I'm in shock, I still can't quite believe it. My handbag was stolen today from the allotment, whilst I was there.
I didn't get there until around 12.30 as I'be been pratting about in B&Q for over an hour (don't get me started on THAT visit). Then I'd tried to get some wood that EEH had found at a local building site, but we couldn't find security to get it, so I dropped him back at home. Called OH to say don't bother coming to help with the wood, I'll just go to the lottie for a couple of hours.
Its been an awful day. The gates at the allotment have recently been oiled, so they swing somewhat when they are opened. Today has been quite windy and as I drove through the gates, one of them was caught by the wind and you guessed it, it banged the side of my car. I think it'll T-cut out. I hope.
Went to the lottie, new door is doing very well. Too well really, its dead easy to open now and swings silently at the slightest touch, whereas my last door had to be physically lifted and pushed and was very noisy.
I put my handbag into the brick greenhouse just inside the door and took some seedling compost to the glass greenhouse. After a quick reccie around the lottie I grabbed a spade and started to dig over the bed in front of the glass greenhouse ... with my back to the main door. Once I'd dug over the bed I planted it up with strawberries and put the picket fence down on side of the bed. It looked so nice I thought I'd take a photo to share with you. Went back to the brick greenhouse to get my bag and realised it wasn't there.
With a sinking stomach I went to see if my car had gone, but it was still there .... it took me another 20 mins before I thought to look in my coat pocket - fortunately I'd put the keys into my pocket and not as normal into my bag. It took me about another 30 minutes to decide that it really had gone and that I hadn't put it elsewhere. Our lotties are all enclosed by 5ft hedges and the few people I did meet hadn't seen anyone suspicious.
Got home and started to call banks & mobile phone company. My phone was used three times (got the numbers and passed them onto the police) and two of my accounts have had money withdrawn, two others were tried, but denied. I still can't believe it. Think I've called all the banks I have accounts with and blocked my phone. I've had to try and list everything in my bag for the police and will need to call our insurance company next to see if I am covered .. although OH thinks that the excess means that I probably won't get much back.
I feel sick, but I guess at least I am OK and material things can be replaced. It has brought home just how vulnerable I am up there on my own. I think I shall get OH to put a bolt on the inside of the door for security.
... at least I have a new strawberry bed :(
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
ooooo ... a plan !
I've been thinking for a while that the potting shed needs replacing before a stray gust of breeze blows it over.
Bouyed by the success of the new lottie front door I've been thinking more seriously about drawing up some plans. I've even strayed as far as Popular Mechanics ... unknown and scarey territory indeed for girls :)
The potting shed has been especially vulnerable since the curious incident of the door in the night, but not wanting to point the finger of blame I would never reveal that it was because OH didn't secure it properly, it just wouldn't be seemly. It's also got a big hole in the roof and there is a hole in the floor which the meeces use to plan their midnight raids.
I casually mentioned my idea to the boys and it seems that the boys actually quite enjoyed themselves replacing my lottie door and I appear to have one slightly reluctant helper and one extremely enthusiastic helper, so hopefully they'll balance out nicely and become a pair of competent builders (well a girl can dream).
We are now on the look out for suitable materials - my slightly reluctant helper (to be referred to as SRH henceforth) is supposed to be going to check out the skip on our neighbouring road as one of the houses looks to be having quite a lot of work done on it and my extremely enthusiastic helper (to be referred to as EEH henceforth) has decided to visit one of the local colleges, who are currently building a huge new facility. Not only does EEH has a garage but EEH may also have access to a van soon too so I won't need to worry about squeezing anything into my nice new(ish) car (I thought the doors were going to fall off when I transported the new front door). I have been scanning Freecycle - if I decided to build it from old washing machines we'd have been able to start this weekend. SRH is even in the process of joining the local library so that we can get some books on shed / greenhouse ideas and construction.
OH is very scathing about my general ability to measure things accurately - it all stems from one little teeney mistake that I made once when trying to order some wallpaper for a box room and it turned out I'd ordered enough for the box (but not the room LOL) ... but we don't want to dwell on such things, its just misleading :) (good job I work with some excellent engineers, so I can get them to look over my plans before I share them with SRH & EEH - and if there are any mistakes, I can always say that OH prepared them hee hee).
