No one could ever describe her as a fair weather gardener! Yesterday, the sunshine had faded somewhat but it was dry underfoot, so she went off to the allotments with twenty four Dutch Iris bulbs and four mixed Begonia corms.
She had received an email from the allotment site manager, Denis, saying there had been a delivery on Saturday of well rotted leaf mold.
It was too cold for me to go, my vest is still 'moth' eaten so she put fresh water and yumyum out for me, kissed Beaky, told me to be a 'good gir' and left the house at 11.15am.
Half way up Yeoman's Row, it started to spit with rain but with a tweed jacket and a beanie, a little rain wasn't enough to make her come home.
The journey was short.. she was there in under half an hour which is a record, for it usually takes an hour, if she is lucky.
All was well at the plots, lots of new plot holders were there and it made her just a trifle sad to see a man cutting down and digging out Jane's roses, but as he said "it's sad but it is the only place I can use as a parking space", she won't tell Jane, who is probably already upset enough that due to her ill health she has had to give up her plots.
There was an industrious woman working on one of Andrew's old plots, I have no idea how to spell her name, it is Danish and begins with a V.
She was smiley and thanked mama for coming up and saying "hello, how are you getting on?" to her. Apparently no one else had spoken to her.. grrr.
The ground was soft and the four barrow loads of manure that she placed on the beds last Sunday have started to rot down. We have had a mixed bag of weather over this past week and this does the work, plus she has some of the fattest worms she has ever seen doing their work as well.
She soaked the iris bulbs in warm water and then left them to drain, they had responded very well to this treatment and grown a healthy amount of strong looking roots and sent up good shoots.
A couple were planted amongst the narcissi in the cutting bed and the rest were placed under a plum tree and amongst the red tulips.
The begonias, which had the same treatment, had also sprouted shoots and roots and went in to one of the little beds underneath cherry trees with red calla lillies.
The next job was to collect this famous leaf mold that Denis had emailed her about, so off up the track she went with the BIG wheelbarrow. Only to find nothing there!
Apparently, according to a nearby plot holder, a big van had arrived earlier and scooped it all up and driven off. Unfortunately, the key that opens our gates is also shared with another allotment site and the two men who took it must have reckoned no one would see them do it.
Ha.. unfortunately for them, the plot holder took a note of their license plate and is going to tell Denis.
But that didn't alter the fact there was nothing there, her long walk up the track had been for nothing, so she turned around and headed back down the track and walked straight into a hail storm!
There was nowhere to shelter, she had to keep on walking and pulling the wheelbarrow.. it 's much easier to pull a wheelbarrow than to push one, try it and see.
By the time she reached her plots it had stopped but oh boy, the temperature had dropped by several degrees, she was glad she had worn that particular jacket which is, although extremely old, windproof and waterproof.
A good way to warm yourself up is to fork over a bed and rake up cuttings and stuff you've weeded out of beds.
And this was what she did for the next two hours, manure she had lain on top of beds last weekend was dug in, another bed was weeded, she moved metal cages about, raked plots, then picked a bag of leaves for supper.
Joska came over and whilst they were talking, they both noticed a solid black line in the sky in the south west and after eighteen years of working this land, she knows exactly what it means, foul weather is heading her way.
Tools wiped, Shack locked up, she ran for the gate but wasn't quick enough, the hail caught her before she got to the steps and it 'chased' her all the way to the bus stop!
Oh, ears and whiskers, it was bitterly cold, her breathe was visible as she sat waiting for a bus, she had, unfortunately, just missed one and had to wait for another twenty minutes.
Normally she would have walked to Chiswick High Street but she wasn't going to do that in this hail storm. So thoughts of a hot drink and spicy and tasty food were in her mind as she scuttled down our steps and came home.
How lucky it didn't do this earlier, she thought as she cooked a meal of fish, rice and vegetables, it wouldn't have been 'fun' to stand and take the salute or give out shamrock in a hail storm.
