Will I or wont I?

Hi there

Will I sow early tomatoes and chilli's?  I swore not until later last year....

but I have some habanero chilli's to try and scotch bonnet....

Whats the harm...

the early ones all failed last year....

and you swore you wouldn't....

Cant hurt...

<<<<scuttles off for the heated propagator>>>>

Chat later... :o)

Yeah really like I was ever going to be able to wait!

Another problem with wind

Okay okay I know they're affectionately known as Fartichokes but bloody hell!  Jerusalem Artichokes really lived up to and beyond their reputation.  Having not eaten them before we were looking forward to this slightly nutty, potatoey, if a little bit windy treat.  First off I burnt them a little bit and they had a funny aftertaste.  After a few parps on the sofa I though Hmmm thats not so bad...

OMG that night I nearly blew myself out of bed - and with the gales raging outside and trees and fences blowing down all around, not much sleep was occuring in this house.  Not sure about Mr B yet.... I think he was unaffected... normally he is a bit delicate.  Maybe he was just suffocating :o)

Thank god the chokes are in the top allotment which isnt mine now!  As I've been told the only way to get rid of them is to move.

All in all a bit windy round here! EEEEK  :o(

Christmas (ish) harvest!

Hiya!

Okay okay so it was the day after boxing day, but I'm still pretty impressed with my winter harvest!

LOOKIE LOOKIE!  I got baby leeks (okay they were supposed to be full sized but failed!) Cabbage (my first EVER!) Jerusalem artichokes, two sorts of lettuce, mizuna, endive (tried some blech), and a brussell top for experimentation!

Not bad Mrs B, not bad!  Also the broad beans are showing signs of life!  YAY :o)

So that was an eventful year!  HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!  I'll see you on the other side (in 2012 not the afterlife!)

Chat soon X

Christmas crossness

I have been at my new job for just over 6 months now.... a 6 month contract that is due to end on the 31st December.  I've worked my nuts off for 6 whole months, (not that I was planning on relaxing) and you rewarded me with advising that "YES you are worthy, you can join the fold with a PERMENANT position"  or until you change your mind and tell me YESTERDAY that you can only give me a 6 month extension.

Swear words Swear words SWEAR WORDS!

I do understand the reasoning - I am after all a reasonable adult after all.  HOWEVER - did this just occur to you yesterday?  17 days before the end of the contract when I am truly fucked in terms of finding something else!  YOU SHITBAG!  I cant even yell at you you're my boss for gods sake.

Yours pissed off......

Round up part 2!

Hi there

You may well ask what happened to Round up part one?  Well I wrote it all out and managed to loose it!  BAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!  So now you are just getting highlights!

Broad beans - planted a few weeks ago - not up yet what to do?  Does it really matter can start again in spring!

Garlic - Sprutting and sprouting allllllll over the joint!  Brill

Lettuce - still lettucing - liking the oak leafed type but not the curly so much....

Trying to think of what to do next year.... Will try a few different things but have to realise most of the rest of the family don't really like "different" coloured things - if Mr B points at ANOTHER yellow tomato and asks me whats that - I shall killim!  I shall stick to "tried and tested" for ordinary things - but shall try a coupla new things like kohl rabi I think....  Oh and the squash were a marvellous hit!  My mother and brother scoffed em all!

Anyhoo - less than two weeks till Xmas - do not think I will get any veg on the table on the day - sprouts (curly and regular) are a severe disappointment!  Will take advice from an old timer next season.

Anyway - I'm off to look at the catalogues - may get to the lottment this Saturday - may have to as some thieving beggar has plundered my bank account - "crappy sprout for Xmas anyone?" 

chat soon X

Vampires begone!

Hi there

No I haven't invested in a crucifix and an wooden stake!  I have just planted out about a hundred garlic cloves!  A FAB collection of different bulbs I purchased from Thomson and Morgan.  I have in the past been slightly dissapointed with T&M offerings but this was marvelous in quality and price (IMHO anyway).  The pack consisted of one bulb each of the following:

Albigensian Wight, Chesnok Red, Early Purple Wight, Edenrose, Germidour, Iberian Wight, Picardy Wight, Lautrec Wight, Messidrome, Wight Cristo

or two in one case!  And 5 elephant garlic cloves (6 to those of us that can count!)  Not bad for £20 less a penny.  I had looked at other garlic collections from other places but this seemed like the best value for money with plenty of varieties to plant.  They all were in good nick too and big fat bulbs too so hardly any scrawny cloves!  I planted them all in any case.  I do reckon that I perhaps should have seperated or distinguised the hardneck and softneck varieties... but being me I have just bunged them in willy nilly!  I have however learnt from my onion calamity earlier (well not a disaster) to leave plenty of room for a hoe inbetween rows.  Not necessarily the same as the planting instructions.  Imagine the space a massive garlic clove takes up then a generous hoe space then another large clove... This should be plenty.  I ended up mostly hand weeding my onions - bad times!

Apart from preparing the bed for the garlic and getting them in, the mother has weeded the lettuces for me.... FAB!  I even let her have a couple... Generous moi n'est pas?

I have been brave this week.... I auditioned for the solo in one of our choir songs... Walking on Broken Glass!  I think I did okay despite not being able to stop my hands shaking.  I would just get them under control and my mic holding hand would flip out again!  I either looked like I had Tourettes or Parkinsons, the choir is divided.  Anyway the singing was tolerable, just have to work on the nerves and have another try next week... :o)

So fingers crossed for me and as I have planted so much garlic - I won't have use of crosses over the threshold to keep the vampires away!  Good times :o)

Chat soon X

PS  - I also have bulk mouthwash on order!

Look what I made (Oh yes ME!)

Hi there

Now as the allotment is starting to gear down for the winter months, my mind is moving on to more practical matters of how to make the place more attractive/functional.  Now I DO have a chair on the lottie (borrowed from an abandoned allotment!) .  However the chair does get plonked wherever and the allotment isnt exactly a level wonderland!  We've already broken one chair by falling off A over T :o)  So today I took some of the abandoned slabs that I had forgotten about at the back of the garage and made this....

  TA Daaaaa!

Yes I know it doesnt look like much (it isnt) and this picture makes it look like its on the wonk (only slightly) but I did that!  And it give the chair a really solid base!  Well, its enough for one chair and your feet!  Maybe a bag too :o)  I do have some more so this will get extended over to the right.  It is sited just in front of the goosegogs for easy picking and scoffing while sitting...

Another thing that I have coveted on other sites was a tool store... Not a locked one but just a few pallets nailed together to keep stuff off the ground, upright and together (and not under the gooseberry bushes )  So after having liberated a few pallets from work I made this...

It was going to be a 3 sided affair but the third side was too short and long... but two sided is enough I think!  Prolly siting it by the shit heap was a mistake too....It also might be slightly wonky but I tried to take the pic in the most flattering angle!  As you can see my tools fit neatly in the pallets themselves and the bottom palle can hold my compots, pots and watering cans are threaded over a hoe handle! 

No - sorry never going to be a carpenter but a slightly tider garnener maybe!  At least I wont going for a tumble just yet!

Chat soon X