In our family, went someone is being mardy, we often say “Somebody needs a nap”
One of my allotment neighbours needs a nap! First there was the ‘just say no to woodchip’ sign, which was replaced with the one below.
I posted this on the site facebook page because I thought it was off, I’m the only plot in the vicinity with raised beds and woodchip. I think I posted it with a ‘nope, not going to stop’.
Several members of the allotment committee thought it was bullying and removed the sign. Then this one appeared….
Now this year, I did not win an allotment prize but Dennis my amazing potato growing neighbour, who’s plot is opposite the plot with the sign, did, ‘Best Traditional Plot’. This chap did not, he doesn’t have paths, raised beds or woodchip. He also doesn’t have an award winning plot…
I’m not going to change my way of gardening because it works for me, but really this guy needs a nap. Or therapy because tantrums in grown men are pretty sad…
Happy Monday! If you’re in London, it’s still humid but that’s easier to cope with than 6 days of 33C temperatures.
Last week, I tried to work in the heat, I have a feeling that I’ll be spending a good part of this week undoing some work I did last week – it wasn’t my best and I had a temperature/PMT induced headache for a most of it! Fun!
But good things did still happen. I went to Hampton Court with Ms T and Jo. It was a really good day…
And Jo and I embarrassed Ms T in the playground, she said that she was too mature for it but we probably weren’t!
Jo and I have been friends since we were 17 and 30 years later, not much has changed about our friendship although almost everything else has!
Other than that, there was allotment on Saturday and doing bugger all on Sunday! A good week.
This week, I’m not doing a lot, seeing a friend on Tuesday, working – boss is back this week and I have a list of tasks as long as my arm, oh and I need to buy a kettle because mine died over the weekend and this morning I had to boil water on the hob like I’m living in the dark ages!
So this year’s ‘A’ level results came out today and it is to put it mildly a shit show. If you are a bright kid from a disadvantaged area, you probably been downgraded. It sucks and part of me would like to think it’s just incompetence but a bigger part of me feels that it’s probably design. However to hear Gavin Williamson talk about students being over promoted because of exam results based on their predicted grades…..Has he looked at his cabinet colleagues?
Confession time, this has not been my best allotment year. The adjustment to the bigger plot, three months without my hardworking sidekick (Jillian, Destroyer of all Weeds) was tough just at the point that I should have been thinking about Spring planting, and the mysterious case of the beetroots that won’t grow have all contributed to less than bountiful harvests. We did get broad beans and mange tout (and irises, finally), the rose garden/pond area and the flower bed are beautiful and we did really well with the self seeded ‘wildflower’ area. But summer crops have been weird, we’re in August and I’ve had seven courgettes, seven crookneck squash and no patty pans. I did get my first tomato, on my birthday no less but even the toms are behind. My succession planting has been woeful and I feel like all I’ve done is watering, weeding and fretting about how not well I’m doing.
Note the empty bed and the rampant red mountain spinach!
All of this is a distortion of the actual situation. The plot looks good, I had a decent crop of blueberries and pears, I have 14 half litre jars of rhubarb compote in the cupboard (Ma has 9 tubs in the freezer and there are three rhubarb crumbles ready to go in my freezer!), the gooseberries did die (mildew) but we know this is an issue with these gooseberries, I’m beginning to think we should be treating them as an every three year crop, but we have a plan to move them in the autumn, which should help. The summer raspberries weren’t good but we sort of knew that might be an issue and have made a decision to pivot to autumn raspberries anyway. We did have good crops of mange tout and broad beans, there have been some beetroot, the carrots have been amazing (even Ma is coming around to eating my carroty favourites!), as the 32-ish pots of pesto spread between mine and my mum’s freezer will testify. I’ve officially stopped making it for the year. There are three beds of tomatoes that are starting to come ripe, the french beans are about to start and there are cucumbers starting too, so while I’m not drowning in produce, we have a bit and that’s good enough.
The wonky, slightly rude carrots. We do have other perfectly straight ones but this a combo of my inability to sow thinly and rich compost.
