Small victories

Victory No. 1 
My computer is fixed and I didn't totally freak out when it decided to pack up in the first place!

Victory No. 2
The gauntlet was thrown down on Monday to my anxiety and I planted up some pots for the back garden. Yes, after a good year of not planting anything due to an irrational fear that I'd do it wrong and kill anything I'd touch - I have overcome. (Need more to fill it up nut all in good time.)

Soil under my fingernails, terracotta pots emptied out, cleaned and reused. I have been feeling rather like a green-fingered gardener - let's hope they survive or my pride will take a darn good beating! haha. The tiny thing on the bottom shelf is some mint I am trying to grow - we'll see...

We have :

Sanvitalia 'cuzco' yellow 

Bacopa 'snowflake'

Osteospermum 'special fire'

Osteospermum 'pink'

Wee bit of mint

Allotment news from the weekend and hurrrip, more small victories :) 

Victory No. 3 
The first harvest! Spuds ahoy my friends; come on over to our house and have a nibble, haha!

Ok, as these photos prove, we were a little too excited to see how the potatoes were doing and harvested these ones a wee bit too early. But there were lots of a good size and I like them small, plus sometimes you just need some instant gratification.

You can see on the top right photo that some were fingernail size, haha. But we were happy and I could easily put up that harvest photo up on my desk 😀. The used potting compost was placed as a nice wee mulch around the growing dwarf french beans.

Victory No. 4

As soon as we arrived at the plot I scared off a bird that was sneaking in amongst the gooseberries. Ggrrr, as much as love birds, that food is mine and I've already had a battle with the sawfly larvae! So it was time to deploy the netting and now the blueberries and gooseberries are much safer. Of course the blighters have been known to get in away but hey, we've done something.

The gooseberries are so close to being ready but the blueberries are teasing me and have stayed this shade of glaucous blue for weeks now - I want to eat them! I'm going to get new recipes for both berries, any that work really well, I'll share x

The garlic looks ready to lift too - it's all starting to happen.

Victory No. 5

I just wanted to show you how happy the sweetcorn and squashes are. It'll be a long time until we eat any produce from these plants but it's a joy to see them looking good.

Lastly, Victory No. 6 is my hay-fever medication is working! Thank goodness for it as look what we are surrounded by - a couple of weeks ago I could have ripped my nose off and eyes out but now I am feeling almost invincible in the face of grass pollen!

More soon - I didn't even show the right hand side of the plot this time. Stories and even a hand-drawn plan of the site to come.

Love
Carrie

All about those Bs

In good old fashioned 'Sesame Street' style, this post is brought to you with by the letter B....

All I am about to tell you what happened on Saturday, a rare day in my life when I was able to cope and more than that, actually enjoy being at the plots!

This year, (as it is for everyone on our allotments) hasn't been going too well; we have been plagued by birds and the weather has been terrible. Thus it was that I found myself, on arrival, pulling out all our diseased and pigeon decimated broad beans. They were still in the flush of fruiting, some had flowers still to mature, but we had to say goodbye, even to the baby successional ones planted in a wee triangle further along the bed.

Beside them, the mangetout are starting to look in a bad state too, though there is plenty of flowers and pods on them. The birds have been nipping off the tops of each plant and every growing tip, they've been tugging at them hard too as quite a few plants were barely in the soil at all and had started to crisp up and crumble away from the bottom up. It really could get you down but I wasn't having any of that.

Pretty much all and I mean all (we had about 6 berries left) of our gorgeous blackcurrants were gone on Saturday. Only a day, one blasted night, after the bush had been full and gloriously bursting. Boy was I looking forward to a dark, juicy harvest only to have it snatched away from me by - you guessed it, the bloody birds. They ate every ripe one and took those on the verge of perfection and ripped them off and left them on the ground :( Such sad times.

I weeded wildly, fuelled by my annoyance for a while but soon calmed down. Andrew was off again to Gleno village for more wood - by goodness there was a netted fruit cage to be built this day! Damnation - thou shall not pilfer our blueberries! *shakes fist at sky*

the fruit cage has been working!

