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Friday, 28th November
Let's face it, the weather's not been fit for much gardening recently, has it? I have been restricted to inside duties like still trying to cure a bathroom cum shower problem and dry out the floorboards. I did get out yesterday though, to a local firm who lent me some office space and equipment so I could do a bit of photocopying - 5 hours' worth! My, that was fun. Then today 3 of us spent the afternoon collating, folding and stapling the photocopying I did yesterday. Oh, yes, I know how to have a good time! I won't tell you what it was exactlty but I hope those of you who are members appreciate your little Christmas present/bonus. (No prizes for noticing the not so deliberate mistake)
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I actually did venture outside on Wednesday for my weekly walk and it stayed fine. It seems it's nearly always fine for my midweek walk and nearly always wet at the weekend. There are things to enjoy out there; just in my own garden the mahonia is blossoming away and smells lovely (a sort of pineappley scent I always think), the hardy fuchsias and even the pelargoniums are still going strong and the primroses seem a bit confused. Several people I know have daffodil leaves well in evidence. So, if you get the chance, get out there and get a bit of freah air, maybe even soak up a bit of sunshine as your body needs all the vitamin D it can get at this time of year.
Tuesday, 25th November
Well.
I did get to the allotment the other day and a fat lot of good it did
me. Conditions were not the most pleasant but that would not hinder my
main task of dismantling my runner bean cane framework. The wind can make
this look an easy job at times but the minute you try to do it yourself
a snag of some sort crops up. This time it was the string I'd tied them
with. There was no way I could undo any of it - wet, shrunk, tightened
- so I took a small pair of scissors to it. I should have taken a bigger
pair; they struggled a bit until they met the end of the index finger
of my left hand then SNIP, a lovely piece taken out and blood trickling
enthusiastically all over the place. I used an almost clean handkerchief
as a makeshift bandage and bravely carried on. No further mishaps cutting
the string. Then I came to pull out the canes. As I pulled them out of
the ground I ran my right hand down them to remove accumulated earth:
OUCH! What was that? A 1 inch long cane splinter had entered the middle
finger of my right hand and come out the other side. No blood this time
though - until I pulled out the splinter, then there was loads of it.
Remove hankie from left hand to wrap round new injury. By now I was getting
blood on my tools, beans and everything else so decided to call it a day
and go home.
Tonight I shall be enjoying the much safer surroundings of the North Star
as it's pub night again. If you come along to see my wounds they are disappointingly
tiny, just a cut and a little entry wound.
Friday, 21st November
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Terry
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Typical! You hang the washing out and load the car with spade, fork, lawn edger, trowel, boots, etc. to go down the allotment for the first time in ages and just as you back the car out onto the road, it starts to rain. Plan B then. It's not going to stop me; I'll just postpone my visit till it brightens up. In the meantime I'll get with other little jobs like this. So what have I been up to if I haven't been to the allotment recently? Well, I have done a few bits in my own garden like fencing, weeding, mowing (yes, the grass is still growing), clearing windfalls and poking about in the greenhouse where my squash are growing nasty looking postules but I must admit horticultural acyivities have not been to the fore - though I did go to the AGM on Wednesday night. What a good turnout! And nice to see some younger faces and more ladies present proving our Association is not just a collection of
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Peter
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middle-aged (being kind!) blokes like myself. You'll probably know by now that Terry stood down as secretary and his place has been taken by Peter Webb. We also have a new Plotholder editor, Denis Dixon. (For a report on the AGM see the News page).
I did manage to get out yesterday, going to the M&S and Debenhams sales with Mrs N and ended up spending money. Still the last time I bought a suit was about 15 years ago; maybe I'll wear it for the Association dinner in February. Watch out for the menu and form to fill in in your bonus Christmas edition of the Plotholder.
Tuesday, 18th November
Tuesday morning and here I am sitting at my computer waiting,
waiting for a delivery of fencing materials. How long I'll be waiting
is anybody's guess as they could only give me a delivery date not a delivery
time. I know the only thing which will hasten its arrival is if I step
out for 5 minutes: during that time it will be delivered, dumped on the
front lawn, noticed by a group of passers-by and be nicked; there may
be a note in my letterbox from the delivery man accusing me of being out
when they delivered the stuff. So I'll stay in and wait. After all it
cost enough to have it delivered (£18 delivery charge!!!) but I
can't get fencing panels and posts in my little Japanese car.
I've not been wasting time all morning on the computer. Oh, no! I wanted
to get on it earlier on but my wife brought my attention to the water
dripping on to the computer tower from the ceiling - a dreaded leak. Dashing
upstairs I whipped off the side bath panel to establish I couldn't tell
where it was coming from. Phone a friendly plumber and then, following
his advice, I bodge a hole in the ceiling to catch the trapped water.
(And yes, I did remember to put a bucket under first.) Mate he might be
but plumbers are always busy so I'll have to wait till this evening. By
then I should be quite good at waiting.
See you all at the AGM tomorrow night and if you want you can find out
what happened to my fencing stuff and the leak in the bathroom.
Thursday, 13th November
I
really didn't want to get out of bed this morning, not wholly because
I'm bone idle and didn't like the look of the weather but because I had
an appointment with the dentist. I never know which is quite worse, when
he says, "I think we'd better have a little injection for that,"
or when he says, "No need for an injection today. Just let me know
if it hurts by raising you right arm." You bet I will - right under
his chin. Although it hurts less maybe if you've had an injection, the
needle itself is by no means an inoffensive implement. When he sticks
it in your top gum it feels like it's gone right up your nose and coming
out somewhere round the back of you head. And today he was working on
my top gum. No needle though as it turns out but a mouthful of cotton
wool rolls which he rams under your top lip then asks you a question.
