Hibernation

Long time no post.
Why didn't I post?
As others have reported from time to time you just run out of energy.
Nothing much was growing - even the beans.
Nothing got watered at the right times - the eternal battle of the taps.
Yeilds were low.
Motivation within the ranks of the small (and bigger) helpers was low too.
So no posts.
But now I'm back.
Onions and garlic at the ready, 2012 is go!
Hibernation is for hedgehogs (and do check those bonfires at the weekend).
I'm going in...
(Well technically up to)
THE ALLOTMENT BECKONS.

How many beans make five?

One bean, two beans, a bean and a half and half a bean. That's how many beans make five.

That will probably be the sum total of my harvest this year too as some toothed critter seems to have slunk by and mowed them all off at about four inches high.

This is what happens when you let the internet sway you. Yes I blame you lot out there in cyberspace with your talk of crop rotation and soil starvation.I have always grown beans in the same place, by the fence in easy reach of the water supply. This year I read about crop rotation again and thought that even though all the old boys always grow beans in the same place year after year and even though I get great harvests I would move them.

So no beans this year then.
Not enough water and "what lies beneath" seem to have done for them.  I have put a few spare plants in and sown some more in hope than anything but...tonight I will be dreaming of plates of runner, french and borlotti beans drizzled in butter steaming in a dish in front of me and next year at about this time  will be moaning about a glut of bl**dy beans and what on earth will I be able to do with them all.

Funny old game isn't it?

Pooh! Is that you?

We made some stink food.
You know the stuff - stinging nettles ferment in water for weeks, small boys pee in it when they are caught short at the allotment, the odd beetle and raspberry drop in it on passing and it really stinks?
We use it to feed the pumpkin growing in the compost heap.
Tonight I spilt it down my leg. I smell. I smell bad. I have bathed. I have rubbed in body cream. I have showered and soaped and still I smell. OH will be home later - hopefully his cold will not have improved...

YS's current favourite book seemed appropriate.

techno torment

Haven't been posting so much this year but am experiencing the usual gluts:

Raspberries - 24lb of jam and fresh ones given away to relatives and people in the village.

Broad beans - the children are rebelling - I am freezing bagfulls to surprise them with later - oh and there are another two rows not ready yet as I did successional sowing.

Lettuce - another crop to be distibuted widely.

Sweet peas - make good gifts for teachers and grandma/nanny/aunty

Courgettes - and this is just the first week of that bounty.

The techno torment? Well currently no camera and no internet connection. If I'd wanted a job in IT...

He loves me

Whilst I was at w*rk one day last week OH made this for me -

my own private potting bench. I love it! And I love him for thinking of it and making it happen. Onwards to the potting bench, I have lettuce to sow.

When I said weeds...

When I said weeds I meant weeds. I guess the only thing to do is a bit of public humiliation and then I might just get on with it!

The raspberries.

The strawberries.

The critter damage.

So these are the before pictures. Who knows how long until I post the afters? Wish me luck, and let this be a lesson to you all  - don't take holidays in June.

Optimism

What is the definition of optimism?
Me hoping to get onto the plot without a machete after not visiting for a week?
Or my 91 year old neighbour frantically giving away tomato plants? "I've grown too many - I just enjoy growing them..." (Estimate of around 250 plants)
I hope when I am 91 I still have the optimism to grow for another season in magnificent volume and can share my plants with the village and don't get overtaken by the weeds in the meantime.

And of course tomatoes were my never again plant. 2008 blight, 2009 blight, 2010 blight
but how could I say no? Here we go on the emotional rollercoaster once more.