Catching up

The last year has been really madly busy and, cliched as it is, I just do not know where the time has gone. I will attempt a quick summary:

• Callie & Alfie have been living back in Ipswich for a year now which is wonderful. They are only five minutes away so we usually meet up at weekends.
• Work is monstrously busy - more work, effectively less pay. A familiar tale I am sure.
• We managed to get away twice this year, firstly to Salthouse, Norfolk at Easter, and then a surprisingly great summer holiday in Lincolnshire. Miles & miles of sand and no one around.
• Allotment had a productive year but suffered from the low priority it got in my time management. I am resolving to improve this next year. I have already planted onions, shallots and garlic and have over wintering peas and broad beans to put in next weekend.
• The animals are all well & healthy although Timmy is charging around scared by fireworks as I write this.
• I got a distinction in my first OU module which I was incredibly happy about. It has given me impetus to carry on my studies.
• We had a weekend in London with our good friends Sarah & Ken. We went to the V&A and Kew gardens and topped it all off seeing Lou Reed at Hammersmith Apollo. A lovely weekend of culture (and wine).
• All my projects have also been a little side lined by everything else, but I managed to complete a really fab knitted snood and my 2011 chutney (extremely spicy carrot) has been going down a treat. I am struggling to keep up with all the demand, but am keeping on top of it due to a seemingly never ending carrot glut.

I have just had a week off work and spent it in Walberswick where I was helping Nigel's Aunt to deal with some of his late Uncle's possessions. Whilst I was kept very busy during the day, it was fantastic to have the chance to walk the dog along the beach every morning. It has reinforced our plans to move to the coast one day - having been born only about 50m from the sea, I always feel like I have come home when I am on the beach.

Badest blogger

I have probably been the world's worst blogger over the last few months so now resolve to update this poor neglected blog over the weekend.
My excuses are the usual - life, the universe and everything getting in the way and demanding of my priorities.
Luckily my allotment is nowhere near as neglected and I'll give an update on my promised blog post.
See you tomorrow!

Planting

Today had just a hint of things to come. The level of light seemed to have increased, it was milder than it has been over the last couple of days and when we went for a walk this afternoon I saw my first snowdrops of 2011 and the birds were chattering away in the trees - heralding the spring to come. However as was said on Gardeners' Question Time this afternoon "there's a lot of weather to come before spring gets here".
I spent this morning clearing out the greenhouse to make room for some planting, and planted broad beans, tomatoes (four varieties), cucumbers. aubergines and  chillis. Outside I put in some spring onion sets and a crown of rhubarb. It felt good to actually be doing something, though after a recent bought of flu my energy levels were somewhat sapped by the end of the morning.
I've left the greenhouse shut up snug and warm with the paraffin heater on low. I must remember to keep checking in there over the next few weeks.
I've also made myself a mental plan of what to do at the allotment this year. Last year was my first full year of growing there and I have learned a lot from it. It's also been illuminating to find out what we've used and what we haven't and how I can make better use of the space. I know that I need to get much better at successional planting of things like peas and beans to avoid being stuck with a glut all at once. Having drowned in courgettes my first year, I didn't really keep on top of them last year and should have planted more.
I should now stop reflecting on all things dubdug and get on with my OU essay that has to be in by Thursday..oh well...

'Twas a cold and frosty morning

We woke up to a beautiful winter's day : clear skies and a magical covering of frost. I wrapped up warm and took myself down to the allotment. Not surprisingly I was the only person there.
I thought that the ground might be too hard, but luckily the recent milder weather has defrosted the soil and apart from a frosty crust, it was easy to dig. I got up the last of the sprout sticks and put them in the compost bin, and harvested the remaining parsnips. I feel large quantities of spicy parsnip soup coming on - I must clear some space in the freezer!
My celeriac have been an utter disaster, only having reached the size of a small tennis ball, one of them will be usable once the mud and roots have been cleared away, but the others all went for compost.
Amazingly the Aquadulce broad beans that I put in as an autumn planting have survived the winter so far, and the garlic is thriving in little straight rows of erect green shoots.
Having now warmed up a bit I am off down to the kitchen to listen to the Archer's omnibus and do a full Claireish breakfast - potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, veggie sausages and chutney - YUM.