Allotment Adventures: Award Winner

Posted on July 5, 2017 by nicdempsey

Last week was a bit of wash out on the allotment front, I was ill from Tuesday to Thursday so didn’t get to the plot, thank goodness that the weather was colder and there was rain, otherwise my poor plants would have been stuffed.

The Open Day was on Saturday and I did a stint at the cake stall and the plant stall.There was a bar too!A friend from work, who lives nearby, came to visit and I showed her around and offloaded two courgettes, a crookneck squash and some herbs on her!

But the real surprise of the day was my award of a runner up for the prettiest plot.My allotment neighbour, Tana, had shown the judge round last week and the judge had apparently been very taken by my how pretty it was. That inspired Christina to set a new category and someone else had a prettier plot! Darn it! I’m chuffed to bits, I love my plot but I’ve never thought of it as pretty, I’m glad that my efforts to introduce some bee friendly elements has helped it though!

I also took advantage of the plant sales to buy three tiny hidcote lavenders, a cabbage, a tarragon plant for the herb bed, three hollyhocks for next year and a day lily.

The only bad thing about the day was that I spent about 8 hours on my feet. After we kicked the visitors out, we had a barbecue and by the time that was done and went back to my plot to collect a courgette, a cucumber, the potatoes (Charlottes) that my lovely neighbour Joe gave me, and some peas. I got home about 9.30. Sorted the peas out and went to bed!

On Sunday, my only plot goals were feeding everything and getting the excess tomatoes and one romano pepper plant into buckets. Three trips to Wilkco’s later, I was done although the greenhouse is looking very full. My aim is to have them outside, once the peas are cleared but for now it’ll do. I have nine different types of tomatoes on the plot now. My original four (Jen’s tangerine cherry, orange banana, amish paste and red cherry)  three mystery ones that were a gift from another plot holder but I think there is a black tomato in there, and from Laura some gardeners delight and moneymaker. A couple of plants aren’t doing fantastically but 34 tomato plants is about 22 too many!

I harvested four more courgettes (the glut seems to be upon us already!), spinach, salad leaves and more peas. I also watered and fed everything and did some ad hoc weeding.My timehop for last year had two photos of the plot so I took some photos from the same spot for a compare and contrast. It’s only when I see the pictures, I realise how much work we’ve done!

I never end a post about the plot without list of work to do for next weekend. Here it is.

  • weeding, especially the strawberry, salad and courgette beds (bloody bindweed)
  • pull up the peas and relocate the bucket tomatoes
  • sow some lettuce in the leek beds
  • toilet rolls on the leeks on the second bed – this is to blanch the stems, I’m not so worried about that but I want to see if I can stop the fox sunbathing there and destroying my crops
  • sow the pak choi, chard etc, that I’ve been saying I’ll sow for the last couple of weeks
  • plant my cabbage plant out in the brassica bed
  • plant out the tarragon and day lily
  • sort out the strawberry runner situation
  • cover the spinach to protect it from the pigeons

So it’s not too long a list but it’s quite a bit of work.

 

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What I’ve Read – June 2017

Posted on July 4, 2017 by nicdempsey

June was a quiet reading month. Mostly because there’s no time except on the commute. I’ve had so many weekends, where I haven’t read at all because it’s so busy either on the plot, doing housework or actually talking to people! However, I have started to make inroads into the TBR list on the Kindle with the overall goal of having it down to the 40’s by the end of the year. It’s currently at a shocking 72!

The Flame Bearer – Bernard Cornwell (bought)

Until the next book, I’m finished with Uhtred of Bebbanberg. It was nice to see him back in Northumbria and in Bebbanberg and if there isn’t another book then we’ve left him in a good place. I’ve really enjoyed reading them straight through and there is lots in the book to think about.

Pipe Dreams – Sabrina Bowen (Kindle TBR list)

I’m reading through the series, look I like them, I like that both the main characters have to face up to the big and small ways that they mucked up. There’s a bit where the heroine realises that she’s been a cow, for completely understandable reasons but still and basically works to change that. Of course it’s a romance so everything moves quickly but the book has one of my new favourite lines ‘responsibility is the flip side of joy’. Why yes it is…

Dominion – CJ Sansom (Kindle TBR list)

I really, really enjoyed this. It’s alternative fiction and starts with the idea that Halifax not Churchill became Prime Minister after Neville Chamberlain resigned in 1940. From there Britain makes peace with Germany instead of fighting on. The book starts in 1952, Britain is an authoritarian state with Beaverbrook as PM and Mosley as Home Secretary. Churchill and Atlee are leading the Resistance. It’s not too difficult to imagine the world th at Samson has created and I found it really odd and horrifying because it was so believable.

