All Systems Go!

Well it's been a long time since my last post (sorry!) but I've finally decided it's time to get back in the blogging saddle.  So here I am...

Seeds starting in the greenhouse at home.

The weather has finally decided to pick up, gone are the days of rain and snow (it really was a crazy spring).  With this change in weather, I've been heading round to the allotment to start the digging and preparation for this years seeds.  Currently I have kale, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and a couple of sweetcorn plants growing in the greenhouse.  Some mixed leaf salad and spring onions are happily growing in a container at home and we have a new raised bed at the allotment with garlic (winter), carrots, parsnips and lettuces planted.

At the moment we're working on getting a patch cleared next to the peas to put our potatoes and onions in; they're ready to plant now but the bad spring has meant we've gotten rather behind!  We've also decided to try be a little more experimental this year and have got some yellow carrots, purple sprouts, Jersey walking stick kale and yellow courgettes to try.  

Can't wait till its time to start harvesting some veg, we ate the last of the purple sprouting for dinner this week!

Oh, and I've also started baking!

First attempt at cupcakes.

Pineapple cupcakes.

Goodbye 87b...

...Hello 64!

Mum taking a break on the new plot...

As of this morning I now have a plot approximately 20'x95' :D  It's next to the main path and water and even has its own parking space!

Thankfully this plot has been worked a lot more and only became vacant a week ago so apart from weeding and turning over the soil it's pretty much ready to start.

Theres a little mud patch where my mum is sitting in the photo that used to have a shed on it so it's the perfect spot for the little zip up greenhouse we have.

So today we didnt get much done.  We don't need to build a frame for the compost now because there is one made from pallets already on the new plot and two plastic compost bins.  We hadn't even realised we would be moving plots when we arrived but the chance to move was too good to pass up.

We did start to do a little bit of digging too, but most of the morning was taken up by working out exactly what we have now.

Raspberry canes and unidentified (as yet) fruit bushes

Strawberries!

The far end of the plot is full of fruit plants.  There are lots of raspberry canes and further back there are blackcurrants and a gooseberry bush (at least we think they are).  There are also two fruit trees (no idea what kind) so it will be interesting to find out exactly what they are!

Some of these strawberry plants are going to be taken by the plots previous owners to their new plot, but as you can see there are plenty to go around.  Apparently they give a really good crop so I can't wait!

See, we did dig too...

Things will certainly be moving a lot faster now... as long as the weather plays nicely.

I'll Make a Bunny of You Yet!

Well I decided to just start knitting and see what happens.  I did remember to write everything down so if it goes well I will have a little pattern at the end of it :D  It's all done in yellow wool that I had spare so I don't waste any while I work out a pattern.

The bunny so far..

And for those of you who wanted to see Dennis now he's done, here he is!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Seeing as I've been absent for so long I thought I'd catch you up on what I've been up to!
Dennis the Dragon is now finished although he's rather wonky. Somehow I managed to get two slightly different wing shapes even though I followed the pattern. Don't ask me how I managed it, I have no idea! lol

I'm also knitting a hat, it has a bit of pattern to it, which is something I hadn't tried before. It's coming along although rather slowly. Those of you who know me know I have a rather short attention span. As well as the hat I'm trying to knit a bunny for a friend. The problem is that so far I haven't found a bunny pattern I like. Me being me, I decided to have a go at creating my own bunny. Now this can go one of two ways. I'll either get a beautiful, slightly wonky (based on past toy making experience) rabbit... or I'll end up with a complete disaster. Seeing as I've never knitted without a pattern before I'm thinking the second outcome is most likely. I'll share the results with you once it's finished though so you can see how I do :)

As for the allotment, I haven't been round there for a while now due to the snow. I'm hoping it'll be nice enough weather to get back round there soon as I now have the stakes to make the compost frame.

And finally, I managed to start writing again. I've really struggled to write anything since coming back home from university and was starting to panic about my dissertation. After having a nose about on the internet I managed to find a bunch of pictures to use as a basis for my setting and the snow was also a really good writing boost; you'll notice it's influence in the extract below :p

The following is the start of draft one of my dissertation, Swan Song:

Chapter One

Niamh pushed back her duvet and shivered.  It was too early and definitely too cold to think about getting up, but a sound from her brother’s room had woken her and now she couldn’t get back to sleep.  She shivered again and forced herself to get up and grab a pair of socks and a jumper from the open suitcase by the window.  

      Snow had fallen overnight; stealthily covering the world in a thick, crisp blanket.  Niamh pressed her head to the window and blew on the glass.  After a moment or two she stood up straight, drew a sad face and rubbed the cold from her forehead.  Her parents’ car had already gone, and from the smooth surface of the snow she guessed they had probably left before the snow had even started.

      Snow was meant to make places look beautiful, like on a postcard, but at Swan End the snow only succeeded in making the estate seem lonelier.

Still here... honest!

I've been a bit busy lately and not had a chance to post.  Just so you don't all think I've abandoned you I thought I'd post a poem I wrote a while ago.

The Descent

Plummeting to the earth below
unable to look away;
     the impact is inevitable.
My form is shattered.
A million fragments of myself
trickle onwards, lured
by the relentless draw of gravity.

Clinging together at the edge
of the final precipice;
     our fate is sealed.
We mingle until the pull
outweighs our resolve and
we relinquish our grip, a
watery comet across a sky of glass.

87b

An empty bottle marks the plot well...

I haven't posted in a couple of days but that's because I've been really busy down at the allotment.  Lots and lots of digging has been done but it still doesn't look like I've actually achieved much.

We had a couple of days where it rained over night which meant some of the compacted areas that had been used as paths were very wet.  This meant it was extra hard to try and clear the grass as the soil was to hard to shake from the roots.  I left some of the really bad tufts turned soil up on some of the already dug areas to let the sun dry them out a bit. 

Before we could go too far with digging the area I had to go round one of the raised beds that were there and pull out the rotting cane border.

As you can see from the picture below, one day's digging didn't look like much as it was so hard going.

After one days digging...

It was at this point my mum suggested we sort out where the compost was going to go, that way we could clear the area and arrange how it was going to be made.

 So we cleared a patch in the back left corner of the plot and used some of the planks of wood from the old raised beds at the back to make a frame.  At the moment it's only a rough framework as I need to get some longer stakes and some nails to fix it together properly.  The photo below is how it is at the moment. 

The compost

It'll be built up to around 3 foot high with the front planks slotted down and held in position by stakes, which means they can be lifted clear whenever I need to get into the compost.

Today I dismantled a bit more of the old raised beds so I can clear the back and get it ready for new raised beds.  I'm not sure whether to get a little shed to put in the other corner so I have somewhere to sit if it rains but even if I don't, I will at least put a few slabs down for a little 'patio' area for sitting.  Between the compost and the seating area will be the raised beds with a shingle path running between them.

Liner... A gardens waxing strip...

 The old raised beds had some black liner in them that I had great fun pulling up.  It was rather nice pulling it up with grass and weeds attached to reveal a nice patch of mud below.  It's a shame the whole thing wasn't covered in liner, it would have been much easier to get most of the grass up!

We also did a bit more digging at the front of the plot, where we had already started before.  This is the area we want to try and get cleared ready for planting potatoes.  It's slow progress, but progress all the same.  I can't wait till we have it ready to start growing veg, although that's a way off yet.

Slow and steady progress

The Best Laid Plans...

Today didn't go exactly as planned.  Actually, it didn't go at all as planned. 

It rained.

All day.

And rain was not in my plan!

The wet weather meant my trip to the allotment was postponed, hopefully tomorrow will be better weather for digging over the ground and getting rid of roots.

Dennis begins...

So today I decided to work on Dennis the Dragon instead.  He's named Dennis because my mum swears she used to read a book to me called Dennis the Dragon and that I used to love it.  She even googled it to prove it existed because neither me or my dad could remember it. Even faced with this proof we still can't remember it though.

Anyway, Dennis is my second knitting project.  The first was a cardigan that is currently being sported by my bag, Larry the Lemur.  I don't think he's that keen on it, cardigans are not good for a lemurs street cred.

I have to say, I'm quite proud of how Dennis is turning out considering before I'd knitted the cardigan I didn't even understand how to read a pattern, or how to increase/decrease/knit/purl etc...

Dennis so far.

At the moment I have another wing, another leg, his claws and the tip of his tail left to make.  He's a bit wonky (his arms aren't even and one of his ears flops a bit) but I think that adds to his charm :)

With any luck I'll be working on the allotment tomorrow but if not I'll hopefully be able to finish Dennis!  Once he's done I'll get some good photos.