Oink little piggy

Friday was the Allotment Society AGM. We got a a few things agreed and moved the Society forward. A few us stayed on after the meeting to assist the local economy by having a few beers. Nothing much happened Saturday mainly because of helping the local economy. I had hoped the ground would dry out but it has rained on and off all week. This weekend it is starting to turn cold as well. Not before time. The weeds can get by in cool and wet conditions so have continued to grow throughout the autumn. Cold and wet should slow them down.

Steve bought round the half pig sourced from a local supplier. The chops where really thick and meaty. I gave Steve back some of the shoulder and hand for the chorizo man, who for the swap of some honey will make the pork into.....well.....chorizo. The bagged up all the butchered pieces for freezing, chop, joints, hocks and some belly. The pig came with the a complete hind quarter. I separated the hock. I intend to make a hearty and winter-warming soup out of this. I boned out the leg and cut into two portions, one for a glazed ham for this Christmas and the other for air drying for next Christmas. With everything safely packed away a tackled the current air drying ham. I took it out of its home in the shed fridge and cleaned it up. It was still a bit wet on the surface for daubing on grease but I manged to get a coating on then covered it with ground pepper. Then on with the muslin cloth and then to the hook in the shed to dry in the cool air. This joint has been on the go since this time last year or there abouts. The joint is really dense since the salt has drawn the water out of the meat. I will give it a couple weeks and cut myself a sample.

Miss L was out so after a brew and a good clean up in the kitchen H and I went for a short walk round Calke Abbey. It was getting late and the wind had an edge to it which probably kept the hoards at home. With the place mostly to ourselves we wandered round watching the Grebes and Tufted ducks on the lake. The deer could be clearly seen amongst the trees. Calke have introduce Longhorn cattle to the park who wander about the trees mowing the bracken and other vegetation. They a vet little on their feet yet they are big buggers close up especially with those huge horns but quite docile.

I have busy week travelling but I can only hope the ground dries out and it does not freeze just yet before a can get to do a bunch of digging.

Plimsoll

I have just finished reading a biography of Samuel Plimsoll by Nicolette Jones called The Plimsoll Sensation. For those that do not know, every ship that now goes to sea has a marker on the side of ship to indicate the depth to which the ship can be safely loaded. During the late 1800's the loss of life was enormous from ship going to sea and floundering even in very moderate seas, not even storms. Ship owners over insured the ships and had a callous disregard for the life of the seamen. Merchant seaman had no choice but to put to sea even if they knew the vessel was a coffin ship. They risked six weeks or more in jail if they did embark once they had signed on. This was in a time when you could still starve to death in England. Six weeks was a sentence for the family as well as the sailor. Not all ship owners were rascals but many were. Plimsoll was a Liberal MP for Derby, he and his wife were devoted to improving the condition of the working poor.

Click HERE for more info.

Tarts for the Bees

Anybody living in the UK cannot have helped but notice the wind and rain we have had this week. Our friends live in Cockermouth which was badly ht by the weather. The River Derwent which runs through the town burst it's banks and flooded the town. The sister of our friend was one of those affected. Her shop and house are right in the middle of the worst affect parts of town. The shop was flooded chest deep. It still raining up there but less heavily than before. The river levels are beginning to subside. Our friends live on the hills just outside the town. I expect the next few weeks will be busy for them.

On Saturday we had to take Miss L to look at another uni. Anglia Ruskin this time. It was a easy journey if a little boring. We listened to what they had to say, visited the accommodation and had a look round town and lunch. Miss L was very impressed with the town. Miss L noted that everyone had nice shoes. The drive home was a little less boring. One hundred miles in the dark, pouring rain and howling gale. We made it without incident but I was cream crackered.

Sunday dawn with clear skies and bright sunshine although the wind was still blowing quite hard. I had a few jobs to do before S&J came down from Chapel-en-le-Firth for dinner. First job, collect the muck trailer. The real first job was to load up Degsy and start him up. I should not have worried. Choke out, turn the key with a slight dab on the gas pedal and he sprung into life. Thereafter he never missed a beat. When I got back the lottie and checked around for storm damage but found none. The trailer contents were tipped. I took a look round the plot. The chickweed has gone mad. You may recall I bought a scythe handle and built up a full scythe. Since I had it in Degsy I thought I would give it a go on the Chickweed. It did a fantastic job. In a very few minutes I had cleared away a great portion of the weed. Some areas are better than others as I learned now to get the best action. The most effective action came to me quite quickly. It must be something in the genes. With this triumph under my belt I checked the ground. It is too wet for digging but if the wind keeping blowing and it does not rain too much the soil should be in good order for digging next weekend.

