Soup and silence

Food is becoming quite important to us at the allotment. Yes I know it's important because we grow it, but I mean the food we take to keep us going for a long day of digging and hard slog.  I've written about food before so I may be in danger of repeating myself, but the right food can make the day so much better.

Cake is essential. Nothing sticky or messy--a wholesome fruit cake or banana loaf is ideal. The sort of thing you can munch on whilst wandering around looking how your seedlings are doing or counting the caterpillars on the brassicas or admiring the sweet peas.

Last week we had lunch down there. I took soup--home made leek and potato--made with our allotment leeks. It was perfect for a chilly day. We sat just outside our home made shed in the winter sunshine, enjoying the soup, watching the long tailed tits on the fence and listening to the silence. It was all very good, so good I just had to tell you about it.

A bit of fair weather gardening

 The other day one of our allotment neighbours jokingly described us as fair weather gardeners.  It was a lovely day and we'd not been down there for ages because of the bad weather except to pull up a few veg and feed the allotment cat.  But there's not much to do on the allotment when the weather is as wet as it has been lately. We can't dig because the soil is wet and sticky. We can't even go in the polytunnel at the moment because the path up to it is too muddy and slippery.

I suppose we are fair weather gardeners really. We watch the weather forecasts avidly and quite often plan the week, looking for the days when it is expected to be fine and we will be able to go down to the plot.  I'm sure most gardeners are the same.

Once Christmas was over, fired with the enthusiasm of the new year I was longing to get down to the allotment. Well we were lucky last week, we had some good sunny spells.

One of the first jobs on our list planned for the allotments this month was to manure the beds.  Being fairly new allotments they still need plenty of improvement to the soil. Some of them got done last autumn, but we didn't manage to finish them before Christmas.

We have a supply of manure delivered to the allotments every week from a nearby stables.  I was really pleased to see that the bin which we had filled last year was well rotted down, so I set to work shovelling and barrowing.  I started on the rhubarb bed, where there are signs of new growth. Then I did the fruit beds and finally some of the vegetable beds.  Some of the beds still have winter veg growing, so they didn't get done and I didn't cover the ones where we plan to grow root crops this year. 

That was plot 10b done, plot 8 needs weeding and manuring yet, but I was pleased with the work done, it all looks much tidier.

Path plans

I think it's going to be the year of the paths on our allotments, plots10b and 8. When we took on plot 8 last year some of our plans for plot 10b got put on hold. These were the remaining paths around the top raised beds and the path up to the polytunnel (see picture below).

During this winter we realised how important it is to get these done as we have all slipped on the mud recently and the various planks which have been thrown down to act as temporary paths have got slimy with moss. Helen and I are reluctant to go anywhere near the polytunnel at the moment during this damp weather, so it's becoming a matter of urgency to get the work done.

Over on plot 8 we want a path from the entrance gate up to the top of the plot ( see above picture), another around the shed and more around the growing areas.

Richard has a plan in mind for the path up to the polytunnel which involves steps as it is on a slight slope. Hopefully he will be able to build all of these with materials we have collected and which are freely available on our plot. The least money spent the better. And the great thing about allotment life is that there is always someone with some spare wood, paving flags or anything else. We all help each other out.

Getting myself together

I've been finding it difficult to get back into blogging.  It all sort of fizzled out in December. But then December is such a busy month and the time just after Christmas is a time when I get a bit lazy, eat too much, drink too much, get up late and seem to lose my energy.

I'm also aware that having been blogging for nearly two years now I am in danger of repeating myself. So I've been running out of ideas of new things to blog about.

But now the decorations are down at last and Christmas has been banished to the attic for another year. The red candles and vases of holly have been replaced with pots of white hyacinths and tete a tete narcissi. I'm liking them a lot, they are so simple and fresh looking after all that sparkle and colour of Christmas. They make me think of spring and give me lots to look forward to.

Now we are into the new year I'm feeling more enthusiastic and want to be doing things. I want to be working in the garden or on the allotment, it just needs to stop raining so I can get out there without slipping and sliding about in all the mud. So I'm starting to get myself together and think about our plans for the allotment this year. I'll tell you about those on another blog.

Getting ideas for Christmas

 

I always start December with lots of ideas for making fantastic Christmas decorations, but sadly usually run out of time and energy. Our Christmas visit to RHS Harlow Carr always gives us lots of ideas for decorating our home at Christmas. Last year we thought we could easily do the twiggy Christmas trees. We saw them again on our visit  this year and thought how lovely they were.  I think we need to plan well ahead to make these.

One of the reasons for our visit to Harlow Carr this December was to see again how they do Christmas  In the greenhouse at the kitchen gardens there is always a lovely display of natural decorations. As we entered we were greeted by an amazing array of greenery, dried flower heads, oranges, pine cones, crab apples, cranberries, chillies, pumpkins and squash and some fairy lights too. It was wonderful.

I returned home bubbling with ideas for decorating my home this Christmas. I may run out of time and energy though.

Macaroon mince pies

I'd not baked for ages until last week.  There was a Mothers Union coffee morning after church, so I decided to bake some things for the cake stall. It was good to do some baking and it got me into the right frame of mind for making things for Christmas.  I made a chocolate cake and some macaroon mince pies.  These are good if you don't like too much pastry.


Macaroon Mince Pies 

Stamp 18 pastry rounds and place in 18 hole bun tin.
Mix 175gr/6oz golden caster sugar, 175gr/6oz ground almonds and 25gr/1oz flaked almonds
Stir in 3 stiffly beaten egg whites and half a teaspoon of almond essence.
Put 1 teaspoon mincemeat in each pie, top with 1 teaspoon macaroon mixture, finish with 50gr/2oz flaked almonds.
Bake in a preheated oven 180c/gas 6 for 12 to 15 minutes.

Harlow Carr--the Christmas visit

It's becoming a tradition  that we visit RHS Harlow Carr in December. We like to visit several times during the year to see the seasonal changes in the gardens. In December I like to go for several reasons, one being the peace and quiet during such a busy time of year.

The last time we went  we took the grandchildren during the  school holidays. It was very busy. This time there were  very few people there.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet.

There was a magnificent Christmas tree just outside the reception area decorated with red baubles, dried oranges, pine cones and ribbons. I loved it. Outside some trees with white bark possibly silver birch, had silver baubles hanging from their branches.

The gardening staff were very busy tidying up the borders. The gardens were still very colourful even though most flowering plants have died back now. There was plenty of green from the evergreen foliage,  golden and bronze from the dead seed heads and grasses which were still providing interest in the borders. The red and yellow stemmed dogwoods were really colourful.  I have often thought I would like a dogwood in my garden but I would only have room for one plant and when I see them at Harlow Carr, a whole border full, they are so effective that I think maybe it wouldn't work in my garden. In another part of the gardens we saw the purple berried callicarpa. I have seen this in garden centres and thought the purple was too gaudy and unnatural looking, but here it looked great, so I am considering it as an addition to my garden for autumn colour.

In the woodland area perhaps because it was winter and there was no distraction from other plants (and children) we were more aware of interesting bark colour and twisty tree trunks.  There were also the occasional Christmassy touches like some twiggy balls decorated with coloured ribbon and a big tree with huge coloured baubles hanging from its branches.

I'm wondering now whether to decorate my garden with baubles.