Tuesday 9th September 2014 – Lots more Potatoes harvested!!

Posted on September 11, 2014 by clairesallotment

Today I spent a good deal of time digging up a massive bed of potatoes. I’ve still got some more to dig up, but so far I’ve got about two and a half sacks full of potatoes, so hopefully that should keep us going for a fairly long time. It took me from 10am to just before 2pm. I did stop for about 30 minutes to sit down and have my lunch, but after 2 hours of constant digging, your back starts to get a bit achy and you need a little sit down. Only a couple of potato beds left to dig up, and a few rogue potatoes to also dig up, so I think I’m nearly there. I’m working on Wednesday, so won’t be able to get down then, but the weather is staying dry for the rest of the week, so hopefully I can get loads done on Thursday and Friday. No more funny shaped potatoes to report this time, but you never know, I may find an even bigger one, or some other strange shapes. If I do, you’ll be the first to know about it.

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Sunday 7th September 2014 – Get me a cold beer ready please!!

Posted on September 9, 2014 by clairesallotment

The perfect thing waiting for you after an 18 mile walk to Shalford Mill is knowing that there will be a lovely cold beer waiting for you in the pub over the road. That was what I’d requested Mark do. I reckoned that I should arrive at the SeaHorse Inn pub at about 3pm, so Mark and the kids arrived just after 2.30pm, and were waiting for me to turn up. I wasn’t that far away, and arrive about 2.50pm. The walk was very pleasant. I’ve walked to Shalford Mill before, so I knew most of the way without looking at Google Maps. However, it did take me a slightly different way, where I had to cross over an un manned railway crossing. Don’t worry I took my earphones out, and made sure it was safe to cross, and kept looking until I was safely across. It took my 4 hours 40 minutes, which I was rather pleased with. Next weekend I’m going to go for the big one of 26 miles. I reckon it should take me 7 hours, but I’ll let you know. Once I arrived at the pub, I asked for a Budweiser, but they didn’t have any!! I was about to cry, as I’d been looking forward to a lovely cold one for the last 6 miles or so. But he offered me another very nice beer, so I was happy again. As we sat in the pub garden, George decided that he’d climb the tree, but then other much smaller kids tried it to. Now George is great at climbing, but I’m not responsible for other peoples children trying to do the same and getting stuck. We’ve always had the rule that if you get up, you get down. Mark then drove home, and I got in a well earned bath. I’ll miss all this walking when the walk has finished, maybe I can still go for wanders, but not so far.

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My first book signing.

Posted on September 9, 2014 by clairesallotment

Hopefully it’s the first of many signings, but on Saturday 6th September was my first book signing for Lottie and Dottie Sow Carrots. I had a stall at a summer fair, so set up my table with various vegetables from my plot. I left the mud on them, so people knew that I’d not just gone to the supermarket and bought them.

I'm rather please with my artistic table design.

I’m rather please with my artistic table design.

Instead of using a table cloth, I thought that orange potato sacks would look good. I had some lovely chat with loads of people, and sold a good amount of copies which I dedicated and signed. I also made loads of contacts with various teachers, so hopefully I’ll be invited to go and read to the children and do signings also. One man found one of my potatoes fascinating, so he took a photo. I think that specific potato has now been eaten by us, but it made many people chuckle.

Here I am, signing away.

Here I am, signing away.

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Shine Walk 2014 – Please Sponsor Me

Posted on September 6, 2014 by clairesallotment

On Saturday 27th September 2014, I will be walking in the Shine Walk for Cancer research. I have done 5k and 10k walks for them before, but this time I’m going for the big one and walking 26.2 miles!! Yes you heard me correctly.

I’ve been training hard for this since May, as it’s not something that you can just get up and do without practicing first.
So every sunday I’ve been wandering off in various direction, sometimes getting lost, but thanks to Google Maps I’ve been able to find my way.
The weather has been very kind, if rather hot sometimes, and once it poured with rain and thundered. This I wasn’t impressed with, so rested in a petrol garage til Mark came to rescue me.

I start my walk at 9pm on the saturday, and walk through the night, hoping to finish around 4am on the sunday morning. I will be walking on my own, though there will be other people around, but I’ll have my music going to keep me company.

If you are able to sponsor me I would be very grateful, and here is the link to my Just Giving Page:https://www.justgiving.com/ClaireStay
I’m hoping to raise a minimum of £500, so if you could help in any way I would really appreciate it.

