Diggin'

Saturday dawned clear although it had been raining on and off all week. I first drove over to Coalville and get a load of 2"square x 18" pegs. I will be using them later for securing the border round the lottie and the Strawberry patch at home. I eventually got to the lottie with the idea of digging up the spuds but before that a got the spade out. I cleared off the worst chickweed and dropped it in the compo bin. One small area gave me a full wheelbarrow of weed. I dug over the plot. The soil was a touch wet but not too bad. It made pulling out the weeds very easy and turned over without difficultly. I dug up a row of Cara spuds. It was a good crop and no blight. I did a bit of assorted weeding on the path. I got the Mattock out and cleared out the drain in front of the plot to clear the gathering pond. It was good to spend the day in the wind and sun. As we get closer to the winter solstice the sun does not get very far above the horizon. The sun was blazing but had no heat in it but it did shine in your eyes. I had my Trangie with me so I had a brew and a mince pie whilst sitting out of the wind in the back of Degsy, as a break, during the course of the day. The cue to go home was that the sky was getting dim and as soon as sun dropped the temperature dropped significantly.

I was woken up very early Sunday morning to sound a rain bouncing off the bedroom window. I still had the poo run to do, luckily it had stopped by then. When I got to the lottie I found, not surprisingly that the ground was sodden. I found the rain had washed a few spuds out of the face of the trench. I dug a few Leeks up as well. They went in the basket with spuds for Angie. I marked out the position for the new path. That will be a job for later in the winter. Since the lottie was sodden I went home and resolved to fettle the back garden.

The Willows that I planted a few years ago are about 20 foot high. The end Willow is a bit unruly so that got sawn down. I trimmed back the straggly Willow wands and hopefully they will root and provide more hedging for the lottie . Next off was the prune the Apple and Pear trees. I got down on the my hands and knees and weeded the paths between the fruit beds. The greenhouse needed tidying up. I got the trays out that have the onions drying. The binned the rotting and sprouting bulbs. The remainder were stored in the shed.

Whilst I was fettling Steve dropped by to show off his new landy [It is Lightweight or Airportable]. His girls are very excited. He gave me a box of his random home made wines. I figured I would try them. So stood by the table on the decking, having pulled the corks, I had a sip from each bottle. As I expected the Elderberry was, like mine, unpalatable. The Gooseberry and Pear wines were a triumph. I put away the re-corked bottles in the shed. The shed is ready for Christmas, wines, honey and preserves shelved, vegetables in trays and meats hanging. I have to admit that a few "sips" to the tasting slipped down my gullet. Feeling a growing warmth spreading into my limbs and the failing light signalled the end of the day and a very fine day it was too.