Hazardous Summertime

Annie and two of the guys played an acoustic gig last week and someone took video of them, so here they are, on youtube no less :-) The band is called Hazardous Waist, but the drummer isn't playing here, so I'm not sure whether they used that name or not. Annie's playing Mandolin. Phil is on acoustic bass with Andy on guitar.





Meanwhile here's another little plot update. The asparagus bed is needing so much weeding that Colin says he feels like King Canute ... do you know that story about holding the sea back? Anyway, following the latest weed, the bed looks very tidy.



The current bushes are coming on beautifully and we have already had a few redcurrents to eat. They look so pretty too!



Amongst the weeds, few are of much interest so far, but I do love the borage flowers. Apparently they taste sweet - so I'll have to give that a go one of these days!



That's it for tonight my friends. I hope everyone had a good day :-)

Scarecrow

OK, so a while ago now a little lass was on Easter holidays (that's Spring Break, folks) and she made her Grandpa a scarecrow for his allotment. As you can see above, the scarecrow is beautiful. The face is PINK and the eyers are BLUE. Very good work indeed.

Here's what the broad beans look like now and we'll get back to them shortly. Meanwhile though, to get back to the story, sometime after the scarecrow arrived we were up there at the plot with a lady from "Park House", the voluntary group which actually owns our allotments and she saw the scarecrow. She decided that we had to have one too and went back and talked some other women into getting involved. So now, we have .....

Bigfoot! Hey, he's subtle isn't he! No birds are going to bother our crops! I love his face too. I don't know if you can tell but he has a little facial hair, so is definitely a chap.

Though quite where he got those feet from .... The coat is cut and then painted with black splodges to represent age and dirt. Not that he'll need those long if he's living at the plot - lol.

When you touch him the paint splodges transfer nicely to skin, so I'm leaving him be, now he's in place! His banner is a "Just Married" one that has been adapted to say "Just P H". The allotments have all sorts of environmental awards and best plot and so on, but I think they're going to need a best scarecrow competition at this rate!

Meanwhile we are getting into the exciting part of the year where there are going to be actual crops. For now, the broad beans are starting to produce and I iamgine we'll ahve a few to eat pretty soon.

But probably best of all, now that the big push to get the marking done is all over, I have finally had time to get rid of some of the most massive weeds and I've excavated ...

The missing turnips! Only a few are ready to eat as yet, but this was the first one I pulled up and goodness, was I a happy lass!

Tomorrow I'm off to fight the weeds some more (weather permitting) so I'll hope to take some more snaps too. Much love, K xxx.

Mum

It seems only correct to follow that post with an update on Mum. she has now had her surgery and the surgeon was apparently pleased with how it went. We're certainly pleased with how she is. She was home (to my house) 5 days after her operation and to her own home the next day. As of today, she sounds a bit bored! Otherwise, she's doing fabulously. The picture shows Mum (left) with her sister, Enid and brother, Donald. This is a studio shot, taken somewhere in the late 1930s.

The plants in my garden (geranium, aka cranesbill, above) and at the plot are doing so well now that I am going to be ashamed to post pictures for you to see how slow I've been! However, I will get onto that. This is "get your marking finished" week at work (I think that's "grading" in your parlance). After Friday though, life should return to some semblance of normality (I hope) and I can catch up. Maybe even learn how to video on that lovely new camera of mine ;-)

We have found some time to tidy up our "top patio" (I guess you might call this a deck, but it is paved rather than wood). Annie found the furniture at a bargain price locally and we have eaten outside a few times lately, whilst the weather has been very pretty. Ms Muse made me very happy be calling the lights I had bought "tiki" lights. I read about Connie's tiki bar ... and just wonder what it is! Now I am a tad wiser. lol

So here's our baby fig tree, with tiki light lit up, near dusk, complete with a few baby figs :-)

Oh yes, and we've had some nice meals out lately too. Here I am at a restaurant named the "Fat Loaf", leering threateningly at a rather fabulous dessert.

OK, more soon but meantime ... loads of love my dears. K xxx.