Tuesday 21st October 2013 – The time had come for the back garden and the greenhouse.

Posted on October 22, 2013 by clairesallotment

With the front garden all sorted it was now time to get the back garden and the greenhouse all sorted for winter. It was another one of those days where it either rained all day, or you were lucky enough to miss them. Fortunately for me it was the latter. So after lunch I went in the back garden in an aim to just get that sorted, and leave the greenhouse for another day. However, to my ultimate surprise I managed to whizz through the back garden and get it sorted in no time. So with some time left before I had to start dinner I decided to just start tidying some of the greenhouse. But yet again this seemed much easier than I’d anticipated. So before I knew what I’d done, both the back garden and the greenhouse were all tidy!! I’m still a little shocked, but I’m not going to complain. I’ve sorted all the seed trays out, and put all the plant pots in containers in the shed, and all that’s in the greenhouse now are some vegetables and a few plants still growing, that need to be overwintered. At the beginning of next season before I start planting, I’ll give the greenhouse floor a sweep. It’s surprising how dirty it gets over the season. I didn’t want to do it yesterday as I’d have to take all the staging out, and  also I was a bit worried about how many large spiders I may find. I’m a bit of a coward when it comes to our eight legged arachnids.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Saturday 19th October 2013 – I gave birth to a 17lb pounder today!!

Posted on October 19, 2013 by clairesallotment

I’m the proud mother of a 17lb Pumpkin. I harvested it today along with another smaller one. Like most of the stuff I grow, it’s not the usual shape, more long than tall, so carving it could be fun. It looks like a long head with 2 ears at the moment, so maybe Frankenstein’s Monster, or Shrek might be good. It’s not the biggest Pumpkin I’ve ever grown, that still stands at 48lb!! But it’s a good size and much bigger than last years 8lb one. I also harvested a couple of Butternut Squash, 3 more Cabbage, a load more Beetroot, both red and orange, as well as the remaining Baby Sweetcorn and some Jerusalem Artichokes, or “Fartichokes” as we like to call them. All in all a good harvest, with lots still remaining in the ground, which can be over wintered if necessary. The weather is still very warm for this time of year, staying in the mid teens, when it should be about 10 – 12 degrees, so some plants are starting to sprout again, like the Globe Artichokes, Rhubarb and the Fennel. I’m sure it’ll suddenly get cold without warning, and then probably snow. We’ve still not put our central heating on yet, but I don’t expect it’ll be long.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Thursday 17th October 2013 – Natural History Museum with the kids.

Posted on October 18, 2013 by clairesallotment

Both my 2 were off today due to the Teachers Strike. This wasn’t a problem for me as I can choose when I work. I know it was difficult for many though. So once I knew that they were both off, I asked them what they wanted to do. George immediately said “Can we go to the Natural History Museum?” We’ve not been for a while, and even though we usually go to see the same things, it’s a great day out, and the kids really enjoy it. We took lunch, as I won’t buy the cafe food as it’s so expensive, and the queues are usually biblical. We got a travel card each and started out fun day out. It’s FREE to get in, which is good. When we arrived the main entrance had a bit of a queue, so we went round to the side entrance and went straight in. I’m so glad they have every section colour coded, otherwise I’d get very lost. We started in the “Red” section and looked at the “Lasting Impression”, then took the escalator through the earth up to the “Restless Surface” section. They’ve closed off the Volcano area as they’re doing work on it. Then we went to “Earth Treasury” and decided which stone we would like to take home. When I was talking to the kids about this I didn’t notice that a security guard was in a dark corner right next to us, and I bet he then kept a very close eye on us, until we left that section. We then stopped for lunch, and then went into the “Green” section, looking at Georges’ relations the Apes and Monkeys in “Our Place in Evolution”. I do like the Orangutang’s, I look a bit like one when I get up in the morning. Then the “Creepy Crawlies”, “Fossil Marine Reptiles”, “Birds” there are some ugly ones about, and finally “Ecology”. It was time for another sit down, before we ventured into the next area. The “Blue” section is George’s favourite as it’s got the “Dinosaurs” in it. He especially loves the moving T-Rex, and delights in the fact that someone in his class at primary school was so scared of it when they went on a school trip that he cried. He had to be rushed through covering his eyes. I was on that trip as well, and witnesses what was going on. The kids weren’t young at the time, they were 7 and 8! We also looked at “Mammals”, “Blue Whale”, “Marine Invertebrates”, “Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles”, and finally “Human Biology”. Emily didn’t want to go in this section to start with, as she’s at “That Age”, but George was very keen. George saw a picture of a woman giving birth, and asked “Why does she look so relaxed?”, my answer was “She’s most probably taken loads of drugs”. I reminded them that it was rather painful, and something I’m definitely NOT doing again!! Then finally we went into the “Orange” section, and into the Darwin Centre, which is new and really interactive. Hardly anyone was in this section, so we had the run of the place practically to ourselves. In fact the whole museum itself was fairly quiet. We got the train home all exhausted and got Mark to pick us up from the station. We then got Fish and Chips and we all went to bed at 8.30pm.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Monday 14th October 2013 – Dodging the showers, that was fun.

