The allotment where a lot is meant!

Today dawned dark and damp in our neck of the woods, well, crevice of the town, but the dismal weather was nothing that a pot of tea and hand-knitted hat / scarf ensemble couldn’t stave off!  Thus prepared, it was early this morning that we toddled off to survey the new landscape that is going to become so familiar from all angles, but largely I suspect from that close up angle that comes with prolonged crouching, you know, in the manner of street craps (dice games, not what dogs do)!

Yes, today was the day when plan B of The Quest came into play, when we saw our new half-allotment for the first time! The couple who have offered it to us were overjoyed to see us because they are desperate to scale down (the husband is still suffering from broken ribs) but they don’t want to let one half run to seed which would impact on what they are still trying to do with the other half.

So we happily had a tour of the plot as a whole and our ‘bit’, as well as the complete site and its amenities.   Now, I have to say, in those days before Himself knew me sufficiently to find out that I hated it and before I knew him well enough not to have to be on my best behaviour all the time (and therefore not whinge like a petulant princess about the absence of basic niceties such as mattresses and toilet tissue, or even toilets come to that) that we have been camping before and have therefore paid to stay in campsites  with less amenities than this lovely allotment site!   I was very pleasantly surprised (and not a just a little relieved)!

So, here’s a pic of our bit [actually, just updated it to a slideshow, no less:  checkout the technical wizzardry and blogspertise!

(Photos also over on The Quest page for anyone who’s interested)!

 

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It’s far bigger than we had hoped – at least twice the size of the hard standing aka The Quest, so it’s great that we have this chance to help the couple and reap the benefits of having our own ‘bit’, we do feel lucky and it means a lot that they asked us, even if a ‘bit’ has turned out to be a lot!

Himself has spent the whole week leading up to today in a state of barely contained excitement (only matched by the time in his life when he was old enough to realise that his granny owned a sweetshop)!   As a result he’s spent all available hours closeting himself away under the guise of doing his ‘school work’ but we both know he was furtively looking at seed ordering and growing-you-own-produce sites : thus this activity is known as looking at  ‘garden porn’ because he’s taken to jumping three feet in the air and innocently pretending to be deep in thought over National Strategies sites instead when I come in the room!  So of course today he just couldn’t contain himself and we’d only been back home for an hour or so before he’d dragged me back out again to a highly recommended farm shop to buy seed potatoes to start chitting-at least that’s the phrase I think he used: he said we can’t eat them, so it must have been “chitting” and not … something else!

Thus we take our first stumble towards some element of self-sufficiency, but I can’t help but feel that it’s taking over our lives.   This might be more information than you want to know, but we do try to have a sort of  ‘date night’ every alternate Friday when we are usually alone and not the living and breathing 21st century Brady Bunch, and it’s his turn to organise the next one.   My thoughts were wandering towards a cosy dinner and bottle of wine, but it’s already been suggested that the garden porn might be the main feature of the evening as part of a summit planning our produce planting! Hmmm, who says romance is dead eh?

Allotment a-go-go

Hurrah!   Himself has decided that we should take up the offer of the half allotment as a temporary plan B (reference The Quest), so it’s all systems go when the rain  stops!   He’s hoping that being part of an allotment community will give us access to group discounts on seeds and whatnot, whilst I’m hoping that it’ll give him another place to stick his free manure (as it were)!

I am pondering the kind advice in respect of the gift that belongs to another, and I am considering opening it on my birthday next week, in the absence of any further correspondence from the mysterious Giles!   Incidentally, is it just me or is Giles a bit of a let down as the name of a man sending mystery gifts -shouldn’t he be more of an Adam, or even a Clint or Heathcliff ? Apologies Giles Coren and anyone reading this who’s called Giles or has bestowed this name on their son, but it just doesn’t fit the persona I appear to be creating here as I ponder the mysterious delights of the postal system!

Hmmm – more gifts today!

Well, for the interested few, I still haven’t unwrapped the gift, feeling a bit ooo-er about it!    Am willing to submit myself to public consensus so I’ve been trying to insert a poll into ma posts but have been unsuccessful so far!   Trying again now.

Where’s the poll gone?

Still – today bought more gifts.   The magazine subscription bought for me by Himself has finally arrived, so he is now cuddled up reading it, hmm.

Anyway, remember The Quest – our constant pursuit to be more self-sufficient and recreate our homestead as something of a tinyholding (the smallest type of smallholding), on a tiny type of budget?   Happily we’ve already achieved that country-type smell, despite living in town, as Himself happily covered the garden in several sacks full of free horse manure last weekend and it’s constantly rained since, so basically the garden is a pool of liquid excrement, which the dogs are happily playing in then running back through the house!   Still, in respect of The Quest, the best gift of the day has been the offer of half an allotment just down by the local park -an elderly family member wants to downsize what he’s doing so he’s offered us the chance of using his ‘spare bit’ in the absence  of any real progress on what would be the growing area of our garden!

Himself is thinking about it, whilst he’s reading my Christmas present.   Kindly, he is reading extracts out from it to me – I feel another hmmm coming on!