Allotment Absentees

Last weekend my neighbour (and fellow allotmenteer) popped his head over the garden wall to to ask the dreaded question:  “How’s the allotment going?”  He informs me that I should be digging up ground, and planting broad beans.  But, with ground like this, we’ve had every reason not to..

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It was a beautiful, frosty morning down on the allotment today, but the ground was far too hard to dig.  The fact that we were the only people down there gave us a little hint that today is not the day for allotmenteering.

And with winter walks, homemade projects and bitter cold, we’ve found plenty to distract us from the serious business of vegetables.

Allotment plans on hold, we wandered through Northwood Park, for some serious tree appreciation.  Tom pointed out the London Plane, the Lebanese Cedar, the Turkey Oak, and the Robin Hood Oak.  (The latter name being our own invention.)  The texture of the bark, the way they spread their canopy, the various occupants; trees are pretty inspiring.

3 thoughts on “Allotment Absentees

  1. Marlene West on said:

    WOW! Looks pretty frozen. That’s a good thing. kills unwanted insects,etc. I know it’s tempting this time of year to plant cover-crop, but I just heard that “the later you plant it, the better it grows and the easier it is to turn under. Yeah! I have a good reason to stay inside reading Madeline L’Engle’s delicious (upper elementary) books; I tweaked my back in yoga. (just can’t seem to learn where my ‘edge’ is. Gorgeous photos! Thanks. Love your blog. Love you both SO much. G’ma

  2. Have just been for my lunchtime walk in Northwood park (if I stayed at work for 9 straight hours I’d go round the bend!!)- love the cedars – we have an ENORMOUS one in the field at the back of the house – they must like IOW soil! :0)