Liverpool Poet feb 2009

There's something exciting about seeing something you've sown break the soil and begin to grow! My first little seedlings are rearing their little heads. I sowed some basil, mixed lettuce, tomato and more chilli seeds last Sunday in the same pot, and the mixed lettuce have already sprung up. I'm not sure if they're what you'd call a little 'leggy'! I'll transplant them to one of my propagators tomorrow and keep them in the conservatory, so they get the maximum amount of light, and hope they do well.

Ian's been busy at the allotment the last couple of days. We got some cheap fruit trees from Aldi, £4.18 each for 2 year old trees. That's less than the cost of a packet of cigarettes! We bought a nectarine, a morello cherry and a heldeflingen cherry and mum bought us a conference pear. The nectarine and pear are down at the lottie and the cherry trees will go in our back garden. He also planted some fruit canes; blackcurrant, red gooseberry, white gooseberry and raspberry.

We've now got 5 raised beds including the small one in front of the shed which is home to the fruit trees, some fruit canes and a crown or two of rhubarb, which has grown really quickly from a bare root in no time!

You can just see the pink of the rhubarb at the front of the bed nearest to us along with the fruit trees. There are some fruit canes in there too plus some along the side of the shed.

Our potatoes, chitting away in the shed :0)

I've borrowed a really good book from the library, 'Allotted Time' by Robin Shelton - subtitled; 'Twelve months, two blokes, one shed, no idea'! It charts the progress of two blokes who think it's a great idea to take on an overgrown allotment with no clue as to what they're doing and virtually no money with which to do it! I can really relate to it so far, even though Ian is the one doing all the hard work! :0)

Mum was feeling very down yesterday, not surprising really when everywhere you look you're being reminded that you are not part of a couple! So, we decided to go out for Sunday lunch; mum, me and Ian. I found a lovely place next to Hatchmere Lake in Delamere, The Carriers Inn. We knew of the pub, it's been there for years but was always a bit shabby. It's recently been refurbished and it was gorgeous! The food was superb and everything they say about the place on their web site is spot on! We had a lovely table overlooking the lake. Cannot wait to go back again! The three of us decided to make it a regular monthly treat :0)

mum and me

roast beef, gravy, yorkshire pud, roast potatoes, crushed potatoes, carrots, cauliflower cheese and brocolli. The best Sunday lunch I have ever had, sorry mum!

still had room for blueberry pie, yum! :0)

Had a virussy thing for the last few days. On the poorly scale, I'd say it's not quite as bad as the flu but worse than a cold. Some sort of respiratory infection I think. So, feeling lousy at the moment. Nights are the worst, as soon as lie down I get horrible coughing fits, chesty and tickly at the same time! I sleep with the window open a crack as I feel more secure if I can hear what's going on in the garden, so I just hope I'm not keeping the whole close awake! :0/

Not much to tell apart from I sowed some seeds this evening, chillis and peppers; cayenne pepper, sweet pepper (yolo wonder and californian wonder) and jalapeno chillis. I'm keeping them in the house as neither the conservatory nor the greenhouse are heated. So, we shall see how they go, or rather grow :0)

There's a film about an allotment society in Liverpool called 'Grow Your Own' (a brilliant film if you get chance to see it!), anyway, the opening scenes are of the houses of some of the allotmenteers and every windowsill, table and available bit of space is full of seed trays and pots! Ian said our house will end up like that if I'm not careful!

Apropos of films, we saw 'Slumdog Millionaire' recently and it's the best film I've seen in a very long time! Painful to watch at times but uplifting, colourful, atmospheric, enlightening, funny, sad, interesting and all the things a good film should be.

Right, off to bed with a hot drink and 'The Thunderbolt Kid' by Bill Bryson, since working in the charity shop I've acquired, ahem, several new books! It's great for picking up book bargains. I couldn't go in this week though, with this lurgy. It might be great for picking up good books, but with half the staff coughing and spluttering, I'm not sure it's a great place to avoid picking up an infection! :0(

After a tip-off from a fellow chicken forum user, I sent off for 10 packets of seed for £1.99! When you consider 1 packet of seed is normally that price, well, bargain! I got lettuce (lollo rossa), pumpkin (hooligan), carrot (tendersnax), beetroot (cylindra), lemon balm, cabbage (tundra), wild flower (teasel), wild flower (cornflower), poppy (flanders) and a packet of sunflower seeds which we've given to our niece.

I've decided to use the poppy, teasel and cornflower seeds to do a bit of that 'guerilla gardening' I mentioned, watch this space :0)

Ian's birthday on Monday. Bought him a hoodie with 'Resistance is Fertile' on it with a spade and fork in the shape of an anrchy style A. Anarchist gardening, I like it! :0) I've always fancied trying a bit of that 'guerilla gardening' actually. There's a grassy bank at the end of our close that needs livening up, hmmmmm.

We went to Wikinsons to spend some of Eo's birthday cash and bought some drawers for storage at the lottie, some cloches, some plant pots and various bits and pieces. Then we went to the allotment to drop them off. It had been snowing the day and night before (apparently London ground to a halt or something because of the snow!?). We noticed that one of our fellow allotmenteers had some chickens on their plot.

snowy allotment with bags of chicken poop

chickens on a neighbouring plot

our garden in the snow

later in the evening, snow still falling

Tuesday I worked a few hours in the charity shop, still loving it! Then went for lunch with mum and Eo and then to Eo's staff shop to grab a few M&S goodies.

Tonight we went to the monthly wine circle. The theme tonight was 'Winter warmer'. As predicted, everyone else brought their own mulled wine concoctions so we tried something a bit different. As we'd made some ginger beer, Ian knocked up a bottle of 'Dark 'N Stormy' to take along. Warmng as in spicy rather than temperature. We had a good night but after sampling everyone's mulled wines, I'm done for so that's all you're getting for now! :0)