Anyone know how to stretch weekends?

I said I loved weekends. I do. The trouble is that they are too short. I want another one now. I just opened the lesson plan template to start writing lesson plans, and thought, no. Not right now. It can wait till later. Or very early tomorrow. I am not in the mood.

Andrew and Ann arrived shortly after I got home on Friday, and I spent a lot of time just looking at this child of mine, who is now 30. Hmmm. Yes, he is still the child I gave birth to. Just all grown into a man a long time ago, with his own personality, ideas, beliefs, values. If I met him today, I would like him. He is interesting and immensely intelligent, and still manages to deposit all his belongings all over the house, leaving a trail from the front door. It is reassuring that some things never change! The boy is still in there somewhere.

I would (or could) have slept all morning on Saturday. Mum woke me with coffee at 8.30 so I dragged myself out of bed. Reluctantly. And then issued the edict that everyone was going to go and dig the allotment. 3 line whip time. Mum too. So off we all trundled in the allotment car. This is a cunning plan to compensate for the fact that the previous allotment holder has yet to give me the keys to the sheds down there. I keep all the tools and equipment in Geoff's car, and we use that to go down to the allotment, hence the Allotment Car. I am a genius.

David and I rolled about with laughter at Andrew's disbelief at the size of the earthworms, and bugs. As Ann said..... he is not at one with nature. But we all got digging, and as usual, David and I managed to maroon ourselves on an island in the middle of the digging area. Everything is growing beautifully, and there should be more rain, so it is looking good. I planted all the beans as well. David is amazing, and incredibly strong. He is used to the physical work now, and his brother is not. Nor has he any intention of getting used to it. Unless he visits me, that is. I require my sons to dig. That is why I had them. Of course.

The men came home to watch the FA cup final, while I took Mum to the garden centre to get petunias for my baskets and pots, and then, so help me, we all fell asleep. The football was mind-numbingly boring, even for the fans, and we all know how much I LOVE football. I don't think so. Fortunately, someone phoned, so we managed to wake in time to go out to dinner.

The World's End was great, and we met Pete and Glynis there, and had a happy evening together, celebrating Andrew's advanced age, before coming home, and nodding off in front of the tv again. I need something to give me energy, it seems. As a matter of fact, I called my friend Ros on Friday night at 9pm, and we were discussing how sad it is that we KNOW we can phone at 9pm on a Friday night, and we will be at home. Tiling floors. Snoozing. Whatever. We clearly need to get a life. Or lives.

And then today, I shot out of bed early to tidy the house on the run, before Colin arrived from Heathrow. He lives in Australia now, but we all grew up together in Cape Town, and our Mums were best friends. I had not seen him for 9 years, and we had a great time catching up. I also managed to almost serve him pasta with carbonara sauce, before Mum realised it had bacon in and he was vegetarian, so I had to zoom down to the shop to buy an alternative sauce, at the point where I was actually dishing up the food. Not clever. But, it all worked out. They chatted amongst themselves while I ran about like a headless chicken. Nothing unusual, then.

Now we are back to normal. The house is still recovering from the sudden influx of people, and the dishes are piled up, but who cares. I had a great weekend. One more week till half term.

Ho hum..... I am sitting here waiting for an email to arrive, with photos taken this weekend by my son. They have been swallowed out there in the ether. Patience is not my best quality. Correction... the lack of it is my worst quality. Now where did I put that axe???? Eureka! It has arrived!!

Crystal- I can't remember where your blog is. I want to visit..... can you please leave me a link in any comment section? Thanks!

Time to relax

Spring. Hmmm. Yes. Yesterday was a stunningly warm and beautiful day and today was back to winter woolies. The wind was absolutely icy. However...... it is the weekend, and who cares. It can do what it wants. I am free to do what I want!

Yesterday morning, I took Mum to Podington for tea. The garden centre is my favourite and the best I have ever been to and the coffee shop is great. We looked at the bedding plants, and I resisted the temptation to buy loads, and just got a couple of tumbelina petunias. For now. I am not putting in masses this year, as we will be away for some of the time, and everything will expire. I will do the baskets, though. I love cascading flowers and colour. The other thing I did get was fleece for the allotment, just in case we have a few hard frosts. They had lovely little plastic dome thingies too, which you put over your plants. I refrained from buying them, but I did have this image of cake tray domes all over the allotment that made me smile.

It is bookclub here on Monday night, so I had to get some books. We do not all read the same book. Whoever is hosting buys about 5 books which go into the bookclub. Predictably, I can never find books I want desperately when it is my turn. Next week there will be dozens I covet. However, I have some that I think will make interesting reading.

House of Orphans, by Helen Dunmore, set in Finland
Be near me by Andrew O'Hagan, about an English priest who takes over a small Scottish parish
One thousand white women by Jim Fergus, about the Brides for Indians scheme in the US in 1875
Don't tell Mum I work on the rigs by Paul Carter, a biography of an oil rig worker who travels the world

They will have to do. I still have to clean the house, and buy the drinks and nibbles. Tomorrow.

