It’s been busy at work and I’m trying to be proactive at home. It feels like I have to finish all the things before more birthdays and Christmas come along to hit me in the face!
Over the last two weeks, I’ve went to Grace, saw Marina Hyde talk about her new book and there were shenanigans with Ma, involving whiskey! Like everyone else with a brain, I despaired over the state of the Government. Four chancellors in four months seems totally reasonable!
Although I have a entire month and a half before it happens, I’m wondering around the flat working out what needs to be moved before Barney the wonder dog turns up at the flat! He’s a very curious dog and he shows his love and interest by eating/chewing stuff (Labrador problems). Barney is joining the family who are coming over to celebrate Ma’s birthday at the beginning of December. The beneficial side effect is that the flat will be much tidier!
I’m dealing with my usual SAD sleep issues. People with SAD tend to sleep more in the autumn/winter but my sleep is weird anyway and peri menopause is not helping. Having said that I do feel that I’m coping better than usual but the clocks haven’t gone back yet!
Plans for this week are a flu jab this morning, lots of work including a trip to our Southampton office. I’m taking this Friday and next Monday off work. I just need a pause.
Last weekend, Ma and I looked at the weather forecast and decided that there wasn’t going to be much allotmenting. I had planned to spend some time on Saturday but got side tracked by the mice, I spent about an hour and an half, we got another melon (will that ever not be exciting?), kale and a humungous parsnip, I took the green tomatoes that were turning and picked my first from the massive tumbling tom plant in the greenhouse. I also because I can’t help myself did some speed weeding, basically find an area that needs attention and fill a bucket with weeds. It made me feel slightly better about all the things that need attending to but that I don’t have enough time for.
One weed free patch
Last week, the weather was colder and although it’s milder in terms of temperature this week, it feels like the end of summer. Sometimes in October, the weather is glorious and you can eke out the summer but this year, the garden feels like it’s done. Part of that feeling comes from this summer being such a slog, we’ve had produce but I struggled in the heat and the garden struggled with me, the winter squash are all tiny, which yes, I did grow some smaller varieties this year, although we’ve had tomatoes, there were only one or two weeks when we truly had more than we could handle. Every summer is different and every summer has it’s struggles, I’d take 2022 over the washout that was 2021 but I’m ready for a new season.
Another melon
For a lot of people on the site, October and the Halloween event marks the end of the gardening year and they won’t be back until next Spring. As you know, this has never been my plan but we will slow down a bit in November. This is the first winter that I don’t have any massive building projects but there are things I want to do but we’ll start with the October jobs, I need to take in the winter squash and pull down the beans. The sweet potatoes need to come up at some point but as they are in the poly, I will leave them as long as I can. The entire plot needs weeding and a good tidy up. There are things to sow and plant too. The garlic arrived this week with 10 shallot bulbs and they need to go in the ground, we also need to sow the broad beans, we didn’t get to them last year and Ma missed them so we’re going to make time to sow and over winter them.
I don’t feel this picture conveys the massive girth of this parsnip
We also have an embarrassment of free plants coming from a friend, Michael who overbought and so I have some plant plugs coming to me, chard, rocket, swede, turnip and some lettuce to add to the things we sowed a couple of weeks ago and aren’t doing as well as I’d hoped but we’ll give it a go, coriander, chard, turnips, pak choi, spinach. We have free beds outside and a bed in the poly so we’ll plant them and hope. They may not do well and Ma and I will live off the kale, cabbage and cauliflowers we did get in the ground in good time or we’ll have more and be happy about it. It’s a strange thing to be going into October with beds full and growing things.
The longer term work is longer term, I’m moving the corner rhubarb right at the front of the plot, into the middle of the rhubarb patch and I have a spare rosemary to plant in that corner. It’s been there since I’ve had the plot and we split it a while ago and that did not help, I think it needs a more sheltered place to be, everyone sort of steps on it where it is and I want some cover at the front. I’m also moving one of the raspberry beds, it’s my fault, they are in a bed next the main path through the plot and getting on my wick. The bed before the compost bins in partially in shade and so I’m going to move them there when the cabbages in that bed are done, and use the bed by the path for something better behaved like beetroot or carrots! I need to move the rose that came up in one of the compost bins and may actually put an arch at the back for the yellow rose. I’d like to cut back some of the trees at the back of the plot because I’m tired of catching my hair on them. The final tidy up of the year needs to be the boysenberry area, the whole thing needs weeding, mulching and getting into order. The fun project are strawberries. We’re going to have two strawberry planters, and move the elsanta’s we have in the bath into them and add 30 more plants, 10 each of Malwina, Malling Centenury, and Honeoye. I’m excited about strawberries. It would be nice to get more than a handful and we should have enough plants to make that work, for 2024. If we don’t we’ll get another planter next year! (sorry Ma).
