Visitors!

Today we had some visitors to the plot. After a lovely lunch at Mum and Dad's with my cousin Chris, my sister Jen and her fella, Elliott, they all came to see how much work we'd done. Adam had been working like a trooper, doing some more digging while I went off to lunch (lasagne, if you're interested).

They were very impressed, of course. We had a trip to look at the communal well (oooh!) and had a peer inside which revealed a high water level and and a floating dead rat... nice. Then Dad poked at a strange metal thing we'd found on the allotment last year, while I kept my distance as, frankly, it looks a bit like a bomb. (If anyone can zoom in on that thing my dad's holding and knows what it is, please let me know. It's got a kind of valve on the top... ta).

Then dad showed us how to force the rhubarb. We'd been dithering, trying to find a big black bucket, but apparently an old flowerpot stuffed with dry long grass from the plot next door will do just as well. The canes are to stop it all blowing away. If this rhubarb is actually nice, I'll eat my hat. And the rhubarb, obviously.

And please note the fancy iron bedstead headboard thing in the background. Found in the bushes, and now being used as a bit of fence. Ah, the random uses for things found at allotments. Next time you're on a train, look out for allotments as you whizz past. They're often near train lines, and look a bit ramshackle from a distance but I find them fasinating - always have. On the commute to work I go past one on the outskirts of Leagrave, and usually end up peering out of the window, nose pressed to the glass like a madwoman, trying to see what people are growing.

The weather actually wasn't as grey as it looks in the photo at the top, and the sunset was gorgeous. (I wonder if the electricity people would consider taking the pylons down - they're ruining my sunset views....)

Oh, by the way, Louise, the site secretary went round yesterday Sorting Things Out, so we are officially on plot number 145A. (Yes, 'tis true, we didn't even know our plot number until ten months down the line.) Now I can make a number to go on the shed(s), and then the plan is to paint them in beautiful colours. Sky blue with daisies? Mr Men themed? Only time will tell....











Back home, and ooh, excitement! Our potatoes are chitting! Or is it called sprouting? Last week I'd laid out the Home Guard earlies to chit, and left them in a corner of the room, in light, but not direct sunlight, as the books said to do. Then when I went to put the tray of Picasso maincrop taters next to them, discovered that the Home Guards have little sprouts! This isn't the most exciting picture in the world, I appreciate, but - look! Little sprouty bits! Usually the only time I see potatoes do anything is when they've been left in the cupboard for too long in the dark and are trying to come out and play. These shoots/sprouts/chits look like they'll be big and strong and give us lots of tasty tubers.

I will now take a moment to wonder at the marvels of nature....
The potatoes are Growing. By. Themselves.