River Stour and allotment

 

 

We had a busy morning rushing to get the usual chores done and then down to Verwood for the next hedge cutting section for Joy. We keep being held up having to wait for the garden waste bin to be emptied as it doesn't take much to fill it even when I get inside to squash the cuttings down. It was made more difficult by the fact Joy has a wasp nest in this part of the garden and we had to skirt round it carefully. I was pleased to find that the wasp in the car which seemed to have attached itself to my jumper had not managed to sting me. There were plenty of jaspers swarming around angrily as we raked up afterwards.

From there we had intended to visit the National Trust property at Kingston Lacy but Alison remembered you had to book prior to visit so we went down the road from the allotment to park up next to the River Stour and walked to bench downstream to sit and enjoy our picnic.

We saw lots of goldfinches, the banks were populated with plenty of teasals which were very popular, stonechats and a little egret, as well as the expected robins and blackbirds, pigeons, rooks and crows.

From there it was a short journey to the allotment where we harvested more spinach which continues to do well as you'll see in the photo and Alison cut back the raspberry canes. I finished digging over the bed we'd used for potatoes earlier in the year and got it ready for the garlic which eventually arrived from Suttons, along with the bulbs we bought last week. The soil is in great condition, lots of worms, easy to work and a great colour, plenty of organic matter in there and with good drainage.

We look forward to harvesting the bulbs in early summer and it is good to be able to be growing even over the winter months. There are other things to go in still including leeks and broad beans.

I also got the lawn cut and squeezed in a high intensity interval run, three miles at an average of 9 min miles which was good as the bits in betwen the speed work are slow recovery jogs. I say speed work. These things are always comparative. It was quicker for me, if not many other people.