A Productive Day on the Allotment 1st April, 2009

Well, it was a funny old night. I managed to get to sleep ok, then woke up when it was still dark and ended up staying awake until 9am, then falling asleep again and Jim woke me at 1.30pm! A quick 'breakfast' and it was out into the garden. It had promised sunshine but was cloudy but dry, which if ok by me. I have been trying to finish digging over and weeding Jim's 2nd allotment plot and it's almost finished. it was full of buttercups and dock and some of it is really heavy, damp soil, which is hard work to dig. We also decided that the only way to stop the vegetables being 'Bustered' was to enclose these 2 plots with a fence. So today that's just what we did and it looks just great, all organised and ready to plant. The 2nd plot is going to have soft fruit in it. We already have rhubarb and strawberries. Buster loves to eat the strawberries, as do the birds. Now we have all sorts of other fruit bushes ready to plant. It was dark by the time we'd finished so I'll take a photo of it tomorrow. We were so pleased with ourselves.

Buster came back from his wanderings and he was just so confused. There was I, inside this 'cage' and he couldn't get at me. He kept poking his head through the fence and barking! He'll get used to it. Jim went back inside and I finished off and put the tools away and then Jim re-appeared with 2 gin and tonics. Fabulous. We sat on our seat in front of the shed and enjoyed the last bit of light. Pippistrel bats were swirling overhead and a large flock of starlings landed on the telephone wires. It looked for all the world like the Hitchcock film 'The Birds'. They chattered away to each other! A pair of collared doves were mating in one of the trees and a blackbird sang to us. Both cats played around near us too. What a blissful half an hour it was.

We had a late meal and watched The Apprentice before heading off each to our own computer.

Jack


As you probably know by now, Jack is my gorgeous Grandson by my son Jason and his lovely wife Sam. He will be 4 in May. Sam told me this wonderful tale about him at the weekend. He was helping his Daddy clear out the small bedroom for the arrival of his little sister Kitty at the end of May. Jason turned to him and said 'Look at the mess you're making'. Quick as a flash, Jack replied, 'It's part of my charm'. Can you believe it!










I brought home one of his drawings on my last visit. It's fantastic that all of a sudden their drawings take on real form and shape and are no longer just squiggles. The photo isn't too clear but this is his picture:







In case you're wondering, it's a chicken and at the bottom are its 2 eggs. How cool is that?












Flower Arrangement

After my flower arranging course for Mother's Day, I had a go at a table arrangement. It hasn't lasted long, but here it is:




Not bad for a first effort!
















Buster

Buster now has his new, larger bed, as you may know if you follow my blog. In spite of that, he still dangles his head out the side! Maybe he's more comfortable that way:





It doesn't look very comfortable











Having a good stretch













Then he went camera shy











Change of position













This is obviously his favourite position!







At the moment his is curled up right inside it, so he can fit in it if he wants to.

Of course today is April 1st and I was totally taken in by the discovery of a brand new butterfly in ancient woodland in Kent. Silly me. Also by a new series of Gardeners' World - to be presented by the Top Gear man Jeremy Clarkson!! I thought it was a bit odd. I'm so gullible.

http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/findings/newbutterfly.htm That's the link to the butterfly.

That's it for today. Just a little blog. A bloglet maybe?? Back tomorrow with photos of our fenced off vege plots. Can you contain your excitement?