Another spending spree

So I decided that a more lightweight tent option was in order, so I picked up a couple of new Naturehike tents. The cloud up 1 and the Taga 2. They both weighed exactly the same when they arrived, 1.33kgs, but the Taga is 2 person, in theory. The Taga is so light because it’s semi single skinned, so there’s a possibility of lots of condensation. Only way to really be sure is to spend a night in it. Soooooooo, here I am.

Obviously awful quality pic, but it’s very dark. As per the norm, it started raining pretty much as soon as I got in it, but so far I’m dry. I will update in the morning, but so far I’m optimistic.

Late again

Another week of doggies and work and not much else. The pups definitely get in the way of any camping expeditions, which is kinda sad. Had the excitement of a 48 hour heart monitor being strapped onto me on Tuesday, which gave me an unrivalled chance to travel. When I got home I checked Cheech, the smaller cherry tree, and he’s being ravaged by Blackfly again.

Returned heart monitor on Friday, amidst huge numbers of hassle, including trying to book a car to hire and a prick who tried to run into the side of the car on a roundabout. It’s been warm, so been nice walking the various doggies, but very tiring. Hope I can keep enough energy for camping in July. Got a new hard drive which is still installing, 2 days later. Otherwise, to be frank, there is actually nothing interesting to put here, except for overdoing Minecraft and continually spraying the garden for blackfly. Ooooh I have bought a load of nematodes to finish off the slugs, although I now feel the sun is probably doing that. Haven’t sprayed them yet, but will get around to it. As always I’ll add a few pics in lieu of anything interesting to say.

Now I added the pics I realise that there has been interesting stuff. Got a new shelving unit for the kitchen which is awesome. Put down an outdoor rug in the greenhouse from its previous home on the lawn. I am gonna let that area of lawn go to wild, which might be exciting. I have seed bombs arriving to spread there.

There seems to be a new couple of pigeons in town, they are braver, but not quite as bright. One of the newer calla lilies is starting to shoot up. And tomatoes are starting to flower.

Well whaddayaknow, seems I did have stuff to say after all.

Aliens ate my foot

As I sat in the garden this morning having a cup of tea I heard the throaty crackle of machine gunfire from the neighbours garden. Reaching for my browning high-power I put nine rounds down range and ended up winging an alien that had infiltrated the neighbours shed. We argued over who got to keep the body, but I ended up putting it in the garden waste bin that was picked up this morning.

In other news, the roses have come out and I have tried killing all the slugs with biological warfare.

The weather stopped

So the weather has been on and off for the rest of the week. I had forgotten that it was a bank holiday weekend so my plans to go camping unfortunately were cancelled. Bank holiday is too expensive for taking out the tent. Had a week that was mainly buying equipment rather than using it, but it’s only a matter of time.

Cute new lightweight cutlery arrived, along with a new water bottle, compressed towels, and a cute little bag of very discreetly wrapped piss bags.

Did bare minimum gardening and way more chilling and relaxing, when the weather allowed.

Chimenea disposed of most of the old plant beds, and perfectly good excuse for bread and cheese.

Another unexciting week tbh, but it just means that next week will be twice as exciting. See you then.

Garden chilling time

Nothing really that exciting to update, however, finally have strawbs on the go. Have also planted out the tomatoes into new troughs. Have a load of plants for the front garden too, and a couple of lavender plants, as the last ones did not survive the move when the old beds were taken down.

May have enjoyed a glass or two of cider while planting the strawbs, which may end up being named after Jacob’s sons. So I either have to get two more strawbs, or Joseph and Dan get left off the list.

There was not much to fill this post, however, I felt the flowers alone made it worth the effort.

My leaking butt crack

The week started off with a mug of hot chocolate made on the wood burner camping stove. Whilst pottering about drinking my choccy, and getting zero support from Flymo customer support in fixing Momo, I noticed that I had a leaky butt crack.

Had to drain butt, luckily one of the smaller greenhouse ones were empty. Needed one of the brewing barrels too, and now have a broken butt I don’t know what to do with.

Flowers are all looking amazing and although this is not very exciting, here how the garlic is doing.

Week progressed as they tend to, and the weekend appeared, bringing a huge loss on the grand national but some sunshine.

