Allotment celebration

 Me : Now we are ten.

You : Who's ten; what do you mean?

 Me : Our allotment is 10 years old today.

You : Oh my goodness, where has the time gone? You don't look old enough to have a 10 year old!

 Me : *blush* Thank you...

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Oh my good grief friends, I can't quite believe I am writing this post. Andrew and I were talking about going to the allotment for the afternoon and suddenly I was reminded that it's the plot's anniversary. 

Back them I didn't know what a blog was and so we had a scrapbook - old school style. Here are some never before shared photos from that happy book...

Gosh it really seems like yesterday when I think back to the day we visited our marked out rectangle of land with Maggie. We were the first in the field to dig a square and look at the soil below, I took pictures of a strip of green grass and Maggie had a pee = it was ours, we had claimed it in person and via the paperwork, haha.

Simultaneously it feels like forever ago, haha. We have worked so hard on that little patch of land and had so many triumphs and 'learning experiences'. We made good friends who sadly have left the site by now, mainly through illness or shear disheartenment. But still we battle on...(sometimes we do wonder why though)

Have a look at the plan for 2018 - It's rough and unattractive but still, it is what it is...

I LOVE you all, we're off to the plot

Carrie xxx

Later.... For the very first time in 10 years I suffered an allotment related incident today - I stood, twice, on a rusty nail that went nice and deep into my foot = a wonderful few hours waiting in A&E for a tetanus injection and wound dressing. We're only home now at 8pm. What a wick birthday celebration. 
Bring on the wine! 🍷

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

the caged bird sings

I may as well have a large gaping hole in my chest were a blunt knife (or maybe a spoon) is slowly being twisted round and round in my heart. Chronic Depression and acute anxiety are constant sources of deep pain but recently life has been throwing in a handful of salt every now and then just for kicks. I haven't been well at all and though it almost kills me to write that I know I must life my life in truth.

Was I a terrible person in another life? Everyday that I have wanted to go to the Allotment over the past weeks it has been freezing or raining, or both. When I am in my own private hell, the sun is dancing in the sky and the birds are twice as chirpy; everything begging to be seen in its spring glory but I am in a world of darkness. Oh and add to that the sleepless nights and subsequent unmanageable double vision and you have the perfect cocktail for a fun filled day ahead, wishing you were dead.

So the plots are behind this year. I haven't planted a single flower seed and in reality I don't even care. I am cheating this year and anything I really want will have to bought at a comparatively ridiculous price as a plug plant. Andrew is behind in the sowing of everything else so at least we're in this together, plus any time we're down there it's a ghost town anyway. What's wrong with everyone this year? There appears to be what can only be described as an atmosphere of general malaise or 'a no one bloody well gives a hoot'.

Oh pish posh!! Backed into this corner I shall not lash out nor shall I cower. Instead I am forcing my wonky eyes to look at the fresh green that abounds and bashing my senses with the taste of fresh Purple Sprouting Broccoli, the sensual feeling of tulip petals, the songs those optimistic birds send forth and the smell of cut grass.

On the 14th of this month we shall be celebrating the arrival of that confirmation letter through the letter box, telling us we owned a brand spanking new allotment plot. That was 2008! so it will be our 4th Birthday on Saturday. To cheer myself up I am giving a wee present to a lovely reader, a person picked at random from amongst those who leave a little message here this week. I have been so blessed by the support and encouragement, the friendships and the fun exchanges I have had since starting this blog and I would love to take the time to say a huge and hearty THANK YOU to every single person who has ever glanced at this, my humble home in the online community.

And on top of that the front garden was started over this Easter Break so I do have much to show and tell ....

later my lovelies!

Missing in Action

Well the title is a little bit of a lie to start with, sorry. I've been Missing in Inaction. I haven't been doing too well at all and that even includes having a lovely birthday and a lovely garden party and getting some commission photography work. I go for life like a sprint when I feel ok, everything done at once and then, because it is meant to be a marathon or lets be more realistic, a nice enjoyable walk, I end up exhausted and out of the journey for days.

Here are some super lovely photos of my Birthday and the birthday party/welcome to our (very nearly) finished garden party.

At the pond with Eimear for a lovely Birthday walk - look enough wishes for everyone and the swans have recovered after the male was killed a couple of years ago :)

 

 I put the candle in myself, no one else was here!



out for dinner at Wagamamma :)



 



the party -

 Courgette and lemon cake and balloons with bunting - hurrah :)

 Hanging lanterns and a fire pit to keep us warm - plus some of my favourite people *blush*

But things at the allotment have been ignored, apart from Andrew going up and collecting dinner. I have only seen it once since I last wrote and the experience was a little upsetting as there are weeds everywhere and plants that have gone over and some lovely berries have been eaten by insects and birds. I got a little upset and then angry with myself and we had to leave.

I do have this - my 1st apple from the James Grieve tree... I shall consume it later :)

For most of this week I was going through a nervous breakdown and on Tuesday I felt suicidal. I'm only telling you this because I want to share the fact that a Suicide Prevention website (I don't know which one, I was in a pretty bad state) recommended (amongst other things) getting out into Nature. Ecotherapy saves the day yet again. I pulled some clothes on, grabbed Maggie and went out, luckily I had already spoken to Andrew on the phone and thus remembered to take my keys and take a Valium.

I don't remember much about it apart from the route I took and the panic I felt, the bag I flung over my shoulder had a camera in it (as always) and I managed to take this walking back home -
It made me smile and I think I'll make it my flavicon.

Okay, so the walk didn't exactly make the world seem like a better place and suddenly I wasn't depressed but I did feel a little stronger and a lot more tired = I fought the voice in my head, snuggled up on the sofa  in fresh cosy clothes (not soaking with panic sweat) and give myself the grace I needed. I slept until Andrew came home. It was not the finest day of my life but I made it through.

This Saturday (and if the bloody rain would stop for 5mins, tonight as well) we shall go to the lottie for a while and really try to get it into some shape. The bag of berries Andrew bought home for me at the start of the week give me a wake up call - a spider in a raspberry I was just about to eat, a caterpillar on another and a maggot, oh dear god, a maggot in a blackberry!!!!! = my lottie needs me and I shall answer her call.

***Today I shall hopefully finish the Turkish Delight company's promo photos and then once the owner sees the files I can share with you a little of what I was up to these past days when I was well enough. I swear this stuff looks and smells gorgeous but I do not like it. It's that jelly texture, so at least I haven't been found in a corner rocking and in sweats with a massive sugar overdose and a lifetimes worth of shame. I have eaten a quarter of one piece out of hundreds. Now if a chocolate shop was to ask me to do promo pics, well, I may really have to go AWOL, hahaha.***

Love and hugs to you all, don't listen to those people who say the summer is over - they lie! ;)
And a hearty THANK YOU for all the comments on the previous post, they really helped me feel connected to the world through this latest bad spell xxx

Happy Birthday, little Blog

Today is Grow Our Own's Brithday. It is 1!! Big cheers all round.

I am utterly exhausted today after the super duper Allotment fun day on Saturday, the beach on Sunday and seeing my Dr. this morning. So I'm being a tease and leaving the start of all the story telling from Saturday until tomorrow. Fear not, there is loads to tell you all and of course the trusty camera was with me every step of the way.

For now, however I'm going to bask in the glory of my wee Blog still going and entering a new year. No cake but I'm going to have some celebratory melon and tonight's dinner is all lottie food ~ yum.