Revamp of 24a

Ahh sweet, sweet 24a, the first plot we had, the first plot to have a sod cut in the whole blasted gardens. Our little haven and the plot that introduced us to the marvel of Ecotherapy, the taste of non pickled beetroot, the intense hatred a person can feel for a slug. Oh 24a how you have given so much to us; many chills, blisters, stings, heartache, fruit, vegetables, laughs, friends and a blog.....

Now, 5yrs on we are making changes for the better; 24a is getting a face lift to make it look more beautiful, safer and slightly more important, productive! You deserve it.

This is what is happening..... I got A to draw the plan as being an archaeologist he does it very mathmatically and to scale and what not; as an artist I do it all freehand and like to colour things in (nothing is ever in the exact place or the exact size etc).

There's really nothing happening at the allotments for us at present. The ground is sodden and anytime there has been a good day recently we have been doing archaeology stuff instead as A. has lots on at the moment.

We would love it to be drier and then the garlic could be planted and we could continue with the improvements around the site but Mother Nature has the final say on all that sort of stuff. Plus this weekend we'll be far away in Cookstown as I do a big 2 day Christmas Craft Fair with my Cherry Blossom Tattoo Photography teeny tiny business.

Ironically the sun is shining as I write this but it's blasted well freezing and it's that sort of cold that gets into your bones and stays there for hours after you have come home, had coffee, wrapped the blanket round you, turned the heating on and started up the gas fire...I hope you are having more luck than us at present and can still get out there. I shall try to get caught up on my blog reading today :)

love and hugs xx

The humble Broad Bean

No amount of hyperbole could describe my hatred of Winter. I despise and fear the damp, dark, dreary days and the cold that seeps into my very bone marrow. If I didn't already have chronic depression I know that I would be a SAD sufferer. But, and it's a big but (I like big butts and I cannot lie, hahaha), I have found a small fragile flame of hope and warmth. It's like a little candle flame way in the distance sitting low on the ground in the midst of an eerie, misty country line, but it is Hope.

Look...

Yes, new life is here, the Spring lies within these babies in the greenhouse; the promise of a happier time with more sunlight and warmth in our days and I could cry with relief at the sight.

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"Au milieu de l'hiver, j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été."

  - Albert Camus

(in the depths of winter, I discovered there was in me an invincible summer)

Pomegranate Jelly!

Happiness arrived in a cardboard box last week all the way from America. I received some homemade jelly from the very beautiful and extremely generous Anne - Pomegranate Jelly. Oh my goodness, it is utterly divine. I have a new food crush *blush*

I remember it so well (I don't know why); I was about 7 and there was a lady standing in the fruit and veg aisle at the supermarket with one or 2 Pomegranates cut open to reveal those amazing little pink jewels within, she was encouraging people to try it. I was entranced, took a few seeds and popped them in my mouth - never before had I tasted anything like it and in fact I hadn't tasted that flavour again until this delicious jelly arrived.

It's a little like cranberry jelly but not, it's more fragrant and a little bit sweeter but it hits lots of spots on the tongue at once that don't usually go together in the way cranberry jelly does. I guess that's the only way I can explain it.

Oh but I am in love and Anne (angel that she is) also sent me a bag of my favourite Sweet Pea seeds 'Cupani' and some vibrant Cosmos in sunny orange, oh just perfection. I really hope they like it here in Carrick, I would love those colours in a vase together, how exciting to the eye!

So publicly I say - thank you Anne. Thank you for introducing some exotic-ism into my dull Autumn days and for giving me seeds to aid dreams about Spring and Summer 2013 - a truly priceless gift xxxx

Tidying up and harvesting

You would be so proud of me last weekend when I went to the lottie on both Saturday and Sunday :) The weather was doing okay so we needed to spend time there before it's just raining all. the. time. ... November, how did it get to be November already?!

Anyway, I started off in a good mood >

And then went over to the top of 14b and saw this>

It put me in an even better mood! Hahaha, there is nothing better than constructive destruction, it's my favourite activity. This mess is our Jerusalem Artichoke row and for a while now it's just been allowed to do whatever because basically, it's way up there at the end and it's easy to pretend it belongs to someone else *blush* But no longer, I have taken ownership of the disaster area that has been 14b and it is slowly being tamed.