Today I have been to church and also went to water the allotment. And the carpets. I am not certifiable. I decided that while the carpets will kill the weeds, I need the earth to be softened, so I watered the carpets so it can seep through and when we get round to the next dig, the ground will be manageable. I did get some very strange looks. The onions are shooting little green shoots, which is very exciting, and our bird scarer thing with dangling CDs has disintegrated in the wind, so I will have to get stronger fishing line. The type you can use to haul in very large sharks should do the trick. Not that there are any sharks in middle England, you will be pleased to hear.

So it has been a quiet weekend, with time to fall asleep on my bed, reading. There was a time when I could read a book a day. Sigh. Those days are long gone.

Definition of an allotment

PS added!

In the UK, gardens are small in general. Very small. There are, after all, 50 million people on this small island! Allotments have been around for about 200 years, but really evolved in the 19th Century, when the growth of industrial development led to so many people moving into high density housing in the cities, with no gardens, to work in factories, and the resulting poverty was what spurred on the growth of allotments. In urban areas, you will find allotment areas set aside, and people can rent one for a very small amount of money annually, to grow things. Most use them for vegetable gardening, and it is a social as well as horticultural enterprise. Most are owned by local councils, who rent them out, and waiting lists are very long. Ours is a private allotment association, which is great, as the council ones seem to be increasingly sold off for housing development. This is a real pity.

Geoff had grown up helping his father on their allotment. The 2 World Wars saw a huge growth in the need for people to produce food, and "Dig for Victory" was a slogan at the time. He always wanted one, and while recuperating from his heart op last year, I heard from a friend, who runs one of the two local allotment areas, that there was one vacant. Geoff leapt at the chance to start, and I thought it was excellent therapy and exercise for him, and so that was how it began.If you click on the allotment tag at the end of the post, you will see what it looked like when he started last year!

In a sense it is like a community garden. You all have your own area, and most have some sheds on them too to keep equipment. We have keys to the allotment gates, and it is not open to the public to wander in. Ours is a full size allotment and absolutely huge. I can't remember the measurements, but I quaked when I first saw it and the weeds. I think about 20ft x 160ft. But I could be wildly inaccurate. BIG.

David used to go and help, and when his Dad died, he asked if we could keep the allotment on. So it is still called Geoff's allotment, and all our friends came to help to dig and get it going. They are amazing. Because it is so big, some of them are also growing things on it, and that means that we will share our produce, and also that there will always be someone about to water. It is 5 mins drive from our house.

Some people make theirs into an orchard, some grow flowers, some have chickens. There is always someone around to ask for advice, and there is space for the babes to play too. We will get a bench and have it in the shade one day. We may have BBQs. But we WILL have plenty of vegetables!

Just in case you thought I didn't HAVE a garden at home, I do! But it is full of flowers and shrubs, and raised beds and patios. Not big, but I absolutely love it cascading all over the place, and there is just no more room to grow stuff like vegetables, and as I am in my frugal phase, the allotment is great. I have a zillion photos of my garden at home. I might post a few from last year. Hanging baskets and tubs and all.

Allotment dig.

I have just noticed that my last post (Spring) was my 300th. 300. Good grief. Who would have thought. All those words spouting forth in a random fashion. I have surprised myself!

Here are those photos of the allotment did in progress this morning. And yes, the babes worked too. We dug up great clods of earth and they smacked them apart with their little spades and forks. It worked really well.

The beginning. The brown earth parts are where the carpets were.

The middle..... more people and more digging!

The gang hard at work!

All those twigs and branches are from the left side of the first photos. There will be a bonfire one evening. Bill, an allotment veteran of 20 years, (I met him today) informed me that " You don't worry now, me duck, I will set the fire in the evening and get rid of it for you". How nice. "Me duck" is a local saying. Like "my dear", "love", "sweetie" etc. Me duck. Phonetically = mi dook. I am rambling again. It is the after-effect of hard labour in the sun.

Go to the next post down for the finished product!

Spring....or an early summer!

Our village is surrounded by farmland. At the moment, the oilseed-rape is in bloom, so the countryside is yellow. This also marks the start of the hayfever season, of course, and I get it, and so do my children, so we will soon be walking around with toilet rolls stuffed under our arms and slitty red eyes. Not to mention noses. Medication??? Of course. But does it work? Not really. It just looks really lovely though.

I walked to the edge of the village, which is 3 mins away, (around the corner) and took these photos, and on the way, I walked past this tree covered in blossom. It is huge, and so magnificent, isn't it!

It has been really hot today. In fact, I can't remember when last we had any rain. The doors and windows are open, and people are out in their gardens enjoying the sun.

This is a photo which combines the blossom and the oilseed-rape, and now you can see what our corner of the world looks like. Pink and white blossom on the trees, lambs in the fields along the road. All the other trees are in leaf now, and the clematis is flowering too. My lilac has also started to flower.