But, I mean look  - bird beaks have gotten to our Kale and the Pak Choi. Plus the Kohl Rabi  and PSB looks so sad. At this rate we would seriously need to consider netting our whole plot; one great big fruit cage!

So I turned my back and focused my attention on the beetroot, which amazingly Andrew had forgotten about. But then he has been doing everything else and was on Saturday building us a lovely gravelled parterre path on 14b. We really wanted a big tonne bag of the stuff but had to be happy with some smaller bags as the deliveries were over for the day at the depot. However he did a fabulous job.

Plus the Blackberries or as I like to call them Bramble berries are fruiting like crazy over there, it really does the heart good to see that one bush so big and healthy this year when so much else is a little disappointing.

Anyway, back to the beetroot, both yellow and red varieties had been sown direct and forgotten about so I thinned them all out, put the really tiny ones straight into the compost and the rest into our harvest bags. Oh did we have a feast! Now the rest will have more room to grow and become big and beautiful.

Lastly, I missed my own Blog Birthday. It was on Monday and it passed me by in a whirlwind. So happy belated 7th blogiversary to me - yay! I must remember to eat cake at some time :)

More photos to come from that day and some from Sunday too when Andrew made a quick visit :)
Love and Hugs
Carrie

I weep to no avail....

I am cloaked in hysteria, saddled with despair.   My apple is gone.

Look do you see it in this photo?

No.  All because some greedy little bugger of a bird ate the most of it and left the rest on the ground. He (I am sure it was a he) didn't even do my prized Ecklinville the decency of being savoured at all; he didn't take it home and make a miniature French style 'tarte tatin', so carefully, without wasting a juicy morsel. That was my dream.

memories of my apple

I eye each bird now with suspicion, any one of them could be my nemesis. Damn them all - I shake my fist at the sky. Why?? You heartless winged demon!

We did have 2 gloriously bountiful red gooseberry bushes but the birds took those too. every. last. one.

And last, but not least, my ornithology related tears continue to fall as I gaze upon the mangetouts. Is nothing sacred? The tops are all nibbled away despite Andrew stringing up some mildly annoying pots and bottles to deter such villainy.

I must rest now. Happier news shall come soon...
Carrie
xx

Saturday - An OK day

Wow, I really didn't think I would get to write a title like that for a heck of a while. However today was indeed, OK :) The depression did not win and the anxiety was under control - maybe it was even BETTER than OK...

** To begin with we slept in late, oh I love my sleep ;) Then we had breakfast, made coffee and started our hour of birdwatching for the RSPB Birdwatch Weekend. This year we really did have a good time which sounds so geeky but I swear it was glorious so see the crazy amount of feathered friends that come to feed in our garden. We had seeds, peanuts and fat balls and all stations were busy.

** After that we visited Ballylagan organic farm, farm shop and tea room that (to our surprise) is just up behind Carrickfergus; embarrassingly it's been open since 1999 but we only heard about it earlier this week. Yep, it was the ever knowledgeable Mamma G that pointed us in the right direction. It's fabulous and for purely academic reasons we had to have cake and coffee = thumbs up.

** Then the best bit - we went to the Lottie. It was my first time there this year to actually work and not just to glance round it and go home. I had my lucky favourite socks on, many layers and my farmers' hat (or flat cap, that I bought in the farmers' shop). For only being there an hour, when the sun went down, we managed surprisingly a lot, well I did, Andrew did a lot of chatting to a friend ;) In his defence though he is the head gardener and has been there a few times already this year.

** His other, earlier visits have seen the apples cut back and training started, the autumn raspberries cut down and the whole back of 24a mulched. 14b also has lots of new Blackthorn hedglings planted and a windbreaker all a long the left side. It's becoming annoying to my brain that that plot is spilt in a different way than our other one.

First before and after photo of the year :)

** I focused on the flower bed and got it almost completely weeded and removed a plant of two that weren't happy. More to do tomorrow. In the plans for this season (our 8th year!) is for me to have 2 long thinner cut flower beds and I'm going to learn more about their care and maintenance :) The new plans will soon be drawn out to share with you, you know I love a good plan.

