A Charming Day

   There was a definite feeling of spring in the weather today and yesterday. Bright sunshine although it was a frost overnight. I loaded Degsy with provisions and compost container from home and took my self off the lottie with the intention of lifting the last four rows of spuds. I remembered the tyre pump and the spanners. I was surprised to find I was the only one at the plots. Tyre tracks showed I was the first down on the old plots but not the first to have visited today on the new plots. I parked Degsy up as usual and got the first job out of the way which was dump the contents of the home compost bin in my big compost bin. It surprises my just how fast the compost bin works even in the winter. I will be needing to empty it before too long. Got to do weeding on the beds first. Next up was to check the wheelbarrow tyre. The pumped it up and hoped it would stay up. It did and it was still fine when I went home.

   So digging spuds...Well no. The lottie has been looking untidy and not just the beds. I got a braiser and started a small fire. I have been collecting bits of wood and saving off cuts from jobs but I decided they were making the place untidy and since I had not used the bits for a year they were of no use. I might come to regret saying that. Anyway I chopped the bigger bits down and fed them in to the fire. It was a pity it was not one of those super sharp winter days as the fire got going it was toasty. I laid the wetter pieces of wood on the rim of the braiser. The heat dried them out to where they would burn. Whilst the fire was going I went round to the back of the big muck bin and shovelled the muck that the worms had kicked out through the slats of the bin back onto the top of the heap. I replaced the chicken wire, badly, back in position. The path at the back of the bins got a sprucing up. The rolls of checking wire were stacked as where the planks. I picked any wood or combustible materials and placed them near the fire for feeding into the brasier as required. I took a walk round the plot and picked up any and all dried material including the cutting from the vines. They all took a turn to feed the fire. Over the course of the day the pile of wood disappeared into the brasier. The wind was perfect blowing gently from the south west which blew the smoke straight off the plots and across the open farmland. It also was just right to fan the flames. I took my super sharp pruning saw with me down the hedge line. I trimmed out the branches of the hedge that where encroaching on my plot. They also went on the fire.

    So digging spuds. I could not think of a reason not to so started a brew going whilst I got the tools set out for digging. I had a brew and chocy biscuit whilst I watched the fire. Jonny, one of the plot holders dropped by the contemplate his plot but left after a short chat. Jonny was required for his Sunday lunch. It 12.30 after all. I fed the fire some more of the diminishing pile of timber and went down to make a start on the digging. The digging was easy. The soil was in lovely condition for digging. The soil was really cold to the touch but it did not seem to be holding the Dock back. They were starting to sprout. The barrow was just the job. It was fully by the end of the third row. The spuds had not started to sprout but were small and had quite a out of worm holes in them. No wonder the worms were so fat the juicy. There were loads of worms in every spadeful of soil. A good indicator to the condition of the soil. I just plodded along, weeding and harvesting. I was getting weary but I was determined to get all the spuds up. This was the last of what pitiful harvest I had in the last season. Once the spuds were out I would make quicker progress on the weeding as I would not need to search for spuds or dig so deep. When the barrow was nearly full I put the kettle on the for another brew. I had finished the row and filled the barrow by the time the kettle was boiling.

   When the brew was ready the brasier had burnt everything down of a few inches of cinders. It tipped the ash out onto the patio and set the brasier to one side to cool down. I made a neat pile of the ash. There were plenty of cinders in the ash that had not quite burnt out. I got the deck chair out and with my back to the sun and facing the ash pile a had my brew whilst being toasted from both sides. I shut my eyes, felt the heat on me and just listened to the birds for a while. It was as much rest and peace of mind I have had in an age.

   Brew done it was back to the digging to push on to finish the row. I managed it finally. I just had to rake the soil into the uniform surface. I estimated the depth of the bed is 16inch but it will settle back to 12 or 14 inches.

 I had to be careful whilst digging because this bed is plagued with roots from the trees in the hedge. The champion root today was almost as thick as the handle of my shovel. 



  
 

   Whilst I was having a brew I saw that a couple of Great Tits were busy round the bee hive and I could see one or two bees on unsteady wings buzzing round the doorway of the hive. I took a few minutes to visit the bees and have a look in the hive. This hive has a glass "quilt" on the top so you can look in without exposing yourself to the bees. I could not see any bees so I lifted the candy covering the escape hole in the quilt. There were a couple of bees licking the candy so as of today I have a colony of bees but the winter is not over yet. However it is grounds for optimism.

   The last job was the shovel the cooled ash into the big compo bin.With sun still well above the horizon and main main task completed as well as a bunch of other valuable tasks, still having my back intact and having had a very charming day at the lottie I loaded Degsy up and trundled home.