30 June-1 July 2007 - The Visitors

A quick word about the weather before we get really engrossed in blogging. The weather has been dismal - mostly rainy and cloudy, and no really good sunshine. The weather forecasters say that it is above average temperature for June but that it is likely to be the wettest June on record.

We have not had much time recently to do anything new to the plot, and we are beginning to have thoughts about how to achieve a more satisfactory result next year. It unfortunately involves lots of digging. But at least we are thinking about it, and any day now we will have the first of our four lettuces. The springonions are also ready. The celery seems to be OK, though slow growing. The radishes need thinning and something (the Bloody White Cabbage Butterfly methinks) has been at either the broccoli or the sprouts - hard to tell now after the carnage. But the courgettes and the pumpkin appear to be happy in the compost, or not died at least. The potatoes are still growing, and the very urgent thing to do is earth the bigger ones up, otherwise we will be eating poisonous green potatoes.

You are probably wondering about the picture at the top. These were our first visitors to the allotment, our friends John and Collette. They had arrived the night before bearing traditional gifts of champagne, chocolate, cider and various seedlings. A night of fun, jollity and excitement then ensued. The next morning, Saturday, it was chucking it down, so the trip to the plot was a less than comfortable prospect. John and Collette seemed to be especially keen on the shed, possibly because it was dry. On the way back, we popped into the smallholding near the allotment to get some duck eggs. It is not always open and the honour system of payment for eggs left in a cupboard had broken down, due to theft. However, the owner has installed a foolproof cupboard with a padlock which only the privileged few are allowed to know the number to - we are one of the few.

The next day was Sunday - and being Sunday it was time for family visitors (right). Pip, the mother of the Australian nephew (AN) who had dug so mightily, the aforesaid Australian nephew and his charming girlfriend Kaeran had a very traditional English roast beef dinner. We had fun explaining what Yorkshire puddings were -"...errm, they're basically batter" and such. And then, for the second time in two days, our plot received guests. Obviously AN was extremely excited to see it all again and liked the shed immensely. We shared with him our vision to get the plot more productive and controlled, the first step of which was to get it fenced properly - we think he got the gist. The Australians were amazed at how lush and green everything is. We were amazed at how fast the bloody weeds had come back.