In and out of running L around the country and other fatherly and husbandly duties I have been able to get some quality time at the lottie. I have dug over a quarter of the plot which I am very pleased about. In doing this I have harvested the Onion, Shallots, Peas and Broad Beans. The Chic peas were a disater so they have gone in the compo bin. I also took a walk about beheading any weeds that looked in danger of seeding. The soil is still too hard to harvest the spuds but the weeds are starting to get going.
On the bright side I positioned the new black comp bins. They are doing a good job. I filled one to the very top, such is the weedyness of my plot, and in a week it had dropped back to three quarters full. So I topped it up again. The other bin is less than half full but then again the weeding is not finished. The bins have made a big improvement to the tidiness of my plot. Hazel played a blinder on the Aspargus bed. We discovered there were lot of spears of "Sparragrass" coming though anew. Unfortunatelty the rabbits had discovered it too. The rabbit[s] had dug under the crown and nibbled away at it from underneath. My lottie neighbours have spotted big excavations on their plots. I was invited over to look at them and ascertain if anyone was at home. I stuck my hoe down the hole, handle first. The handle of the hoe disappearred down the burrow right up to the blade. Thats about five foot. There was no squeaking or feeling of soft bodies in the burrow so we dug the burrow up only to find an enormous Toad. The Toad was evicted and let off into the under growth. The burrow was back filled in the hope that it would discourage the Rabbit from coming back. Another plot holder had a similar hole, a similar depth so that was dug up too. No one was found to be at home. We saw the rabbit. A big, bright eyed buggers, sitting under the peas on another plot. I shied a stone at it and missed by a enough to not worry the other plot holders but close enough to the make it run off. My lottie neighbours are in a turoil. They do not want the Rabbit bredding and living on the plot, eatting everything in sight and digging up what they don't eat and clearing them off without hurting them. The dilemea is their's. I have rabbit netted all round my plot, except for the sparragrass bed. I think I will be netting that quite soon.
Once the Rabbit and Toad wrangling had ceased I went back to digging the plot over. The Wheelbarrow filled again and the ritual of the comp bin was enacted. I had a bucket full of leaves to dispose of which were to go into the big short term compo bin. For whatever reeason I did not just throw back the cover us usual but picked one corner, I think I was in two minds over something. There was a movement under the cover. I got down on my knees and peaked under the tarp. There was a Grass snake coiled up in the warm and dark of the plants that went into the compo bin the previous week. I put the cover back down and called my Lottie nieghbour, Maria, over. A couple of the plot holders had seen the snake during the summer but did not know what sort it was. Maria and I had been talking about what we would do if we saw it. Maria came over, a little nervous at what I might have found. With Maria, phone in hand, I gentlly peeled back the cover to find the Grass Snake was still there. Whilst he was pretending he was invisble I grasped it behind the head as I had seen in any number of wild life films. The Snake was not that concerned. I think it was probably a bit cold. He was about an three quarters of an inch in diameter at the thickest part of the body and about twenty inches long. Definately a Grass Snake. The combined affect of being handled and get warmed from my skin made him start to wriggle , so once we had had taken a picture or two we put him back in the compo bin and off he slid.
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