I'm quite excited at the prospect now of having a new and improved potting shed - ooo, maybe it could have its own sun porch too.
Crikey, whoever would have thought that I'd manage to get 'henceforth' into an allotment blog :D
Bouyed by the success of the new lottie front door I've been thinking more seriously about drawing up some plans. I've even strayed as far as Popular Mechanics ... unknown and scarey territory indeed for girls :)
The potting shed has been especially vulnerable since the curious incident of the door in the night, but not wanting to point the finger of blame I would never reveal that it was because OH didn't secure it properly, it just wouldn't be seemly. It's also got a big hole in the roof and there is a hole in the floor which the meeces use to plan their midnight raids.
I casually mentioned my idea to the boys and it seems that the boys actually quite enjoyed themselves replacing my lottie door and I appear to have one slightly reluctant helper and one extremely enthusiastic helper, so hopefully they'll balance out nicely and become a pair of competent builders (well a girl can dream).
We are now on the look out for suitable materials - my slightly reluctant helper (to be referred to as SRH henceforth) is supposed to be going to check out the skip on our neighbouring road as one of the houses looks to be having quite a lot of work done on it and my extremely enthusiastic helper (to be referred to as EEH henceforth) has decided to visit one of the local colleges, who are currently building a huge new facility. Not only does EEH has a garage but EEH may also have access to a van soon too so I won't need to worry about squeezing anything into my nice new(ish) car (I thought the doors were going to fall off when I transported the new front door). I have been scanning Freecycle - if I decided to build it from old washing machines we'd have been able to start this weekend. SRH is even in the process of joining the local library so that we can get some books on shed / greenhouse ideas and construction.
OH is very scathing about my general ability to measure things accurately - it all stems from one little teeney mistake that I made once when trying to order some wallpaper for a box room and it turned out I'd ordered enough for the box (but not the room LOL) ... but we don't want to dwell on such things, its just misleading :) (good job I work with some excellent engineers, so I can get them to look over my plans before I share them with SRH & EEH - and if there are any mistakes, I can always say that OH prepared them hee hee).
I'm quite excited at the prospect now of having a new and improved potting shed - ooo, maybe it could have its own sun porch too.
Crikey, whoever would have thought that I'd manage to get 'henceforth' into an allotment blog :D
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Boys will be boys
My lottie entrance had a certain charm, but sadly the door has reached the end of its useful life and so as promised, OH and a friend arrived yesterday to replace it with a new one.
oh what fun they had.
I left them to it and turned my attention to a bonfire.
Having failed dismally to get fires started previously I was well prepared on this occasion. I stopped off at the Co-op to get a box of firelighters and some matches (the witty shop assistant said, "you're not going to go and set yourself on fire now are you" .... "er, no, wasn't thinking of it ...") and had plenty of newspaper. My trusty chair which has seen a few too many days of bindweed action became the internal framework for the stack.
It was fed with the old lottie door and sadly my lovely blue bench which collapsed last year when Sue sat on it. I hasten to add, it was in a pretty sorry state before and you always had to lower your buttocks rather gingerly :)
Soon it was roaring away - it kept me lovely and warm:
There appears to have been no progress on the lottie next door, so I decided to chop down the huge buddlia that is shading my plot and fed that to the fire too.
These are the artichokes from a couple of years ago that I kept for the birds:
As the fire was dying down the boys couldn't resist a bit more larking about ... not to be tried at home children (despite their claims that it is 'totally' safe)
Perhaps if they'd worked a bit harder and played a little less I might have got a photo of the new door, but unfortunately it was completely dark by the time we left - I've been freaking myself out for the last couple of days having watched a few horror movies, the latest one being 28 weeks later - when Nick said hi yesterday, I nearly jumped out of my skin, over the fence and away up the road LOL, so I was really skittish by the time we left.
Hope its still standing when I go next LOL.
oh what fun they had.
I left them to it and turned my attention to a bonfire.
Having failed dismally to get fires started previously I was well prepared on this occasion. I stopped off at the Co-op to get a box of firelighters and some matches (the witty shop assistant said, "you're not going to go and set yourself on fire now are you" .... "er, no, wasn't thinking of it ...") and had plenty of newspaper. My trusty chair which has seen a few too many days of bindweed action became the internal framework for the stack.