Just Right – Erin Nicholas (Kindle TBR List)

Easy read after Dominion. All the bits of Nicholas’ books that I like but I don’t know a bit angsty. I just expect people who have difficult relationships with dead parents to have their shit sorted by the time that they’re 30 (because I did so well at that…).

Tangled in Texas – Kari Lynn Dell (Kindle TBR)

When I need easy reading, small town or cowboy America does it for me. I can’t do contemporary romance set in London because I can’t handwave all the things that aren’t right in them away. But these are so far from real life for me it’s fine. I know that small town USA is probably not all that much fun in real life and that I would be driven completely insane but books like this one are easy and I can handwave what’s going in because I know nothing about Texas, small towns or rodeo. As for the actual story, it was fine, there was enough going on to keep me occupied. I found the changes that the hero and heroine went through more or less realistic and I liked that they both worked through them in a more or less adult way. It’s great how you can be aware of other people’s issues whilst completely not noticing yours and that’s how arguments happen!

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel (Kindle bought)

I failed at reading this a couple of years ago and it was 99p on Kindle and Helene was raving about it and so I tried it again. I read a lot of end of the world stories and as they go this was ok. I didn’t quite understand the raving of either the reviews or H. It’s mostly set 20 years after a flu has wiped out civilisation as we know it but goes backwards and forwards and is far too full of coincidence. I don’t know, it didn’t strike a chord for me, but seems to have for loads of other people. f would rather read The Reapers are the Angels again….

After All – Erin Nicholas  (Kindle TBR)

More small town escapism

The Left Hand of God – Paul Hoffman (Kindle TBR)

I’d read The Left Hand of God ages ago and the Last Four Things has been sitting on my kindle for ages. So I re-read TLHoG to remind myself before I started in on The Last for Things. Honestly the style of the book is all over the place but I like the mashing of the worlds and it moves along at a clip but I can hear the author all over it so it’s hard to lose yourself in the story.

 

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Best/Worst 26 June to 2 July 2017

Posted on July 3, 2017 by nicdempsey

 

Best I won an award! 

Friday Night wine was not the most sensible decision I’ve ever made but fun!

The simple pleasure of being home after you’ve cleaned it and made it more beautiful!

 

Worst

Stomach bug. You don’t need details but it was bad!

Honourable mentions to Friday drinks, conversations with friends, a successful Open Day and my unexpected talent at sales, Lois from work visiting the allotments, a conversation with Oli (he was keen to make sure I knew what to bring as a present this week), cucumbers, peas and potatoes from the allotment and the start of the courgette glut.

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July 2017 Goals

Posted on July 1, 2017 by nicdempsey

How are we in July already? Right enough moaning about the passage of time, let’s get down to business. How did June go? Really not too bad at all. Quick recap below.

JUNE GOALS

Turn over, turn out. I was pretty good. I realised that I’ve reset the time I can bear to get out of bed from 8am to about 7am, which is still a good hour after I need to be out of bed! But the sunshine helps and I’ve been getting it done, slight readjustment was required to accomodate the morning watering in the middle of the month but all good.

Sunblock and moisturise. I didn’t burn to a crisp but I really hate how sticky sunblock makes my skin.

Feet. My feet are soft but I can’t ever get them totally clean, or I do and then they are dirty fine minutes later but I’m calling it good.

Update the spreadsheet every week. £15 a week on food, keep money for food and everything else separate. Keep to overall goals. That was all good.

Both house and allotment are looking tidy and productive.

Now for July. The month is kicking off with the Allotment Open Day, I’m up in Bedfordshire for Oli’s school fete, I’m out for dinner once that I’m aware of and off to a 30th wedding anniversary party at the end of the month. I spoke to Christelle about getting together in July and it was “nope see you in August”. It’s a busy-ish month. So it’s about work and keeping on top of my life on the month before my birthday month, when I have a week off and more time with the nephews…

So I’m keeping all of the goals above and adding a few more

House

  • Sort out the grout in the bathroom. I keep looking at it and thinking I need to scrub it so I need to spend an afternoon getting that done.

Self Care

  • Make an appointment for the doctors. I need some advice on how best to re-hab my still quite sore ankle after the sprain in May, and I need to re-up my sleeping pill prescription and asthma prescriptions (joy!)

