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.

Robert de Niro's waiting...

It was a 1980's party, and we'd thought we'd go as Bananarama but got mistaken for Dexy's Midnight Runners!
I never normally wear make up, so this felt particularly weird to me. However, I felt the dungarees were strangely familiar...Berni & Penny went out to buy theirs specially, mine were already in my wardrobe!

Bad fireworks

I have never really enjoyed fireworks particularly. Apart from a few pleasant childhood memories of standing in the local churchyard with a polystyrene cup buckling under the heat of some tomato soup in my hand, my enjoyment of fireworks has not got much further than twiddling a sparkler or two.
I have always thought that fireworks are selfish as those who are letting them off have no control over who they are exposing to them.
This weekend I have been furious. We have worked really hard with Timmy (our nine year old rescue dog) over the past few months to help him decrease his anxiety levels and have really achieved some great things with him. Bang goes all of that this weekend - literally! He spent Wednesday night shaking after a couple of fireworks were let off outside the house. I had been putting a few drops of Rescue Remedy in his water, but soon realised that this was not enough. So Thursday we went off to the vet and came back with a pheramone collar and some doggy diazepam 'just in case'.
I soon realised that we were going to need the diazepam when he was actually sick with fear on Friday night, so Saturday was spent giving him plenty of exercise during the day and then it took a double dose to get him sufficiently relaxed so he could lie in front of the fire without being too troubled by all the explosions outside.
I remember a few years ago spending bonfire night in Leicester with a friend who had grown up in Derry during the 1970s. Walking back from the pub with him as fireworks were going off around us was the only time that I ever saw him shaken.
I think it is about time that we questioned our right to impose the experience of fireworks on people and animals who have no choice as to whether they want to participate or not.

In the store cupboard

At the end of the marathon session!

Autumn feelings

I got up at 7am and went down to the allotment. The smell of autumn was everywhere - that sense of damp with just a hint of early decay. Every thing looked great despite the fact that I have not been there for two weeks.
Here is my harvest (and yes, I did have to use the dog's car bowl to collect the raspberries and strawberries):

I am now filling the kitchen with autumn smells. The chutney marathon has commenced!

Here it is at the start.

Passing time..

I can not believe how long it is since I last made a posting here. It seems that summer is almost over. I'm sitting here at just after 8pm and it is almost dark outside. I have to confess to being a lover of the autumn and the winter (and spring too) - there is nothing better for me than being wrapped up in woolies, sitting in front of the fire or the log burner after a good walk. High summer is too hot for me, I flag easily and too much heat can actually make me feel quite unwell.
The latter half of this summer has suited me once the heat wave passed. We had a great holiday in Dorset. Whilst it was wet here in Suffolk we enjoyed fine weather to explore Dorset and Somerset.

Here are my boys outside our cottage.

Sunset over the field behind the cottage.

Nigel has a little lie down at an iron age hill fort.

My plan was to get back from holiday and set to the allotment with vigour. However, fifteen minutes after driving for five hours to get home, this silly woman decided to move our bed....felt something rip in my back and spent the rest of the final week off work going between bed, the bath and the living room floor - totally unable to sit down. Nigel though came to my rescue - whilst taking every opportunity to remind me of the self inflicted nature of my injuries - he took himself off to the allotment, dug over my beds and planted my 60 or so leeks. Husband points flowed.

My back is now 90% recovered and we have just spent a fabulous weekend at the wedding of our good friends Berni and Penny. Thanks Girls! It was great.

We left them on Sunday morning and went down to Brighton for a couple of days to catch up with Callie and Alfie.

Alfie's little slug impression.

Alfie popping out!

I finally got off to the allotment last night. I harvested some overgrown courgettes ready for the Glutney making this weekend, and my borlotti beans had dried on the canes, so I now have a fantastic harvest of the beautiful beans. The raspberries I planted the day that Alfie was born are covered in fruit, so I will picking those at the weekend if the birds have not eaten them all.

It feels good to be back - in a physical and emotional sense. Proximity to the soil is definately good for my soul.

Putting my back into it

This morning Nigel banned me from going to the allotment on the basis that I have hurt my back, however I managed to negotiate a 'picking only' trip.
After harvesting the courgettes, french beans and black currants I just couldn't ignore the take over of the brassica patch by weeds so managed to get up quite a lot of them using a bizarre lying on the floor sort of technique to avoid bending. I then took to pulling up the remaining broad bean plants to give on poor struggling courgette some much needed light.
After about ten minutes I had had enough, but this made me realise just how important that allotment patch has become to me. When I was initially considering not going, I felt a genuine sadness - like not being able to get to see a close friend when you have arranged to do so.
Hopefully my back will clear up in a couple of days to enable me to get up to the allotment to tackle the weeds properly as we are off to Dorset next weekend to take Timmy for his first holiday.