I made a special effort to go to the lottie on Saturday. I am desperate to get the side path finished but first I had to do the poo run and then go to the Potato men. Whilst out collect aggregate to make concrete for for a plinth . The poo run was same as usual. When I drop the trailer back to the stables I then went to Newall to drop off the green screw can wine bottles I had collected. The potato men use them to sell the Jeyes fluid which they buy in bulk. I got a bag of seed compost whilst I was there. On the was back I picked up a bag of aggregate for Sunday. I popped in home to get milk and tea bags and went to the lottie. The wind was howling across the plot. Even the wind netting provide little respite. I turn the Ipod up and pulled my hat over my ears and cracked on. I set out a peg at the top of the plot to mark the corner and laid out a line to mark the position of the edging. I only had enough pegs to fit two of the three edging boards. With the two boards fitted I set about turning over the bed. It went quite easily although there was a lot of Chick weed. The soil had just the right amount of moisture which allowed the digging to be easy and the soil to shake free from the roots. I did about four linear foot of bed. The bed is ten foot wide which means a fair area was attacked.
Putting in the new edging meant I also had to redistribute the soil to make the bed level. Whilst digging I turned up volunteer spuds left behind from the previous year's harvest. They are Charlottes and there were enough for dinner that night. Speaking of volunteers, last year onion patch is showing a few renggades. I will tackle them another day. Having tied up the tools and emptied the wheel barrow I made my way home.
I was home for 1pm. I had a sandwich and a brew then set about the garage. I have a bike in kit form coming on Monday night so I thought I should tidy up the garage. I moved the bike ramp and the bike that was on it and turfed everything else onto the drive. I put up a few racks and swept the place out. The bike went back in against the wall on it's stands. The ramp is now in the middle of the floor. The bits of wood that were being stored went in the car to go to the lottie and subsequently on the fire and the good bits went in the shed. Most of the other stuff was binned or a new home was found for it. There looks like lots of space but once the bike arrives the area will be stuffed again. There is a link in the side bar to my BMW blog or just click HERE
We have Starlings living in the eves of the house. They woke H and I up early on Sunday. Having fought to ignore them I had to give up. We had breakfast then drove to Lount and had a nice walk round Alaster and Jaguar woods. Jaguar wood has a plantation of Walnut trees. They seems to be surviving. Walnut is not a native of the UK and is at the very top edge of it's range. Alaster wood has lots of heath type areas which are mown. There was a big pile of hay from the mowing. H and I made ourselves comfy and watched the birds. The larks and little birds twittered whilst the Buzzards soared and screeched. As we walked back a chap was out for a walk with his dog but he was dressed a bit oddly. After a short peep on his whistle a Harris hawk swooped onto his wrist, was fed a tit bit and launched again. The chap and this dog walked along the lane with the Harris "leap frogging" them tree to tree. To the chap it was nothing but to us it was extraordinary.
We have decided to plant a tree in memory of the Don the Allotment's first chairman who died in the autumn. We also decided we should have a plaque. The new chairman has organised the brass-work I have had to build a plinth. Having finished with the garage on Saturday I found a few handy bits of sheet plywood in the process I made a former to cast the concrete plinth. At 2pm on Sunday Steve and I turned up at the lottie , Steve to dig a hole in readiness for the tree and me to mix the concrete to cast the plinth. Job done I went home to watch the introduction to the 2008 MotoGP series.
Steve took a few of my ailing Curly Kale to feed to the his chickens.
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