That’s it, less is more!

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Friday Links

Posted on June 30, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! Links are sparse this week because I have been sick, no-one needs details but it was a stomach bug and it was messy.

For those of you nearby, I’m going to put a plug in for the Northfields Allotment Open Day. Please come and see why they are worth saving from development, buy some cake/plants/produce/Pimms. There’s lots going on, they even built a bar and I’ll be manning the cake stall and the plant stall at some point in the afternoon.

Here are this week’s links….

I’ve always loved living in cities – but you have to tell yourself lies to get by  Hadley Freeman lived in the posh bits of inner London. When people ask me where I grew up, I always qualify it by saying “Fulham but not the posh bit”. One of the things that I’m really angry about is way we’ve become socially segrated. It didn’t used to be like that. One of my close friends went to private school and we met doing A levels. I sat at a table at a wedding last weekend, some of us were state educated, some privately and some went to public school. At the same time, I’m a couple of degrees of separation from some of the people killed by the fire at Grenfell. I don’t think my world is terribly diverse and I am aware of my privilege, but it frightens me that somewhere along the line people started viewing people from different social classes as ‘other’ and treating them accordingly.

Theresa May – female scapegoat or cruelly calamitous? I honestly think May is the architect of her own destruction but yes the way she has been attacked feels disproportionate. In the same way that the attacks against Diane Abbot felt disproportionate.

As a Labour voter, all I want is the biggest fight against the Tories we have ever had, so we can get them out and get some values of human decency back in government: safe and long-term housing for all; a solid welfare state; schools not run as businesses, where qualified teachers aren’t leaving in droves; jobs with real contracts and real salaries for all; a government not led by weird immigration phobias and phantom bogeymen.

As a woman, I see that it’s the powerful woman who is once again the witch for our nation to burn. And I feel a bit sick.

The government’s abortion commitment is good news. But it’s not enough

Applauding a public sector pay cap? Tories are cheering their own demise.  I rarely see eye to eye with Polly Toynbee but this is spot on..

Michael Bond is dead. He was 91 this was probably not a surprise but when people who have created massive parts of your childhood die, it’s sad.

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Pasta Salad

Posted on June 29, 2017 by nicdempsey

I’m more or less an organised person, sometimes more and sometimes less but generally when I say I’m feeling out of control people either laugh or if they know me well start to back away slowly because things have gotten really bad.

I’ve been meal planning for ages and it’s one of the key things I do to feel in control of  my work week, I’m definitely food movitated so if I know what’s for dinner, I feel ok about the rest of my day! When I’m at work, I tend to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch.

But I’ve been slacking a bit and but the recent extremely hot weather and my extreme reluctance to do anything once I get home has been a bit of an issue. Sometimes though the internet gives you inspiration, step forward Cassie talking about pasta salad.

It’s the perfect lunch and I can do it all on Sunday night. Of course I didn’t use Cassie’s recipe, the first one I made mid week had whatever was in the fridge so pickled courgette (the last of it!) peppers, celery, spring onions and olives. It was pretty good but I thought I could do better.

So I got bit more organised about it. Firstly, I decided to use wholewheat pasta and roast the vegetables. I used tomatoes, onions, broccoli and cauliflower and a courgette which I roasted with smoked paprika, salt, pepper and oil.

I added the roasted vegetables to the cooked pasta and stirred in some pesto (I used the carrot top pesto that I had on had but a jar of something would work well too.)

That is pretty much it. Easy simple and only half an hour of hot kitchen torture!

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Allotment Adventures: Friday Fun

Posted on June 27, 2017 by nicdempsey

The beginning of last week was so hot I was on the plot every day and because I actually had something to do on Saturday, I didn’t go on the weekend.  Ma and I went on Friday afternoon to get some things done.

This was my list.

  • Sorting out the gooseberries – done.

All three have been cut back, it was sad to do but needed. We are going to dig them up in the winter and clear the roots of weeds which will also give us the opportunity of having all three in the same place and giving them a bit more growing room

  • Breaking down and disposing of the grey box – done.

The bits are still on the plot but mostly in the shed so until we get to the dump that’s as done as it’s going to be.

  • Do something about the tomatoes which I can’t give away because Laura and Oli gave them to me and I want Oli to see that we kept them. (Joe doesn’t care, he’ll just eat them). It’s been so hot and they need to be out of their little pots, the sooner I can get this sorted the better! – not done

But I’m halfway there, I have buckets drilled and it’s just a case of getting the compost and dumping them in.

