Mainly fish and chips

It's been blissful weather this weekend. J and I managed to do all sorts of useful things at the allotment today, like emptying bags of bark mulch around the fruit bushes, cutting cabbage and leeks, tidying up and sitting around in the sunshine. I hugged my fruit trees too, to make up for not wassailing them earlier in the month. One of the mini daffodil bulbs has started to come up under the old apple tree and lots have emerged next to the hut. I can hardly wait.

It felt like spring is just around the corner yesterday too. I was too busy for gardening but I had a lovely walk up through the park to the library and then we had a bit of a panic over our fancy dress costumes for a party. We looked really good for the first half hour until the newspaper fell apart but it allowed us to make a good first impression! Guess what we had for dinner before the party?! Yup, fish and chips.

Happy gardening

Winter vegetables

J and I spent a soggy half hour at the allotment yesterday, pulling some leeks and generally having a look around. The rain and sleet had been coming down in bucketfuls the day before. We had a flooded garden and rain coming into the house through the back wall. It was seriously wet, drenching rain so it was great to see that the allotment hadn't suffered at all. The pond was nice and full anyway!

I didn't see any wildlife up there but it won't be long before the frogs are barging each other out of the way to spawn in the pond. They usually produce a seething mass of it around the time of J's birthday towards the end of February. Birthday spawn.

I dug up the last of the parsnips as well. I'm obviously not the only one digging them up, there were bits of parsnip scattered around on the grassy path but I think I've had a good crop despite this. I'd be interested to find out what eats them actually; the main predators on our allotments are pigeons, badgers, foxes and unspecified rodents. I don't fancy spending a night shivering in the hut waiting to find out!

As I write this, the rain is back with us again and I'm planning to spend today hibernating in the warm with a good book, and later on I'm going to cook a nice big chicken dinner (yes - organic free range from our local butcher) and I'll be roasting those parsnips to go with it.
Happy gardening (and hibernating)