Sunday, May 06, 2007

Hoe, Hoe, Hoe - No.2 in an occasional series of favourite tools.
I like all three of these, for different functions, and like to see them shiny, indicating that they've been put to work, seeing off weeds in a cloud of dust. The long Dutch hoe is from that well-known purveyor of gardening tools to the gentry, Wickes, but I've no idea where the others came from! My favourite is the short-handled onion hoe, which is as sharp as a sharp thing and really effective at "slash and slice".

Allotment activities today? In a packed schedule I

  • hoed
  • weeded and tied in the blackberries
  • planted out 12 Parsleys (flat leaved)
  • got rained on (but not enough)
  • forgot to take the mouse-proof tin for teabags, but it didn't matter because I
  • also forgot to take the stove to boil the water anyway. Duh!



Chesterfield Canal Wildlife Hour
In an hour cycling along the towpath this morning I saw:
  • 2 swans a-nesting
  • 4 herons a-stalking (well, actually the same one 4 times; started to look really grumpy as he kept having to a-stalk a bit further away each time)
  • 1 moorhen chick a-having what looked like its first outing in the water. Very small and very low in the water, with much anxious a-fussing from mum, and
  • 1 vole, not so much "a-questing through the plashy fen" as a-scuttling hell for leather across the path.
No partridges, no pear trees.


6 comments:

David Morris said...

For boiling water on the allotment, we have a Kelly kettle. It serves several purposes: it's contained fire, and let's face it, there's a bit of pyromaniac in all of us; it boils a litre or so of water very quickly; it provides a way of getting rid of those odd bits of wood (yeah, like really...).

If we're not in a Kelly kettle mood, there's always the 35 year-old Super Bluet Gaz stove that sat in my Mums garage for 30+ years and still had gas in it when I came to light it a few months ago. The Gaz stove also works for bacon sandwiches on Sunday mornings.

Gordon Mason said...

Brilliant. I've seen pictures of Kelly kettles and they do look good. Where did you get it from? Do you have a picture of it in action?

David Morris said...

This post on my blog has a picture at the bottom of the kettle in action. You can just make out the flames coming from the top. I think Caroline picked ours up on eBay. There are dozens listed at the moment but I think they're all new ones. Ours was definitely second hand, but there's nothing to go wrong with them as log as they're not too bashed about.

Gordon Mason said...

Thanks David. ebay it'll be!!

Caroline M said...

If you still want vines, Wilkinson's had some for £4 each (and bare rooted soft fruit for £1). No variety names, the grapes came in red or white.

Gordon Mason said...

Thanks, that's helpful

G