I am pleased to announce that she is back in the land of rude, good health. Of course, this does have its' disadvantages for me because she is working full time at the garden when she is not doing the volunteer work at the shop, but as it has been much too hot for the likes of me to be out there, I have stayed in our cool flat and dozed.
Dear Mr.Coward sang about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the noon day sun, well, he should have added gardeners to that list!
Her feet are, as normal when it is a sunny summer, striped two toned and her back and arms are as brown as a builders! She rememberw sometimes to face the sun but it is easier to work facing away from the sunshine. That way the fork doesn't go into a toe!
The ground is as dry as an old bone! Where is this huge volume of rain 'they' keep wittering about? Eh! We have not had a drop on the allotments for about five weeks. She does not water plants or trees, the only things that get watered a couple of times are plants that she has grown at home and that get taken out to be put into the soil.
She took five pots of different varieties of chillies out last week, very hot chillies.. yum! They will be dried and then ground up and will last us for the year.
But back to the lack of rain, this made digging up the last of potatoes this last week hard work, really chiseling them out of the earth is perhaps a better way to describe what went on!
The Charlottes and the red Desiree have both done splendidly, the Pink Fir, well, the less said about those naughty guys the better, what a pathetic crop. Sad, as normally they are such good 'doers' but they have not been good at all this year.
Next year she will put them into back into another location, over on the other side of the plots where they did extremely well several years ago.
It is time to plant the winter crop of potatoes but the ground is far too dry, nothing to going to take in this soil, so she will probably grow them in potato planters or in buckets at home.
The herbs are just absolutely wonderful! Strong tasting, great for drying and using as medicinal use or eating. The Lemon Balm, aka Melissa, is a herb she uses a lot, she eats it, drinks it and rubs it. Then there's Marjoram, the Oreganos, several different varieties of Mint and her most beloved Rosemary, this is such a wonderful herb.
This year's Lavender crop is fabulous! With the hot sun we have had it has a good, strong smell, she cuts only half a bush at a time to allow any passing bee access to the remaining flowers, but now the Marjoram is in flower, and they love that, the rest of Lavender will be cut within the coming week.
The Celery crop is in, it is a good crop this year, she cut that yesterday. The heads are drying on paper in the sitting room. She will hang them upside down in brown paper bags, "Thank you Karen", the seeds fall out when she shakes them and into the bags. Easy-peasy!
Next to be collected will be the wild Dill, we are so lucky that this grows in several places and that we also have wild bronze Fennel, such a pretty plant.
Goodness, it is a good thing we had a delicious supper! All this talk about seeds and other such edible things would make anyone hungry.
For supper, I had the rest of my morning egg and several slices of my latest addiction, this being a couple of slices of steamed Courgette / Zucchini together with a chopped up Charlotte Potato, a chunk of steamed Beetroot all tossed in olive oil, black pepper with dried dill, oh slurp.
She had the same together with a few slices of some very tasty looking cold meat.
And now as it is a few moments away from my bewitching hour, aka bedtime, I will bid you all adieu and hope that all of your tummies are as happy as mine?
Good night, Dear Readers, good night.
GeeGee Parrot.
August 6th, 2014.
Dear Mr.Coward sang about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the noon day sun, well, he should have added gardeners to that list!
Her feet are, as normal when it is a sunny summer, striped two toned and her back and arms are as brown as a builders! She rememberw sometimes to face the sun but it is easier to work facing away from the sunshine. That way the fork doesn't go into a toe!
The ground is as dry as an old bone! Where is this huge volume of rain 'they' keep wittering about? Eh! We have not had a drop on the allotments for about five weeks. She does not water plants or trees, the only things that get watered a couple of times are plants that she has grown at home and that get taken out to be put into the soil.
She took five pots of different varieties of chillies out last week, very hot chillies.. yum! They will be dried and then ground up and will last us for the year.
But back to the lack of rain, this made digging up the last of potatoes this last week hard work, really chiseling them out of the earth is perhaps a better way to describe what went on!
The Charlottes and the red Desiree have both done splendidly, the Pink Fir, well, the less said about those naughty guys the better, what a pathetic crop. Sad, as normally they are such good 'doers' but they have not been good at all this year.
Next year she will put them into back into another location, over on the other side of the plots where they did extremely well several years ago.
It is time to plant the winter crop of potatoes but the ground is far too dry, nothing to going to take in this soil, so she will probably grow them in potato planters or in buckets at home.
The herbs are just absolutely wonderful! Strong tasting, great for drying and using as medicinal use or eating. The Lemon Balm, aka Melissa, is a herb she uses a lot, she eats it, drinks it and rubs it. Then there's Marjoram, the Oreganos, several different varieties of Mint and her most beloved Rosemary, this is such a wonderful herb.
This year's Lavender crop is fabulous! With the hot sun we have had it has a good, strong smell, she cuts only half a bush at a time to allow any passing bee access to the remaining flowers, but now the Marjoram is in flower, and they love that, the rest of Lavender will be cut within the coming week.
The Celery crop is in, it is a good crop this year, she cut that yesterday. The heads are drying on paper in the sitting room. She will hang them upside down in brown paper bags, "Thank you Karen", the seeds fall out when she shakes them and into the bags. Easy-peasy!
Next to be collected will be the wild Dill, we are so lucky that this grows in several places and that we also have wild bronze Fennel, such a pretty plant.
Goodness, it is a good thing we had a delicious supper! All this talk about seeds and other such edible things would make anyone hungry.
For supper, I had the rest of my morning egg and several slices of my latest addiction, this being a couple of slices of steamed Courgette / Zucchini together with a chopped up Charlotte Potato, a chunk of steamed Beetroot all tossed in olive oil, black pepper with dried dill, oh slurp.
She had the same together with a few slices of some very tasty looking cold meat.
And now as it is a few moments away from my bewitching hour, aka bedtime, I will bid you all adieu and hope that all of your tummies are as happy as mine?
Good night, Dear Readers, good night.
GeeGee Parrot.
August 6th, 2014.
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