It was fed with the old lottie door and sadly my lovely blue bench which collapsed last year when Sue sat on it. I hasten to add, it was in a pretty sorry state before and you always had to lower your buttocks rather gingerly :)
Soon it was roaring away - it kept me lovely and warm:
There appears to have been no progress on the lottie next door, so I decided to chop down the huge buddlia that is shading my plot and fed that to the fire too.
These are the artichokes from a couple of years ago that I kept for the birds:
As the fire was dying down the boys couldn't resist a bit more larking about ... not to be tried at home children (despite their claims that it is 'totally' safe)
Perhaps if they'd worked a bit harder and played a little less I might have got a photo of the new door, but unfortunately it was completely dark by the time we left - I've been freaking myself out for the last couple of days having watched a few horror movies, the latest one being 28 weeks later - when Nick said hi yesterday, I nearly jumped out of my skin, over the fence and away up the road LOL, so I was really skittish by the time we left.
Hope its still standing when I go next LOL.
Friday, 2 January 2009
Happy New Year everyone
Well, my first visit of 2009 and I have baby peas :) They have taken weeks to appear and I'd actually forgotten about them, but fortunately they've looked after themselves very nicely.
They are about an inch high, so I'll leave the cloches on a little longer, mainly to protect them from the meeces, but we are also having some cold weather at the moment.
The door to my lottie has either fallen apart with the weather or had a little help from a two legged vandal (more likely the latter as the lottie a couple down also had its door hanging off its hinges). Nick helped me to nail it back together, but it needs replacing pretty soon. I seem to have loads of maintenance jobs to do - hopefully OH is coming to the lottie tomorrow to help.
No sign at all of my garlic and the onion sets don't have any signs of life - might need to replace them with new sets in March.
I finally got around to clearing out the glass greenhouse. It should have only taken 30 mins to clear and lightly dig over but I discovered dreaded bindweed so had to dig over quite carefully. I've started to edge the paths with strawberry plants. I'm also thinking of growing carrots in the greenhouse this year, maybe in black buckets.
I spent the rest of the day slashing and first job tomorrow is to have a big bonfire.
We visited Whitby and the Mumbles over Christmas - poor Loki got car sick ... I'll let your imagination think about how that was for 2.5 hours in a hot car :( Loki (on the right) is 10 months old now.
They are happy to be home and Ianto seems to like the kitten (AKA teenage thug) a bit more since their holiday - they've even been spotted snuggling up together ... aww:
no, we didn't make it ... it just happened to be on one of the beaches ... OH isn't quite as cute as the kitties though :)
They are about an inch high, so I'll leave the cloches on a little longer, mainly to protect them from the meeces, but we are also having some cold weather at the moment.
The door to my lottie has either fallen apart with the weather or had a little help from a two legged vandal (more likely the latter as the lottie a couple down also had its door hanging off its hinges). Nick helped me to nail it back together, but it needs replacing pretty soon. I seem to have loads of maintenance jobs to do - hopefully OH is coming to the lottie tomorrow to help.
No sign at all of my garlic and the onion sets don't have any signs of life - might need to replace them with new sets in March.
I finally got around to clearing out the glass greenhouse. It should have only taken 30 mins to clear and lightly dig over but I discovered dreaded bindweed so had to dig over quite carefully. I've started to edge the paths with strawberry plants. I'm also thinking of growing carrots in the greenhouse this year, maybe in black buckets.
I spent the rest of the day slashing and first job tomorrow is to have a big bonfire.
We visited Whitby and the Mumbles over Christmas - poor Loki got car sick ... I'll let your imagination think about how that was for 2.5 hours in a hot car :( Loki (on the right) is 10 months old now.
They are happy to be home and Ianto seems to like the kitten (AKA teenage thug) a bit more since their holiday - they've even been spotted snuggling up together ... aww:
no, we didn't make it ... it just happened to be on one of the beaches ... OH isn't quite as cute as the kitties though :)
Friday, 12 December 2008
Well, its that time of year - quiet !!
Not much happening at the lottie, err, not that I'd know as I've not been for ummm, 3 weeks I think, maybe even 4. Gosh, I really should go and check out what is happening. Last time I was there the onions looked as though they were starting to green up, but there was no sign of the garlic or peas ... oh well, in the meantime here are some photos from my surprise day out to the Donna Nook Seal Colony;
I think they were all grey seals, but their coats were all very different - they were so cute I wanted to take them home. The white ones are the babies (apparently they weigh 30lb when they are born !) they are only suckled for 18 days and then have to fend for themselves.
