Weekends and busy days

Do you ever have that feeling where you feel like you’ve done a weeks worth of ‘stuff’ in a couple of days?

Its not planned but it happens – and its wonderful!

I will start with allotment news: The harvests are coming in now, for which I am immensely grateful. Its easy to think that when the picking is over, thats the job done; but no, there is the kitchen time after that. Sorting, cutting, washing, freezing, cooking – its a lot of work and takes a lot of time but we all know its worth it!

Keep the pea pods – I’ll tell you why later!

Beetroot wine coming up!

I have learned a few things as I went about the harvesting:

I don’t like harvesting currants: we have red and black. I didn’t realise this before but this year, I’ve found my back/hips/knees have decided picking currants should be done by someone else. Sadly, there is no-one else available so it has become quite a painful process! I tell myself its ok to leave a few as I’m “hapy to share with the birds”.

Sewing a zip onto a polytunnel door should be finished before you plant in it. That might have stopped the wind blowing half the stitches away as the door was whipped around, inviting the local snail population in to munch the cucumber plants. They were happy to oblige.

Woodchip makes me angry. This is a new phenomenon. Everyone talks about it and I’ve always used it on the paths. Recently I saw someone on Youtube use it all over – ‘just push it aside’, she said, ‘pop your plants in and put it back in place’. I was promised no weeds and healthy growth. Well I’ve grown thistles – everywhere. Never had them before. I’ve also lost 2 entire plantings of runner and french beans. It appears snails and slugs love hiding in woodchip. I’ve also planted dwarf beans – somewhere else on the plot and they are covered! I usually do so well with my bean plants so this has been a real downer.

I will never use leaves as a mulch again. As least, not where I’m going to plant brassicas. I lost 3 full bays of them too – yes, thank you snails, you slimy little ba……..

Never assume July will be a good weather month. We’ve had the worst July I can think of. Granted, I’m not one of those people who remembers weather. In fact, those people fascinate me. You know the ones who say things like, “we didn’t get much rain in April 6 years ago”, or “this Spring was just like the one we had in 1976”. It baffles me. I know I’m supposed to be more aware of it, especially as someone who gardens, but my brain just doesn’t have a weather section. In my head, I have a basic meteorological plan:

Spring – chilly but not as bad as Winter

Summer – warmer than Spring but not as scorching as abroad, though we usually get a few hot days here and there, so might get a courgette growing

Autumn – jumpers and less light than Summer

Winter – “I’m not going out in that”

And don’t expect me to be able to tell you how much rain we got last Wednesday – not happening.

In other news, we went to a local event called ‘Picnic in the Park’. The sun was out for the first day in a week, there was live music, tombola, food and a happy atmosphere.

As much as I like going to these event, there is a part of me which finds them difficult. We live in a nice little town (pop approx 13,670) – where it seems everyone either went to school together, is related or on the same committees. We didn’t grow up here, don’t have family here and don’t do committees so socially, we are what you would call isolated. I can handle it better now than I used to. When I used to take dearest son to our local toddler group (a 2 hour session), I would come home and hubby would ask, “How many spoke to you today then?” and I would answer, “None, again”.

Hence, I blog.

The other trip we took over the weekend was to a little village about an hours drive from us. We were picking up sports equipment but the village is right on the coast – a very special part of the Moray Firth, where the dolphins come to feed.