I had a look round the crops that were still in. I was under instruction from H to get Leeks, which I did. I can vouch for the planting scheme that says plant the Leeks seedling six inches deep and plant them close together. My Leeks, although they got a touch of rust, have long white shafts. I bagged a few Beetroot and a couple of Turnips. I was happy to find that a Cauli had flowered as well a some side shoots of previously harvested Calabrese and Broccoli. There was enough for a side order at dinner. They made a nice winter posy. See below.



To paraphrase Uncle Monty, in the film Withnail and I, "Flowers are simply tarts; prostitutes for the bee, you should never underestimate the decorative potential of vegetables". I also noticed that the over wintering onions were making a start. I packed up Degsy and set off back to the stables. When I got there I found the Angie was back from walking out her new horse, Zara. I dropped the trailer in it's usual spot and we had a chat about Zara who was very interested in what was being said. With Zara installed at the stables the trailer duty will go back to a weekly ritual.

Next a went round to have a look at the bees. To be precise to see the hive. For some reason I have not been worried about the hive in the high winds. When I got to the apiary I found that I was right not to worry. The hive was in one piece and where I left it. The hedges had died back and the trees had lost their leaves back but the hive location was still sheltered. I shone the torch through the bottom of the hive and saw that the bees were still moving about. The weather is not bothering them too much. As I finished my inspection the rain came on. Cold, wet and driven by a stiff breeze. I did not mind since I had been cooped up in my office all week. I like being out in wild weather. After the bees Degsy and I sauntered home just in time to get washed and changed to meet S&J. We had a nice relaxing dinner. In the end S&J had to go home but it was nice whilst it lasted.

Billy's here

The daughter (Claire) and boyfriend (Clarkie) of our neighbours are leaving soon to go travelling. They are not at home at Christmas so Christmas was brought forward to Sunday. We have a tradition of having a few drinks with our neighbours on Christmas morning. I had a smashing breakfast of locally smoked bacon, mushrooms and eggs with tea and toast on the side. Suitably protected we presented ourselves at 11 o'clock only to find that C&C did not know about the pseudo-Christmas. They did turn up, if a little late, and were surprised to find all the usual suspects sitting round sipping Kia Royale's in our Christmas best.

Graham, Dad of Claire, likes a beer. In Woodville a micro-brewery has been established. It does bottles and kegs in different types or styles of beer. They rent the hand pump to go with the keg. Their stock in trade beer is Billy's Best. It is a bit hoppy for me but with a few Kia's inside me Billy's went down quietly. Just as well really as Graham had bought a pin, a 36 pint keg. We were supposed to leave at 2pm but the party was still flowing at two. We got away just before 4pm. We said our goodbye's and gave our best wishes for the future to C&C. More or less as soon as we got home and sat down with a brew we fell asleep.

Next year has begun

Next year has begun with the placing of my bulk seed order with Kings. They will probably turn up before Christmas. My special thing for next year is a defence against potato blight. I cannot find seed Garlic in the shops. I will probably have to get it on-line. I have decided what I am going to do with my scaffold boards. I just need some pegs and more screws.

H has run mad at home tidying up the back garden. We even have an idea what we might do. I think Mr Mattock will be busy through the winter.

The lottie still has plenty of produce growing, Sprouts, Leeks, Beets, Broccoli, Carrots, Parsnip, Cabbage, oh and weeds. A superfluity weeds. If only the edible plants were so vigorous!

A new milestone

This post is the double century. Two hundred posts of assorted ramblings interspersed with bits of useful infomation......I would like to hope.

Rememberance Sunday 2009

H and Miss L were up early as Miss L had to be in town to take charge of the Brownies at the town's Remembrance parade. In the meantime I popped round the Steve's to collect my scaffold boards and take them over to the lottie. I parked them at the lottie in a safe place. The planks are good value. I cannot believe how long they are. I just have to get some pegs then we are in business to make some new edgings over the winter. Whilst I was loading the car outside Steve's, a thin little voice caught my attention. "Young man...young man". One of Steve's elderly neighbours could not get the top of her new jar of coffee. I obliged with the cap removal. Whatever I did moving the boards my lower back is killing.