Home to a steaming bowl of tomato and chilli soup, a shower and a wee whisky..
hugs,
Carrie
xx

Duality of the allotments

Over the past few days I have been taking Maggie for a walk right the way up the road and through the allotment gardens, out the bottom and along home again. It takes us about 25mins and has definitely been a huge step for me personally. It's funny how one's own fears and anxieties can be pushed to the side when you need to help another being - Maggie has developed arthritis in her back leg and needed a little more light exercise to ease the stiffness...she now has medication too, poor darling.

So on one hand the allotments are a great aid to us; somewhere quiet to walk and take our time, undisturbed and I think we'll be back tomorrow.

from my instagram account

However, no matter how much I try to enthuse about the place and remain optimistic our two the plots, only one is filling me with any joy these days. 14b is a weedy nightmare yet again with the damned plots around us casting all their blasted weed seeds into my lovely virgin soil yet again. It's enough to make a girl scream.

So permit me to just show you 24a; it's really maturing and we are loving it. This is by no means all that is happening there but just some highlights. In fact it's only the 2 beds on the right of 24a ('A' - for awesome!) Though of course Andrew only sees the things that aren't perfect and which he hasn't had time to do which puts a downer on things..

broad beans, garlic, mangetout

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The spuds doing good so far :)

Tomorrow I'll share with you all about our Celeriac seedlings :)

* Now * - the most happy news of all.....the bird box I made years ago now has it's 3rd family of bluetits. That's a family every year in a row :) I am so terribly impatient when it comes to taking photos of birds - sorry....

I swear I made this by myself, with my dodgy vision and wonky handsaw skills, so basically anyone can do it. Here's the link to the RSPB website which shows you how to do boxes like this....nestboxes for small birds

Hugs and love
Carrie

Big Garden Birdwatch - Live!

*a tongue in cheek, fun, survey write up*

We are bird lovers in this household :) Though they may steal some of our finest produce at the lottie and always got the strawberries before us (we don't grow them anymore) we have ample feeders and trees/bushes for cover in our garden, not forgetting the little fountain for water and a bath at times.

Today, as we have for the last 7 years, we are partaking in the RSPBs Big Garden Birdwatch and trying to count the number of the various species that visit our back garden for a little something to nibble on. The time period is one whole hour and you have joined us after a hearty breakfast, Maggie out of the way, the seed, fat balls and peanuts topped up and coffee to hand....

It has been 11 mins and after a feeding frenzy from the Sparrows and Tits, it has started pour down which is affecting visibility. Mamma G has just arrived and is now distracting us at the perfect moment - nothing is happening out there - plus we now have boiled cake, sausage rolls, sweet mince pies and wheaten. Mamma did her survey yesterday and it's funny to see both her and Andrew getting so excited at the great tits coming to see the egg seed feeder.

Our Robin is here - 28 mins late! He's here everyday all day but seems to be shy today...must be because I have my camera, birds and I don't get on.

Oh the rain has stopped and the sun is shining...umm shining right in my eyes and making it almost impossible to see the laptop screen - plus I'm in my dressing gown, it's white and reflecting - arrgh. We've decided to take a break for 15 mins anyway as Mamma has has her arm twisted and is going to have a cuppa with us :) I hope taking a break isn't against the rules!

Maggie has sneaked in and the birds don't even care in the slightest - I guess she isn't seen as a threat, haha.

Blackbird - oh goodness how I love that gorgeous yellow break in contrast to the black; they love the seed feeder that is low in the garden hidden behind the Winter Box. There's only ever one at a time in the garden, I wonder if that's normal.

Sadly we are at the end of the hour and no really exciting finds, no peregrine falcon (a pair live nearby) and no pheasants (from the big estate) nor did we have a visit from the long tailed tits, they will probably come now, such is our luck.

So, Andrew is now filling in the online form - the RSPB is awesome and fully embraces technology so there are no goodly reasons not to take part! They are on twitter @Natures_Voice and this is the birdwatch webpage.. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

 I shall simply list the results here...