If you you like to see what I’ve been getting up to on my training walks, you can visit my bloghttps://clairesallotment.wordpress.com…

Thank you very much for your support and I’ll let you know how I get on.

All the best,

Claire

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Friday 5th September 2014 – Sarpo Mira do not disappoint.

Posted on September 5, 2014 by clairesallotment

This morning on the allotment I continued with the digging up of the potatoes. So today I tackled a rather large bed full of Sarpo Mira potatoes. Now these were recommended to me by Dan from allotmentdiary. He’s been raving on about this variety for a couple of years now, and this year I decided to give them a go myself. Oh my!! Some of them may be rather odd in shape, but the amount of potatoes that you get from them in immense!!

Another mutant potato. This one weighed just under a pound and a half!!

Another mutant potato. This one weighed just under a pound and a half!!

From about 30 seed potatoes, I managed to get 4 large bags worth of potatoes. Each plant will give you enough potatoes to feed about 8-10 people if not more. So as you can imagine that’s a load of potatoes to keep my little family of 4 going for quite a while. I’ve still got loads more potatoes to dig up, but so far I’m really impressed. Most of them are suitable for jacket potato sized, some were larger, and the rest were what I would call normal sized potatoes. Not one plant disappointed which is amazing, usually some aren’t very good. So it looks like I’ll be growing those again for many years to come. They’re also one of the very few potatoes that is resistant to blight, so that’s a bonus.

Just a rough guide on how many potatoes I got from one plant.

Just a rough guide on how many potatoes I got from one plant.

 

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Thursday 4th September 2014 – 2 down, only 21 to go!!

Posted on September 4, 2014 by clairesallotment

Another successful morning up the allotment where I harvested some more Potatoes. Some again were over a pound in weight!! I think they’re Apache, but what I’ve done to them to make them so large I have no idea. Emily is now back to school so as I’m writing this blog, I’m all on my own. It’s very quiet and rather odd. Not to worry as they’ll be home in just over a couple of hours so I won’t be on my own for long. I also turned over the bed where the Onions were, and have taken all the weeds out of that bed, as well as 1 bed that had Potatoes in. So that’s 2 beds all sorted, only another 21 to go and I’ll be done!!

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Wednesday 3rd September 2014 – Onions are all up, and some rather large potatoes.

Posted on September 3, 2014 by clairesallotment

George is back to school today, and Emily tomorrow, but as they’re old enough and sensible enough (most of the time anyway) I can leave them at home and pop to the allotment. So that is exactly what I did this morning for about and hour and a half. I made up a box of goodies for my friend Clair who went out of her way to get me loads of manure, so as a “Thank you for some great poo”, I’ve made up a box of various bits from my plot and I’ll take it round to her later. I also dug up all my Onions. I’ve got loads to last us for quite a while, so that’s great news. Most of them have done really well, just the odd small one so I’m very pleased with them. When I got home I weighed some of the largest ones to see how heavy they are, and my largest is 8.1 oz. This I’m rather proud of, lots were around the 6 – 7 oz mark, so good sized ones this year.

A rather good sized onion, even if I may say so myself.

A rather good sized onion, even if I may say so myself.

I also pulled some more Rhubarb, which I’ll see if there are any takers at ringing tonight. I expect there will be, and then finally some more Potatoes. Which were all, what I would class as normal sized ones, until I dug up a rogue plant!! I won’t tell you what I said, but there may have a bit of a naughty word in the sentence. But I’m sure you’ll understand when I tell you that my 2nd heaviest potato today weighed 1lb 9 oz and the heaviest weighed 1lb 9.4 oz!!

My what a whopper!!!

My what a whopper!!!

So that’s my heaviest potato ever, as last year I dug up. Last year I had one that weighed 1lb 7.8 oz. If I manage to dig up any that are heavier, I’ll let you know. Now I need to find somewhere to put all my Onions to dry for a month, before I put them in string bags. The greenhouse is rather full still, so I expect I’ll find space in one of my sheds. As long as it’s a frost free place they’ll be fine.

Now don't cry, they're only onions.

Now don’t cry, they’re only onions.

Oh and I have a new phone, as mine had a melt down, so I can put pictures up for you to see.

