No, it’s ok, I know it’s not actually Friday. It is however, the last day of the week if you’re in the UK and the beginning of the long weekend.
For all that I’m not really a churchgoer any more, I am a Christian and this week and the weekend are a pretty big deal. Sunday is also Lu’s birthday so I’ll be spending some of the weekend with the family too.
In case you missed anything this week, my usual round of my posts this week starts as ever with miscellany and my usual allotment update – where there has actually been some progress!!
And here is the other stuff..
The hard truth about back pain. Having recovered from my first severe back pain incident, I did the exercises on the hour and tried to make sure that I moved, but for the first two days, it was almost like my brain had forgotten how to walk or sit or stand up. After the first two days, I was able to walk more and it helped but before that walking just made the pain worse whereas rest helped.
The Grenfell Tower recovery is still being treated as a PR problem
The Hate U Give wins Waterstones children’s book of the year. I also completely agree with James Daunt that this book needs to be read by adults too.
A harassed woman tweeting her story isn’t tantamount to a witch hunt
These gaping holes in male learning and collective action are filled not only by female solidarity, where knowing women look out for one another and swoop in where able, but also by a noisy minority of men whose chief priority in the war against sexual harassment seems to be in reminding everyone that not all men are evil.
The rhubarb isn’t the only sign of spring, the grape hyacinths are appearing, there are buds on the plum tree and blueberries and leaves on the raspberries and gooseberries, tiny leaves but leaves nonetheless.
Remember I said that I’d solved the mystery of the additional roll of edging, and that the benefactor had been my lovely allotment neighbour, as she was helping clear an abandoned plot. She also found six fixed edging thingies (the type that we’ve been using to surround some beds) and left them on the plot. Ma and I bought two more and lo instead of one big salad bed that everyone walks on, we have two smaller ones!
On the bits that aren’t fenced in and aren’t paths, I’ve sown some herbs (coriander) and I’ll sow some flowers. That was my first job, then we planted out some of the potatoes. The anyas. I’m not sure that it isn’t too early but they weren’t so much chitting as becoming trees, also weird cold weather aside, they need planting. We are growing them in bags so I’ve also covered them in fleece, which should protect them from frost. We also sowed two rows of peas (early onwards) and covered them in fleece too. You can see them in this photo.
That done, I also split the mint and it went into the green container, two terracotta pots and a bucket.
It’ll need another couple of coats and then we’ll just do another every autumn.
The rhubarb also had leaves…
Overnight oat breakfast pots with rhubarb compote.
I also saw a couple of people and had a chat and found out that my allotment neighbour was responsible for the mystery roll of edging left on my plot!
The broad beans look ok, although there are some gaps! As we haven’t planted anything else out and the cavolo nero and chard aren’t up to much, it’s all pretty much as it was.
It doesn’t look like much but it makes me happy. I was comparing this time last year to now and everything is further behind this year thanks to the beast from the east. Every year is different, although every year Ma tells me to remember that we might not have a good year this time but every year I feel that, eventually, we do alright!
Nic Dempsey 