It never rains...

...at least, not in Norwich these days.

That's a bit of a lie.  There was definite misting this afternoon as we were planning on leaving the office, but by the time I had returned home the streets were dry and I got to go on the evening walk with Gav and Pepper.  Which was lovely. 

But not lovely for the allotment.

Yes, at long last we've managed to do a bit more work in the allotment!  Not alone, I hasten to add, it would have been impossible without the kind assistance of Papa B and under the watchful eyes of Zoe, Pepper and Rodney, but we finally have a Vegetable Plot.


The Vegetable Plot lives at the front of our allotment, possibly as far from the Shed (at the back) as you can get.  By the Shed we have got Tomato Corner.  More on Tomato Corner later.  The Vegetable Plot is positioned by the entrance because, just before the tree with bird seed feeders hanging from it, there is a water source.  This water source is kind of like a giant sink with a tap that comes from it, rather than a tap that pours into it.  Does that make sense?  I hope so...


Firstly, an allotmenteer must clear carpet from their patch.  We have done that.  Rolled it up into nice piles.  Ready for the winter when we want to lay it again?  Not quite sure what we'll do with it, but we are a family of hoarders.  Having cleared the carpet, it is time to get the shed built (done, but not blogged about - maybe another time) and the plot rotovated.  This is where the boys come in.

 Apparently, rotovating isn't as hard as all that.  Not that I was too interested.  I was completely distracted by the goodies.

I know it's not 100% how you should do it, but we've been contending with a lot, both procrastinating about our studies, I've worked away, Pepper dog takes up a lot of time, Norwich have been promoted, we've got a wedding to plan (dresses to try on) and none of our horses won the Grand National.  Which was pants.  But the plants were good.  

See what I did there?!  I'm a freaking comedienne.

In there we had a whole bunch of:
- Lettuce
- Leaf beets
- Beetroot
- pretty flowers, that I've already forgotten the names of
- 1 x cucumber
- 2 x chilis
- 3 x cherry tomatoes
- 2 x courgettes
- 2 x pepperes
- Kale that my parents started off
- 3 x tomato plants we picked up outside a house near my parents'
- Potatoes!!!!  Lots of

Plus, we also planted seeds for:
- Carrots
- Broccoli

- Artichoke.

I'm most excited about the artichoke.

Doesn't it look good?  We're going to put some scarecrows and netting out to protect our little plants this weekend.  Tomato corner lives by the shed, as it is a bit more sheltered for my precious plants.  The previous allotmenteers had kindly left us with many, many bottle 'green houses' that we are utilising to make sure the plants grow big and strong.  Not sure if we're meant to make them grow that big, but I'm excited.

 
So I've been spending my lunch breaks watering the seeds and talking to the plants.  It's really quite nice.

And probably the first time I've wanted a downpour in quite some time.

As I said, it never rains...

Catching up

It's been a while since I sat down and wrote out a little something to say.  I think it's because the sun has started to shine and the world seems a lot more exciting than in the depths of January.  Well, maybe not more exciting, but there is definitely more opportunity and willing here to 'do' the fun stuff than 'not'.

So, what have we been up to?


Not as much on the allotment as we'd like, unfortunately.  Gav's been busy with projects and work of his own and I'm not certain how to use the rotovator, which is our next big task.  However, we did have a busy weekend just after my last post, where I got to borrow a Very Big Van from work and drive it around the city, to collect a shed that we bought on ebay.  For the bargain price of £20 we got to dismantle the shed, put it in the van and then put it back together again at a later date.  I was extremely helpful in the dismantling and carrying and Gav's done a fine job of rebuilding and making the shed nice now.  

He's also rearranged our 'poo store' and put it next to the shed.  It's nice to be able to have a proper home at the allotment, we've put some chairs there and bought a wheelbarrow that can live in the shed.  It's probably bigger than some New York apartments so all in all, a good deal.

The plan now is to rotovate the plot and create some proper beds for me to start work at planting and growing.  I've already pot planted some raspberries, blueberries and strawberries so should hopefully have a pretty mean fruit salad waiting for us later this year.  Given our current time scale I think we'll have to aim for some late season bits and pieces, not quite sure what yet as Gav is the primary reader of the gardening books, but any suggestions are welcome.  I'm mildly shocked that it's already late April but think that even if we don't get huge crops from our work this year, we'll have laid out the groundwork for some pretty good years to come.  Especially with all the poo that Gav's purchased.


