I never lets that hoe rest

'Tis the only way to keep things tidy. But even so, 'tis a constant struggle.

And this week we've had torrential rain and serious flooding again in Sheffield. Not quite as bad as 2007 but quite bad enough. Made watering the allotment a bit superfluous for a few days!

Anyway, how goes it with the plot?

Beans in (Runner & Climbing French). Kale and Sprouts in, Cucumber and knobby Italian Courgette in. Netting up for Morning Glory to scramble up (first time I've grown them). Bit of a show, what?

Blackberries look good. Potatoes look good, especially as I'm not growing any this year; these are all volunteers from where I didn't clear it out properly last year. Better a volunteer than a pressed man.

And finally, just to demonstrate that an allotment can be a thing of beauty as well as a list of vegetables (altho some of them are things of beauty too (look at this cabbage) here's a rose.

Sithee, as we say in Yorkshire.

Bolters

My Pak Choi are bolting.

Little bolters!

I've known them to bolt later in the season but never this early. Why?

See my Plums!!

Think we might be getting some plums this year.

Shouting at the tree during the winter ("Plums or you're out, matey") may have worked.

The Secret Garden, weeded

It was hard to get in,

and it was horrible once in.

But it's amazing what several cups of wheelbarrow tea

and a bit of strenuous weeding can do.

It's halfway presentable again. Let's hope the pigeons keep off.

An unscheduled interruption

Best laid plans etc

Today's plan was to have a quick blast around the Peak District on the scooter,

in the sunshine before it got too busy. Then I'd go to the allotment late morning for the rest of the day.

Good plan and it worked up to a point. But it hadn't reckoned with an almost-broken wire in a key part of the ignition system which, you guessed it, duly broke at point of maximum distance from home. Hey Ho. Dead engine.

A very good AA man sorted it out but the trouble with this scoot is that you have to more or less dismantle it before you can even see the engine. So it took a while. A good while. And completely scuppered any chance of getting to the allotment. Good job it's a bank holiday tomorrow.

The Challenge begins

The Global Corporate Challenge, that is. To walk, in teams of seven, an average of 10,000 steps a day (each) for 125 days. Read all about it on www.gcc2009.com

We all have pedometers to record progress. So far today I've done 7373. Gotta do better than that!

A long week not on the plot......

..... because I've been in London all last week and today, filming the next stage of the David Douglas documentary.

We've been to the Royal Horticulural Society, Kew Herbarium & Archives, Royal Engineers Museum (for photos from 1861) of someone Douglas met as an Indian boy of 8 in the Red River Settlement (now Winnipeg) in 1827. It's the only known photo, in the world (!), of Spokane Garry.
Today we were at the Tradescant tomb at the Garden Museum, Lambeth. Long slots of yours truly on camera, blathering on about David Douglas.

The team have now flown off to Scotland to film Douglasiana around his native patch of Perth & Scone. I, meanwhile, have to go back to work tomorrow.

Doesn't sound as though I've missed much on the allotment front, although I'm now miles behind with my beans. Beans, Schmeans.

On this day...

.... May 4th

• I recall, a few years ago, planting potatoes and it was snowing

• in 2001, I flew out to New York on the first day of my Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. I was away for 8 weeks and it started a project which continues to this day. A film crew land in London on 12th May to film part of the story.

• in 1915, my Dad was born. He died in 1997 but today would have been his 94th birthday. I'm wearing his watch today in memory

Stuff I did today

In a quick burst of activity today I:

mowed the paths (because my neighbour never does. Harrumph)
hoed the onions and top section
dug out one of the side beds from the [long gone] greenhouse, which hasn't been dug for 5 years minimum; and,
transplanted:
red salad bowl lettuce
green salad bowl lettuce
red cos lettuce
pak choi.

But neglected to take the camera so no photos.

next big job = sowing the beans (runner & climbing french). I try to sow them on the May Day bank holiday and plant them out at Spring Bank holiday.

Scrubbed up well.....

.... for my son's wedding.

They married at the RSA in London

in a very small (only 9 of us) but beautifully arranged ceremony. It was a really nice day and both families enjoyed it. Doesn't feel right to share family pictures of the happy couple so you'll have to make do with me ouside the wine bar named after me.

Fort Brassica

Well, waddya think?

Will it keep the pigeons off the cabbages?

The netting on top isn't as good as it could be, in fact it's cobbled together. I hate cheap netting, which this is, mostly because I hate paying good money for something which is mostly thin air. I suppose I should rationalise it as the bits which aren't the thin air are the bits which give it it's value.

