enjoying ourselves. But to top the day off, we came home to an email of apology from the Council for sending the warning letter to the wrong people. Thank goodness for 'sorry' and recognition that we do in fact have a lovely set of plots.

On Thursday I wasn't feeling good but it was St Patrick's day and that means only one thing in our house - planting the spuds! We got two new big pots and re-used an old fertiliser pot, drilled holes in the bottoms and planted our Sharp's Express in them. We'll take them down to the lottie soon.

Andrew made a quick wee video of the planting - 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDDn0gDMGIh/?taken-by=gaulta

So there you are, all caught up; a good lot of plot work, seed planting, home gardening and time away - it's been lovely having my hubby off for the week :)

Hugs and best wishes to you and your gardens
Love
Carrie