Have you tried talking with a mouth full of cotton wool? Then the drill
starts. It's only a little drill but the whirring sound it makes would
turn most of us to jelly, I'm sure. By then I was aproned and goggled
but I kept my eyes shut anyway. I mean what can you see if you keep them
open? Bright lights shining in your eyes and a bespectacled, masked face
about 8 inches from your own. I mean, he's a nice enough bloke but I don't
find his face in such proximity reassuring in my nervous state. Still,
about 20 minutes later it's all over and I can go home as soon as I've
paid the nice lady at the desk the negligible sum of £180.80. Ouch!!!
I think I felt the pain most in my wallet - and I've got to go back in
January!
Tuesday, 11th November
What a washout yesterday! There was so much of it I probably
won't be able to get on the allotment for at least a week as it'll be
like a quagmire down there. (Any excuse, eh?) But what a difference today!
Although it was really lovely there was obviously no chance of doing any
gardening; instead I went for a little walk with some comrades through
Parham Park. We all met up by the Old Village School in Rackham then walked
up the road to the park entrance and right through to the other side where
the path comes out on to the main road through Cootham. We were lucky
enough to see quite a few deer including 2 antlered stags, one with his
harem and one outcast on his own. It's a hard surface path so we didn't
get muddy which was just as well as when we got out at the other end we
walked up the road to Cootham to the Crown for lunch. There were nearly
40 of us but they coped admirably. (We had of course booked in advance.)
I opted for the soup in a basket and rolls and got a basketful
of bread all to myself. I didn't like to offend their hospitality so I
ate it all. Then it was a gentle stroll back through the park back to
Rackham and home. What a lovely way to spend the day!
Sunday, 9th November
Sunshine! I hotfooted it to the allotment this morning and pulled a carrot ........the last one. I'd thought there were about half a dozen left but no, just one big carrot with a lot of foliage. He came out quite easily after all that rain but I think I'd left him in there a tad too long as he was full of slugs and not much use. What a disappointment! Still, the raspberries surprised me with another handful. To be honest, depsite the sunshine it wasn't really fit to do anything, far too sludgy.
My strawberry masterplan will have to be revised; those
I moved to where the potatoes and carrots were can stay there now - it's
their new home. Some of those I've still got to move can go in my own
veg plot at home - it's always nice to be able to nip up the 
garden
and pick a few strawberreis without having to go all the way to the allotment.
The rest (I've got far too many) I shall sling and what was the strawberry
bed may well become a potato or cabbage patch next year. I'd left it far
too late to renovate the strawbeerry bed really and now the Worthing rainy
season has set in, so that's it. It's not only the rain that's spoiling
things either; the wind had wreaked a little havoc with my runner bean
canes so I decided to cut some of them free before the wind smashed them
to bits. Luckily I'd brought some scissors with me for another little
job I had to do and I'd put them down somewhere safe. I wonder where it
was!!!!!
Wednesday, 5th November
Yesterday I decided I ought to make a start on repairing
the fence in my back garden. Unfortunately this will necessitate the purchase
of a few fencing panels so I made a start by putting in a new fencing
post which I had already. First I had to remove the old rotten fencing
post which was already there, attached to a panel which I wanted to keep.
It's a while since I did any fencing but it wasn't long before I was remembering
vital stuff like it really hurts when you strike your shin with a club
hammer (don't ask). In fact before that I had to clear some working space
which meant "pruning" back some of the neighbour's shrubbery
which got in the way. Obviously I hadn't cleared quite enough space when
I started which led to a misdirected swing and a slight personal injury.
Once the old post had been removed, time to dig a hole for the new one.
2 foot down is quite a lot of digging, isn't it, especially on clay? How
these gravediggers manage I have no idea but they have my admiration and
respect. Mind you, they're probably not working in quite such a restricted
space. When you have dug your hole it's time to position your new post.
No matter how much you prop it up, ram it, support it, an 8ft long piece
of 3x3 is going to move when you start doing things if you haven't got
someone to help you by holding it still. I had nobody. Still, after a
while or two, my spirit level agreed it was straight and aligned correctly
to nail to the old fencing panel. Now take hammer and nails and, with
wellied foot behind now straight post, take first swing of hammer on nail
head to fix panel to post. This is when you discover you haven't cleared
quite enough of the invading shrubbery and you need to hack prune
off some more. Where the h*** did I put those secateurs I had just now?
Hello, is that the next door neighbour coming out to see what's going
on? I bet that shrub was his prized Mongolian rhodospermum which will
only tolerate pruning on the 3rd Thursday in February or something. "Hi,
Ned!" he says. "I thought that was my boundary fence. I was
going to fix it myself next week."
Monday, 3rd November
What
with frosts, biting winds and rain, outdoor activities have been rather
restricted of late - feeding the bids, removing spent rockets from the
garden (more to come, I expect) and a little
tidying up out front that did not involve standing on the sodden lawn.
It's very windy today so perhaps it will dry out enough for me to hoover
up all the fallen leaves with the Flymo or maybe the wind will be kind
enough to blow them all next door. I did manage to poke my nose outside
on a few other occasions, most notably to attend a little bonfire party
on Sunday evening - Saturday night was far too wet - and what a lovely
time we had! Hot dogs, lit pumpkins, sparklers, soup, hot and cold drinks
and some tasy ginger cake baked by Mrs N. I'll see if I can get the recipe
from her and post it up on the Recipes page so you can all enjoy some
on Wednesday night as you let off your fireworks. There's something magic
about a real fire like a bonfire that makes you feel warm inside as well
as out and we were there for hours just chatting, eating and drinking.
We must do it again sometime; it's entertaining, cheap and Mrs N can't
say I don't take her out.