Must get some better (in all senses of the word) netting

New Toy

and very effective it is too.

An Assistant!!

Greatly blessed today to have assistance at Allotment 81. Wilma Wilbury, seen here in full weed,
was extraordinarily helpful and shifted loads of raspberry & blackberry weeding which I, in truth, have been avoiding. Big respect.

Meanwhile I did manly things with a new trenching spade and constructed a compost stockade.


Needless to say the kettle went on

and the Wilburys caught a bit of sun.

Think you're fit? Think again

After a big push on cleaning the much-loved but sadly under-used bicycle

what better way to spend Easter Monday morning than actually cycling, on a route I used to do regularly.

Crikey, what an eye-opener. Not so much thighs of steel as thighs of jelly. There's an Awful Warning there, methinks. Get off backside, Wilbury, and get onto bicycle.

My son, Otis "Wedding" Wilbury, recommends a turbo trainer. I used to have a primitive and noisy example but it's rusted up (not unlike my legs). I sense a replacement coming soon.

Get walking, Woody

I've signed up for the Global Corporate Challenge - an annual competition in which teams from various companies are challenged to "walk around the world" in 125 days. My team has seven of us, all aiming to do a minimum of 10,000 steps a day for the 125 days of the Challenge. That will be one and a quarter million steps each; eight and three-quarter million steps in total

The Challenge starts on May 21st & ends on Sept 22nd. I'm the oldest person on our team, at a mere 59.

More info when it starts but you might like to have a look at the website:

www.gettheworldmoving.com

Or start a team in your own workplace?

On this day....

..... in 1847, the world's first municipal park, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, opened in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Birkenhead Park was visited by Frederick Olmsted who incorporated many of the design features into his design for Central Park, New York.

I'm currently reading Kate Colquhoun's biography of Paxton, who was a contemporary of David Douglas (see earlier entries) at the Horticultural Society's gardens in Chiswick in 1823. Paxton's life is an interesting illustration of the direction Douglas's life might have taken had he lived.

Secret Blackcurrants

I've been planting, mostly some more raspberries (Glen Moy, Glen Ample & Joan J). But also a secret Blackcurrant.

Why secret? Because Wilma Wilbury is of the view that blackcurrants are more trouble than they are worth, being the very devil to harvest. She has a point and when I used to share a plot we did have a surfeit. But I fancied some and bought a clandestine bush.

Leeks and rhubarb are still doing well, altho the leeks are getting down to their last knockings now.

Ronsley Moor springs a surprise

Sunshine!!!

I set off late after a night out a friend's leaving do at the Last Laugh Comedy Club. He had warned me it might be a bit 'blue' and indeed it turned out to be quite extravagantly filthy, and great fun.

In fact it was only the knocking of the man delivering new raspberry canes which got me out of bed. Ye Gods, we live the high life here.

Any road up, it was dull and grey and cold (5 degrees) and miserable but the plan said 'get to the shooting cabin on Ronksley Moor', scene of New Year Brunch in December 2007 and not revisited since.

Needless to say I dressed for the weather (winter trousers) but as soon as I started walking the weather turned hot and sunny. I was heavily overdressed and shed garments along the way, stopping short at removing the trousers [shame]. The shooting cabin was as good as ever, with evidence in the hut book of regular use, including overnighters around Xmas and visits on Xmas eve, Xmas Day and New Year's Day. Haven't these people got families to go to? Indeed it was tidier than normal but I can't demonstrate this to you having forgotten the camera. But here's one from a couple of years ago.

It must be Spring

I've had a massive (that's Maaaaaaasive) clearout of the shed and it's now, for the moment, relatively tidy. Much of the clearout consisted of piles of pots which I put there as a temporary measure when we moved house two & a half years ago. The rule of thumb is now that black pots live at the allotment and others live at home.

I also managed the first BBQ of the year, on the old BBQ which I've brought from home and which will henceforth live at the allotment. Two Moroccan lamb burgers (spicy!!), tomato & onions maketh a happy, and fat, gardener. Then the kettle went on and boiled on the embers ; what economy!

As for plants, there are only the lovage and rhubarb to speak of and they're both going great guns.

Dongling

I've now got a Dongle for my work laptop, which enables me to access work IT systems and send and receive emails etc remotely over a 3G network.

Although it doesn't work that well at home as we live in a poor reception area for mobile signals it works very well indeed at the allotment!!! Guess where I was working, in both senses of the word, yesterday.