So lots to do but after this month we do it a bit more slowly.
Last week we had our first cold snap of the autumn. Not cold enough to require heating but colder than it’s been. As ever in Autumn I was on alert for mice trying to come in their usual spot (my kitchen) and had checked all the traps etc the but they were attacking from another front.
The cupboard of doom. Which I discovered on Saturday morning. Little bastards…
The cupboard of doom is where the meters and hot water pipes are, it has some access to the outside and the outside of my flat is where the porch is being rebuilt. So with the weather and the disruption, it’s sort of expected but I am not ok with mice. There were no signs of mice last weekend so this is a very recent assault on my peace of mind.
So I took everything out of the cupboard, I removed anything that might be remotely tasty to mice, I threw some things away. I hoovered and bleached. Then I put poison down (I don’t believe in humane traps, it just encourages them), and put everything back in the cupboard.
I’ve also ordered some peppermint spray, more poison and a little sonic thingie. None of these things are foolproof but they all help. I’ve rechecked the cupboard on Sunday and there were some tiny signs but less and none this morning.
It got more unruly as the day went on
Other things last week; work, three straight days in the office; lunch with Ma on Tuesday (but only because she left stuff at mine at the weekend and wanted it but it was lovely anyway!); battling the flicky fringe (damp weather and my hair do not play nicely together); wine tasting and general silliness with Ma (we are much more sensible nowadays but the wine/gin/fizz goes in and the fun comes out!); I finished a couple of books; a friend became a Grandma; Joe won supporters man of the match at football and scored a goal and he decided to play, even though they didn’t win; and; there was another melon from the plot. It was generally a much more together week because I’ve finally come to terms with it being autumn and instead of being resentful of it and switched into coping and with coping comes slightly more productivity. I know it doesn’t make sense but generally, I do better under pressure and autumn/winter is constant low level pressure!
Wine tasting
Plans for this week are to repel the rodent invaders, take some stuff to the charity shop, make vanilla extract and plum gin. I’ve promised the guys at work courgette cake and I have a lot of work (you know the kind I’m paid for!) to do. I also need to get my brother something for his birthday, which is next week! Grace is on Saturday and I’m expecting a delivery of garlic bulbs.
Asthma attacks in more than 1m people linked to UK cost of living rationing. With winter coming and given that people with asthma have been excluded from the COVID boosters, this is scary. I pre pay for my prescriptions, it’s £10.81 for 10 months and was something I signed up to as soon as I started HRT. My regular HRT and asthma prescriptions would cost about £118 a year so this saves me about £10 a year, however, any other prescription I might need over a year are also covered by this, so no extra surprises if I get sick. Doesn’t help if you don’t have that £10.81 a month in the first place though!
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is no Mussolini – but she may be a Trump. The thing I find fascinating about Meloni is the way her positions on society are so nostalgic. She’s pro marriage and family but grew up in a single parent household and isn’t married to her partner and the father of her kid because ‘he doesn’t believe in marriage’. She’s been involved in politics since she was a teenager and has as far as I can see never had a job outside of politics. She calls for Italy to be united but didn’t join the coalition for national unity. In this election she’s been able to look at the system and not be implicated in it, so it’ll be interesting to see if she’ll be able to defend that ideological purity when she’s in charge.
We’re having a cold snap this week, so at the weekend, I said goodbye to the majority of the tomatoes. It was time, the weather hasn’t been helping and so many of them were splitting and ruined, so we took all the bigger ones out. Ma wanted to give her cherry tomatoes another week so I let her and the tumbling tom and one of the plants in the polytunnel remain.
Empty tomato beds
So there are green tomatoes everywhere and three empty beds. We also took all the lazy housewife beans in for drying. The gigantes are still green so they hang on but the weather is colder and things are dying, except for the weeds, they continue.
