Clairesallotment's Blog

I’ve just noticed that I spelt “September” wrong yesterday, so sorry about that.
There I was minding my own business opening the allotment gate this morning at just after 9am when I heard a lot of scratching, looked up I saw 2 squirrels….well…you know having a bit of a chase around a tree. I don’t think the female one was interested, or had a head ache or something, but the male was definitely up for some, but it looked quite rough. Anyway, I left them to it, and made my way to my plot. Still no rain (well the odd spot this morning, but no more than that). I dug up a load more potatoes, but couldn’t carry too many as I was on my bike. I wish the saddles had a bit more padding, either that or I’ve got a boney bum. The potatoes were a really good size, they were the first lot I put in, so they had the benefit of all the rain we had in March. I need to take the strimmer down tomorrow, so after lunch I’ll get it in the car.

The weather just can’t get it right, we either have too much rain and everything gets flooded or no rain at all and we have hose pipe bans. At the moment it’s very dry and trying to dig the earth is nearly impossible. The soil is so hard, all we need is for it to rain during the night and it’ll make a huge difference. As long as the days are dry that’s fine with me. However, I did manage to dig another bed, and weed a load more. I found more potatoes and dug up some carrots which we’ll have for dinner this evening. Just going to boil the beetroot I picked the other day and then skin and freeze so it’ll mean I’ll have pink hands for the rest of the day.

Well George cycled to school on his own today. He’s now in year 6 so he’s allowed to do it. Once he left at 8.20am I did the usual bits that I tend to do when I get back from the school run. Just before 9am I was finished so I went down the allotment. No one was about, and the grass was very damp with dew. I don’t think I’ve ever been down that early before. Got loads done in just over 2hours though. I weeded another couple of beds, harvested a load more white onions, a few runner beans, had a tidy round the compost heap and dug up a few rogue potatoes from last year. Not sure what type they are, but they’re reds and have grown really large. The weekend looks great, so it’s a BBQ tomorrow and we’ll eat outside. Will be just like Spain (except no pool.)

Well they’re ALL back to work and school now, so I was going to go straight to the allotment this morning, but I was asked to do a drama workshop this morning, so the allotment had to wait until the afternoon. But finally after some lunch I managed just under 2 hours on my plot. Even in that short time to weeded another 2 beds, and watered the cabbage and beetroot. The soil is very dry, but at least it’s easy to dig. I started a 3rd bed, and pulled up some onions, but then had to go and pick up from school. I weeded so much this afternoon that I managed to get a blister on the palm of my hand, hopefully it’ll sort itself out by tomorrow otherwise it may burst… ewww! Knees are now dirty, but that’s not a problem, the same will happen tomorrow and most of next week I expect. It’s good to be back in the swing of things again.

Even though rain was forecast we only had a dribble, so that didn’t put a dampener on things. I spent 2 hours this morning on my plot digging up more purple potatoes, Mark still isn’t sure about these, he thinks they’re a bit odd but the kids love them. I also picked some more runner beans which seem to be coming to the end, some more baby and normal size sweetcorn, and a couple of onions for dinner. I also dug over another 2 beds, I’ve got to make it look half decent as we’ve got our site inspection this week. I did my best with the time I had, still looks a mess, but you can tell there are edible things growing amongst the weeds.

Even though the rain was forecast we haven’t had any so far and it’s nearly 5pm. Well, just a few spits and spots, but nothing to write home about. It all depended on the weather what we were going to do today, but as it was dry I went to the allotment this morning and managed to weed a load more, sorting out another bed and a half. I also dug up some potatoes, picked a few runner beans, and harvested some red onions. The red onions are very small, but not a total loss. They never seem to do well on the allotment, I don’t know why, I tried a different variety this year, and started them off in the greenhouse, they grew better than before, but still not brilliant. Then this afternoon after lunch we were “energetic family” and went to Box Hill and saw the Olympic rings, walked all the way down the hill, along and then back up again. It’s a long way, but a gentle stroll is all it takes. We then had an ice cream and sat by the view point and took in the scenery. We’ve just arrived home and in need of a cup of tea. A wonderful day with the family, the perfect way to spend the Bank Holiday.

Just finished unpacking the car after our site summer social. A huge success, loads of people came, some regulars and some new. We had a BBQ, cake stall, bric a brac, raffle, plant stall, tombola, book stall, guess the wight of the cake, lots of games for the kids to play with and the bee keepers had a table as they’ve just placed a hive on our site which is fantastic. Congratulations to everyone who donated things and helped out, but especially a huge thanks to Jane, Jon, Malcolm, Colin and many others who did so much to make today so enjoyable.

Well I managed to miss the showers today, more’s the miracle. We’ve not had any decent rain for over a week now, so the ground is very hard. I managed to clear another bed, the peas have finished so it was time to clear that bed. I harvested some white onions that were in the same bed as the peas, I’ll harvest the rest when I get to them. I also brought home some potatoes, baby and normal size sweetcorn, runner beans and some beetroot. The beetroot have been boiled and are cooling, and for dinner we had some of the potatoes, an onion and the normal sized sweetcorn, lovely with a bit of butter spread on them.