  • If I then have some time, I’ll sow in the greenhouse (more beetroot, chard, spinach, winter leaves, pak choi, cavolo nero) – not done. Not enough time

Ma’s list is:

  • Cut back the grass around the edges of the plot. – done

I did this as the peas and weeding took longer than either of us expected

  • Finish weeding at the top of the plot – done.
  • Pick some peas and courgettes – done

The plot is looking great at the moment, we harvested four courgettes and our first crookneck, spinach, salad and peas!

Because I’m allotmenting solo this week, I just need to keep on top of the watering and the weeds.

No grey boxThe rampant squashand the second squash!

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Friday Links

Posted on June 23, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! It’s a very happy Friday for me because it’s back to more seasonable temperatures and I’m no longer using fruit ice lollies to get my five a day! I also have a day off work to sort my life or at the very least, the allotment out before going to a wedding on Saturday and having a day of rest of Sunday!

Here are this week’s links…

Will Self thinks Britain should have a written constitution. I haven’t thought about it, since the last time Ma and I had an argument about whether Britain HAD a constitution. Ma maintaining that if it wasn’t written down, it didn’t exist! Concrete thinkers, the rest of my family. It’s the not writing down I’m not keen on, it’ll be the debates and referendums and what happens to the monarchy? etc. Although if we could be a republic…fine…

Duke of Westminster’s property group to build 1,500 rental homes in London. It’s nice to see that the new Duke of Westminster is building affortable housing, but is is me or is just terrible that he’s the only one that sees the point?

May’s chequered history on LGBT rights doesn’t inspire confidence.

How my passion for gardening helped ease my anxiety. This is lovely, I can relate.

Hayfever sufferers should drink gin to help ease symptoms. Ok, it doesn’t actually say that, but close enough.

The disappearing urban butterfly

Prince Harry says no one in the royal family wants to be king or queen. If that’s the case they could abdicate and live as private citizens but they don’t want to do that either. I agree that the circumstances around his mother’s death were awful and no child losing a parent has it easy. However my grandad was 10 when his mother died and my mother was 14, so yes, it’s horrible but it happens and they both had to go out at 14 and 16 respectively and find work and managed to do that without dressing up like Nazis or being photographed naked in Vegas. Harry may have had an easier time if his remaining parent wasn’t an emotionally stunned, pompous man-child but he also has the kind of monied and indulged life that is not available to the rest of the population (we just pay for it). If you don’t like the life you have, change it. If you don’t want to or can’t change it, demonstrate some of the stiff upper lip your class is supposed to be famed for and don’t whine about it. Sorry I find this to be completely self indulgent, self pitying waffle and more like the nonsense his father comes out with on a fairly regular basis. And yes, I’m still a republican..

Millions of mysterious ‘sea pickles’ swamp US west coast This is fascinating, looks like an invasion to me….

Britain had a heatwave and we’re crap at dealing with it. So, so true. I didn’t burn but I definitely have a farmers tan going on!

Ant McPartlin has no reason to to apologise. His addiction is not his fault. Erm, it’s never that black and white. The problem is that addiction is an illness AND a personal failing. It’s easy to say it’s an illness, not my fault and after a while it’s a physical addiction but every time an addict uses or a drinker drinks, it is a personal choice to do so. If you don’t accept that you won’t stay sober for long. When I talk about my dad, I always say that he loved me but not more than he loved his next pint. Which sums it up quite nicely but is really hard to live with. That’s why organisations like Al-Alon exist because addiction doesn’t just effect the addict. I hope McPartlin gets better, it’s possible, but you have to understand that it’s more than just a disease, it’s something you have to keep being focussed on and part of that is admitting that what you did hurt others.

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Allotment Adventures: Early Morning Watering

Posted on June 22, 2017 by nicdempsey

It’s been so hot this week. One of the disadvantages of growing your own is that you have to water your own!