I have no idea why these photos are all on the side. I distinctly remember selecting "centre" when I uploaded them. Oh well. It really does not matter!

14 of us had the BIG ALLOTMENT dig this morning, and for 3 and a half hours, we dug. And raked, and lopped, and planted and watered and constructed the wigwam thingys for the beans. Geoff's allotment has sprung to life again, and I have some photos on the other computer, so will post them later.

You know what I mean when I say we were dripping???? Absolutely drenched in sweat. No "glow" here. We were reduced to wiping our faces with the Tshirts we were actually wearing. Leaving soil marks on faces, and shirts. Elegant? I don't think so. But we were working. And laughing, and having a great time. Potatoes, onions, courgettes, beetroot, butternut, lettuce, and more. All in. I am feeling saintly. I can also hardly move. I was seen at one stage, treating the spade as a pogo stick. It was not a pretty sight. The ground was unbelievably hard, but the areas we covered with carpetting last autumn were wonderful when we uncovered them. Damp soil, and no weeds. We have covered the other half of the allotment with the carpets now, and hopefully in a couple of weeks, the weeds will have died down, and it might have rained, so we can dig up that section too. I have great plans. Free food. Sounds good to me.

Here are the photos of the finished dig. Please note a great use for unwanted free CDs. They make a perfect bird-scarer-away-thingy. A new word I have just invented.
Note the carpets in the background. All we need now is a couch or two.

Beans

Please look at these superb beans. Unfortunately, I put them on to cook, answered the phone and they died. As in black coal. They and the pot went into the bin, and I was distraught. But at least I took a photo of them! My beans. My OWN beans. Grown here at home in a pot. Oh the sense of accomplishment. Sigh. I think I am losing it. Beans.......

The house is changed around, and I took a car load of things to the tip today with David, and bags to the charity shop as well. I am just so sick of "stuff". Why on earth do we hoard so much? I found things in cupboards that I got as wedding presents over 30 years ago and have never touched. Everything plastic went. One shelf seemed to be a graveyard for old electrical things. They are gone too. Only 15 kitchen cupboards left to sift through now. Is it really necessary to have 7 measuring jugs, I wonder?

Beans are growing

The beans are reviving. Diana and David went to water them, and also to look at the vast expanse of ground that is growing weeds at an alarming rate. So help me, we WILL get at least one bean from the allotment this year. I think miraclegro is needed for a boost. Then we will ceremoniously cook and eat it.

Meanwhile, the garden at home is full of roses blooming, just like it was when Dad died. His funeral was 6 years ago on this coming Wednesday, just a day after Geoff's. And Tuesday is going to be very hot. 33 degrees is the latest estimate. Forget teas..... it will be cooldrinks I think.

Progress!

Please note............ there are now real plants on a very small part of the allotment! Geoff and David constructed the trellis for the beans this afternoon, and the plants are in. The rotivator only skimmed the surface of the major part of the allotment. The ground is too hard, so it will need a pickaxe to dislodge the soil for it to work. Oh well, at least the beans are in!!!!

The Allotment....

I did tell you the earth would have to quake to get the weeds out of the allotment, didn't I???

David and I went down to inspect the progress. The rain has made the ground very heavy, so using the fork to work over the soil is not an option at the moment. We stayed to weed for half an hour, in the drizzle, and it is actually easy as the roots are shallow and the ground not baked hard. You can see the size of the plot. HUGE! And those sheds at the end are part of it. Geoff is still waiting to see if the previous owner is removing them, before he moves Peter's down.



You can see where he has managed to turn the soil, and there are piles of weeds all over the place. We added a considerable number of piles as well. Meanwhile, the veg have been started in the garden here in pots, ready to go in when the soil is ready.


You can also see the allotment next to Geoff's one. In pristine condition. Sigh. Maybe by next year. I want rocket. And runner beans. And spinach. And potatoes, parsnips, sweet potatoes, butternut............ my list is long!

















I thought BEFORE photos were a good idea.................. now we wait with bated breath for the AFTER ones!

Earthquakes

It is really not that great when Sky and other news channels report earthquakes near New Zealand. In the afternoon our time. That is the middle of the night NZ time. I want to wake Diana immediately to see if she is alive, but have learnt that her temper is not good at 3 in the morning. I tried another hyperlink. Snarl. Just go to Diana's blog in my list at the side. Hyperlinks. Today's project. I will conquer them.

Talking about earth quaking, Geoff has decided to get an allotment. The earth will indeed have to quake to rid it of weeds, and he has great plans. I am waiting for the vegetables, and am not that patient. It is enormous. For those of you who have no idea why anyone would want an allotment, here in England, houses are usually small, and have small gardens, or in my case, virtually no garden at all, so you can rent a piece of land which is measured in poles, and this one is 10 poles (165ft approximately) long, with a shed at the end, and then you go and grow things. Like Veg and fruit and flowers etc. Geoff has just said it is about 250sq m in total. Huge. Mega huge when you look at the weeds. He will be busy.