After :)

Plus this is all from one plant. I know! no need to screw your face up, they aren't pretty. They have a look about them that only a mother could love, well I am that mother and I love them, see their potential and will have them roasted up and eaten soon. (Disclaimer - I do not have human children but I do realise that you don't eat them)

So as always happens to me when I do a big clear out and I have my head phones on (lucky it was just me and Andrew at the plots - I was singing Emeli Sande quite loud and probably very badly indeed) I got carried away. I started pulling a few weeds up and then ended up destroying one of the worst weed patches we have ever had. Up there between 'the big bed', the compost bins and next door's shed isn't somewhere we tend to go often, especially as this year the pumpkins were in a different place, not that bed.

So I shall very happily and with a bit of pride it must be said, show you a before and after :) There is more to do but I had so many weed flowers up my nose I felt dizzy and we have also decided that we need some sort of netting fence/ windbreaker up there too so why dig it twice?

On Sunday I moved on to the bottom of 14b and ripped out the beans. Oh it was joyful to grab handfuls of bean stalks and rip, tear and pull them from their bean pole wigwams. I imagine it all looked a little horrific from afar, as if I was fighting for my life, but nope I was just having fun.

We got some Borlotti beans from the far wigwam but not much, it was a pretty disappointing year really. I have saved seed though for the first time ever off this. And Andrew has eaten a good handful in some soup and he's still alive, I think he actually likes them.

 

The runner beans? They all just went into the compost, seriously there are only so many a person can eat and they just kept coming and going stringy really quickly, it was a battle, they won. Though I guess I had the final say.

Fruit and Veg all over the wall

We are finally getting the kitchen decor finished up - hurrah! I have 'before' photos and some 'during' and soon enough there shall be 'after' ones too. I shall share but bare with us as the weather here is dry and the lottie calls today again. So I thought I show you some of the photos that are going up into a massive multi-aperture frame I have... I'm a proud lottie mum :)

Do you put up any of your photos of your homegrown food up on your walls?

New seeds - new hope

Hurrah for new seeds!

I love the way gardening makes you turn into a positive, forward looking person. Here we are standing on the verge of that huge void (also known as Winter) looking into the darkness that lies ahead, the chill, the lack of sunshine and colour all round. But, as gardeners we are also planning the new crop rotation, planting those blubs that hearld spring and getting ourselves all ready for another year :)

Here is a fabulous package from Vegetable Seeds (there is a linky button on the right side) - it contains, prepare yourself...

Parsnip Tender and True	Gourd Turks Turban
Calabrese Green Sprouting	Sweet Corn Sweet Nugget
Leek Musselburgh	Squash Sweet Dumpling
Dwarf French Bean Annabel	Squash Uchiki Kuri
Climbing French Bean Blue Lake	Beet Rainbow Chard

Plus we have broad beans (always Aquadulce) already planted and very impatiently we wait for that first hint of green... :)

* What are you going to try this coming year; any new adventurous plants going into your plot?

* What are your faves, that ones you just can't do without?

The worst, yet I get an award?!

I have been the worst blogger known to humankind of late. I do apologise, I really haven't been well. I know I told you a little about it last time but things are truly very bad and now I am in between two different zones of mental health teams and both are asking to work with me; I am still not sure what the do-lally is going on and as a result I am slowly (ironically) getting much more ill due to the upheaval.

So I have been finding it hard to talk, walk, read and write. I have tried to take a photo every now and then but to be honest even looking outside makes me nervous never mind going out there!

Here are a few little pics of some fabulous harvests we have had though -

Yummy beetroots, runner beans, parsnips and celeriac

The last of the tomatoes ('Gardener's Delight' ~ a truly apt name)

Our only big pumpkin - now ripe and the same size as Maggie :) This shall not be carved so don't tempt me, it's the only one we have and I swear everything shall be eaten, even the seeds shall be roasted and memory of it lingered over all winter. Oh, last year we had an attic full of Pumpkins - they got quite sickening in the end :(

Apart from that the rain has scuppered any plans for work at the lotties - they are a swamp.

