Saturday on plot 24a

Exhaustion as truly hit home this week; every couple of hours of each day I have had to take a nap, just in order to keep going. These periods come every now and then and though I do get frustrated and maybe a little scared, I know it won't last much longer. Giving in and feeling lazy are not my style but it's what my body needs.

Now any remarks on my birthday coming up and that this is all down to age and ...I shall look for you, I shall find you, and I shall slap your face with a wet lettuce leaf!

This is maybe part of the reason why I am so very tired this week - the hard work we pushed into a few hours at the allotment on Saturday last.

My work -
* Cut grass with push mower

* Weed leek bed, general bad spots on plot and the back bed (scary)

* tie back flowers and try to deadhead whilst being sniffed by bees

Andrew's work -
* rip out the second batch of broad beans now they are finished and get all last remaining beans off those plants, including seeds for next year :)

* plant out more broccoli under netting moved across from older settled in broccoli plants :)

* deal with bolted lettuces and spinach (which was a non-bolting variety!) It's my personal opinion that lettuces need to be in the back garden = easier access and used all the time.

Please do enjoy the other beauties in that bed (and further up plot). Everything has done well in 24a so far.. Only bad thing about it is us! We arent harvesting as we should and eating/sharing/storing! Ooops

Sweetcorn tassels; Kohl rabi; courgettes and flower; Autumn raspberry; Rudbeckia.

Love and Hugs

Carrie

Hi ho, Hi ho...Bank holiday weekend work

I wish you could hear the bird song going on outside in the back garden. It's beautiful. Do they sing because they are happy to be alive or because they need to or is it for my pleasure - today it's hard to tell.

So I'm standing here in the corner of the kitchen which looks out to all those shades of green and brown and red in the little oasis Andrew has built me; I picked a good one there :) I'm making more red gooseberry jam, only really it sets like a jelly. It's so calming to just be at the point where the kitchen has been tidied up, dishes done and all I have to do is watch over this saucepan, stirring it often and marvelling my apothecary skills :)

Yesterday was a truly awful day, and that doesn't even include my visit to the dentist (I deserved a sticker for my dental hygiene, why is it only kids get them, haha); today is still bad but at least I'm off the sofa and not constantly sleeping. I count that as a good thing and the start of another batch of good days to come soon.

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There are many a photo and tales to tell from our extended weekend. In case you were unaware, Northern Ireland just had the 12th parades which takes over the weekend, thus people get Monday off  too and in some cases even the Tuesday (Andrew is one of those lucky latter ones). We had plans to attack the allotment and visit a beautiful National Trust property but in the end is was all Lottie and watching films :)

The first few days I didn't even take my camera - I was there to work. But I had my phone and grabbed some important moments :) The first of which you all know is my favourite - digging up the spud harvest. How kind of Andrew to let me enjoy the magic furtling alone.

12th July 2014
Saxon potatoes out. We're eating these now and they are beautiful. Taste rather like Pentland Javelin but slightly waxy, they hold their shape really well. Andrew has been making Patatas Bravas with them - yum!)

Kestrel potatoes out. My goodness the yield on this variety is insane but sadly I had to throw a lot out too, they same a little more prone to green patches and invertebrates eating away at them). We have yet to try them.

Some of both that show the problems of inconstant watering... rain makes them swell and then suddenly it gets warm and they dry out a good bit and spilt :(

Andrew took the last mangetout harvest and removed the peas and the frame altogether. Those were excellent mangetout; I think we have a little tiny bag left now. We've been much better at only growing what we need and not getting gluts this year, successional sowing is the key!

The perpetual spinach was thinned out by Andrew too and all the stuff in that bed look great; really healthy. I must say I am rather excited by the sweetcorn and we have even eaten a mini courgette already :)

* Maggie simply wasn't in the mood for all this work, hahaha *

Bees all over the new batch of broad beans; love the big pollen lump on his leg. Bees really do love a good pea flower, at any one time there will be at least 2 or 3 bees doing their thing on this little patch.

And that's enough for one day I think, plenty more to share though...
Your
Carrie xxx

Bloomin' Monday (on a tuesday, I know) and poor weather

The weather out there on the other side of the window is echoing my mood; I look up at it, listen to it and feel like I am staring into an odd sort of mirror. It's miserable out. It's dull and cloudy, light rain has started and the cold wind  is blowing a minor gale. Even the thoughts of volcano ash mixed with the clouds out there make me think of my fuggy head, the frustration that could explode from me any mintue and the utterly burnt out body I'm living in (I know I should see a Dr but I can't face it.)Weather has such an amazing effect on us I think we all must suffer, at least a little, from SAD, I know I do, though often a bright sunny day can be like the world laughing at me.

I got my voice back today, I had a bit of a flu over the weekend. I'm tired from it but diffentatlely feeling less bunged up thank goodness. Anyone who has shares in kleenex hankies - you have me to thank for the bonus, haha.

