Summer bash

Saturday was the allotment society summer bash. I nipped down to the lottie early in the morning to collect some onions. In the end I harvested all the Onions, Red, White and Shallots. Whilst harvesting the Onions I weeded the patch. It was really nice tilling the soil. It seems ages since I was able to spend even a little time at the lottie. I bagged a couple of Beetroot as well. I dropped the onions off with H. H was to make a quiche for the bash. I then went off to Coalville to Harlow's to get some wood that Miss L needed for Uni. Back at home H finished off the quiche, Miss L got herself ready and I got out of my smegy clothes.

We had a lovely time at the summer bash. A very low key affair with Steve running the BBQ and all the other lottie holders bring along various treats. The weather held for us, both sunny and with a little wind. The kids went off on adventures bring back treasure of Blackberries, mostly smeared across their faces. Us adults ate, drank and chatted. We had tours of each others plots and discussed what went well, what did not and what we might do next year. I dug up one of the Cara main crop potato plants. The soil was perfect and the recent rain had bulked up the spuds. I wrapped two of the biggest in foil and had Steve drop them into the ashes of the BBQ. I found a couple of Sweet Corn ready so they on the BBQ too. The Sweet Corn was fabulous. Twenty minutes from plant to belly. I due course the event wound up. Miss L went off to a birthday party, me and H just sat in.

I had a few things to do on Sunday. H and I went to a car boot sale to try to get a tool box for Miss L. We found just the right thing. It was made from steel with hinged leaf lid. It is a little over a foot long and has an internal tray as well. I might have it myself yet. I went to another car boot because I did not get the golf balls I was after. The second car boot had what I wanted. Next up was the muck trailer run. Not much to say there except I had the lottie to myself. The grape vines are looking great. The bunches of grapes won't make dessert size but they do look good. Whilst we were out the grey skies finally opened up, slow and deliberate rain. We got home before getting too wet. The rain put off the walk we had planned. H went to collect Miss L and set about turning the spare plums into wine. After the plums I made up some Pears into start of some wine. A few of the Bramley apples I had picked were starting to turn so I had a go at making them into apple sauce. It tastes ok so I shall put it in jars.

I put the the onions I had harvested [Red Baron, Sturon and Shallots] into separate trays. The idea is that they dry out a little more before going into store. I took the trays up to the greenhouse only to find a hundred or more honey bees buzzing about the greenhouse. They were after the honey in the super that I had put in the greenhouse earlier in the week. The bees were not unhappy so it was no trouble to shoo them out of the super and stack the supers so they were bee tight. I plonked the onion trays in the greenhouse and that was pretty much it for the day.