But! I did receive an award from my lovely friend Annuk (a jeweller and blogger). I am to link back to her at Annuk Creations and tell you 7 things about myself....ummmmm.....

1. I am allergic to peanuts, intolerant to onions and just plan rude to mushrooms.
2. I stood on a snail last night - yuck, it makes such a gross crunching sound and you slide on your sole at the same time.
3. I adore roses but hate, hate, hate the smell of them (there, good to get that off my chest)
4. I love anything to do with cute (not realistic) drawings of Unicorns :) I believe!!! haha
5. I have size 3 feet.
6. I am an excellent baker but I don't bake anymore because I am so good - I eat it all.
7. I will not answer the phone unless I know who is calling - weird I know but true all the same. Phone me on my mobile and all is well, I can see the number...

There you go, terribly interesting I'm sure. Again I am sorry for the lack of blogging content this week, times are hard and my head is not a nice place to be.

Hoping you are all well and looking forward to sowing seeds, planting those bulbs, taking cuttings for next year. Yuck and *big raspberries* to Winter xxxx

Strawberry clear up, sloes and death

Okay, it's late on Thursday night and I am yet again sedated for the 4th time today. Knowing that the day is almost over calms me and for a moment of two I have been quite clear in my mind. I thought it would be nice to write a blog - it's so much a part of the real me.

So, I really hope you have your strawberry beds all sorted out for the winter! Of course I would have written about this 2 weeks ago when I did mine but better late than ever. Now my plants were brand new this summer so I hadn't much to do, just cut off all the runners (goodness there were about 8-10 radiating from each plant with plenty of babies on each) and chop the top leaves off. Then I gathered up all that lovely straw (perfect for the compost bins) and weeded = happy days.

Before ~

After~

Strawberries can be left in the same place - yay for no worries about crop rotation! If yours are 3-4 yrs old, runners are you ticket to new, tasty, hardy, FREE plants for you and all your friends. They very conveniently have little roots and are so ready to get going that you can simply let them plant themselves :) but you know, put them where you want them!! Alternately pot them up :)

Andrew also found a darn good sloe tree within Maggie walking distance and so the inevitable happened - we have started on the 2012 vintage Sloe Gin. I am quite sure that there are other things you could do with sloes but I am happy to make a tasty beverage.

And lastly for now, I must share the sad news that we have had to say farewell to another of our fancy goldfish. Awesome Fred was, just that, Awesome, hence the name but we had been very ill for months and despite all we could try for him, he was just getting worse; living upside down and recently not able to right himself or eat :( Poor guy, he has been buried with love.

I haven't forgotten you know

Things have been bad, super horribly bad in my head since we last talked. So I am sorry I haven't been online and writing away, sharing stories and photos. I hope you will continue to wait for me and I know you will all understand.

Lots of shake ups with my mental health care team and I am so lost and up in the air :( Plus my photography has had a boost with a new camera (yay) and I am in a gorgeous shop now, so everytime I feel okay or am not sedated, I'm taking photos and trying to learn what all the fancy buttons do.

Just working on keeping myself calm and sleeping lots. Things will get better, I have hope. Big hugs to you all xxxx

Paths, pruning and a pumpkin

Andrew was off for a few days (hurrah) so we got to spend some time out and about at a National Trust Estate, worked hard at the plots and also got some art up in the house - you know, all those things you really want to just get cracking on with but time (or the lack of it) gets in the way...

So the paths - I have to say that the Council still isn't doing the majority of the work they really ought to be - there are overgrown pathways at the plots still and on Saturday I took a fall :( Well Andrew and I have taken it into our own hands and the grass paths around our plot edges have been cut down to nought with shears first and then lawn mower-ed with our little old fashioned hand powered/sweat powered machine.

