Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
I can't believe my last blog entry was August 2012 - where on earth did the summer go? I was born on a Thursday and am definitely living up to that one! I'll pick up the saga of The Missing Tuesday (and the rest) at some stage but feel I need a quick update to bring us up to speed.
Obviously the summer and autumn just shot by in a haze of rain and abnormal temperatures - the allotment has flooded twice and I fear that all our lovely earthworms may have drowned :0( We did however manage to grow some lovely runner beans (I do love a runner - they just grow themselves!), got a lovely crop of Katy, Spartan and Saturn apples from our 2yr-old cordons, and some fab outdoor cucumbers. Our potatoes were also blight free and tasty - but I'd have to put this down to luck this year as blight's been prolific in these humid conditions. On the downside, between the moles and the rain the onions and leeks were a bit of a soggy mess and our squash and aubergines were a complete waste of time. The rainbow chard is still hanging-in there and we've bedded-in a new batch of raspberry canes underplanted with strawberries to keep the weeds down, so next year's fruit crop should be fab! The wildflower patch needs some urgent attention as it's overrun with creeping buttercup and not much else. Will hoe over and re-seed come spring and keep fingers crossed. I'm still hoping for a self-perpetuating wild flower garden but fear it may never happen. Must learn to let it do it's thing - it's 'wild' after all.
At home the garden was glorious as unlike the claggy allotment home is a sandy loam that sucked up all the moisture it could get and begged for more! Having invested in a new water butt and managing to snag another from a local skip (bringing the total to 4) I hardly used them, except for our ceramic pots which lose moisture at an alarming rate. The only downside was that the flowers weren't quite as prolific as normal but those that appeared were lovely to behold. Crop-wise at home we had success with the blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes and raspberries. It was just such a joy to go down in the morning and pick fruit for brekkie - yum! We had B's cousin staying with us and she was left in charge of watering one weekend while we were away and she was so delighted with her batch of strawberries that she sent us a picture - bless! The tomatoes did succumb to blight eventually but we got a fair few before they gave in.
Work has been great - busy, busy, busy! Actually to the point where I've had to turn work down (not fun) and so I'm taking on an assistant this year. I know it sounds very grand but the poor beggar concerned is a lovely woman who's interested in doing the RHS course that I'm doing and has an allotment on our site. She's also crazy enough to come and help me out for a few hours a week in exchange for nothing more than tea and learnin'.
Talking of my course, I'm actually blogging on a break from essay writing (pests, diseases and control of). This is essay 10 0f 12 and I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Although that could be the migraine that I get just thinking about the final exam - waaarrrrgggh!
LxXx