Some photos coming soon for you (woops, lost my camera!).......  

After today I am going to be enjoying the best 11 day break from work since Christmas, so it is entirely possible I will get some time to play on the allotment.  Or do some studying of my own!!  I hope that everyone out there is looking forward to a nice long weekend, followed by another nice long weekend, possibly with a nice short work week or (if you're super lazy like me!) three extra days off in the sunny sunshine that we're currently enjoying.

Don't eat too many eggs!!

Here we all are, sittin' in a rainbow...

Yesterday was perhaps the First Day of Spring.  I think it's my favourite day of the year, because it means that winter, with its miserable cold, rainy, long days is on the way out.  I like snowy winter days, yes, but I love seeing the daffodils and spring flowers starting to grow and make the green grass that little bit more colourful.  To be fair to the British weather, I am pretty sure we've had a few nice days recently but yesterday gets the title because it was actually a Lazy Sunday, the nicest day of the week and best day to enjoy spring.

And we totally enjoyed it.

The morning cranked into gear with a little dog walk alongside the riverside walk, past the old Jarrold Printing Press and Cow Tower. I was having fun playing with my camera and taking photos of the new buildings and old city wall while Gav made Pepper a little crazy and sent her off running amongst all the flowers.  I really love blue-sky-days and think that they make wherever you are just a little bit better than normal.  I especially love walking along where we are - we're lucky that we've got the Cathedral on our doorstep and lots of really quite beautiful buildings nearby that make the daily walk a little bit more interesting.  Norwich is my adopted home town and it keeps on providing me with new little gems that I didn't know existed before - I'd been living here eight years before I really discovered the riverside walk.  While it's no mammoth trek through fields it's a nice wander with ducks, swans and a little bit of history (not to mention a few memorable pubs, but this was a morning walk we took so the only hairs of the dog we encountered were Pepper's own) along the way.  

With all this blue sky, the allotment was calling.  Well, it called Gav at least.  He headed off after brunch, dressed to dig.  Pepper and I moseyed on up an hour or so later, having spent a little time making sure our hair was pretty and looking at the photos we'd taken.  She's such a poser, honestly.  Any day now she's going to get all Mariah Carey on me and start telling me which side is her best, but for now she's happy to work for tidbits and affection.  

We found Gav hard at work and busy creating his own little store of dirt.  The grand plan is to clear out our allotment and remove all the carpets that had been left by the previous tenants.  Once we've done this then we'll rotovate (that's the royal 'we' and mostly means 'Gav'll play with a big petrol powered toy and dig up lots of dirt') before we start the fun stuff and start growing all our food and really living the good life.  I didn't want to get too involved in this dirty work so set myself the task of cutting up some bramble bushes that were threatening to take over our carpeted allotment.  We have some nice 'before' and 'after' pictures, to show you the fruits of our labours:

The pile Gav started with... I think he was digging for treasure.

Gav's dirt store.  This will be emptied to fill in the  pond and then filled with some smelly muck that'll give us the best tomatoes you've ever had.

Bramble-tastic

The sun came out to celebrate my clearing.  It was impressive, I tell you!

A strawberry shaped bird feeder found on our digs.  Our allotment will be sponsored by Kath Kidson.

Of course, no allotmenteering is complete without a visit from the BEAMs. Our little helpers came and encouraged some worms to live in our allotment by mushing up the mud just outside.  I'm pretty sure that one day soon I'll get those little wellies marching up and down to aerate the soil and get all sorts of creepies and crawlies to come and help our garden grow.  As long as I provide their mum with some extra washing powder, no doubt!!!

Sadly all lazy Sundays must come to an end.  Ours ended with a nice little wander with Pepper dog on Mousehold.  Have I mentioned how awesome Norwich is?  There's a giant heath waiting for dogs to explore and kids to race dirt bikes on.  We set our little four legged friend free to run in the forest and chase squirrels and look for frogs before we headed home to rest and be happy.  

Something new

About a year ago I realised that there were lots of things I wanted to do to become the accomplished woman I knew I could be.  I wrote out a little list on facebook in which I wanted to learn how to use my 35mm SLR camera, sew, learn Spanish and start growing in-house tomatoes like they were going out of fashion.  I chucked in a bit of 'computer language' on the list too (not quite sure what was meant by that, but it sounds pretty smart) and also thought that losing a couple of pounds wouldn't go amiss.

