allotmenting ::

I have to admit, I have not been a very good allotmenter of late. Before we headed off on holiday, I went down with my mum, who helped with a little weeding and planting some potatoes. Then I didn't make it back down there again until this week, nearly 4 weeks had passed!

Fortunately everything (surprisingly) was still growing, along with a whole lot of weeds, of course.

So this week I have been mostly weeding and dreaming of how wonderful it can all be if I just manage to make it down every other day at least. I want it to work I really really do, I just need to find the motivation to get myself there and digging and planning.

So far growing I have ::

• peas
• borlotti beans
• runner beans
• french beans
• chard
• beetroot
• radishes
• purple sprouting broccoli (really this is just the bedraggled stems left by the pigeons)
• potatoes
• nasturtiums

I have dug and planted less than a quarter of the plot, so there is so much more to do and more to grow.

Mostly now I'm just going to concentrate on getting beds ready for next year, but I do plan to fit in a few more autumn/winter crops. I have a few seeds sown at home for transplanting including ::

• cauliflower (3 varieties)
• leeks (2 varieties)
• cabbages
• kale
• sweet william

and I hope to sow a few root crops in the next couple of weeks.

I'm finding the toughest hurdle the distance from my house, it's a 30 minute walk to the allotment, although now I have a lovely bike to take me there which should help a lot, I don't yet have a helmet for Milo so until then I'll need to walk whenever I have Milo with me. Also not being able to drive means that getting important things down there, such as compost and bits to build beds with is virtually impossible.

Fingers crossed that from now on though I shall be better and more committed and this time next year will have a fabulous vegetable plot bursting with goodies!

hello flower ::

the first of my sunflowers opened up this morning, a fabulously bright start to an otherwise dreary grey day.

this weekend ::

we headed over to Oxford for Cowley Road Carnival and Fiesta in the Park.

It was lots and lots of fun, though I dropped a fairly tired toddler off at nursery this morning, he had an awesome time and was so incredibly well behaved despite such a lack of sleep.

There was lots of music and dancing for this little boy, plus huge ice creams and great people to hang out with.

This amazing wicker man is the design of an 8 year old and will go up in flames on bonfire night. It's truly magnificent. You can read more about it here.

Another fabulous structure on show was this button tree, I can't find any information on it, which is fairly frustrating, but it is super amazing!

The procession was great, everyone taking part had so much effort in. Milo loved the giants and especially one big 'dancing bird', which he followed around for hours after the procession had finished.

It was a very very happy weekend indeed.

this moment ::

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

in the garden ::

After a week away and lots of sunny/rainy days, the garden was looking dramatically different when we returned.

The emergence of some lovely flowers and the harvesting of lots of food have been this weeks main activities.

We've been eating ::

• courgettes (lots!)
• cucumbers
• potatoes
• spring onion
• onion
• peas (those that haven't been munched away by whatever invisible nuisance it is that's destroying my pea plants)
• raspberries
• strawberries

The potatoes and the cucumber are the big exciting ones for me this week, I failed miserably with both last year. Particularly the cucumbers which all died, despite my over zealous seed sowing. As the first few plants I moved outside and to the greenhouse experienced the same fate as last years, I decided just to keep a couple in the house growing up the patio doors. This has worked so well. The vines are lovely and almost the height of the door now, plus they are full of little cucumbers! We've harvested 2 fairly small ones so far, but they were so deliciously sweet, almost like melon.

As for potatoes, last year my plants looked so good and then died off quite suddenly, I assumed therefore they were ready, but was super disappointed to discover only a handful of too small to do anything with potatoes under the compost. I guess, as is quite often the case with me, I was just too impatient. This year I planted masses of different kinds of potatoes in a variety of large buckets and old compost bags, most of them have grown huge foliage which is taking up a large corner of my garden, I had a fairly promising feeling about them, even if I was a little worried I may have put too many seeds in each pot, after reading one of my favourite bloggers post on her own potato planting. But before I headed off on holiday 2 of my plants were looking positively dead, I gave them a really good watering before I left and crossed my fingers, hoping for a miracle when I returned. However both plants remained dead a week later, so without expecting much I decided to turn them out and see what, if anything was there. Well I was beyond thrilled with what I discovered! Each bag provided enough for one meal, OK so perhaps not brilliant, but given the circumstances I was super pleased. Not only that they tasted fabulous! The others are all flowering now and I am trying my best to have a little patience, I know it will be worth it.

I also lifted the onions and garlic this week, they are all drying outside under cover. I'm pretty pleased with these too. The garlic was fairly small, but the onions are great and considering they were all grown in smallish troughs I think they've done quite well.

this moment ::

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

on our holidays ::

A photo heavy post of our holidaying adventures ::

We had a fabulous time on the north norfolk coast.

Highlights included

:: a ride on the poppy line steam train, particularly wonderful for my train obsessed boy.

:: a visit to holt country park.

:: much beachy fun.

:: the novelty of sharing bedrooms with cousins (yes there were many late nights and early mornings and a couple of fairly tired mummy's most days)

:: night time walks on the beach

:: lots and lots of knitting!