(pt2) Three day weekend - Thanks St. Patrick

Sunday 16th March ~

We've never done any of the twee and commercialised stuff to do with the St. Patrick's holiday and with an allotment now, we always have our own plans. Belfast has a crazy big St. Patrick's Day parade on today but, no thanks, it isn't even the big day. It amazes me how everyone else around the globe seems to make such a big deal of it, green everywhere (St. Patrick's colour is blue), four leaf clovers (lucky in Irish but he is identified by the three leafed, normal clover) etc. Plus where did this need, this urgent need to get drunk come from? Is it a diss on what it means to be Irish??

Ahh, sure.

We had FIRE! There was a lot of deeply rotten, moldy and diseased wood around our two plots, coming on 6 years that is bound to be the case. We really didn't want it near to the precious soil and new life we were cultivating. (Fear not, there are still piles of wood and slates etc for bugs, but this stuff was bad.) It needed to be eradicated and though it lots like a huge angry fire, that's just due to close ups and there wasn't any wind and Andrew was by it at all times and what I am trying to say is - this was needed and we were safe about it. It was also beautiful :) The middle picture shows all the dead stalks from the Jerusalem Artichokes too, so great too tidy that area up and it really bolstered the fire. (I contributed them)

Along with this going on, I was on 14b and having a very emotional reaction to the cherry tree bed. That's not a sentence I ever thought I would write, haha. Maybe it was due to the horrendous low I went into late on Saturday night, maybe it was because the cherry blossom is my moniker, but this bed needed my full attention and love.

Written in shed, in notebook ~ 'I can't quite explain it, it was therapy, there were too many emotions. But I suppose, chiefly amongst them was the need to get rid of that crap; clearing out, destroying it - it did something similar for my soul. I didn't want to give up'.

I have a sense that turning this mess around and making something productive and beautiful with it will do me no end of good. It's going to be an 'easy maintence' half plot with fruit trees, bushes, rhubarb and asparagus in it - things that like to be left alone. Plus it is where my cut flower border is going to be and I am serious about this time, really good dahlias, roses, echinacea, sunflowers, poppies etc, flowers that make my heart sing and will brighten the home too.

Just a little example of what I was talking about in the last post - getting those blasted weeds out by the root and all :) Squeeee - it makes me happy.

This is more the thing that gets Andrew to squeeee inside. A man's well rotten horse manure and compost bins are his Kingdom! Haha - Though, honestly this stuff has been fantastic and not a single whiff of anything nasty :) Is it wrong to love horse poo and kitchen scraps so much??

So this was the state of things at the end of day 2 around our plots

Maggie in a 'I've got a bit of biscuit suck in my cheek' pose ~ 14b coming on nicely, check out the path :) ~ dead gnomes

Plus we decided to take a dander before leaving - there wasn't anyone else there, we had the place to ourselves again! The council has put in a bridge and path to connect the local community to it's community centre, just above our plots. The path isn't great but the bridge is fab - cool idea!

The Conservation Volunteers know how to lay a hedge ~ catkins ~ hubby xxx ~ pretty flowers on a bush planted in the hedgerow ~ daffs in the hedgerow ~ me ~ the new bridge

And so endth the second day of the long weekend's gossip
love and hugs

You got be dedicated if you wanna be a ....

...Record Breaker, record breaker oohhhh!
Do you remember the Guinness Book of World Records show with Roy Castle? I loved it so much. I also got the annual with millions of facts every year (which I never looked at post-christmas), not that I remember any of that info.

But one Record is very fresh in my mind - Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland broke the tree planting record on Saturday!!! Hurrah for the Derry group who shattered the previous record by 8,000 trees. The record now stands at over 26,000 trees planted in a single place in 1 hour. Read all about it here: BBC NI news

We didn't do so well at Eden, but trees were planted :)

Forgive any BAD spelling, they've taken away spell checker on Blogger, I'm not happy :(

CVNI are at it again!!!

The utterly fabulous people of A1 are in the final of the 'People's Millions' competition! Golly give that group a contest and they go for it in a big way. Remember they've already won the Green Heros Award this year! The mind boggles. Personally I have the kitchen and all those dishes awaiting me and I really can't say I'll be champ at the end of the afternoon!

So what is the 'People's Millions' then, I hear you ask. Well..... Auntie Carrie is here to tell you all, via the lovely Maria, who explained it all to her earlier today.

'The People's Millions is a competition between community projects were projects go head to head to try to win a £50, 000 lottery award. It's run in partnership with The Big Lottery Fund and UTV [Ulster Television].' The Conservation Volunteers in Eden Allotment Gardens have a project called 'Growing Communities in Carrickfergus' with the aims of teaching and encouraging fruit and veg growing in the community with a demonstration garden and an on-site horticultural training room. This would increase particiapants' knowledge of healthy eating, horticultural and environmental skills, reducing stress and improving mental health (Ecotherapy Rocks!!) all within a comfortable friendly community setting.

Its a super idea they've put forward and it's going to be on TV, eek! Wednesday 6pm on UTV on the 25th November, so you have to watch, maybe our whole lottie garden will be on tv, who knows!!! Anyway, the really important thing is the fact that this is a competition and in order for anything to come to fruition the project needs our help. This is done by simply voting for our A1 mates on the big night by phone.

I'll remind you all closer to the time and then on the day too, it's 8 days away!

Real Green Heroes, on our Lotties!!!

I give the blog over to those who work on plot A1. I have mentioned them before, you remember, I was so excited to find out on the open day who they were. See here. Well listen to this!.....

If you don't remember (shame on you!) the Plot is owned by the Conservation Volunteers and consists of volunteers from 2 charities; Mindwise and the Drug and Rehabilitation Center. They work down at the plot every Wednesday and learn all about growing tasty, organic fruit and vegetables ~ as well as having a good time, they're getting gentle exercise and ecotherapy and they get to take produce home. What's not to love?

Well, the hard and valuable work they do has not gone unnoticed I am very pleased to say. Drum roll please.....They have been awarded the 'BTCV Project of the Year' in the Green Heroes Awards! Congratulations to them and may they realise just how bloomin' brilliant they are.

The Green Heroes Awards was new to me and luckily Maria (from Conservation Volunteers)explained that they are given out 'in recognition of outstanding work volunteers of all ages do across Northern Ireland to improve their local environment'. That means there were other projects from all over the country involved in this and our group won!!

On top of that the group also won an award for their Brussel Sprouts at the Gourmet Garden Competition and not any old award but, yet again, 1st prize! We have real bonified regional champs in the camp guys.

I should point out that A1 expressed it's gratitude to the N. Ireland Social Care Trust and Carrickfergus Borough Council for their valued support. Long may it continue.

Congrats again.