I went home, had a shower, a shave and a change of clothes then together with H went to Ashby for the parade. Just as we got into town the procession, headed by the drums and bugles of the Donisthorpe Scout Band, marched past. The youth military cohorts marched past in fair order followed by the various shuffling youth organisations such as the Scouts. Guides, Rangers and Brownies, fund raisers such as the Roundtable and the church groups. The Scout Band is peopled by ex-Scouts. I think the youngest member is at least thirty. The youngest of the drum corp must be at least fifty. They do make a stirring sound as the drum corp thunders and volley complimented by cascading bugle calls. There was a very good turn out. As usual the organising group got the timing all wrong. The minister from St Helen's had to fill for five minutes. He said some poignant things. Hymms sung, religious words said, silence observed, wreaths laid, and the national anthem sung with gusto, even the tricky second verse, all under a blue sky and the biting chill of a November day. Once the officer of the day bellowed his dismissal of the parade the assembled couple of hundred people dissolved into small groups. Miss L popped up having handed over her charges to their parents. We passed the time of day with friends then went home for a hot cuppa. Miss L was frozen through despite layers of clothing. I was as warm as toast. As I was told when I was a lad, there is no such thing as bad weather....just the wrong clothing.

Whilst having lunch I was channel hopping on the TV only to spot the MotoGP was about to start. Today was the last round. Valentino Rossi had already won the title so the racing was all about the minor places. Having experienced the end of a couple of racing seasons I could empathise with the winners and losers and the general relief that it is over for another year. After the GP which Danni Pedrosa won, Rossi second and Lorenzo third, I went to the lottie. Degsy was a bit poorly but with time short I parked him up with a promise to look at him next weekend. I took the few bits I needed in the Vauxhall. I harvested the French Beans, dismantled the frame and cleared away the debris. It took a whole hour since the bean vines had tangled themselves in the overhead netting.. The bean pods filled my big green tray. That is going to be a lot of podding! I found a big Butterhut squash that I missed from the harvest yesterday. The cold weather has killed off the vines of the squashes revealing the hidden fruits of Pumpkin [although being big and orange they are hard to miss], Butternut squash and Gherkin. I pulled up the empty stalks of the Sweet Corn and left them on the ground to continue drying. The vines of the French beans went into the compost heap. I tidied up and went home even though the sun was still above the horizon. I did a bit of fettling in the garden and then was distracted by tea. I spent sometime pondering what is to be done over the winter. And that was more or less it for the weekend. Back to work to work in the morning. I still have five day holidays to use up before the end of December so if the weather holds I might have a chance to catch up on the digging.

Happy as a pig in..........

I have had a very busy fortnight, travelling here and there, seeing people. There was the promise of an outing to the Railway on Friday night to discus Dave P's plans for his plot. We might have a drop of the black stuff too. Just for medicinal purposes you undestand and as as part of our civic duty to support local businesses.A couple of hours talk nonsense and slurping the black stuff was a nice antidote to the couple of weeks of charging about. Steve told me that that the secondhand scafforld boards had been delivered. We resolved to meet up the next day and sort out the scaffold boards and Steve's muck pile.

I had a list of things to do Saturday morning including dropping off my Potato order to the Newall chaps. I tried two places for Garlic bulbs but came up empty handed. I had to accompany H to Tamworth. Whilst there I picked up some artist supplies for Miss L. I got home in time to get changed, nip over to collect my muck trailer from Netherseal, chat to Angie [she is getting a new horse to replace the one that died so that means more muck for me] and get back to the lottie to meet Steve and Dave.I had emptied my trailer by the time they turned up.They had been over to Steve's poo source and turned up with a trailer full of muck and a couple of kids in tow, one from each family.

We emptied Steve's trailer onto Dave's plot and set off, in convoy, to Steve's muck source in Hartshorn. At Steve's stables they have a big trailer into which they dump the mucking out. We filled both our trailers to the brim which, by luck rather then judgement, emptied their big trailer. I went to get into Degsy only to find the kids had made themselves comfortable in the passenger seats, strapped in and ready to go.There is not much you can do when faced with such an emphatic decision. They were as good as gold whilst I wrestled Degsy and the ton weight trailer up the long hill from Hartshorn. We got back to the lottie and tipped the muck. I had half a dozen barrow loads of muck dropped on the Asgaragus bed. I am not sure that is the right thing to do but it is done now. With luck it will smother the weed seeds. The sun was sliding towards the horizon and the temperature was dropping too. We parted company with me resolving to see Steve the next day to collect me scaffold boards.I ran my trailer back to Netherseal. Then home for tea.