Raining Again

This was such an amazing rainbow! It was so bright and huge, much more impressive than this photo shows but it’s the best I could get. So beautiful, I stood and stared for a while.

Sunshine and showers definitely sums up the weather over the last couple of weeks/months. I’ve got a few days off for Easter, but the hoped-for plot-days haven’t worked out yet…

We’ve had plot visits and have even done a bit of weeding but it’s hard work having to do it by hand because the ground is too wet to walk on let alone to dig.

Well, that’s the leeks patch cleared to make way for root crops. It’ll need better digging than that to grow some straight carrots!

The leeks were good this year. It’s worth planting them nice and deep to get plenty of white stalk.

The blackthorn has flowered in the hedge but the lovely flowers didn’t last long. The wind, rain, hail didn’t help, but hopefully they were pollinated.

We’ve seen bees enjoying the dandelions, dead nettle and grape hyacinths as well as the other Spring bulbs that are popping up here and there.

I was pleased to see some tadpoles in our little pond although I haven’t seen them since. I have seen a couple of frogs recently though and there’s some frogspawn appeared in the pond on the HAHA wildlife plot.

The teasels on the wildlife plot in a rainstorm yesterday (Good Friday). The sky went black but no thunder like we had on Thursday when the hail was apocalyptic.

Here’s Jamie fighting against the wind and rain while we were trying to secure a honeysuckle trellis which had collapsed on the wildlife plot.

We have achieved some tasks in the last couple of weeks. I’ve managed to weed and feed the garlic bed and Jamie’s cleared the bean tunnel.

And we’ve collected some of the manure for future use - it’s in a compost bin for now. £1.50 a barrow-load from HAHA - what a bargain 😊

Talking of HAHA. We have a fully tenanted site again - it’s great to see the newcomers joining us old-timers 👨‍🌾 And on the sunny breaks it has been a lovely busy site with lots of chat and catching up with plot-buddies. Aah, we do love our allotment and we really should get out there while the Sun is shining because it looks like today may be dry…. with just a small threat of showers… Moby provides the song title.

Woman

I’m not sure how it’s the 10th of March already, but that’s what life is like these days!

A frosted daffodil

So far March has brought frost, fog and rain, but thank goodness a bit of sunshine too!

I’ve enjoyed seeing the various poems in shop windows up the High Street for the Hungerford Poetry Festival - what a good idea! I haven’t had an opportunity to pop into the library yet to see all the locally written ones but here’s my offering - a Marsh Lane one, obviously 😊

We had a very pleasant allotment day yesterday, doing various bits of tidying and clearing - mostly not on our plots, but Jamie did finish the potato patch with a sprinkling of sulphur and a final dig through.

I dug and planted up some of Ivan’s irises - it’s a lucky dip for what colours we may get. There are 4 different plants there so hopefully a good mix - lots of plotholders have been taking them before the plots are re-leased to newcomers. 

Lots of us studying last year’s photos to try and work out which plants to go for ☺️ Here’s a reminder of last year’s fabulous display; we will miss it, but it’ll be nice seeing the colours spread around the site. And we’ve bought ‘Ivan’s Bench’ with donations that plotholders have given for the plants - for Ivan and others to sit and rest awhile.

Last weekend it was very wet but I managed to dig three holes and planted our mini-orchard - very mini! One Conference pear, one cherry and one golden apple. The pear and cherry are in bud but the apple is still dormant. I don’t know anything about fruit trees so it’ll be a bit of a learning experience.

After a nice plot day yesterday it has returned to grey skies today and overnight rain, so I’ve been mostly cooking. A curried parsnip soup made with three decent parsnips from the plot and plenty of delicious spices - that will cover a few lunchtimes this week.

Last week I used some of my dried Yin Yang beans with leeks and parsnip for a very tasty stew, made with passata. We also used a few leeks with a cheesy pasta, leek and Quorn lardons bake - so more-ish but we did manage to make it cover two meals.

As well as the soup today, I’ve been making a focaccia, using Waitrose garlic focaccia mix. It’s been very time-consuming with so much resting and turning but it certainly bubbled and expanded!

I thought I’d gone wrong a few times - the dough was so sloppy, but it looks ok now it’s out of the oven. As you can see, I decorated it with chives, peppers, tomatoes and onion - Some of those pre-roasted peppers look a bit too charred ☺️ And, it isn’t meant to be a Union Jack!!

The song is a reference to International Women’s Day last week and, well, it’s a great song by Neneh Cherry - enjoy (though the video is rather depressing)!

The Riverboat Song

The temperature last week dipped to -9.2° in the polytunnel. Brrr certainly not gardening weather but bright enough to tempt me out for a brisk early morning walk to see the Sun.

As well as frosty walk weather it’s soup weather so I’m glad I pulled leeks and parsnips last weekend before the ground solidified!

