Seasonal work

I was up fairly early Saturday morning. I had relaxed breakfast and made a thermos of Tea to take with me to the lottie. Steve's landy started after a little encouragement. I loaded up the landy with empty crates and set off for the lottie. I had the lottie to myself. The sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky. The air temperature was not high so despite the sun it was quite cool. I had the usual walk round to inspect the plot. The cold weather had wilted all the tender plants. The Vines had lost all their leaves. It was no surprise to fine the weeds in rude health.

I tidied up the small Rhubarb patch by spreading the semi rotted straw from the forcing tub round the corms. After that a tipped on two barrow loads of manure and spread the manure out. It is only a relatively thin layer but it makes the bed look tidy. After that I bagged up some of stalks that I had left on the paving to dry out, put them in a bag to take home for the green bin. Tuesday is green bin day. Next up I started on the the last of the last three rows of spuds. Despite all the weather we have had lately the soil was still reasonably dry, well at least not sticky. I weeded as it went. I last of the spuds filled the big green tray to the top. That will keep us going for a while.

That done I moved the two big rolls of wire mesh out of the middle path, between beds 3 & 4, out to the paved area. This year I used this wire to support the peas but I did not find it easy to use so I do not think I will use it again. With the wire gone I had access to the path way. I dug out the worst of the weeds from the path. I also weeded the last couple of foot of Bed3. That means I have a quarter the the plot dug and weeded. That is a good start for the winter digging. Time was moving on so I harvested some Broccoli, the last two summer cabbage, the Butternut Squash and some Carrots. I noted that the Brussels Sprouts are coming on as are the Winter Cabbages.

I have been offered some industrial carpet. I am considering it to line the paths. The front of the big compo bins needed straightening up. It just took a few minutes. Digging up the spuds tired back back out. I had a spot of lunch and got showered and shave ready for my course. I had to attend a safeguarding course in Nottingham as final of my coaching assignments. I was home again at seven. After Tea I made up my seed order and made out the cheque in readiness to drop it off on Sunday to the seed secretary.

The clocks went back Sunday night to Greenwich mean Time so I was up early whether I liked it or not. I filtered the Grape must, that I had made from the harvested lottie Grapes, into a demi-john, added and little suger and yeast. I put the air lock on and put the demi-john with the others. H and I went to Tamworth to get a picture frame for the print H bought last week. On the way back we got a couple of bags of seed compost. On getting home we had a sandwich. H spotted that MotoGP was on. It is the penultimate round of the season. In the afternoon we went for a walk round Staunton Harold. The trees were in their full Autumn glory. We could see the Fallow and Red Deer since their cover had died back. The stags were busy rounding up the does and chasing off he opposition. It was all very seasonal.