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Robot Overlords at the London Film Festival, October 18th & 19th 2014

Posted on September 3, 2014 by clairesallotment

Oh, so proud. Not only has Mark been sitting on this news, but so have I. Now go and see it, otherwise I may get cross:-)

MarkStayWrites's avatarMark Stay Writes

I’ve been sitting on this top secret news for well over a month now, but it’s been officially announced this morning that ROBOT OVERLORDS will be part of the 58th BFI London Film Festival!

Honestly, I’ve been fit to burst… so glad it’s out there.

Me... just now... Me… just now…

We’re part of the festival’s Family strand and there will be two showings:

Saturday 18th October at The Vue, Islington at 16.15

Sunday 19th October at The Vue, Leicester Square at 12.45

Tickets go on sale on 18th September at 10am (though if you’re a BFI member you can get early bird bookings). I’ll pop a link up when they go live, but you can find our more about the festival at the official BFI site here and here’s our page with all the details.

Apart from a lucky few who came to our preview screenings, this will be the first time the…

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Tuesday 2nd September 2014 – Pine berry runners.

Posted on September 3, 2014 by clairesallotment

“What are Pine berries?” I hear you ask. Well I shall tell you. Sometimes they’re called White Strawberries and I did a video about them some time ago. I bought 3 plants for about £9 I think, I may be wrong about the price. I then planted them in a belfast sink that I have on my patio. I’ve had them for 2 years now and didn’t get any fruit off them this year, which I’m not sure why. Anyway, whilst I was on holiday they sent out loads and loads of runners. Some had crept under the fence and gone next door, so I spent yesterday afternoon retrieving them, and cutting off all the runners and potting them on into 3 inch pots. They’re now sitting on my garden table quite happily and will stay there until they’re a bit larger and have some decent roots on them. I’ll then plant them in the thin border to fill up the spaces under the climbers. I’ve got 44 new plants, so even though they many have seemed a little expensive to start with, they’ve definitely made up for it now. I just hope I get some fruit next year.

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Monday 1st September 2014 – Last few days of freedom.

Posted on September 2, 2014 by clairesallotment

The summer holidays are very nearly over. George is back on Wednesday and Emily on the Thursday, so today I promised them that we would go out for a fun afternoon. I didn’t want to drive that far, and the weather was a bit drizzly at times, so we headed off to Claremont Landscape Gardens. It’s only about a 20 minute drive away, and no need to go on the M25 at any point, so it’s even better. We arrived about 2.30pm and had a leisurely wander round. Loads of the geese and ducks, that are usually in the pond, were out on the grass, and it looked a bit like a scene from the birds as they watched you as you walked past. George decided that he would try and herd some of them like sheep, but they weren’t impressed and kept quacking at him.

George trying to herd the geese.

George trying to herd the geese.

We walked round and round various paths, just taking a gentle stroll. The drizzle had stopped, but every time the trees moved, then water fell on us, so there was to be no sitting under a tree for a rest. They have an outdoor bowling game, and we all had a go, but the ball was rather dirty, so you didn’t want to hold it for that long.

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Emily bowling, she did very well.

As we wandered further we saw dozens of parakeets flying over head. They were flying from tree to tree, eating the fir cones. They had wonderful grass green breasts, and they were easy to hear as they screeched so load!!

Fir cone for tea anyone?

Fir cone for tea anyone?

In the lake there were loads of fish swimming and a Heron was keeping guard. We didn’t see him fish for any, so maybe he wasn’t hungry at the time. But as we came to the end there is a play area for children 11 years and under. Now George is 12, but as there were hardly any baby children playing in the play area, I figured that it would be ok for him to have a go. Emily and I sat on some benches that were undercover and bet on how long it would take George to climb to the very top of the castle. Not long as it happened, I think it was the first thing he did. He was then joined shortly after by 2 other girls about his age, and they sat on a section each for ages and chatted. On the way down, one of the girls got stuck and then hurt her leg a bit (nothing but a bruise) George sat with her and chatted, til her granny came along (who we were actually sitting next to on the benches). I was told how wonderful George had been on talking to her to keep her happy. That’s my boy.

We're sure he was a monkey in a previous life.

We’re sure he was a monkey in a previous life.

Then just before we went home, I got the kids and ice cream, and I had a tea (far too cold for me to have something frozen). Then we drove home, but as it was a short journey no one fell asleep. A great end to hopefully what has been a great summer break for the kids….Now get back to school!!

 

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