I got to the grass under the plum tree, it’s not finished but I made a dent and Ma collected produce and watered things, we are getting rain but not loads.
I know it doesn’t look like much but there was grass all the way to the edge of the flower bed
Ma and I also fixed the covers on the cauliflower and kale and brussels sprout beds. It’s all ok, but there is lots of tidying to do, we’ll get there.
I did have a cold last week, so I stayed at home and slept a lot and thanked God for the ability to work from home. I was not the only one, it seems like the entire team was sick last week and Sue had a cold too, there is a lot of it around, it feels like we are back to normal and because most of us haven’t had the usual colds for the past couple of years we are all getting them.
Mine was relatively minor but I’m over going into the office when I’m sick, I did that for years and about seven years ago had a really bad run of colds, coughs and finally bronchitis and the worst chest infection that I have ever had. Post COVID I feel no need to tough it out. So there!
I’m making up for it this week by going in on a Monday. We have a new starter and we’re a welcoming bunch so this week I’ll be in for three or four days, depending. Yes I’m going to be tired by the end of the week, but I have no other plans so it should be fine.
The only things of note I did this week (other than shout at the radio about the stupidity of the current shower of idiots that comprise the government and at the England team) was feed Sarah pizza and catch up (lovely would 10 out of 10 recommend!) and cut down all the tomatoes on the allotment, although I feel I should point out that Ma did most of the chopping!
This week is all about coping with life and autumn, which I will find trying but will equally survive. So I hope you all have a good week and survive any trials within it!
So the big news of the week was that I got a melon from the vines in the polytunnel. It was a snack sized melon (about the size of a tennis ball) but I grew it and yes I am very happy with it, because it tasted really good, and I have plans for better growing next year!
But aside from that excitement, we had two really productive days on the plot. First up we finally repotted the blueberries, we did six on Friday, which freed up some buckets, which we repotted the cherry and two of the blackberries into and that then freed up two pots for the baby lemon and lime trees to go into.
Potted up finally
We also re-upped the woodchip where the pots live. And collected tomatoes and fruit and that was Friday.
On Saturday, we re-potted the last two blueberries and then tackled the bean and cucumber beds as well as monster courgettes. The cukes and beans were done and the beans had not been very productive, so it was time for them to go as for the courgettes, we planted four this year only to discover that they were hybrids, and they had taken over the plot. We were struggling to keep up with them. So I decided it was time to call time on this experiment, we collected 10 squash that we’ll use as courgettes (I grated most of them for the freezer) and two that looked like winter squash and are curing in the polytunnel. Clearing beds takes longer than planting them but we got it done and got all the plants chopped up and in the compost bays.
That done, Ma cleared all the mildewed leave off the other summer squash, while I collected woodchip to finish the mulching at the front of the plot, it all looks considerably tidier than it did!
Tidy
I potted up some mint and a spider plant from home and found a tidy baby lavender which is also in a pot. There are a couple of self seeded oregano plants that I need to dig up and pot on too, to say nothing of the knautia and verbena bonariesis that all over the plot.
Self seeded allotment plants
We also topped up the second round of potatoes, closed and cleaned the vents on the poly, watered and relaxed a bit while we discussed plans for next year. I am full of ideas, Ma would just like me to commit to no more plant buying (except the strawberries, which she has already agreed too!)
There is still a lot more to do this month, strimming, weeding the paths and mulching with woodchip, planting out some herbs, tidying up the area that the boysenberry is in, weeding the grass at the front of the allotment, tidying the shed and maybe painting it. There is also the ongoing things that need to happen, harvesting veg and clearing beds but it was nice to get some of the other things that we’ve been waiting to do done!
It feels like autumn, the wake up light is back on, I’ve changed to a warmer duvet and I’m struggling for focus a bit. So a week that featured a team social and a party on Saturday just as I’m feeling the lack of light isn’t the best thing in the world.
However, I had Friday off work and with the Bank Holiday on Monday got some time to rest, although I today I feel like. I’m coming down with a cold, it’s not COVID, but I have a sinus headache and I’m a little bit more snotty and tired than usual. I’m blaming autumn. It’ll be fine..