I’ve mostly been watering in the morning, it takes about 45 minutes because I planted such water loving plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and squash) and there’s just more going on this year. This time last year, I had two courgette beds, peas, two tomato beds, a salad bed and a bed of french beans. (this photo was taken on 26 June 2016) This year, there are three tomato beds, one cucumber bed, a courgette bed, a crookneck, a patty pan, 4 winter squash, two pea pyramids, two sweet pea pyramids, two leek beds, a bigger salad bed, an old bath with carrots and spring onions, a bed of french beans, the brassica bed which has broccoli and cavolo nero and french beans in it and a bag of potatoes. Also because it’s been so dry the raspberries and rhubarb need watering. There’s a hell of a lot more to water…I worked from home on Tuesday so the watering was more leisurely and I picked sweetpeas and raspberries for breakfast. It never gets old.I skipped watering on Wednesday morning and went in the evening so I could also pick dinner (and more sweet peas!), picking your dinner never gets old.I’m really amazed at the growth the baby blue hubbards have put on, I’m starting to train them up the arch and I have my first baby squashThe broccoli and cavolo nero have gone from the wilty things that I didn’t think would live to stronger looking plants.And the crookneck has loads of fruit that should be ready for picking soon!I water the plants, my feet and sweat but I get to check on the plants, work out what needs to be done at the weekend and one of the perks is peas as a breakfast snack!

 

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Allotment Adventures: Non Lazy Summer Sunday Morning

Posted on June 21, 2017 by nicdempsey

I have this weekend and next weekend before I’m losing my weeder for a weekend. Ma is away on holiday at the the end of June which co-incides with the Open Day. Where I’m doing double duty, an hour on the cake stall and an hour on the plant stall!

Ma’s well deserved holiday aside, that means I have two weekends to get the plot into shape for the Open Day because I love it and I want to show it in it’s best light and thank goodness that I don’t have to think about the whole site, like the committee does. During the week, I’d got a pretty good morning watering and raspberry picking groove going on. I’m still fighting a war against slugs and snails in the greenhouse but I have my first tomatoes.

The weekend though is for work, not maintenence and we had a lot of it to do and it was really, really hot. On Saturday evening, we did the watering and picked our first courgette (it was a little undersized but Ma wanted to pick it before it turned into a baseball bat. We also picked salad and raspberries.Then we went home and had a martini…

Despite or maybe because of the martini, on Sunday we got to work early (8am-ish) and this is what we got done.

‘Prune’ the plum tree and tidy up around it

This was the first thing that I did, I wanted to remove a big branch so I did that and some very minor pruning because I didn’t want to shock it too much.  I also got rid of the various bits and pieces that have been building up around the shed and tree, in preparation for the weeding that Ma was going to do. And admired my first anemone.

Plant out the remaining leeks 

This was the first year I’ve grown leeks and I’ve learnt a couple of things about waiting. I was really worried about them but I just need to sow them in a deep pot and let them get on with it. I have two beds with 30 leeks in them and the left over ones I planted closer together in the salad bed and we’ll eat them as baby leeks earlier.

Thin carrots

I way oversowed these (top tip try not to drop your seed packet!), so although I’ve removed loads and made pesto with them, it’ll need to be done again in a couple of weeks time.

Sow more beetroot, spinach and lettuce. 

I didn’t get around to this last week but it’s done now, I do need to sow some stuff (more beetroot, chard, spinach, winter leaves, pak choi, cavolo nero) in the greenhouse for planting out a bit later on, for autumn, but I probably won’t get to that until July!

Weeding at the top of the plot

Ma did this and although she says she has more to do next week, it looks so much better. I also planted out, two lemon scented geraniums in between the rhubarb, they won’t survive the first frosts but I have two at home to take cuttings from next year, if these work for summer.

Cut back the grass around the edges of the plot.

I did a bit by the carrots but it’ll need cutting back next week, I need to get a strimmer! It’s my birthday in August!!

We also watered and fed everything. It doesn’t look like much but it was four hours in the very hot heat. We finished by picking more sweet peas, raspberries, salad and my first cucumber! 

There is loads more to do next week I need to prioritise the following:

  • Sorting out the gooseberries
  • Breaking down and disposing of the grey box
  • Do something about the tomatoes which I can’t give away because Laura and Oli gave them to me and I want Oli to see that we kept them. (Joe doesn’t care, he’ll just eat them). It’s been so hot and they need to be out of their little pots, the sooner I can get this sorted the better!
  • If I then have some time, I’ll sow in the greenhouse (more beetroot, chard, spinach, winter leaves, pak choi, cavolo nero)

Ma’s list is:

  • Cut back the grass around the edges of the plot.
  • Finish weeding at the top of the plot
  • Pick some peas and courgettes!

Other good things, spotted on Sunday:

Our first outdoor tomatoes (these are orange banana)

Flowering chives

We’ve left the greenhouse open for the last couple of days, because it’s been so hot but I’m hoping for a return to slightly cooler weather soon!

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