Another Fine November Day

Went down early to the plot today as we were going to see the great nephew this afternoon. After yesterday's heavy downpour I was expecting today to be equally bad; fortunately I was wrong and it was a glorious day if a bit chilly, I was well covered up against the cold, two pairs of trousers and several layers on top. beret and my French, fleecy lined wellies. These have proved to be a great investment as I never have wet or cold feet in the winter anymore.

I got down to the plot just after eleven, quite early for me these days and the pile of compost that had been delivered this week was fast disappearing. I got the only light-weight barrow left and filled it with compost, but it was a really crummy barrow and I couldn't handle it that well. Roy offered to help me a bit but I declined as Max had said he would come at 12. In the event he was late and I thought I had better bring down some compost before it all disappeared. Roy was kind enough to fill them for me as my back has been a bit of a disaster this week. I was on about the fourth lot wen Max turned up. He got into the wing of things and built up quite a pile before I had to leave to go to wash and brush up before seeing the relatives.

Whilst Max was piling up the compost I started digging over the section where my courgettes and cucumbers had been. I needed to disassemble the bamboo framework that had supported the cucumbers. All of the cucurbitae were poor this year, I am not very sure why as I fed them regularly, but they were definitely not up to scratch. I am hoping that the soil improvement from the compost we are piling up this year will improve the yields next season. I also used seaweed and chicken manure, but maybe not quite enough or perhaps all the nutrients were leached out by the rain?

Susie decided to dig up her leeks as she said she didn't ike the look of them. They looked like fine leeks to me so I gave them to Max as his reward for helping me this week. My leeks don't look anywhere as good as hers and I am not digging mine up just yet.

From Nov 2008

I took some pictures of a Robin this week

I had to leave at two so left Max working on the plot on his own and asked Melanie to look out for him if he needed any advice. I asked him to close the shed when he left but I forgot to tell him the same about the greenhouse. so I imagine he won't have closed the door and all the plants will die. Not his fault as he wouldn't know to do it; maybe Melanie noticed and closed it or told him to? Anyway too late now. I was going to give Max a set of keys so that he could come and go as he pleased; I know I had two sets when I arrived on the plot but as I was about to go I couldn't find the set I was going to give him. They must have dropped out of my pocket when I answered the phone when he called me. Anyway I have lost a set of keys and I will now have to buy another one at £10 each losing keys is a bit of an expensive passtime.