A fleeting return

I spotted some discarded kiddie sandpit clams last week, you know the ones where you fill one half with sand and the other with water. I thought they might be useful at the lottie, so OH acquired them for me and they've been sat in the back yard all week ... with the threat of snow from Sunday evening, I decided to venture back to the lottie and take them with me.

I was really annoyed to see that the middle gates were wide open, in fact one of them was wedged with some large stones to stop it swinging shut! Honestly, what is the point in having them if they are not locked. I'm disappointed that the Allotment office / community police have not yet managed to put up signs to warn other holders that thieves are operating in the lottie. I might give them a call next week to see what the hold up is.

The car park was like a mud bath, churned by the trucks etc dropping off woodchip and with clams in hand I set off rather aprehensively for my lottie. I'd half expected the door to be kicked in and it was with some relief that everything looked to be OK.

OH is supposed to be getting me a bolt (but hasn't done it yet, grrr), so I found a couple of bricks and wedged the door shut behind me. My replacement handbag is a rucksack style, but its not terribly comfortable when digging etc, so I think when my confidence returns I'll put it further into the plot. It was a little breezy and despite having secured the door, every noise had me jumping.

I managed to clear and dig over bed no. 2 which had last years beetroot & courgettes - the salad just needed tidying and surprisingly it is still looking very heatlhy. I started to dig over the brick bed - the carrots I'd grown last year for seed looked quite magnificent, wishing now that I'd pulled them and enjoyed them - especially as the meeces have eaten all of the carrot seeds that I so lovingly dried ! But unfortunately I came across some bindweed and had to start digging very thorougly and deeply to remove it. I'd managed about 3/4 of the bed before starting to feel very nervous and so decided to call it a day.

On the way out I was pleased to see that the gates were still closed .. but then as I got closer I couldn't believe my eyes - the gates were closed but not padlocked.