This strip took 2 hours alone, but on the plus side I have sore and toned arms :)

Andrew pruned back the fruit arch yesterday and found an apple up top which he ate as his reward and I cut back the blackberry (or bramble berry as I like to call it). It makes me nervous, still after all this time, to do what I call 'proper gardening'; but this was easy enough, just cutting the stems that had fruit on them this year and tracing them all the way back to the ground level. I was all eager to do the tying in of the newer stems but it's so darn fiddly and with double vision I just hadn't the patience. There were other things to be getting on with.

I am still on top of the weeding on 14b (mostly). I shall take a bow here if you don't mind - it's blasted hard work with so many untended plots surrounding us and blowing their nasty seeds onto my lovely soil.

Lastly - here is our total pumpkin harvest for the year. It wasn't the best year for us, haha. This one looks good from afar though :) They will taste lovely I know but this time last year we had an attic floor carpeted with glorious squashy -ness. Nevermind :)

 I have a photo of an amazing one on our friend's plot. I don't know what he's feeding it but it's twice the size of my head, goodness know he will lift it.

Autmn Clear Up - part 2

Oh for shame, it has taken a whole week for me to get myself in gear and show you the further fabulous adventures of the clear up, for shame indeed. Without further time wasting, here is the broccoli and kale bed makeover.

Main things - Broccoli gone, weeds gone :) Kale delicious!

This was the pea bed and some random cheeky poppies too ;) I may have had something to do with that *whistles calmly to deflect attention*. All cleared now (big good strong poles and netting saved) and looking good. Plus the mint has been planted in the huge barrel we found a few years ago washed up on the beach - grow until your heart is content Mint plant of mine :)

Really would like to point out that the mess behind the now ex-pea bed is the other part to plot 14. We have 14b, that jungle behind the wind break is 14a *rolls eyes*....

*****



Have you pruned back your Summer Raspberries??? It's time my friends.

Cut out all those canes that had the fruit on them just leaving a few inches above ground level. Then secure those new canes that have grown this year, that rubbery twisting wire would be good but honestly we have never had any problems with good old string.

We do have a sneaky way of tying it though....

twist the string a couple of time in between the wire and the cane - it acts as a cushion so the cane isn't rubbing against the wire in the blowy winds of Winter. No need to thank me - just sharing the knowledge ;p

 

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Finally a teaser for what is to come......

Maggie is trying to give a hint here, by placing herself exactly on this spot and letting me take her photo, she hates her photo being taken, so you know she feels strongly about this.

does that bed not look a little big to you? Seems Andrew may not know when to stop!

 Hugs, have a fab weekend xxx

 

Food Glorious Food!! (updated)

Grow Our Own

Eat Our Own

Here's is some of the utterly delicious food we are eating right now :) It's like food pornography, these photos, hahaha. Enjoy......

 

 

 

 

all we needed was a Noodle Tree and this would be all our produce :)

 

 

and lots of Autumn Raspberries but somehow I never manage to get a photo of them ;) yummmy! Far nicer than the summer ones in my opinion.

I have most of my next Autumn Clear Up post ready, all the Before and After photos done :) So just hold on a wee bit longer and you'll see the transformation and an idea of what changes are to come to the plots - ooohhh!

Just One of Many

 

All this talk in the aftermath of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has me feeling a little unremarkable, haha. I feel I shall never be known for a great act but in a way I am asbolutely fine with that as well. It would be nice to be special but then again to my Hubby I am at least :)

It got me thinking about things in life that truly are found in their millions and could be seen as unremarkable and thus these few photos came to mind. I took them at the allotment and though they are everywhere, literaly weeds, they are stunning in their own right. Just like we all are, whether we have a medal or letters after our names, money and fame, or not...

I accidently put this up on my photography blog but it was meant for here.