Well, how times have changed.  Today you'll find me photographing with my fancy digital SLR, knitting up a storm and kicking Gav out of the house to spend time on the allotment with Pepper dog.  And of course my computer geekiness has been verified with the slow start of this blog... but that doesn't stop me from wanting to do more.  I thought a nice little 'What I Could Do' list would be a great thing to talk about because I am finding (is it my age?  Is it the economic times?) that people seem to be a little bit more back to basics now and I'd love to know what it is that you're doing to keep yourself entertained, challenged or generally out of trouble.  Or, if you're doing none of the above and spending a good portion of your time sitting watching Kirstie's Homemade Home and thinking 'I could do that' then maybe you could come up with some bits for me to add to my own 'What I Could Do' list.  Cause your ideas might be better than mine..


So far I have got:


1 - Now that I have the Digital SLR camera and have finally realised how to actually focus it manually (don't ask) I hope to take some beautiful pictures this summer.  Of Norwich, of friends, of Pepper, of the seaside, of family, of little bugs sitting amongst the bluebells on my walk to work.  You may all get photos for Christmas presents.


2 - Knitting, ah yes, my newest phase.  I have learned the basic knit and purl and am getting fairly accomplished at using the 8mm, 7.5mm and 4mm needles, sometimes even as a mix of the three.  At once, I'm that good.  I have Googled 'how to knit' and seen a pretty neat cable knit scarf pattern that I might actually understand.  You may all get scarfs for Christmas presents.


3 - Sewing, my mama's provided me with the most BEAUTIFUL Singer sewing machine.  I've never seen anything more wonderful and will leave it at that for now, I will do a whole post dedicated to its beauty.  I am hoping though that I will be able to create more practical delights along the lines of the doorstop I made earlier this year and learn how to put zippers in stuff.  You may all get a doorstop (or eyemask, cause I can do those too) for Christmas this year.


4 - Languages.  Well, I am getting pretty nifty at using the 'link' button on the blogger website.  Does that count as programming?  No language books for y'all for Christmas.


5 - Green fingers aplenty, I will be attempting to grow tomatoes, shallots, potatoes and many more vegetable delights with Gav on our allotment.  It's exciting.  You'll probably get veg all summer long, you lucky devils you.


6 - Read a book a month.  Cause I have more than enough to last me a lifetime, and I've not even considered a Kindle.  


So, Spring's given me the energy to create this list......what do  you want to do?

Flirting with February

It'd appear that we're already in mid February - goodness me how did that happen!! There's always such emphasis on January starting and resolutions forming, I think February gets a little bit forgotten about. It is such a short month, after all...but still quite important.

After two years of waiting, we finally got our allotment at the end of last year. Last weekend, Gav donned his heavy gloves, grabbed an axe and disappeared into the heath. To tackle the brambles from our neighbouring allotment, and trim some dead wood from the little apple tree that I will spend my summer relaxing in the shade of while reading a nice book, of course!!

This is all what makes February exciting, the preparations for summer are starting all over. Every day as I leave work recently someone has said "it's nearly 5 o'clock...and still nearly light out!" until yesterday we could triumphantly claim 5 o'clock had indeed passed but we were enjoying daylight (albeit sunsetting) hours. When we're out walking Pepper (nope, not bored of that chore yet) you can see the snowdrops and other bulbs making their presence felt and it feels like the daffodils are just around the corner. I found myself in a garden centre pondering exactly what we should grow - I feel some onions, potatoes and beetroot are likely candidates, alongside my obligatory field of tomato plants. I am sure that we will get totally over excited and then learn the hard way about what actually works on our little patch of ground but I am looking forward to working with the seasons again and getting into a natural rhythm of digging, planting, tending and eventually harvesting the results of all our hard work. After several years of working hard, especially through the summers, when Gav would temporarily relocate to living in a truck on the road, I am very excited about spending the summer together and hopefully encouraging our healthy active lifestyle that we know we really want. We're also very pleased to have seen another little dog running about on the allotment so our newest family member will be able to enjoy our patch too; I'm hoping that she'll be a great scarecrow in the crucial seed-planting stage.

Talking of Pepper, she's doing great. Pepper has settled nicely into our home and perhaps a little too nicely into our sofa. She's going to be a lot of fun this summer and plenty of excuse for us to go out and play on the beach or the Broads in coming months. If anyone knows how to make a dog chase things though, we'd appreciate any tips you have...