No one likes rain on a parade, do they!
GeeGee Parrot.
March 18th, 2019.
She had received an email from the allotment site manager, Denis, saying there had been a delivery on Saturday of well rotted leaf mold.
It was too cold for me to go, my vest is still 'moth' eaten so she put fresh water and yumyum out for me, kissed Beaky, told me to be a 'good gir' and left the house at 11.15am.
Half way up Yeoman's Row, it started to spit with rain but with a tweed jacket and a beanie, a little rain wasn't enough to make her come home.
The journey was short.. she was there in under half an hour which is a record, for it usually takes an hour, if she is lucky.
All was well at the plots, lots of new plot holders were there and it made her just a trifle sad to see a man cutting down and digging out Jane's roses, but as he said "it's sad but it is the only place I can use as a parking space", she won't tell Jane, who is probably already upset enough that due to her ill health she has had to give up her plots.
There was an industrious woman working on one of Andrew's old plots, I have no idea how to spell her name, it is Danish and begins with a V.
She was smiley and thanked mama for coming up and saying "hello, how are you getting on?" to her. Apparently no one else had spoken to her.. grrr.
The ground was soft and the four barrow loads of manure that she placed on the beds last Sunday have started to rot down. We have had a mixed bag of weather over this past week and this does the work, plus she has some of the fattest worms she has ever seen doing their work as well.
She soaked the iris bulbs in warm water and then left them to drain, they had responded very well to this treatment and grown a healthy amount of strong looking roots and sent up good shoots.
A couple were planted amongst the narcissi in the cutting bed and the rest were placed under a plum tree and amongst the red tulips.
The begonias, which had the same treatment, had also sprouted shoots and roots and went in to one of the little beds underneath cherry trees with red calla lillies.
The next job was to collect this famous leaf mold that Denis had emailed her about, so off up the track she went with the BIG wheelbarrow. Only to find nothing there!
Apparently, according to a nearby plot holder, a big van had arrived earlier and scooped it all up and driven off. Unfortunately, the key that opens our gates is also shared with another allotment site and the two men who took it must have reckoned no one would see them do it.
Ha.. unfortunately for them, the plot holder took a note of their license plate and is going to tell Denis.
But that didn't alter the fact there was nothing there, her long walk up the track had been for nothing, so she turned around and headed back down the track and walked straight into a hail storm!
There was nowhere to shelter, she had to keep on walking and pulling the wheelbarrow.. it 's much easier to pull a wheelbarrow than to push one, try it and see.
By the time she reached her plots it had stopped but oh boy, the temperature had dropped by several degrees, she was glad she had worn that particular jacket which is, although extremely old, windproof and waterproof.
A good way to warm yourself up is to fork over a bed and rake up cuttings and stuff you've weeded out of beds.
And this was what she did for the next two hours, manure she had lain on top of beds last weekend was dug in, another bed was weeded, she moved metal cages about, raked plots, then picked a bag of leaves for supper.
Joska came over and whilst they were talking, they both noticed a solid black line in the sky in the south west and after eighteen years of working this land, she knows exactly what it means, foul weather is heading her way.
Tools wiped, Shack locked up, she ran for the gate but wasn't quick enough, the hail caught her before she got to the steps and it 'chased' her all the way to the bus stop!
Oh, ears and whiskers, it was bitterly cold, her breathe was visible as she sat waiting for a bus, she had, unfortunately, just missed one and had to wait for another twenty minutes.
Normally she would have walked to Chiswick High Street but she wasn't going to do that in this hail storm. So thoughts of a hot drink and spicy and tasty food were in her mind as she scuttled down our steps and came home.
How lucky it didn't do this earlier, she thought as she cooked a meal of fish, rice and vegetables, it wouldn't have been 'fun' to stand and take the salute or give out shamrock in a hail storm.
No one likes rain on a parade, do they!
GeeGee Parrot.
March 18th, 2019.
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