I also wanted to take the time to thank you all for reading this blog. 3 days ago I crossed the 50,000th visitor mark and I am truly humbled, thank you for having an interest, thank you for reading about Ecotherapy. Again I am struck by how this is merely one of many blogs out there on gardening but YOU have choosen to bless me by visiting - I'm nothing special, yet you make me feel 10ft tall....you have my thanks and my love...

hugs xx

Suicide Awareness Day and Nature

Morning

Today it rains, it's grey and dreary and it brings me to a bad place. I reflect too much upon the dark side of Nature and see sadness and struggle everywhere. Life is a desperate search for the light, for space and time to grow, pushing past others, using them to help you get where you want to be. Life is fighting off disease and death, but it is a foregone conclusion that everything that lives will die. So why try, why fight, why have hopes and dreams when control does not exist, everything is chaos?

Watch an insect for a short period and you will see it moving in such haphazard directions looking for food, running from predators, hiding from sight. There is no difference between you and it, you too are here for only a blink of Mother Nature's eye, trying to survive, to be happy. But I know I have beaten down at most turns, blocks have been set up in my path - it's all like a child playing with that insect, there is something bigger with the power, laughing at your actions.

***

 

Evening

But after a day of sleep and an improvement in my mood these thoughts can change round and life becomes incredible. In the incomprehensible vastness of space and time here we are, capable of thought, feeling and experiencing this, our little slice of being.

Do you think a plant or an animal cares for the future with aspirations and worries? I think they live in the moment never questioning it and just getting on with it. Yes our brains may give us the problems of over analysis and fear or the 'what if' but can't we just focus on the moment too? Living everyday we do lose a piece of ourselves, but most assuredly we gain so much more - who can put a price on love or indeed emotion of any kind? It's all a rich beautiful tapistry and should be in awe that we can feel anything at all...

 

So today it still rains so as the grass will be greener, the vegetables can grow, I can put the lights on and cuddle up to Andrew and Maggie, I can appreicate the crisp dry Autumnal days to come all the more and I can just get on with it, realising how bloody lucky I am :) ...

***

Today is/was Suicide Awareness Day, it's had an odd effect on me, making me think of those attempts, those bad times that sneak up on me regularly and take the feet from under me. But as is the purpose of these days, it had made me think and thank you for taking time to listen - it has helped so much.

***

Autumn clear up, part1

This is a vignette of my Saturday spent at the allotment. I decided to bite the bullet and really get stuck into 14b, a place of fear where weeds ruled and one felt so overwhelmed that even walking past it I would pretend in my heart that it had nothing to do with me and tut at it as I do with other 'abandoned' plots, yikes!

Andrew was rebuilding his horse manure stocks (a man's poo heap is his castle!), he got roughly 13 wheelbarrow loads of the stuff for free, though we did give over a big bag of veggies. So I was alone most of the time, thank goodness for my MP3 player and some darn good music. In fact please do take a moment to enjoy this.....

Tree Hugger - by Antsy Pants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R378SwPH-b0

So here is the scary before picture, there is a wonderful life affirming after photo but that is going to have to wait until tomorrow ;). For now here is the 'mid way' photo to compare :)

I was overjoyed to meet this little fella....

seeking shelter from the sun with Maggie, under the wheelbarrow = cute!

Maggie wasn't much fussed, hahaha. In fact Maggie didn't seem that interested in the other friend I made, I think she is either really ditsy and genuinely doesn't notice or just gets jealous when I give affection to 'someone' else, hehehe. I swear when I started out on this allotment journey I would have been sick in my mouth if I was even asked to hold and appreciate a snail but I have grown....

I think maybe I have 'grown' too much as on that Saturday morning we were out for our weekly morning coffee wake up and a lady killed a wasp against the cafe window; I was a little shocked and upset. Silly me I know, but I hate it that people kill insects for no reason other than they don't like them. Hell there are some people I don't like, I don't think it would go down well if I just killed them nonchalantly with a rolled up celeb gossip magazine.

Don't get me wrong, when it comes to me verses snails and slugs etc for my veggies I take no prisoners but that just means I fling them all into someone else's plot - don't judge me!!! I throw them into abandoned plots, honest I do or over by the hedgerows. I am really too soft.

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Oh but I have 1 more thing to share, hehehehehehe

It was only a matter of time, glad it wasn't me though! The frame is still good so Andrew will make a new seat bit, in time, as if he hasn't enough to do!