For most of the year the seals are at sea or on sandbanks, but during November & December they come to breed near the dunes on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve at Donna Nook, which is actually part of the RAF bombing range !!! There are lots of notices up telling you not to stray when the flags are flying as you at risk of death !!!! There were amazing planes flying overhead making tonnes of racket, but the seal cubs didn't bat an eyelid.
They were very noisy - in fact if you'd strayed down there one night, you'd probably think you'd accidentally stumbled across a 'decay' of zombies having a party. One little fella kept blowing raspberries, he was very funny.
Cute huh. Bloody cold though :)
I think they were all grey seals, but their coats were all very different - they were so cute I wanted to take them home. The white ones are the babies (apparently they weigh 30lb when they are born !) they are only suckled for 18 days and then have to fend for themselves.
For most of the year the seals are at sea or on sandbanks, but during November & December they come to breed near the dunes on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve at Donna Nook, which is actually part of the RAF bombing range !!! There are lots of notices up telling you not to stray when the flags are flying as you at risk of death !!!! There were amazing planes flying overhead making tonnes of racket, but the seal cubs didn't bat an eyelid.
They were very noisy - in fact if you'd strayed down there one night, you'd probably think you'd accidentally stumbled across a 'decay' of zombies having a party. One little fella kept blowing raspberries, he was very funny.
Cute huh. Bloody cold though :)
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Brrr ...
Winter is well in its way and we are having regular frosts (although no sign of the snow that fell in some parts of the UK - the first for 70 years in October !) Of course the clocks went back last weekend too, so the days are feeling even shorter and very gloomy.
My visits to the lottie are getting more infrequent, but I had a lovely day there yesterday and the threatened rain didn't appear. Uusally Jonathan Ross keeps me company at the lottie, but I had to make do with Radio 4 for a change yesterday.
I know its now November, but I've only just been able to get some onion sets (thanks mum). I can't tell if they were in short supply this year or whether shelves are being cleared super early for Christmas tat, but I must make a note to start looking for them in August next year I think. I cleared the last of Ken's swedes and finally cut down the leek flowers (crikey they take an enormously long time to produce seeds) and dug over the bed ready for my onions. I've made raised tracks to try and help them catch as much sun as possible, although I noticed that the enormous budlia next door is shading about 4 beds .. hmm, think I may have to nip over the fence and accidentally chop it down :) I haven't had much luck with onions to date and after the horrendously wet summer a couple of seasons ago, I didn't even bother with them last year. I'm hoping that these little fellas make me proud next summer. The variety is Senshyu Yellow.
I also managed to plant my garlic. I had an excellent crop last year and saved some of the biggest blubs to plant again. I've got a bed of Cristal and a slightly smaller bed of Germidor. I hope they do as well this season.
The sweetcorn was looking pretty miserable, so I've removed all of the cobs and pulled up the plants - they need chopping up and adding to the compost during my next visit. Most of the cobs have not developed properly, I don't know if its a lack of fertilisation or lack of sun.
I might make some sweetcorn soup with them and maybe some sweetcorn fritters, which are gorgeous with Chelly (chilli flavoured jelly).
[edit: and here they are :)]
The beans were looking past their best after the recent frosts and having stripped the last of the pods the plants are now adorning the compost heap.
Even the Jerusalem Artichokes, which have been towering all autumn are starting to look past their best. I've dug up about a quarter of them and have some lovely long tubers. I suggested to OH that we have some JA chips for tea last night, but I think he was confused, 'cos we got potato chips (not that I complained, they were lovely). I remember making some rather nice soup last year that didn't have any of the, err, memorable side effects. We had lunch at Fortnum & Mason in September (special family birthday) and I'm sure we had some roast artichokes with the main course - I must get googling and see what I can find.
With the cold creeping into my bones, the last job of the day was to sow my Meteor Peas. I haven't tried overwintering ones before.
As the meeces are patrolling I decided to cover them with plastic tunnels - this seems to work in the spring and keep the germinating peas safe from their little noses. Once they've germinated, I'll remove the tunnels and get some supports in place.
I see the peas I sowed at the end of the season have lots of flowers and a few pods on them, so I may get a few peas in the coming weeks.