So then, I guess you know what I'm going to say...I haven't been to the lottie apart from half an hour on Saturday. Andrew has though of course and it seems everything is doing well bar the sweetcorn (Swift F1 ) of which there is no sign of any germination. He bought 'F1 Sundance' today and is going to be planting it here beside me in front of the tv any minute now.

We just had a late dinner, our own PSB (yes, again!) and Spinach included - oh how wonderful is that? We realised at the weekend that we haven't had a week yet this past year when we haven't eaten something from our own plot - that's kind of amazing and really, congratulations to Andrew for all the effort and planning he puts in!

The photo is of the row of gorgeous yellow tulips we planted in amongst the wall flowers that Bill grew. They are stunnning and such a happy colour. Plenty more were that came from, I just need to get my bum into gear and upload the photos I have and take more.

That's all for now my friends, just wanted a little chat and you know I can see blue sky peeking through now, so thanks for listening xxx

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Can anyone tell me the point in Purple Sprouting Broccoli? I do not understand the fuss.Well, until I saw Matron's. We grew this last year as well and got pretty much nothing, zip, zilch, nada. This year looks the same, oh yes there are minisule little sprouts as Andrew tries to point out to placate me but really, all this space, a whole half bed {though I suppose it is one of the only things on the plot over winter} and one of those plants is dead. Oh it makes me wince everytime I see these plants. Is there a point??? What am I not getting here??? I am trying to be patient but I can only take so much!

One of the offending plants.....

On the other hand, a friend has been so inspired by our fabulous Brussel Sprouts at christmas that he is growing his own this year and from what I hear he is very very excited about it all!! hehehe ;)

And we had a delicious pile of Perpetual Spinach in our dinner this week. Yummy! We have been utterly shameful and just ignoring the stuff up til now *blush*. It was so good too.

Migraines and seedlings

I must of been a terrible person in a past life - bad back at the start of the week, a tummy bug in the middle and today a bloomin' nasty migraine. It's starting to get dark now - that dusk time I hate the most, but it's helping me today, I can open my eyes and not be in total agony.

Had to come here and write a bloggette, the day has been boring, as anyone with migraine trouble knows - you can barely move without pain. Fighting through it now and actually washed my face, yes I know it's 5.15pm!

So to cheer myself up I took photos of the greenhouse and the dining room window sill - otherwise known as the Lottie nursery. Does everyone's house have a room like this at the moment!? and this is it tidied up, hahaha.

Our little greenhouse is all we have room for but it did us proud last year and suits our needs, though it does need weighed down or it blows away (too upsetting to talk about). In it we have about a million Leeks germinating (fingers crossed) in these 2 trays. I did take a close up but really, there's nothing to see yet! Up above are some more Echinaceas that Andrew got at a fab price that couldn't be walked away from - or so he tells me.

In the dining room I have some Lettuce in a tray which I'm going to grow in the garden for easy access. It's 'Salad Bowl' the mixed leaves. I can grow successionally and always have tasty leaves - though, and I've just thought of this - Maggie will have to be looked at more closely when she goes out for her tinkles!! The other tray, on the other side of the spuds, houses Perpetual Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, Pak Choi and Kale - forgive me for not walking into the dining room to find out the varieties - the head aches remember.

So that's that, just a wee catch up. Oh, and I did want to talk about the wonders of Vermiculite but that will have to wait I guess.

The Produce and The Plan

Forgive me if this blogette comes across as very dry and boring ; I am feeling very ill but like having a routine to my day ~ so it's blogging time.

We had a lovely load of produce from the (becoming somewhat barren) Lottie this weekend past. On Saturday I lifted loads of Scallions and the biggest handful of Parsley.

However, on Sunday, late afternoon, Andrew went down again and came back with this!

So, for Sunday Dinner there was a lovely Risotto with our own Leek (I'm intolerant to Onions but can eat some Leek and Scallions) and a shop bought Butternut Squash. Damn the fact none of our own Squashes took this year! Monday night we had roast vegetables (our own Parsnips and Leek included) and lamb. Then we had our 1st Cabbage last night sliced up in a stir-fry, it was gorgeous. I really wasn't expecting to say that, but it was.

I have only just realised, looking at this photo that there is a bunch of Beet Spinach in this house. I forgot about that ~ things that go in the salad-crisper boxes in the fridge usually get completely overlooked by me. Terrible, I know.

Andrew wanted his gloves to feature in this picture, to remind us all how COLD is was. What a wonderful Hubby, going to the Lottie in the literally freezing dusk to gather food for us. Big kisses.

I thought this may be interesting to look at too. 'The Plan'. I'll talk more about it and our ideas for the coming months once we get it sorted in our own minds. But at least it gives you an idea of the room we have and what we did with the 8 main beds this year. There are also a lot of scribbles over the paths, these are plans for arches and a pergola - some day!

Now I'm off to have a soothing mug of De-caff coffee; my Depression is crippling me and it's so cold. Bah Humbug to winter...even though tomorrow's frosty photos are quite nice.

