Ha!!

Something to fill the short winter days and the long winter nights. Our names came out of the hat (or however else it is this thing is done) and we are now proud lease-holders of a 10 rod plot of overgrown land at the arse-end of the council allotments.

This is something we've tried before and failed at, largely because the lease didn't come up until the early spring which left us little time to clear and prepare and get anything in for that first year to keep our spirits up, then in the middle of our first year I accidentally got pregnant and he ran out of enthusiasm and ... we ran out of excuses and handed the lease back.

Now we're starting from scratch.

Last Saturday we went up and looked it over, decided we wouldn't do better and said yes, please. Now we're on the scrounge.

I'm making Christmas chocolates in return for a disused cold frame that's been volunteered by a colleague.

We need a shed we can lock up so we're not carting tools backwards and forwards. We're trying to work out how to be there on a Saturday or Sunday when the man from the stables comes by with a trailer loaded with the 'output' of his business which we can spread over our little bit of land.

We've started by hand clearing the worst of the land and the rubbish. After that we'll get in with a rotorvator (?) available for hire from the committee running the Allotment Association. Fortunately we have a ready source of pallets with which to build a rubbish bin and a compost bin.

I would have mentioned all this earlier but it has taken me all this time to work out how to get the photo in as a title for this blog. Let's hope I'm more adept at the horticulture.