Tonight is the twelfth night; the decorations are now down and our living room looks rather bare. Yesterday evening we got snow, so that was good timing as a few Christmas lights were still up. We had to go for a walk in it as we weren’t expecting it to stay long. We only walked a mile through the snowy streets. And there weren’t many people out. All the snow has gone now as we’ve returned to rain, but it made a nice change (some parts of Britain are expecting substantially more than us). Before the snow arrived we’ve had some very cold and frosty days. Friday afternoon the Moon and Venus ..read more

Well 2024 passed by in a whirl - a rather wet & windy whirl... I’m pleased to say we enjoyed two weddings, no funerals, a Euros football final, a happy general election plus a lot of working, gardening, reading and picnics. Here’s a quick-ish summary, with my reading list at the end. January We had a few frosty days, with temperatures down to -9° but mostly just wet. Oh dear it was very wet, with severe floods in nearby towns and rivers bursting their banks. The allotment was very soggy so not workable but we managed to harvest leeks and parsnips. February Another wet, grey and windy mon ..read more

Christmas spirits are running high now! Hungerford has held its annual Extravaganza - we nipped out to see part of the parade; it was a rather damp evening. I’m working on Monday and Christmas Eve but I’m really not expecting it to be busy and this is the view over my PC screen so it could be much worse ☺️ And then work stops until the new year - yay! We’ll have to nip up the allotment for some sprouts for at least one of the big meals but then we won’t have to move much - unless we want to ? Over the last week we’ve seen and exchanged presents with various family members, received some l ..read more

Well, that was quick! Now it’s December! It’s still wet, not sure it’s ever going to dry up! There are self-formed ponds on the site where we’ve never seen water-logging before. (Not our plot, yet) We’ve only been to the plot for very brief visits over the last week. The robin is always. pleased to see us bringing his breakfast of mealworms. And there are carrion crows, magpies and a male pheasant with three females - not sure if they’re last year’s offspring, but they’re safer on our site than in the fields where we can hear shooting ? We’ve had a couple of very clear, frosty early mornin ..read more

There’s a spot of colour from when we had some welcome sunshine on Saturday afternoon. That little robin is full of song at the moment. Perhaps like us he was relieved that the rain had stopped! October has continued the extremely wet theme of this Autumn. The ground doesn’t get a chance to dry out between torrential rain or drizzle so it’s difficult to do any clearing. We’ve also had a couple of frosty nights with temperatures dipping below freezing but some flowers are surviving. My little hazel tree’s leaves are changing colour and there are some buds - Ooh, I wonder if it’ll produce catk ..read more

Sue Garratt wrote on her November blogpost that there hadn’t been “any weather” which was certainly true for the first couple of weeks of November with really gloomy dull days - no rain, no Sun and no wind. It was unseasonably mild though so we enjoyed a Sunday night (it feels like night at 5pm now) picnic - the cat found the crisps ? The next Sunday we enjoyed some sunshine at Newbury’s Vegan market - mmm, that Vegan Street Diner hot dog is so delicious! This last week has made up for the earlier lack of weather. We had snow flurries on Tuesday, barely settling, but pretty to look out at ..read more

We had another picnicker join us on Sunday. The draw of the chimnea’s heat was too good to miss for the allotment cat. He was happy sitting on the bench with Ivan and me, but then Linda stood up and she lost her seat, which happened to be slightly closer to the fire ? What we discovered, as we cleared up for the evening, was that he’d killed a rat just behind us! At least he didn't plonk it down in front of us and put us off our cheese and wine. Last weekend we enjoyed roasted (charred) chestnuts which Ivan had foraged - delish! We’ve finally had a few dry days though the weather has been ex ..read more

We definitely needed the chiminea last Sunday as the temperature wasn’t great before we started our picnic (some call it a wine club, whatever, it’s a lot of fun!). It was too cloudy for any star gazing that evening but Jamie and I went up after work on Thursday; the one night with clear skies, hoping to see the Comet A3. With Sunset at about 6:00pm and a good western sky view we thought we’d be lucky. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait another few thousand years to see that one, but we did have a lovely evening nonetheless. We enjoyed the most amazing Super Moon - so beautiful emerging from ..read more

Special delivery! Plotholders are always pleased with a manure delivery - it’s just a shame our plot is at the other end of the site from the manure heap ? I only managed three barrow-loads before collapsing, but we’ll get a few more.  HAHA charges £1.50 per barrowful. We pulled the last of our Desiree spuds to use that plot as a storage area until we’ve worked out next year’s planting plan. I need to pull the courgette from that plot. We’ve had probably our last fruit from it - looks great, but unfortunately it had a hollow heart so no good for eating sadly. But we’re pleased that the ..read more

That is the top of the allotment site on Friday 13th September - you may not be able to see it, but there’s frost on the ground! And it’s steaming in the bright early morning sunshine. The temperature dropped to 0.8° and walking through the site it was clear that flowers and plants, particularly squashes, had been frosted. By the next day their leaves were black ? Too early! We were hoping for an extended growing season after the rough start! It’s the earliest frost we’ve seen since having a plot. I’m pleased I put fleece round my butternut squash, they may be small but I hope they are worth ..read more