Springtime at last

It must be three days since it last rained and I have finally managed to get moving more quickly with the allotments. I got to both sites yesterday with collecting Maria from school and then dropping her at dance in the evening, so working at the WM allotment until she had finished.

That means I have got in plenty of seedlings, peas, broad beans, beetroot, carrots, spinach, leeks, as well as sowing lettuce, parsnips and more leeks. Both sites are pretty tidy now with the rubbish collected and dumped plus the weeding almost complete. I have digging to do in W still but that is fine given I have a few weeks until everything goes in.

Juno and I had a lovely time in the bluebell woods and the flowers are at their best right now.

Contrasts

I did a big Sunday dinner and had lots of the family over and we saw the sun again. The garden looks in good shape there are plenty of flowers to brighten things up, a lovely stting for the various swings and hammocks which the children enjoyed. Bridie and Joseph stayed for the three nights with their kitchen being redone and the work meaning it was easier to move out for the time being. Luckily they were house-sitting all Easter and were just down the road, so nice to do some dog walks and meet ups, especially amongst the bluebells.

In contrast, the evening dog walk saw me soaked again with a huge black cloud passing over in the midst of sunshine.Nice rainbow though. 

Similarly yesterday when at the W allotment, I was planting some peas when there was a crack of thunder and another downpour. At least I could retreat to the shed. Poor Maria got very wet leaving school as I waited for her in the car park. Another sudden and fierce downpour. 

Here it is!

The sun appeared and coincided with having to take Maria into Bournemouth to meet a friend which gave us the opportunity to enjoy a bit of time by the beach. I went for a 5km run and was amazed at the number of people in the water but not so much by the many visitors walking along the seafront given the warmth of the sun after so many weeks of hoping for spring but it never arriving.

Cycling and allotment(ing)

There are photos from W allotment sandwiched between those from Potterne Lake which I took during a short break in my ride down to Moors Valley and back this morning. The lake is largely empty of birds now with them having departed largely to their breeding grounds but there were plenty of brids singing in the bushes and trees surrounding the water. Nice to see greenfinch about, perhaps an indication of their population beginning to bounce back a little after the virus which killed so many in recent years.

Follwoing Juno's long walk, I drove to the allotment and spent a good few hours getting to grips with things. I mowed the paths and did a bit of strimming before digging over one of the beds which has been neglected and is covered with strawberry plants and couch grass, the latter being a real pain. I'm going to use that one for potatoes, main crop, in a few weeks when I can have a go at weeding again.

The larger bed I tackled is now nice and ready for turning over and I have so many seedlings waiting to go in, it can't come soon enough. I also made a start to clearing the rubbish from the plot with a trip to the dump booked for tomorrow. There was also a bit of time to edge the beds making maintenance easier and reducing the little overhangs which pests hide in before tucking into the seedlings.

You will see the autumn broad beans well in flower now and the garlic is also doing well. 

Birds and mammals

I spend a lot of time feeding the birds which has resulted in our colony of house sparrows, must be over 30 in the hedges and they make use of the nestboxes, starlings, dunnocks, robin, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, woodpigeon, collared dove, blackbird, siskin, goldfinches, greenfinches, nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, wren, jackdaw and others. The downside to that is the food does attract rats and Juno has caught two recently. 

As a result I have got a humane trap and used it for the first time yesterday and it has already caught several visitors but no rats. The nice thing is that last night I checked before going to bed and there was a hedgehog inside. Given their steep decline in numbers, we were so pleased to have one in the garden. I have also had to release two robins and a dunnock so far. It does work but whether the rat falls for it, we will see. Juno is on standby.

Bluebells

As you will see, the bluebells are becoming ever more numerous in Boys Wood and Juno and I enjoyed an evening walk there. We've done quite a lot today with an additional 4 mile run for me from Morrisons towards Moors Valley and back which was lovely.

The power has been on and off this afternoon thanks to the blustery wind but it is up again now thankfully. 

WM allotment

Maria was back at dance yesterday evening, less than 48 hours after the big show which seemed a surprise to me. However, she enjoyed it droppng her off at 4.15 gave me a bit of time to head back and do some work at the small allotment before heading back to collect her. Ultimately I didn't get all that time there due to, quite unexectedly, a downpour which was far heavier than it first appeared likely to be.

Never mind. I did get on with raking the beds and getting a whole bunch of weeding done, as well as turning the compost over. In fact, there is some very good compost which will come in handy as the plants begin to emerge. Good for mulching, water retention and slow release of nutrients.

I got the last of the early potatoes in and should be picking those in about 12 weeks. The plan was to sow some seeds direct into the soil but the rain came and put paid to that.

Yesterday was my first five mile run in many months. I was pleased to get it done and without too much suffering.