I have used the extra time off wisely, two days on the allotment and sorting out the overflow of produce. What do you do with another 20 courgettes in 14 days? You grate the majority of them for freezing and make use of your new spiralising attachment for your magimix and you make courgette bread.
Aside from some food prep for the week, I also made applesauce and syrup, plum and raspberry compote, plum gin and more pesto. I’ve put the canning equipment away for a while, it will probably make an appearance when the big tomatoes start to ripen and I would like to can some dried beans but I don’t have the energy right now and I need it out of the way.
That’s sort of the theme of this week at work and at home, I need to get things cleared away so I can face the autumn, in a more organised fashion. Autumn is strictly the time of not winging it! Other plans for this week, consist of the usual walk with Sue and Sarah coming for dinner on Friday and…nope that’s it. A quick and quiet-ish week.
I have felt the suspicious glare of the police – the way Black Britons are treated is a disgrace. On Wednesday, it was reported that the officers in the Met’s armed units are angry that the officer who killed Chris Kaba was suspended and are contemplating handing in their firearms. I was horrified to learn that officers that shoot and kill people (whether ‘innocent’ or ‘guilty’) aren’t suspended automatically while the incident is investigated, they should want that, they shouldn’t be throwing their toys out of their pram. A unarmed man was shot, there is a family that doesn’t have a son or a brother, soon a child that will grow up without a father because they killed him. I grew up on stories of the Met’s racism, I had a friend at school who used to get a lift in from their dad and they were stopped at least once a month. I used to get a lift in from my mum and we were never stopped. Can you guess what the difference was? I live in London, I’m white and I live in a pretty safe part of London and through my life have had very limited contact with the police, but I don’t trust them. I’m fed up of the constant examples of their racism and sexism, I don’t trust them not to protect a police officer that does wrong, I don’t trust them not to over-react and I don’t trust them to protect me. I say this from a place of extreme privilege so I know it’s worse for my black friends. Mark Rowley was interviewed this week about the challenges of his new role and didn’t once mention Chris Kama or the issues that the Met has – they’re in special bloody measures. It may just be a few bad apples but they have comprehensively spoiled the barrel and the sooner they start to facing up to and dealing with it, the better.
Can the working from home model survive the energy crisis? With the caveat that I work in Central London, it won’t change how I structure my week. I currently try to do two to three days in the week and the reduced travel costs more than make up for the raised energy costs. I think it might be different for people in larger houses, my energy use is already about a third lower than the average in my area for flat size.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when it comes to allotment tasks, I’m always late to do something. This year it was the leeks.
I should have planted them out in July but it was so hot and the soil was so dry and hard so they languished in the polytunnel until last weekend when we planted them out. My plan had always been for two of the square beds.
However there were so many, I stuck the leftovers in two other beds and put the last four in a bed in the polytunnel. I haven’t covered them so if we get anything useable great, if not we have others!
We also got around to attending to the back flower bed. We had moved two of the roses into that bed with the relocated peony last winter and added three Edelweiss lavenders. In the spring, Ma had weeded one of the lavenders and it had been in a pot ever since. We knew that bed was going to be weedy and in the spring I’d partially mulched with cardboard and spent potato compost. I’d intended to get to the rest of it but didn’t. It was watered a bit during the summer but not much and the roses had a pretty hard time of it.
The rain last week meant that the weeds all started to come back so it was time to do something about it. It was weeded, I laid cardboard down on the back of the bed that hadn’t been mulched in the spring and added compost over the entire bed. I replanted the lavender and added a hyssop and some pinks. That bed is all pink and white, it was unintentional but I’m hoping that everything beds in and it has a good spring and summer next year!
The flower bed at the front of the plot is also looking good with calendula, zinnias, petunias and the ever present californian poppies doing well. I also seem to have finally got some camomile in that bed too.
I topped the tomatoes and removed a bunch of leaves. They are coming to an end outside but the tumbling toms in the polytunnel are still going.
Finally, and also later than intended we got turnips, coriander, swede, chard, parsley and pak choi sown in modules to go into the polytunnel beds when we clear the summer crops and sweet potatoes out. We’re see how that goes.
Next week, we’re giving it two days, I hope to woodchip the paths, repot the blueberries and get the cherry and citrus trees in new pots. The cukes are coming up and I need to cut the leaves off the winter squash to encourage them to ripen the fruit they have!
Nic Dempsey 