The greenhouse got nice and warm too, but sadly there’s a guerrilla slug in there attacking the cucumbers.

Anyway, I have a week off, so might go camping now that it is no longer Easter hols, although I am beginning to suspect I have caught a cold. Fingers crossed I survive, and I’ll update before next Sunday if I end up in a field.

A Season Has Occurred

So it is far that I have to offer up such massive apologies to both of the readers of this blog, although I am pretty sure both of them are google bots, but it has been an inexcusable amount of time since my last catchup.

I guess what has made me post is that it has been a year since I first saw the allotment that the council granted, and to admit that I miss some of the people that I have lost contact with since then. A year has had a birth or two, and a plurality of deaths. I guess if you want one, you have to put up with the other.

Anyway, there was spring, and I went to Bulgaria, narrowly avoiding being stuck in the country as the airports were close to closing.

So March brought lockdown and a lot of looking at the same four walls. Although I guess it was more a case of looking at the same two monitors for a few months. On the bright side the allotment was declared an open zone and free to visit, as long as we stayed away from people and vegetables that coughed.

How it looked in the bleak light of the new year

Planted an array of potatoes, from Marris Pipers to Congo Blue, that are totally weird.

I feel that I should not go into the entire previous six months in one post, for a number of reasons, mainly because I am mildly inebriated due to the soporific effects of the home-brew that I have been cultivating for a while, so I may leave this post here; nobody is reading it anyway. If I am wrong, pop something in the comments just to gee me into writing the next instalment.

Who Gives a Duck?

As per my previous post, chrimble day was bereft of the previous volunteers that were once eager to pluck parsnips from the soil. But what a gorgeous day; sunny, blue skies, utter silence. If you could block out the noise of the adjacent motorway anyway. Even those cars seems reverentially quiet, as if they didn’t really want to be disturbing anyone on the dayoffiest day of the year.

The only contributor to the parsnip proceedings was Lottie, the allotment cat, who offered sage wisdom with regards to proper hand/fork coordination. This led to successful excavation of a handful of ‘snips, and a sense of satisfaction that a Christmas tradition was born. Next year there will definitely be way more fresh food being dug up especially for the chrimble meal.

I don’t think you can get much fresher than being pulled out of the ground and then roasted in goose fat, before being ravenously devoured. If only more than one carrot had been willing to make the effort and grow.

For next year I definitely hope to have the majority of this plate dug up in the morning, making the freshest dinner possible. Even the sprouts, which might possibly be edible if fresh. I am even open to a vegetarian meal if anyone has any suggestions on what you can roast to make it as tasty as duck.

So merry December and looking forward to a great new decade, coming soon to a new year party near you.

Chrimble Cheer

So as the year draws to a close, it is time to look back and summarise what has transpired in the previous 12 months. Well the allotment was a huge bonus, and the fact that I will be enjoying fresh parsnips on Christmas Day, is worth it in itself. I have test driven the parsnips, and they are a triumph.

So it has been a year of losing some good friends, and gaining some new ones, but I always believe that when someone ghosts you, you gain two good friends in their place. And of course, their loss, and they weren’t really a friend if they drop out of your life etc etc. It’s a good lesson at this time of year to ensure you keep the good friends close. I will see how good my friends are when I have to trawl up to the allotment with volunteers on Christmas morning to dig up the parsnips. I foresee this being a job that will be fraught with a lack of companionship, but conversely, gotta be mildly nuts to be on an allotment on Christmas morning.

So with it being the premiere of Star Wars episode 9 first thing after midnight, it is time for my nap to prepare, and just pausing to wish everyone a merry Chrimble and may the force be with you.

Some Allotmenty stuff

This evening I will pop a link in the side navigation that will take you to one of the most awesome websites I have ever found. This will feature a plan of my allotment plot and what I will be growing, or at least attempting to grow. In the mean time, I have cleared one bed, and now have some sort of growing transpiring.

Having transplanted the rather poor crop of tomatoes that have grown this year, and some half dead spuds, it now looks like someone is tending to the place, rather than a stinging nettle farm. I will add a couple of pics, but it still looks like a mess. But less of a mess than it did.