I was quite pleased looking around, I think another 4-5 days and the lottie will be ready for spring again. Jobs for next time are to clear the greenhouse, sow my broadbeans, sow my sweetpeas, clear the courgette bed, clear the second lot of sweetcorn which didn't get chance to mature, dig up the last of the potatoes and dig over the rest of the beds. Then I need to turn my attention to that last quarter that is still a jungle. I also want to thin and redo the strawberry beds before spring.
Of course Dandelions are the one thing on my plot with a neverending season !
My visits to the lottie are getting more infrequent, but I had a lovely day there yesterday and the threatened rain didn't appear. Uusally Jonathan Ross keeps me company at the lottie, but I had to make do with Radio 4 for a change yesterday.
I know its now November, but I've only just been able to get some onion sets (thanks mum). I can't tell if they were in short supply this year or whether shelves are being cleared super early for Christmas tat, but I must make a note to start looking for them in August next year I think. I cleared the last of Ken's swedes and finally cut down the leek flowers (crikey they take an enormously long time to produce seeds) and dug over the bed ready for my onions. I've made raised tracks to try and help them catch as much sun as possible, although I noticed that the enormous budlia next door is shading about 4 beds .. hmm, think I may have to nip over the fence and accidentally chop it down :) I haven't had much luck with onions to date and after the horrendously wet summer a couple of seasons ago, I didn't even bother with them last year. I'm hoping that these little fellas make me proud next summer. The variety is Senshyu Yellow.
I also managed to plant my garlic. I had an excellent crop last year and saved some of the biggest blubs to plant again. I've got a bed of Cristal and a slightly smaller bed of Germidor. I hope they do as well this season.
The sweetcorn was looking pretty miserable, so I've removed all of the cobs and pulled up the plants - they need chopping up and adding to the compost during my next visit. Most of the cobs have not developed properly, I don't know if its a lack of fertilisation or lack of sun.
I might make some sweetcorn soup with them and maybe some sweetcorn fritters, which are gorgeous with Chelly (chilli flavoured jelly).
[edit: and here they are :)]
The beans were looking past their best after the recent frosts and having stripped the last of the pods the plants are now adorning the compost heap.
Even the Jerusalem Artichokes, which have been towering all autumn are starting to look past their best. I've dug up about a quarter of them and have some lovely long tubers. I suggested to OH that we have some JA chips for tea last night, but I think he was confused, 'cos we got potato chips (not that I complained, they were lovely). I remember making some rather nice soup last year that didn't have any of the, err, memorable side effects. We had lunch at Fortnum & Mason in September (special family birthday) and I'm sure we had some roast artichokes with the main course - I must get googling and see what I can find.
With the cold creeping into my bones, the last job of the day was to sow my Meteor Peas. I haven't tried overwintering ones before.
As the meeces are patrolling I decided to cover them with plastic tunnels - this seems to work in the spring and keep the germinating peas safe from their little noses. Once they've germinated, I'll remove the tunnels and get some supports in place.
I see the peas I sowed at the end of the season have lots of flowers and a few pods on them, so I may get a few peas in the coming weeks.
I was quite pleased looking around, I think another 4-5 days and the lottie will be ready for spring again. Jobs for next time are to clear the greenhouse, sow my broadbeans, sow my sweetpeas, clear the courgette bed, clear the second lot of sweetcorn which didn't get chance to mature, dig up the last of the potatoes and dig over the rest of the beds. Then I need to turn my attention to that last quarter that is still a jungle. I also want to thin and redo the strawberry beds before spring.
Of course Dandelions are the one thing on my plot with a neverending season !
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Crikey, OH came for a (brief) visit to the lottie yesterday - I know !!! I almost fell over with shock as well ... We were on a mission - raspberries for Delia's delicious rice pudding and potatoes for Crank's Homity Pie (both of which are now safely inside my tummy ... yum)
OH's photos are particularly lovely so I thought I would share them with you - they make the lottie look a lot more magical than it is at the moment (it is looking decidely dishevelled as the first frost appears to have visited last week). Enjoy !
OH's photos are particularly lovely so I thought I would share them with you - they make the lottie look a lot more magical than it is at the moment (it is looking decidely dishevelled as the first frost appears to have visited last week). Enjoy !
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