Posted on October 18, 2013 by clairesallotment

Well it’s that time of year when the garden needs a final tidy up before the weather gets too cold, and the Autumn really sets in. So as the weather was going to be a bit “Hit and Miss” today (more “Hit” than “Miss” as it turns out) I decided today would be a good time to tidy the front garden. I was hoping to stretch out all my gardening gloves till the end of the season, but that didn’t work. They’re just too far gone, with too many holes in them. So I popped off to Homebase to find another pair. As I entered the store, a horrible sight caught my eyes. There in front of me they were setting up their artificial Christmas trees!!!! Personally I think this is too early, but others of you may have a different view. The kids haven’t even had their October half term yet! Please wait until they go back at the beginning of November to start setting the Christmas stuff up, we’ve not even had Hallowe’en yet! And before any of you say it, I know I’ve cooked my Christmas cake already, but it’s not on display, it’s in a tin because it needs time to mature with lots of brandy. Anyway, back to the job in hand. I found my usual gloves (I don’t like trying new ones), and was about to proceed to the check out when I noticed some garden trugs of all sorts of colours. I’ve been meaning to get one of these for ages, so I purchased a large blue one. When I got home it was pouring down, so I patiently waited for it to stop, then rushed out to the front garden and managed to give the whole area a good tidy and clean before the next lot of rain came along. It was rather cold also, so not wanting to get cold, I had on 2 jumpers and my body warmer. I was as snug as a bug in a rug, but rather dirty by the end of it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tuesday 8th October 2013 – The last of the Popcorn is picked.

Posted on October 8, 2013 by clairesallotment

In between digging, (which can get a bit exhausting after a while) I went to harvest all my Strawberry Popcorn. I seem to have loads of it this year, which is great news for movie night! You wait until the casing of the cobs has gone brown, then pull it off the plant and take all the outer casing off, and leave the bare cobs to dry in a frost free place for about a month or so. Popcorn is so much fun, and if you pop it yourself, then you can add all sorts of flavourings to it, with no added stuff that they put in the shop bought stuff. It was then home for lunch, and what I’ll do this afternoon I really don’t know yet. But I’m sure I’ll find something to do…….like ironing!!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Monday 7th October 2013 – Another bed dug!!

Posted on October 8, 2013 by clairesallotment

Well this afternoon I was determined to finish turning over a rather large bed at one end of my plot. Thankfully I did, so I was a very happy bunny. I worked so speedily through it that I then went to the other end of one of my plots and started on the big Rhubarb bed. When digging parts of this one over I disturbed several large red ants nest, but managed not to get bitten, even with a hole in the thumb of my gloves. I think next time I’m in Homebase, I’ll have to get another pair to last me this season. So far this year I’ve gone through about 3 pairs, so for me that’s not too bad. The weather is still warm, but apparently it’s supposed to turn much colder by Thursday, so I’d better make the most of gardening in my t-shirt and leggings as I may have to get my woolly hat out soon. I don’t like getting cold ears.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A very weird Saturday afternoon.

