Clairesallotment's Blog

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Last night we had our first allotment quiz night. It was a wonderful evening, and lovely to see allotment folk in smart clothes, and with clean hands. We had fish and chips half way through which was very enjoyable. I’d especially like to thank Stephen, Aimee, Jill, Malcolm and Mark for all their help. Start revising for next year!

Woke up to snow this morning, like many of you I expect. Kids had great fun in the snow, and I had great fun in the greenhouse planting my onion sets. I got 500g, which equates to a huge amount of onions. I shut myself in the greenhouse with a cup of tea, by i-pod on and was wearing my wellies and extra socks. I was as happy as a pig in….well you know the rest.

We had a sprinkle of snow today!! Only a little mind you, it didn’t settle. I was driving along the A3 and it came over all cloudy, and I thought to myself…”they look like snow clouds” and sure enough it started. Hopefully that’ll be it, but I might bring my wellingtons in from the car tonight, just incase.

Rogue potatoes

Well what an exciting day I’ve had. Firstly, when I got back from the school run this morning my onions had arrived from Dobies. I’ve ordered Sturton this year, and 2 packets rather than 1, so hopefully they’ll last a bit longer. Secondly I went down the allotment this afternoon to plant my Broad beans, which I’ve done, so I’m very pleased that they’re finally in. As I was planting them, I found last years parsnips, so I decided to dig them up. That was a feat in itself! Goodness me, some of them are huge!! I managed to get them all up (at least I think I have) and they’re now drying on the outside table along with a few rogue potatoes that I found. I’ll put them in the greenhouse to dry further so I can get the earth off. Now I’ve written this, I’m going to have a well deserved cup of tea and a sit down.

Look at my parsnips!

Well, the fence panels are back in place, they needed a screw here and there. They’ve been in for nearly 10 years, so they’re looking a bit worse for ware now. This afternoon I started sowing seeds. I’ve only sown a few (not much to sow in January really). I’ve sown some cauliflowers, aubergines and some extra curled cress!! Can’t wait to see how extra curled it really is. I also need to get the broad beans in, so I must get down the allotment this week. Got to take the kango and transformer back tomorrow morning, so I’ll have to venture into a builder’s world.

The perfect way to celebrate your 17th wedding anniversary with your husband is to replace a fence post that got broken a couple of weeks ago by the storms that we had. Mark had the fetching safety goggles, the ear muffs and the kango. I had the trowel, post crete, water and a piece of wood for mixing. The post in is, the concrete is setting and tomorrow we’ll put the panels back up. Happy anniversary to my wonderful hubby. I love you very much x x x

Well, my potatoes arrived today from Dobies of Devon. I ordered 3 different types: Purple Majesty, Valor and Picasso. They’re all main crops, so I’ll put them on trays on top of the kitchen cupboards so they can chit away til their hearts content, and then in mid March I’ll start putting them in the soil. Each bag weighs 3Kg, so the box was very heavy. I think the delivery man was a bit confused by how excited I was at the though of my potatoes arriving, “Oh, my potatoes!!!” I exclaimed in quite a high tone for me. Needless to say he left quite quickly.