Did you take part, were you one of the 136,000+ people who did (so far)?? Any interesting results?

Hugs and love

Fancy Food for Feathered Friends

Oh I am on fire today with the alliteration blog titles :) Oh yes the Queen of the Geeks!

I'm going to ease myself into the Grow Our Own blog writing again with a little post on keeping our feathered friends happy, healthy and fat in these cold and dreary winter days. We all love it when birds come a visit our gardens  - little feisty fellows looking for scraps to take back to their nests and munch away on. My all time favourites (apart from the Robin!) are the teeny tiny Wrens - oh they are small but mighty and so bouncy :)

Anywho, I am waffling.

On Saturday I was at the RSPB NI Headquarters as a stall holder for their first ever Winter Craft Fair, you can read about it here. In a wee quiet period I ran over to the stand showing how to make Bird Cakes but the volunteers had (quite understandably) gone on a wee much need warming drink break. So I only got to take photos of the ingredients they were using and yes, they are Cheerios - who knew??.....

But clever girl that I am I logged on to the RSPB website (which is fab) and have gotten you a recipe to make sense of the whole thing> here. Oh my the birds in this pictorial guide are so happy it just makes you want to make some right now!

Funny, Andrew bought a load of fat balls a week ago so we have them out at the moment anyway, but this would be a fun and messy way to entertain kids or indeed yourself on a blustery day.

Andrew also bought a gorgeous feeder 'Egg' at the fair which you just fill with bird seed and the birds have been all over it today (apart from when I took this photo - I scared them and hadn't the patience to wait for them to come back). Plus it is so gorgeous, a little piece of sculpture in the garden that also has a use :) It's made by a company called The Nuttery and you can get them online, all different colours, I think they're lovely. Being weather resistant porcelain, aluminium and stainless steel they can stay outside all year round and can be thoroughly cleaned too = happy me.

Oh, have I shown you a little of the garden! eek, you excited, you want to see more??...come back in a couple of days ;)

For now take joy and fuzzy warmth from this.... Yes, Maggie (she's still my 'wonder dog') !!!

LOVE AND HUGS x

Plot 24a gets a little less shameful :)

Last Saturday we attacked the plot for a few hours and miraculously just finished in time for the Heaven's to open, again; that happened last week - the gods are happy with us.

Andrew began de-shaming 'The Corner of Shame' and I started and very nearly completed clearing out the Asparagus and Strawberry bed. Now who would you like to hear about first?? Me! Oh, okay :)

****

It has come as a severe blow to us but the whole Asparagus bed was completely rotted away last Summer. The winter had been so wet and the cow manure that Andrew (in good faith poor love) had put over the top as a mulch, just made the ground soaking, plus everything was attacked by leatherjackers and thus the crowns were simply pulp.

We had invested a lot of time and money into this venture as it is one of our favourite foods and it's bloomin' dear in the shops. We studied the whole thing and got the right crowns for our conditions, made those conditions even better and thought, yum....tasty Asparagus for the next 20 years, fresh from our own plot. Well no. So to ease the pain for Andrew who, we all know, was the one who did all that research, not me..I set about clearing the bed in the late Autumn.

Well since then some pretty substantial weeds had settled in and I had missed one mushy crown too. So everything out! A tough job but I love turfing dead stuff and weeds :) I found 1 sad and lonesome baby worm. Just one.

The strawberries were ancient and not really producing terribly well for us and so need replacing. They were in a silly place too so this year we are getting new ones and putting them in where the Asparagus was and just having them and the raspberries in that big square bed. There shall be a huge fruit cage erected too, which will be one of many - I am not letting all my delicious berries go to the birds again this year *shakes fist at sky*

P.S - look at this - flowers (and berries) on the Raspberries; they are confuddled plants!

Over at the far diagonal corner I got Andrew to start into the most shameful area of our whole plots. My gorgeous Oriental Poppy had to be moved (it's my favourite thing on the plot) and it was found a new home in my big flower bed over on 14b. A poor we half rotted Rose was also moved (I don't really hold out much hope for this little guy) and a very pretty primrose :) The Red Dogwood just won't fit anywhere on the plot or even at home so at the minute it's just been cut back and hopefully I can do a little guerrilla gardening with it. The beautiful red stems to make for good pea sticks etc so I think it will be an asset in the hedgerow ;)The other grasses were just cut back and some self seeded babies potted up as spares for the back garden.