Posted on October 8, 2013 by clairesallotment

You know when you plan to do something, and then it never turns out that way? Well this is what happened on Saturday afternoon for me. Mark was taking the kids to Comic Con (not really my thing) at Earls Court, and I was going to spend the afternoon in the garden doing all those things that I’d not got round to doing. At Comic Con, Emily was having her photo taken with Hannah Spearritt (Primeval) and George was having his photo taken with Sam Jones (Flash Gordon). They all left at just before 1.30 to catch the train, and all was going well until 2pm when Mark called in a panic. There was a problem with the trains, and they could get no further than Raynes Park! For those of you who don’t know this is quite a long way from Earls Court. So giving up my gardening afternoon, I got in the car and drove to Raynes Park to pick them all up. Mark then drove to Earls Court, as he knows his way better around London than I do. Time was ticking away, and it was a bit tight, as Emily had a slot for her photo, and we were getting rather short of time. Mark dropped the kids and I off at the entrance, and I rushed in with them. Having no sense of direction I frantically asked a helper on the front desk to take us to where Emily needed to go (which wasn’t far away). Emily made the photo time slot with 5 minutes to spare, which she was really pleased about. She was getting a bit worried in the car, as she’d been looking forward to seeing Hannah for so long. Mark found a place to park, and joined us, and we wandered round the hall. Now I like some Sci-fi stuff, but don’t go the extremes of  dressing up. I have nothing against it per say, but I did find myself giggling for the first hour or so at various costumes. I was pleasantly surprised how many I knew, but some I had no idea what they were supposed to be. What did make me giggle a lot was some ice cube trays that make the shape of Han Solo in carbonite (end of the second Star Wars film). I did end up getting 3 t shirts with film references on, from the films: Paul, Dodge Ball and Iron Man. I’m sure you’ll see those in future videos. We left just before 6pm, and arrived home at about 6.30pm. Not the way any of us had hoped to spend the day, but don’t tell Mark….I did quite enjoy it.

George with Same Jones.

George with Same Jones.

Emily with Hannah Spearritt.

Emily with Hannah Spearritt.

Emily dressed as Mindy and someone dresses as Hit Girl. I'm at the back looking confused.

Emily dressed as Mindy and someone dresses as Hit Girl. I’m at the back looking confused.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Interesting Corn….I want to grow some of that!

Posted on October 4, 2013 by clairesallotment

Mark found some interesting Glass Gem Sweet Corn. I think it looks fantastic, and I want to grow some next year. Some of it looks like Jelly Bean sweeties. I hope you find it interesting too.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Wednesday 2nd October 2013 – It’s Christmas Cake time!!

Posted on October 2, 2013 by clairesallotment

When making a Christmas cake, you have to plan ahead. The day before you soak the fruit (that was done on Monday). Then the following day you bake it (that was done on Tuesday). Then finally when it’s completely cold, you feed it with Brandy, then wrap it in fresh greaseproof paper, and foil (which I did today). I have a question for you all. The bottle of Brandy in the photo is 1 litre (some has been used to make home made Sangria, very nice it is too), I will be feeding my cake with 1 capful every 2 weeks until the beginning of December, then every week til I marzipan it. The question is….how much brandy will be left? Knowing me, not much!!

This years Christmas cake in the shape of a Christmas tree..... and a bottle of brandy. Perfect partners in crime.

This years Christmas cake in the shape of a Christmas tree….. and a bottle of brandy. Perfect partners in crime.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tuesday 1st October 2013 – Got nibbled on the neck today…and no it wasn’t Mark!

Posted on October 1, 2013 by clairesallotment

As the leaves of the French Beans are turning yellow, I decided that it was time for them to be pulled up and put in the compost heap. I removed any good sized beans, and then when they were all up, I turned the soil over. I also pulled the last of the Carrots up, and some more Beetroot. After a slow start the Beetroot has really taken off, so I’ll be boiling that up later and then storing it in the freezer for Mark. It’ll be manure time soon, so I’ve asked a friend who has a horse at a local stables if we can load her trailer up a few times with manure to put on my plot. She’s done it for me before, it’s much easier than loading up my car. I can’t attach the trailer to our car as we don’t have a tow bar. I gave her some cakes and a bottle of wine last time. So in preparation for this I’ve been clearing the bed at the end. I’ve nearly finished digging it over, so when the time is right I’ll dump a load of poo there. Then in the following days spread it about. As I was leaving I had a pain on the back of my neck, little bugger of a red ant had somehow got on my T-shirt, and climbed up to my neck and bitten me. It really hurt, and for a while the inside of my mouth felt a bit odd. Thankfully the pain has now gone, but I’ve still got a lump. Who invented these horrible little things? They’re on the same par as wasps……pointless animals to be invented.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment