Allotment Adventures – Heating up

Posted on June 27, 2018 by nicdempsey

It was a hot week and I was on my own. I had a lot of stuff to do in the house and as the forecast for this week was very hot, I didn’t go to work. I went to water and pick. Much to my relief the pumpkin plant is still alive, look at the one at the bottom getting confident and growing big. Also doing well is Ma’s love lies bleeding at the end of the bed…The raspberries are amazing at the moment, and take ages to pick

Everything is doing well and the next couple of weeks of predicted warm weather will be great for giving everything a boost, if not for the amount of watering I’m going to need to do. We have full size beetroot now…Coming out was the most amazing sky I have ever seen….Which almost but not quite made up for the 10 bites and massively swollen hand (allergic reaction) I came back from the plot with!

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Monday Miscellany

Posted on June 25, 2018 by nicdempsey

Morning All!

I feel that I didn’t stop this weekend, of course I did but it just feels like I was doing something, planning to do something or stopping doing something so I could go to bed. But on Saturday night, there was an amazing sky!Every couple of years, I have a year where I seem to be either very tasty to bugs or very allergic to the bugs that do bite me. This year seems to be one of those years. I have a ten bites right now and my right hand (three bites) got incredibly swollen on Sunday and itchy and sore. More anti-histamines…That’s my fist, can you see all four knuckles? Exactly, it’s not normal…

Sarah and Fred and I went for our walk this Sunday and found Sharon from Allotment Life at the market at Brentford. It looked amazing and I wish I’d been together enough to take a photo of her beautiful flowers!

I did however take a photo of Fred finally conked out after our walk.This week is going to be hot. So my life is going to be work, water, home, sleep. That’s it, I don’t expect to have a life other than that, therefore, I’ve actually got my act together and done some food prep which is good. This week, I want to try going to work on the district line because it has air-conditioned trains but I have no major goals for this week, other than to keep on top of the watering and get through a big week at work!

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Friday Links

Posted on June 22, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

 

Russia Is Just One Tournament Cancellation Away From Being Crowned World Cup Champions

Russia enjoyed an emphatic curtain-raising at the 2018 World Cup, beating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in Moscow. The home squad faced little resistance from their opponents, who approached the match with all the verve and incisiveness of 11 men simultaneously recovering from cataract operations

John Barnes on racism, football and Russia. John Barnes: ‘I would never advise a young black player to walk off’

Cites Same Bible Passage Used to Justify Slavery to Defend Immigrant Family Separations.  I’ve seen lots of other things about how this in a misinterpretation of the passage but this week I’ve been reading about Waterloo and there’s a quote from General Blucher about a defecting French general. The general defected on June 15 and ran to the Prussians, he was accepted but Blucher wouldn’t talk to him and when asked why said “Hundsfort bleibt Hundsfort” which basically translates as ‘once a dog’s vagina, always a dog’s vagina’. Sessions knew who Trump was and Trump showed the world who he was. Anyone who can believe or work for Trump’s agenda, needs a whole lot more Jesus in their life. You know the Jesus who hated hypocrites and loved sinners….

Universal credit savaged by public spending watchdog

Great Exhibition of the North: best days out in the north-east. I’m not going until after this has finished but Newcastle is lovely and I heartily endorse Alnwick (esp Barter Books), Low Newton and Dunstanburgh, Druridge Bay, Howick Hall, Tynemouth and Durham! Roll on September!

‘Call me Mr President’: Emmanuel Macron scolds teenager. It’s very Macron, the formality of the French and respect for the office.

From overnight oats to boiled eggs – is meal prep taking the joy out of eating? Not for me, because I only really eat the same thing for weekday breakfasts and lunches but my views on the joy of planning are well known!

How They Defend the Indefensible

Donald Trump’s child cruelty shocks us, but it shouldn’t surprise us

Japan and Senegal fans tidy up after themselves at World Cup

The surge in hay fever is rooted in our modern lifestyles. Interesting, my hayfever is ok, I take a one a day tablet and am fine, I think it’s the allotment but my asthma is much worse right now, which is something to do with air pollution.

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Early mornings

Posted on June 21, 2018 by nicdempsey

The new job requires early mornings. We hotdesk and the commute is a bit longer than the last one. So at the absolute outside ie to be in the office at 9am, I need to be out of the house at 7:30am, as a general rule I’m out of the house between 7.15 and 7:25 and am usually in the office somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45. Which works. 

It’s easy right now because it’s summer, it’s not going to be any where near as nice come January!!

Today, the longest day of the year, requires me to be up at 5am for a trip to Hampshire. It’s 6:37 and I’m at the station waiting for the train. Yes I am early, I’m paranoid about missing trains and I I don’t have his maths skills but my grandfather’s blood runs through my veins and he was actually early for his own funeral, such was the power of his timekeeping!!

On the plus side at least it’s sunny!

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Allotment Adventures: Hard work

Posted on June 20, 2018 by nicdempsey

Sometimes when you have an allotment, it seems like you work stupidly hard but don’t materially change anything. This week was one of those weeks.We started, Ma at the top of the plot and me at the bottom. Ma weeded, watered picked an abundance of raspberries (they are really going nuts!) and then weeded them! Oh how she suffered, truly her arms are covered in scratches!

