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..

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.