If my summer planning was rubbish, my autumn planning has been great, because I cheated and ordered in plants! I have no regrets, sometimes you have to know what you can do and fudge the rest. I have two beds (about 35 in total) of really good looking leeks, two beds of cauliflowers (so far they are producing very small heads!), 20 kale plants that are all thriving and I have two orders of cabbages (20 in total coming for Oct to April harvesting). The chard we sowed is finally coming up so hopefully that will be another crop I can add to winter eating.
The birthday tomato, either a Cour di bue or a Marmade, I’m inclined to think Marmande but it was delicious!
If I can find some time, I still have hopes of florence fennel, pak choi and swede this month as well as extra coriander in September.
Butternuts on sunbeds in the path, not the bed, squash are the naughty kid in class.
My real ‘triumph’ this year has been the squash. Right now, in the first bed, I count about 15 uchiki kuri, a burgess buttercup (first viable bb I’ve managed to grow!), a crown prince (maybe it could be a cross), at least four butternuts and a pumpkin or two. I’ve also learnt a lesson about how I shouldn’t plant, fast winter squash like uchiki kuri with slow ones like butternuts in the same bed. The kuris are nearly done and the butternuts are having a growth spurt! In the second bed I have about three burgess buttercups and about four georgia candy roasters, I love these squash, while I do want to grow winter squash that are more manageable for our one person households, I like big squash and I cannot lie!
We should be well provisioned with storage squash for winter.
Georgia candy roaster
One of the interesting things about this allotment year is how willing we are to change stuff, the plans for next year involve moving beds about on the new half and after some discussion this year, dividing the squash beds. Ma finds these beds too wide to weed and I struggle. Bindweed is a real issue on the new half, sure we have it on the old half but only in patches and it is one of the reasons that we’re moving the gooseberries, but it’s everywhere in the new half (the paths, the gardens and all of the raised beds). We had a plan to raise the height of the beds this year, in the hope that the extra layer of compost would stop it coming up but we do need to get in and pull up the stuff that is persistent. For the paths, we’ll do what we did at the bottom, woodchip and weeding, it’ll be a bit more work because we don’t want to use weed fabric but it works and it helps condition the heavy clay soil.
Roses…
So on the work list for autumn is moving the compost area to the back and creating a ‘weed’ compost bin, raising all of the new beds I built this year up a plank, and filling with compost, dividing one of the squash beds in half lengthwise and putting arches in between the beds for the squash to grow up, dividing the second squash bed into three and maybe adding an extra bed or two where the compost area currently is, moving the two beds next to the garden area to make way for a patio, re-locating the blackcurrants, moving the bed they are in and planting yellow raspberries in it, getting rid of the summer raspberries and planting more autumn raspberries there (I know it’s not advised but I’m doing it anyway), moving the gooseberry bushes into a bed and thoroughly digging out as much bindweed as possible then manuring the area and planting a two new rhubarb crowns, one from Dionne and one from one of ours that needs splitting. I don’t think it’ll all be done this winter. But it’s interesting to me, how much more willing I am to change structure and how much more willing Ma is to suggest it. We are more confident about what we need the plot to be so we can grow the way we need to!
The tallyYet again, I’ve underestimated the french beans….The winter squash bed. Watering is hellish but I’m going to love eating the squash this winter!
So this month is our month, there are many tomato and toast dinners in my future, if I can just keep up with the water and the weeds!
If the first half of the year seemed to drag on forever, I’m finding that summer is whizzing by. Without trying to make light of a global pandemic, the things that have been required of us have become humdrum. Humans are very adaptable and I’ve only been asked to work from home and wear a mask in enclosed spaces. In the last week of July, as I started to think about August, it was raining. I was sitting in my kitchen wearing a jumper because it was cold and grey and wet. Last weekend was a heatwave, so it’s still summer but it is the last month of summer. We might have a September and October of good summer-ish weather but the nights have just started to get a little bit longer and days shorter and autumn is waiting in the wings.
In a year where so much has changed, the prospect of autumn is still not something I’m keen on. There are beautiful autumn and winter days, there are family birthdays and harvests and Christmas, but the days are dark and my brain chemistry doesn’t cope as well as I, or any of the people around me, would like. Now that my birthday is out of the way, it’s time for me to think about habits that are going to help me get through winter.