I made this delicious curried leek & parsnip soup - flavoured with garam masala and a bit of curry powder. Hmmm, spicy but not hot - just how I like it and it served me for three lunches. That little bowl was just a taster.

Yesterday we went to the plot but it was far too cold to hang around. The leeks have taken a battering from the cold snap but we expect them to recover now that the temperature has - though Storm Isha is now blasting them with strong winds and more rain 😒 Lucky I puddled them in quite deep.

I did have to check the ice that had formed in the buckets, of course. I should have been more creative but my hands were too cold!

The robin didn’t appear at our visit yesterday, poor little chap out in the cold! The swans don’t seem to mind, but I did wish I’d taken some food for them when I saw them the other morning.

This photo was taken on one of the frostiest mornings last week; idyllic though it looks I think I’d only be good as a Summer boat dweller (and maybe not in Britain 🤭)

And those canal photos have given me the opportunity to use this excellent song by Ocean Colour Scene from 1996 (28 years ago - whaaaat?!). Batten down the hatches everyone!

Bridge over Troubled Water

It can be difficult getting into the swing of things after Christmas and 2024 started with such rotten weather that it hasn’t been very motivating.

The rain, brought by Storm Henk, was so torrential that there has been serious flooding in nearby towns and Hungerford’s rivers and canal have all overflowed with some houses needing to be pumped out - not us I’m pleased to say. What a truly horrible way to start the new year 😞

Here's the River Dun by the war memorial, at least 1 metre higher than it should be, with water gushing through from flooded areas upstream. Thank goodness for the marshland around Hungerford to capture most of that excess water. Nearby Marlborough didn’t fair so well…

We’ve had a few visits to the plot, mostly just to plod around thinking how nasty it looks, but our leeks have survived the drenching and continue to grow. This photo shows that there has been some very welcome sunshine this year - makes a nice change to see it on a weekend!

And the broad beans have grown quite tall under their protection as the weather has been mostly mild so far this Winter. We’ll leave them protected for now as the weather has turned frosty and snow is threatening over the next week…

The spindly garlic is the only other sign of good things to come on the allotment.

At home I’m so pleased to see that our hellebore is coming back to life. It’s such a pretty and long-lived flower - perfect for these dull months.

Apart from soggy plot visits, I have regular morning walks up the High Street, just to move a bit! I really like to visit the fruit and veg stall at our market - when we don’t have our home-grown this is the next best thing I reckon.

I’ve bought a few seeds which look interesting including some flowers (Zinnia, penstemon (from one of my mum’s flower lists) and echinacea) and veg (purple dragon carrots, piccolo courgette and biquinho red pepper). We haven’t really started our planting plan yet, but will do soon. 

I haven’t done any interesting cooking yet this year, but after Christmas I made this lovely chestnut & sprout puff pastry ‘thing’ and a delicious parsnip and chestnut soup. I probably should pull another parsnip for soup this weekend actually. I shouldn’t waste them as they’ve grown so well for a change!

Look at that horrible brown water which is usually calm, clean and has trout in. Aah well, it’ll soon be Spring 🫣 But it gave me an excuse to use this beautiful song, of course, provided by the great Simon & Garfunkel. Sit back, relax and sing along. Beautiful.

Snail

We’ve had lots of rain (though thank goodness, nothing like the catastrophic deluge that Storm Babet brought down on some parts of the UK) and a couple of frosts which have turned the plot into the usual Autumn coloured scene. I had two visits to the plot yesterday. The first just to collect some of the mini pumpkins for the nursery school and to get some for my sister. I gave her some beetroot and parsley too.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the parsley plants had survived the frost but I don't think they'll last much longer. I had 5 plants all taken from one Tescos parsley plant - definitely worth splitting and planting out and easier than sowing seeds. Even the one that the slugs ate down to one stem back in May recovered to produce a bushy plant.

The Love lies bleeding has been properly frost-scorched, as has the courgette (small cheer).

The beans from the tunnel really need clearing, but there are a few flowers left unscathed lower down on the Spanish Flag.

Yesterday we were concentrating on clearing the tomatoes and aubergine from the actual polytunnel. The robin flew in there in the morning because I dared to visit the plot with no mealworms for him - he was quite miffed!

I didn't visit that early but the Sun was so low it was casting a beautiful light over the site. 

The temperature in the polytunnel had fallen to 3.4° overnight but it felt reasonably warm in the sunshine and with my thick jumper on. The scabious stellata seedheads are still looking interesting.

The second trug of the day after Jamie and I spent the afternoon chatting and clearing is for me. I’m making a leek, carrot and parsley soup for lunches. And the pumpkins are going to be in a version of this bean and pumpkin curry; I'm going to use some of my dried borlotti beans.

The carrots are crazy; mostly multi-legged and some monstrous ones! And there are snails absolutely everywhere - loads of tiny baby ones looking for somewhere to over-Winter and then come out in Spring to eat all our seedlings 😖

Song title provided by the Smashing Pumpkins.