I feel like I haven’t done anything particularly interesting
or blog-worthy for a while, hence the silence. I have been to the allotment a
fair bit as things are kicking off for the growing season, and David and I have
been busy building stuff up there. 2019 is the year of the allotment overhaul and
I am very excited!
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| Long tailed tits |
In a brief moment of brilliance, I booked a day off as leave
which has given me a five-day weekend break for Easter. I have no grand plans
for this time off, and I’m not going away, but I have been up to the allotment
(surprise, surprise) and my first seedlings are poking through – I have peas,
carrots, spring onion, leek, radish, swede, lettuce, chard, possibly a
beetroot, and the apple tree is coming into bud. I sowed a lot of early seeds a
while ago and a lot haven’t come up. I think they are just being slow to germinate, or the seed was too old and not viable. I don't suspect that the night frosts are the reason – my plot seems to be the only one which
didn’t get any frost damage at all – I suspect the wood of the raised beds has
helped to insulate the crops as there is a lip between the top of the bed and
the top of the compost, but also the ground level is 10” above the actual
ground in the raised beds, so maybe this has offered further protection too. Despite
this, I am going to wait a couple of weeks and then re-sow where seeds haven’t appeared
yet.
My plan for square-foot gardening seems to be working, I think
the garden twine grid is helping massively but it’ll be interesting to see how
it looks/works when everything is big and bushy and in full growth. My second
huge 6ft x 6ft bed is now full of compost and ready for planting, but I need to
get some timber to make a cage around it to prevent aerial attacks by pigeons
and cabbage-white butterflies.
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| Square foot gardening bed, with salad crops |
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| Carrot holes. No sowing in rows for me! |
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| The brassica bed, awaiting its cage. |
Crochet-wise, I have finished another blanket! The first
part of my Temperature Blanket is now complete, off the hook and sewn up. I had
been stitching over my ends as I went, so I only had two ends to sew in which
has saved SO much time. This blanket represents six months of temperature data
from checking the Met Office daily at 2pm and then doing a stripe in the
corresponding colour. It is very green and blue – a mild winter when compared
to last year! I had stocked up on white yarn for a really cold snap but it just
hasn’t happened. Now it is time to start the next six months, which will
hopefully be a bit more vibrant with yellows and maybe reds appearing.
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| My completed six-month temperature blanket |
Work is going well, I have done just over three months now. It’s
not been without its challenges but I am getting into the swing of things, and
am very proud of work I have been doing at my sites. Having had an allotment
for 9 years has given me a lot of knowledge and inspiration for my job and I can
transfer things (skills, wood, insect knowledge, surplus plants) between the
two, which is great.
My little car has ticked over 50,000 miles – not bad for 3.5
years driving. My 18 months of commuting to Nottingham and back is to blame for
this, but it was a necessary evil as that job has helped springboard me forward
into this one. Sometimes I miss being a Ranger as the role was more varied and
hands-on, but I am thoroughly enjoying being paid to have two allotments! My life/work
balance has also vastly improved. I am spending much less on fuel now (£40 a
month instead of £240), my commute has dropped massively, I work in my local
area, I am working alongside lots of different organisations and departments,
and can call on lots of people to help when needed. My back is improving (I was
getting really bad lower back issues from all the driving), and my plantar
fasciitis is clearing up (caused by the angle of my accelerator pedal foot when
driving).
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| A fresh small tortoiseshell butterfly. No relation to the blog text but I wanted to share the picture. |
I am trying to get back into the habit of walking twice a
week and hula hooping three times a week – this is something I am going to get
back on over this weekend as I have stopped both of these for no particular
reason. Hula hooping helps to ease out my back, and one of big issues last year
was that I didn’t walk enough despite having a practical job – so I am trying
to sort that. It will help my hip and back, as well as making me a bit fitter.
My battenberg blanket is progressing nicely; I have 35
squares made now (I need 195 in total). I tend to make one or two squares when I
want something to do with my hands that doesn’t involve a big project.
I have also been whittling again lately – nothing too
spectacular as I am still not massively confident with a knife following The Great Thumb Massacre of 2016 (this blog post has blood n stuff in it). I have made some simple plant labels from cherry
twigs I collected last summer, and have put these to use on the allotment.
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| A lime balm!! Like a lemon balm, but limey. |
Ok so maybe I have been busy! I am still trying to reduce
how much time I spend on a laptop/phone. I have two laptops and two phones now,
so it is a challenge. I don’t want to do a day at work and then shut one laptop
to open another and write things for the blog, so I don’t. I have been getting
back into reading actual books lately, which is a huge life change for me, but
it has given me something else to do instead of playing games.
The rest of my five day weekend will probably include the
allotment, crocheting, reading, whittling, bothering the cat, and trying to
make space on my windowsill to grow stuff in preparation for planting it out on
the plot. I do need to start some pumpkins, cauliflower, sweetcorn and a few
more courgettes……
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| Here is Taffy-cat in her new favourite space; the broken brush arch from her scratch post. |