The crushing nature of depression

My dear GOOF'S (Grow Our Own Followers) I must apologise for my lack of blogging prowess... I am truly being suffocated by depression these days and have no oomph at all. I did desperately try to upload my video of the lottie yesterday but it just wouldn't work - Sorry, I'm sure you're upset, hehe.

Here is the lovely produce we collected on Saturday past though

More Pak Choi, the last of the turnips, a leek, 2 parsnips and loads of Beet Spinach. Apart from the Pak Choi, which we had in a stir fry on Sunday - the 2nd Picture shows a totally lottie dinner from Saturday night, with the now complusory HP sauce dollop in the center. YUM.

We also had a raspbery each - Okay, not a big harvest from this plant this year but I have hope and the 10 or so we did get were excellent.

Argh! The weather

I don't have that much to tell you about our weekend because the weather was SO absolutely foul! So I'll spread out what I do have over the next couple of days.

Andrew was lucky enough to get home at little bit earlier from work on Friday night and we used the time to see our lottie on a week night, in the light!! It was terribly mucky (too mucky for precious Maggie) and had been quite gale-y over the week so we were a bit nervous about what we might find. Our site is an absolute wind tunnel.

Luckily the only problem was a blown over bench and (empty) compost bin which had very kindly controlled its trip down our path, avoiding all beds. Clever bin! Our wee cloches were still firmly in place and there was no damage to the plants (save some wind burn on the very tips of some leaves). We got off very lightly. Close to us a half erected shed was looking the worse for wear and in Field B, a half erected greenhouse was quite sad looking too.

In fact we had much to smile about. There was a very large delivery of cow manure, left (in our field) by the port-a-loo, lovely; sort of apt, no?. Billy sorted that out with a farmer friend of his. Hopefully the council will pay him back for the money he handed over, but if not, there will be no problem in collecting a little off everyone who wants to use it. More on that tomorrow. We also had another ripe raspberry, which again, we shared (ah, young love). Then lastly we picked some of our very own Spinach and some Scallions to add to our dinner.

As we were leaving, I took a photo of the sunset, lovely red sky at night (allotmenteers' delight?) we'll see.....

Lettuces and spinach

We have had immense good fortune with both lettuces and perpetual spinach in our 1st year. Andrew took the seed box back down to the shed last night, so I don't have the packets here to tell you the names - I'll get them soon.
Update: the lettuces are a mixture of many types - From one packet we have Leaf Salad (lettuce mixed) and the other is Red Salad Bowl.

The lettuces came as a mixture of three different ones, cut and come again, I think they were free with some magazine or other. My goodness the amount of money saved in growing you own is brilliant. I would buy about two bags of mixed lettuce in Tesco a week (£1.25 approx each), and these plants just keep on giving. We actually planted a couple too many, so last night a red lollo rosso? was just plucked straight up and brought home. It looks like a wedding bouquet...



This is our favourite variety, you'd often see Andrew walking around the allotment, supposedly working, but really eating leaves straight off the plants. The other varieties, I swear, look just like the ones from the Peter Rabbit books.

The perpetual spinach is my wee secret joy, I love spinach and when in Barcelona a few years ago, had a dish (many times) of chicken with steamed spinach, prunes, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar. So good and my first experience of the ingredient (were it wasn't boiled to bits). I don't eat much red meat so it's great for the iron levels too, good in sandwiches and lovely stir fried. Oh, I could sing it's praises. Don't forget, if you're harvesting some for a meal, cut loads, it wilts away to nothing whilst cooking. I've noticed some other people put up seasonal recipes on their sites, good to look at. (All the cookery programmes have websites now too).

This picture is a basket full of the stuff - Spinach (Leaf Beet) plus one carrot and the lettuce perched on the side.

National Allotment Week

Yippeee! The Allotments were finally, officially, opened yesterday on the first day of National Allotment Week. There was a red ribbon and everything - cut with secateurs (oh, the irony). There was a good turn out even though the weather was foul and most of the place was just a swamp.

Personally we dug up some of our potatoes (Maris Piper) and they looked looked great! Tasted even better later at dinner, cut into wedges and with Cajun seasoning on them - yummy. Dinner also included our own spinach, broad beans, runner beans and beetroot (I'm proud i admit it).

Visited by Mamma G, Anne and Alison (her first visit, and probably not her last as she went home with some of our lovely produce!).

Day warmed up significantly - so much so that we went home at 4pm roasted and knackered, even though we hadn't done anything. But we felt good. Though necessarily as much as these kids!....



Later today we went back to collect the rest of our potatoes from yesterday. Met up with Bobby and his wife Sheila, who were also in the thick of it with visitors yesterday - and seemed to have given away a lot of their hard grown vegetables (you wouldn't get that from Andrew and me if we didn't know you), they are just too nice. Their Plot is truly amazing, they work so very hard every day and you can tell. Bobby is definitely going to win the inaugural Allotment of the year, we all know it in our gut! And well done too.