Lots has been said about mental health and wellbeing this year and I don’t want to add to the noise, but I do want to encourage you to think that your actions can make a difference to your mental health. Biology and circumstances are a huge part of poor mental health, I’ve experienced that and if you are suffering right now, I’m not going to tell you that a walk or the power of positive thinking will cure you. That’s nonsense. This isn’t your fault, but what I can say is that after years of dealing with this, is that managing mental health is a process, it’s constant, there is not quick fix or a magic pill that will make it all better. Sometimes you’ll need more help and sometimes less but what you do can mitigate some of the peaks and troughs and help you to monitor your mood, which can help, even if it’s just that you’ll be able to get help that bit sooner.
So that said, let’s get to the part where I tell you what I’m going to do in August, if you’ve been around for a bit, none of this will be new or surprising, the reason I do them so often is that they work for me.
Tidy
I work better when the flat works. I’ve been re-arranging some space and chucking things out to make the flat less cluttered and easier to use. Last month, I started hoovering the kitchen and hall every day and everywhere else weekly. I loathe hoovering, but I live in a house with wooden floors and they are very dusty, sweeping doesn’t really work and hoovering does. So this is something I need to force myself to keep doing through August so that by September it’s habit.
2. Exercise
Also started in July was morning yoga, this and body balance is going to be key to starting my day at home when it’s dark and I don’t need to be out of bed until the last minute. Last winter, I did yoga on work from home days and it’s good for me. So morning yoga on work days and body balance at least twice a week and when it’s not raining a daily lunch time walk.
I need to bring back the routine of getting away from screens and into bed. Last winter, the Golden Hour was actually the Golden Hour and a Half. A time to switch screens off, reset the flat so it was ready to go the next morning and have a bath (I’m still absolutely convinced that 30 minutes in a hot bath helps me be less depressed, even if there has only been one study to that effect – it’s about raising the body temp!). So for weekdays, we start that again.
Here we are, another Monday and my first post of the month. The beginning of August is my time, I relax and celebrate surviving another year, but birthday week is done and today, I’m back to work (from the kitchen table)
So far August has been lovely, I spent time with my family.
Smallest nephew has learnt to take photos with his kindle
Time on the plot
View from the back of the plot, it was a bit cooler in the shade!
Ma and I did a dump run, a trip to Ikea, a trip to the garden centre and some DIY at Ma’s all on the same day! I went to tea at Jo’s, learnt to pressure can with godchildren 3, 4 and 5.
I feel that I had a week that was a great balance of social, relaxed and productive. It was also a bit hot towards the end of the week! It’s definitely middle-aged but I’m completely embracing it!
Birthday flowers from allotment friends
This week is a four day week, because on Friday, Jo, Ms T and I are going to Hampton Court, the clock is ticking on them going back to Coté d’Ivoire and I want to see as much of them as I can while they are here!
It’s all about work and allotment until the August Bank Holiday, and then it’s small nephew’s birthday and schools going back and assuming that that doesn’t affect the R rate, then Ma and I get our long awaited holiday in Amble at the end of Sept!
I’ve not eaten food I didn’t cook for quite a while now, I’ve seen people talk about how lovely it’s been since lockdown has eased, to go out to a restaurant and I know lots of people have been ordering take away during lockdown.
I have not, while I do eat out occasionally under usual circumstances, and I am going to miss the lunch at Hawksmoor we had planned for my birthday (Hawksmoor are only opening for lunch at the weekends and I don’t want to go into the centre of London for dinner or at the weekends at the moment) but I’ll live. I don’t really order in food either, the last time I had a take away at home was when I had my foot op (five years) and other than that, we have fish and chips when we’re in Amble.
Lockdown didn’t change how much of my own cooking I eat and in some ways (not having to pack lunch or breakfast) has made it a lot easier. It’s been a time, I’ve been able to be more creative not less but while I am at home more, I’m still working so I’ve needed to meal plan, I have more time to cook but not all the time in the world! I’ve made hummus before, this one from Felicity Cloake (made you’ll note when I was unemployed and had much more time) and have often made it from a can of chickpeas. One of the joys of having had a blog for such a long time and of running it entirely for my own enjoyment is that I can and will repeat recipes when I find a new one that works.