I weeded, watered, and pruned the 4 tomato beds. I love growing tomatoes but the do take a lot of work and a lot of water! I also picked peas and planted out the emergency cucumbers!I sowed borlotti beans in the ‘three sisters’ bedThe spinach had bolted in the hot weather and so we pulled it up and sowed beetroot in its place. I also sowed carrots, lettuce and spinach in the ex-broad bean bed!

We worked for hours, but as ever didn’t get everything done! I’ll water in the week and probably pick peas and raspberries but the work will happen on the weekendI’m solo allotmenting then, Ma is in Lincolnshire for a holiday (which means that though I’m down a weeder, I’ll be up a haslet when she’s back, I didn’t know my Grandma but my love of haslet must be hereditary!)

The list

  • Sow parsley
  • Sow coriander
  • Sow kale
  • Sow chard
  • Sow pak choi
  • Buy and plant basil plants in tomato beds.
  • Weed
  • Water
  • Thin carrots 

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Monday Miscellany

Posted on June 18, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday! Welcome to the week…

Today is the anniversary of Waterloo, which means that Ma and I will be whatsapping the key moments of the battle…it’s our thing…

The French

Last week, I learnt that the Isle of Man has two extra May Holidays a year, so that from May to August, they have a Bank Holiday a month. The question is, is it worth living on the Isle of Man to get the extra days off?

Adjusting to a new commute and workplace has been harder than I expected. For a start, it’s earlier, so I’ve been up and out of the house between 7 and 7:30 every morning and at my desk for 8:30 (mostly because we hot desk and this is the only way to get one!), you’ll have seen it on the blog and I’ve seen it in the state of my house!

I managed to reset the flat this weekend but my goal for this week, I want to work on getting out for a walk at lunchtime and making sure that I’m prepared for each day before bedtime. This week I do have a morning that starts at 5:30 and trip to Hampshire for a team activity day so lots of rest is going to help too…

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Sunday Music: The World Cup Song

Posted on June 17, 2018 by nicdempsey

The World Cup started on Thursday. So this is topical and funny (full disclosure I know Harry’s mum and dad!)

 

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Friday Links

Posted on June 15, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I am so pleased to get to Friday

There was a lot happening this week….let’s start with the orange nightmare

The G7 photo, broken down…Trump, Merkel, Macron: the G7 photos worth a thousand words

Then North Korea.

Trump really has achieved a historic breakthrough – for the Kim dynasty

The Message From Singapore: If You Want America’s Respect, Get Yourself Some Nukes

Not even going with the rest because at home with have Theresa

PM on Grenfell: I do not know why official help took so long to come. Take a stab at it dear…she’s supposed to be running the country…

The blame game is obscuring the real truth of Grenfell

Football Christmas is here! if you don’t like football, I’m sorry for you, it’s going to be hell…

When Brands Use Plus-Size Models and Don’t Make Plus-Size Clothes

 

 

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Allotment Adventures: Visitors and Hard Work

Posted on June 13, 2018 by nicdempsey

After our gin fuelled adventures on Saturday, Ma and I were up early and on the plot by 10am. There was lots to do. Ma started by picking broad beans and I started weeding at the top of the plot.That done, I watered and added more compost to the big squash bed. The squash bed was covered with ‘loves lies bleeding’ which needed to go so transplanted them to two of the circular beds. In the third bed, I set up some canes and planted some runner beans.Then we had visitors.Fred was very confused and excited. We sent them home with rhubarb and broad beans and salad and spinach and tomato and basil plants! Then we got back to work. We put mot compost down in the tomato bed that it not doing well, weeded and watered all the other beds.Then we harvested. Raspberries, strawberries, beetroot, spinach, salad.I was impressed. Peas won’t be that far behindI also sowed another bucket of radishes, and planted out the basil in the tomato beds and the last three tomato plants in a bucket. The courgettes have their first flower, they are behind but hey I’m just pleased they’re alive!

On the list for next week.

  • More weeding
  • Cut the grass
  • Sow more coriander and parsley
  • Sow more salad and beetroot in the cleared bed
  • Sow chard and kale (yes I’m well behind)
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Monday Miscellany

Posted on June 11, 2018 by nicdempsey

Monday has come around far too soon but it’s here and whining about it is going to help no-one, I have a feeling that this week is going to need a whole lot of coffee.

Visitors to the UK who were listening to Radio 4 at 7am on the weekend, may now be under the impression that in the UK we play the National Anthem everyday. We don’t. They play the National Anthem on the Queen’s Birthday, the Queen’s Official Birthday (yes she has two, no I have no idea why!), the Duke of Edinburgh’s birthday and the Prince of Wales birthday.  Two of those things, the Queen’s Official Birthday and the DoE’s birthday, this year fell one day after the other. Which is a very effective of getting me out of bed at 7am on a Saturday morning.

Junipalooza was fun, it was interesting to do it with Sarah and Ryan, I bought a lot of gin.

My weekend was all about gin and the allotment. Fred and Sarah came for a visit. Fred was a very excited dog

This Thursday, is the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year (every four years), yes it’s the World Cup, football madness begins and I for one am very much looking forward to it. If you don’t like football, that’s ok but I do and I may talk about it.This week, I had a total wardrobe malfunction, skirt ripped all the way up the back. Thank goodness for long cardigans.

This week, is another week about keeping it all together. Work, home, steps, watering, sleep and laundry….it’s living life on the bleeding edge.

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