This is what Maggie did. And this is also the other left over carpet that we have had in our house for a year and it will be used to KILL, kill, kill the grass pathways :)

Going back tomorrow :)
I wonder will this guy be there again (sadly I doubt it as we have many birds of prey and, well, he sort of stands out). Thanks to the Hubby for the photo.......

The hubby ventures forth to the lottie

I am still ill, this is week 4 we're into now and the phlegm just keeps on coming, the cough is really irrating and I am blooming exhausted! Saturday was a glorious Autumn day, the sort that really makes you want to be outside skipping; crisp with deep blue skies and sunshine galore. But of course I had to stay inside and fill a bin with used hankies :(

Andrew though ventured forth to the lottie alone for the first time in weeks as he too has been ill. I decided to badger him into taking photos of everything and then interogated him afterwards so I could feel I was involved. Thus the next few wee updates will come from Andrew but through me :)

Andrew went with the purpose of getting the Garlic planted and harvesting some delicious crops for dinner, we were in desperate need for a homegrown, homemade lottie soup to soothe our souls.

Here is the view of 24a when he arrived. I personally don't think it's too bad after so much neglect just a little weedy and that grass - ggrrrr. Look at those lovley leeks and the chard in the background!

Well I saw a photo of Andrew planting the garlic but I have to put my hands up - like an great big idiot I have deleted it. It was a good photo too, but here is one from after the event where Andrew got some prickily branches and placed them over the bed to try and keep the birds away. I guess it's not a huge stretch to the imagination to think there are garlic cloves under there *shy smile*

Here, this will cheer us all up - a glorious harvest (and my belly is full of these ingredients right now as we have just had our second day of amazing allomtent soup!)

1st Parsnips and Jerusalem Artichokes

 Borlotti Beans

 A beautiful Leek and a Crown Prince Squash :)

And just to make your mouth water even more there was also butter beans, garlic and beef shin - yum!

I shall return with more of the story, more photos, a wee chat about the compost and Andrew's plans and dreams for the lottie :)

hugs

We've had some lovely weather :)

Oh the sun has come out to play over the past week and boy am I happy to say 'Hello' to it. We have even had breakfast in the back garden one morning - yes! it was warm enough - crazy I know!! Even Maggie kept running into the house, grabbing a mouth full of her favourite Bran Flakes, spitting them out on the patio and then eating merrily with us (Maggie LOVES her food and eats with great gusto)

The birds were brave and ate right beside us on our super multi feeder. Blue Tits, cheeky little Sparrows, our friendly Robin and recently 2 collared Doves :) I have also seen a Chaffinch but A. hasn't yet and it's a sore point, hehe. Remember to feed the birds, my lovelies - fat balls and peanuts are going down a treat here. I'm just waiting for the day when one of the Pheasants comes bounding in - that would be a sight, or the Falcons that live on top of the power station chimney; actually they might take Maggie off for lunch :O

So with the cherry blossom still looking lovely we have also had visits from bees and butterflies and it's a veritable Disney paradise out there (if you ignore all the building debris and rubbish). Yet another bed has been built and now is waiting patiently to be filled with soil. We have some of our pots round from Mamma  G's house (one of them had an evil snail on the bottom and we didn't realise until the next day and those tell tale sparkly trails - grrrrr I HATE slugs with a passion).



I know, they need watered, I'll do that in a minute!



We still have to plant our tulips in the cherry tree bed but they are looking very healthy and can wait another day. And apart from that, the celeriac seedlings are happy and the broad beans (crimson flowered - thank you Celia) are planted and of course being stared at every 15 mins to see if they've germinated yet - yes I am that sad. :)

We haven't forgotten about the Lottie, honest. I'll do a post from there after the weekend. It's just we've been doing housey stuff and WHY am I defending myself??? !

Namaste xx