Say hello to the new hummus recipe! I’ve taken to making this on a Sunday so I can eat it for lunch with vegetables and flatbread through the week. It has a few steps but it’s pretty hands off and makes really smooth hummus. My biggest variation from the recipe has been in the amount of garlic (about eight cloves instead of just one) and often more lemon juice. Do use the reserved liquid, what appears to be a soft and perfect hummus when it’s warm and straight out of the food processor can turn into a concrete brick when it’s been in the fridge a couple of days! I have used both tahini and peanut butter when I’ve run out of tahini, both work fine.
The theme of my week was tidying up and it continued into the allotment. Ma and I re-purposed some furniture from the flat and re-arranged the shed.
Floor space! Looking back we seem always to have a shed tidy at this time of year, it might be because we’re preparing for visitors for my birthday. Whatever the reason, it’s done.
This wasn’t the only thing being tidied up. Ma went to work at the front of the plot and got all the weeds and californian poppies up. We love the poppies but they do start to go over and when the grass gets to a certain point we just pull it all up, lots of the seed pods have already burst so we won’t be short of poppies and it’s nice to see how the day lillies are spreading.
I tidied up the rampant tomatoes and weeded the flower beds. And I watered, which is a massive task right now. The jump from a half to a full plot is huge in terms of watering..
As with everything else this year, the tomatoes are behind, but they are there!
The spare squash in the second squash bed are starting to take off, I planted a summer squash in there too and it’s a patty pan. So while I did not at all manage restraint with the winter squash, I managed total restraint with the tomatoes (35 plants) and the summer squash (one courgette, one patty pan and one crookneck). Bow before my awesome power! Though maybe not too near the winter squash bed, you might not find your way out!
The kale has also put on a growth spurt, as had the bindweed. It’s going to take time to stop that stuff at the top of the plot. As the new beds become free, we’re going to add another row of planks and make them deeper, which will help with control and means another year when all our money is spent on compost! The annoying thing is that is really works, none of the raised beds are very weedy and I’ve been mulching the new flower areas and it works so well. Ok technically, the red mountain spinach is a weed but it looks pretty and I like a bit of wildness in the garden!
Ma is coming down this afternoon to do a bit of weeding, I’ll be there for lunchtime watering but probably not a lot of weeding. On Saturday, the family are visiting so the boys and Ms T can have a look, I need a competition for them, last time it was name all the fruit and veg plants, I remember Ms T was very impressed with the £2 prize, Oli was aiming for a fiver!
So there probably won’t be much work done but we have work plans for Tuesday and maybe Friday!
I’ve been living in this flat for just over 11 years, when I moved in, I made a deliberate choice not to buy everything I thought I wanted for the flat. In the first year I got a sofa and a table for the kitchen and it took me about 9 years to find the ‘right’ (right = chairs I like, that are right for the flat and that I can afford!) kitchen chairs and I still don’t have a proper wardrobe.
This year, how I live in and use the flat has drastically changed. I’ve been home all the time and even as lockdown restrictions are easing, I’m still working from home and likely to be for quite some time. At work we are talking about more home working even once the office is open because of the need for social distancing. In my office, where my team had desks for 16 people we now have space for 6, so there is going to be a need for more home working until there is a vaccine. My job is not hugely dependent on working in the office and I’m fortunate that I don’t share my space here, so I’m not a priority for going into the office once it’s open.
Also this year, I’ve been more aware of preserving the harvest from the plot and after the panic buying during March, I’m concerned about what Brexit is going to do to food supply and prices. So I needed to make some space for some longer term food storage because the white cupboard in the kitchen wasn’t big enough! All of this to explain that some changes need to be made in my living space.
The first part of these changes took place this week. I re-shelved the cupboard of doom, put more things in it and took things out of other places. I also threw a bunch of stuff out and have a huge bag for the charity shop.
Things are looking much tidier overall.
The next phase will be putting a desk in the living room and moving the chest of drawers (see below) into the bedroom.
For right now, the first thing is done and the flat feels like a different space!
Nic Dempsey 