Neighbourhood dispute

Nigel's band, Pindown, have a gig coming up in December (details are on his blog). This has stimulated some discussion between us as the venue that the promoter has arranged is not accessible to some people with physical disabilities.
Our discussions have got me thinking more generally about the lack of music venues in Ipswich and the fact that some of those that do exist are not fully accessible.
Last night we went to an excellent Peppery Productions gig at the Manor Ballroom. A friend of mine was there who usually uses a wheelchair but who was last night getting about with crutches.
She, and many other people that I know personally and professionally are excluded from participating in the enjoyment of live music because of the inadequacies of some venues.
This is often out of the control of the owners, who, although having requirements to make reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act,are sometimes unable to because of cost implications or the nature of their building.
Bands are therefore forced to compromise in order to play gigs.
I don't know of any bands (except any in the Screwdriver mode) that would play a venue that excluded people on the basis of their religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation - so why are bands still playing venues that are, by default, excluding people on the basis of their disability?

Nigel's carpentry skills

I can't upload the photos yet as my phone is in the dock - playing my favourite Lou Rhodes album and I can't bear to switch it off - but Nigel built the new raised bed today. It looks really good.
I got on with planting more onions, harvesting butternut squash and clearing where they had been growing. The bonus was that I had time to weed half of the brassica bed as well, which was much needed and unexpected.
We got home and as the temperature has dropped today I lit our first fire of the season. The back room is now really cosy - a good book, good few cats, good music and glass of good wine are adding to the ambience.
Only downside to the day is that I have got to start the sleeve of my coat (knitting project) again due to my failure to interpret the pattern correctly...grrrrr.
I will post photo soon.

Garlic and sciatica

Dug bed one over at the weekend and then dug it over again and was still pulling out bindweed roots! However got garlic and autumn onion sets in on Sunday. I love growing garlic and it is a bit of an experiment planting it this early, but have read that it can encourage bigger bulb growth.
I have had bloomin' sciatica since last Tuesday and it is now beginning to get on my nerves (no pun intended!). It probably was not helped though by the weekend digging and bending over planting - but on balance I'd rather have a life than sit around not doing things just because they might hurt.

Logs

Ready for burning on our lovely new Clearview wood burner.

Tiles

Lovely old french terracotta tiles - sadly not very frost proof.

Weekend work

Saturday was a hard day physically. We got up to our annual log delivery. They are left on the road outside the house so Nigel had to transport about 20 wheelbarrow loads round to the back garden whilst I loaded them all into the log store - back breaking work.
In the afternoon we went to the allotment - Nigel removed all the old tiles from bed four. This is going to become the allium bed, and we are going to put a pond in at the back of this part of the plot.
I retired the courgette plants to the compost heap and dug over bed one - pulling out the bindweed roots by the handful! I've got some field beans to overwinter in this bed, to be dug in as green manure in the spring.

Butternut squash!

Courgette loaves

Just got them out of the oven! I'll give them a few minutes to cool down then take the taste test!

Glutney phase two

I can't believe how different the plot looks now to how it was when we first took it on. I've looked back over the old images and am quite amazed by the progress.
Yesterday I made another 8lbs of courgette and tomato chutney, and I have just put two loaf tins of courgette cake in the oven. It smells glorious already. I found a recipe which also includes banana, and as I had a bunch of mushy bananas in the fruit bowl, it has put them to good use.
The recipe was also quite heavy on sugar and oil so I have reduced these quite significantly, and included some soya milk as extra moisture. I think it'll be ok, but the proof, as they say, will be in the eating!

Pumpkins and knitting

Nigel and I took a break at Towersey folk festival this weekend. We had never been before and it was thoroughly enjoyable - if slightly windy for the first couple of days. We came home yesterday so that we got a day back at home to relax before going back to work on Tuesday.
My day started by cooking a 'Claire mega veggie breakfast'. I then started on my autumn knitting project - a coat in a merino/cashmere mix yarn which arrived whilst I was away. I only got as far as 11 rows though, all done on 9mm needles, as I discovered that my 10mm needles were not really long enough, so I'll need to get some more - what hardship!
Then off to the allotment...weeded around my poor old leeks who were in danger of being choked and redug the area where I'd taken the sweetcorn up ready for some green manure when the courgettes have finished. I'd planned to pull them up today, but they're still productive so will leave them for another week. This afternoon it's time for another round of glutney making if I can find some where to get some extra jars.
The best thing about the allotment at the moment are the pumpkins and butternut squash which are coming on a treat. I'm very excited as I've never had the room to grow pumpkins before. Will mark their progress in pictures on my next entry!