Sunday, 25 June 2006

It is the day that England are playing in the world cup – and so many things are going on in the villages around here and one event just on the edge of our village. It is such a shame that they all clash – I hope that it does not affect their attendance.

This morning I decided that I would have a day off. I didn’t sleep too well, and woke up feeling weak and lethargic and the shingles were showing off again for some reason. (To much work and not enough play I guess).

But after breakfast and a bit of a rest for an hour, I figured that I would be tempted to do a bit as I go up to let my girls out anyway and to collect their eggs, change their water, and top up their food if it needs it.

Pat fancied helping me to tidy up some wood and junk accumulated by the side of the shed. It was ‘inherited’ from all the rubbish and junk that was on the plot when I took it over. We cleared so much and made so many trips to the tip and the bonfire that we got a neighbouring plot holder to light and take care of for us (as I was worried as it was taller than all of us, and really huge) burnt for 5 days non stop. There were 40 or so room sized lumps of carpet, wood, cupboards, you name it – it was dumped on it!

There was just still some remaining bits of wood, that have turned up when clearing the bottom end of the plot, but we just have not had time to sort it – so that is what we did today. We also totally cleared along a corrugated fence line, (that the previous tenant of the plot next door had left for years), so we decided to clear the high stinging nettles the other side of it, as it seemed pointless just doing ‘our’ side. Our neighbour should be pleased next time he visits as he can strim it easily from now on.

The difference it has made is amazing. We still have some oddments of wood that we need to burn – but it is too risky this time of year, and after a drought, it would only take one spark or a piece floating in the wind to set a field alight. So we have put is somewhere safely until it is safe to burn it – probably Autumn after a wet spell.

Where the pumpkins and climbing beans are up the end nearest the track, I have used some of the oddments of wood to make a large ‘raised’ bed. Well at the moment it is and enclosure to keep the rabbits off the beans and courgettes and pumpkins, and will become ‘raised’ when it gets compost and well rotted manure put on it in the coming years.

We just have one more area to ‘attack’ and that is behind the fruit cage, which I tamed and laid plastic down to kill the weeds there, and I laid all the lengths of pipe and metal there out of sight out of mind. Now that I am ‘on top of things’ I can spare some time to completely get rid of the remaining stuff. So that is our next job, when Pat gets some time – to sort out the bits of pipe and iron and load the car up, together with a broken lawn mower, and take it all down the tip – not local unfortunately – but once that is gone it will be shipshape with no odd corners of bits stored ‘just in case they are useful’ any more.

My motto is, if it has not been used in a year then it has to go. (But I don’t usually apply it to my craft things – there have to be some exceptions to the rules).
On my next trip – tomorrow if it is not raining torrentially (as if!), then I will take my camera with me. Just to record for myself how good it looks now all the junk is sorted.

Those of you that are lucky enough to have council run allotments, with car parks, paths, fences and water, and of course a sales shed and a committee, will probably be horror struck to see my ‘tidy’ corner. But if you saw most, if not all of the other plots on my site, you would be quite amazed how tidy mine is in comparison.

It really is fascinating what you see on old ‘traditional’ type allotments in the countryside. I rather like them, with their higgledy piggledy sheds and paths, abandoned tools stuck in the row of potatoes where they owner had dug up a few plants the day before. Chairs plonked in the middle of a plot where the owner stopped to have a drink and admire his work. Each plot is different and has a story to tell, and each tenant is a character – I like that – it makes it interesting.

On the other hand I do like to see the uniformity of other sites when I read other blogs, and have to confess envy at times to those with water on tap, woodchips, manure, and compost delivered by the ton to their sites. And to have an allotment community shed where you can hire out equipment, and buy things cost price almost must be heaven.

But for now I am content in the knowledge that between us Pat and me spent 8 hours on the plot today, and achieved so much – even though it was mainly removing inherited junk.

The chickens laid 2 eggs for me to collect, and had a wonderful time playing and chasing insects, dust bathing and sunbathing today – and happily went into their run when I called them. The like it when I move it to another place too, as they get longer grass to eat and play in – they’d make good lawn mowers if only they could work in a straight line.

There are more redcurrants waiting to be picked, more broad beans, and more gooseberries, so there is always something to do if you get yourself an allotment, you will never be bored that is for sure!

Time for bed…………………….