Friday, July 4, 2008

No Visits Thursday Friday

Not been up either today or yesterday. Finished work 8am Thurs but had to go straight to bed as I had the night off to attend Nat's performance at the De Montford hall in the Thomas Cook Show (it was brilliant!!). Came home and popped to shops to get a few things. Nearly KILLED - as I was cycling back from Asda the handlebars of my bike came loose and suddenly I was in close intimate contact with the ground. Two very kind and concerned drivers stopped to ask if I was OK which was extremely good of them. Battered and Bruised (and somewhat shocked) I had the fun job of trying to push the bike home, sans handlebars which would not reintall into steering column, whilst carrying 2 bags of shopping. It took me approx 30mins to push the bkie 500 yards. Feeling very sore today so have stayed in bed and rested. Work Tonight!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Back to Work

I'm back at work tonight (I work 4 nights on/4 nights off) so I won't be going up to the plot today. However, my new library card and pin have arrived today so when I've finished this I'm popping up there to see what books they've got on allotment growing etc. Whilst I'm there I must remember to order the Neutronium Alchemist for the holiday.

Hannah and I - Tuesday 1 July 2008




I didn't go alone today. Nat's got his extra lessons on Tuesday, so I thought it might be nice if Hannah and I went up together whilst he was there and did a bit of digging together. She did her best, bless her, even though she's got quite painful stomach ache from the constipation she's suffering from. Whatever else, she's great at filling daddy's hat with water, which was very cooling and much needed. We started clearing the weeds about the patch we had covered over on Sunday and made fair headway. Deb and Nat arrived later and we carried on until about 05:30 then went home for tea. The photo's of today are included in yesterdays post as unfortunately I forgot to upload yesterdays photo's separately from todays so their all togheter (if that makes any sense). Here's a couple of photo's of Hannah doing her bit.

All Alone - Monday 30 June



Oh well, the kids are in school, Deb's at work I've taken the dog for a walk it's 12:00 and I can't put it off any longer - it's time to go solo. First problem, how do you carry a fork on a bicycle? With difficulty!! Thought I'd get some more digging done (see photo's) so I started work on the section just up from the broad bean plants (we did in front yesterday). After a couple of hours got this turned over, nicked a chair from the allotment next door and sat down to enjoy a well deserved beer. Whilst sitting George happened along and we got chatting. Seems he had a very interesting job before he retired designing machine parts. Anyway he gave me some tips which I'm desperately trying to remember and we chewed the fat (as the yanks would say) for awhile. Left at about 03:15 to be home in time to take Hannah to the doctors.

More Digging - Sunday 29 June



Came up at about 11.00. Went to the allotment shop and paid fees and key money and purchased some black ground cover sheeting to cover over the area we dug yesterday. Think I got my measurements a litttle confused as when we laid it we appeared to have a couple of extra yards! Today we dug up the front of the plot on the other side of the pathway (see photo's). We did about 3 hours and I can honestly say we were all totally knackered at the end of it.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

First Day on the Job


Saturday 28 June 2008. Well, it's time to make a start. The four of us arrived mid morning with good intentions ready to being turning this overgrown piece of land into something that will provide us with fresh wholesome food for the foreseeable future. With the price of food rocketing as it is and with no end to this in sight this could be the best decision we've made in a long time. We got started, I did the digging, deb did the weeding and the kids did what they could. I think the photos will show what we managed to get done.



Today We Got Our Allotment







Thursday 26 June 2008.

Should have posted this on the correct day but I have only just got round to starting the allotment blog, so apologies if the date seems somewhat out of sync. Our plot at Rosamund Road in Leicester is 10 yards by 30 yards and gives us a whopping 300 square yards of growing space. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photos, we're going to have to do a bit(!) of digging before we can contemplate cultivating such a large area. We didn't do anything this first day, just got shown around the site by George (The Allotment Manager) and had choose which of the 3 available plots we wanted. The one we picked looks very over grown, but, luckily, has only just been let go by the previous occupant, so clearing it, hopefully, shouldn't be too difficult! Anyway, we're coming back on Saturday to make a start. Whilst we were there, we met Terry who was the previous manager and who has the plot next to ours. Apparently he's had it for over 50 years and it looks great - one day perhaps so will ours. He gave us our first produce when he presented us with one of his beautiful lettuces (see photo's).