Just a quick thought

We've now had over 1000 hits on the blog and I can trace that they have come from all over the world. What a good way to commuicate!

At long last, another entry

It has been quiet on the blog, and it is with some degree of humility that I realise there have been no entries for almost six weeks, apart from the one that I made a few minutes ago. A long holiday in Greece may have had something to do with it, but enough of excuses.

Although there have been no blog entries, that does not mean that there has been no work going on. Stalwarts Bob and Adam have been grafting away as usual, with occasional help from the usual others.

The state of play is as follows: we now have a row of raspberries (OK, they have been in for a while, but I'm doing a summary here), a row of strawberries that are already fruiting, three rows of potatoes, a block of sweetcorn and another of ever-lasting flowers have been planted out.

The grass mats have all been laid, but still need to be flattened out a bit as the soil has settled leaving them a bit uneven. The two big raised beds have been built, put into position and have been filled with alternating layers of topsoil and compost (as the picture below - courtesy of Roundup - shows, we had one sq m. each of topsoil and compost delivered the other day).

The last of the muck has been spread on the allotment (thanks Adam), making space for the remaining raised beds and the compost bins to be built.

The Dorset Magazine write up

A good few weeks ago we were visited by a journalist from the Dorset Magazine who wanted to run an article about the allotment. The finished piece, and very good it was to, was published in May. An online version can be found here:

http://dorset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/the-good-life-31625/

Hey Jude...

if you don't know her then you are missing out; here's her response to my last blog post (it was a bit longer than just this quote, you will find the whole thing in the comments section):

An extract from a poem by Edwin Markham, an American poet who died in 1940:

He drew a circle that shut me out.
Heretic, rebel -a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win,
we drew a circle that took him in.

Very relevant and timely. And while I am at it, here is another extract from another one of his poems, A Man with a Hoe:

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

The great Guy Garvey runs our training day...

We had a great training day on Monday, 15 of us led by Guy Garvey (well actually not him...rather it was a nice bloke from the Thrive organisation, but interesting to think that Guy might have taken a day off from writing his poetry and his current tour to run the training day...that would have been something to write about. Here's a photograph of Guy (sorry, Damien was his real name). Don't know who Guy Garvey is? Click here.

Bob's been at it again, here's the story....

Last Wednesday I saw a skip and decided it needed raiding. Bob was with me, and I think like many people who are with me when I go skip raiding, he was a trifle embarassed. Me, I do it all the time, skip raiding that is, especially when there might be fuel for my woodburner going free. So, I asked permission, and went off to try to liberate some wood...and found quite a bit including a good few lengths of 6x1 tanalised, or it might have been 8x1. Tanalised wood is not much good for burning, which is just as well as Bob immediately nabbed it all for the allotment. Huh.....

Anyway, he put it too good use, and here is the outcome, a nice tool rack and there is even a shelf above it, all the better for being made of free (liberated) wood. Very tidy, with just the very smallest hint of OCD. Here's a pic....nice one Bob.

A quick progress report.

Terminal computer failure prevents me from doing anything more than a quick update at the moment, but I'll be adding a bit more detail and photographs as soon as I can. Anyway, Bob has got in a couple of rows of potatoes now, and some pink fir apples are going in soon. Over the weekend, James, Anna and I dug over about another row of couch grass clogged earth, we're getting there slowly but surely. As a security measure, I also put reflective film over the inside of the shed windows so that people can't see in to see if there is any good stuff to nick. The reflective film is good, from the outside it looks just like a mirror (i.e. you cannot see into the shed through the windows), but from the inside you can still see out. Other security measures include strong wire mesh over the windows, toughened glass, hinges that are bolted rather than screwed in place, and a good combination padlock. I guess its only a matter of time before the shed gets broken into, lets hope never, but at least we'll have made it difficult to anybody who wants to mess up our project.

All that has got me thinking about allotment insurance, which I think comes free with membership of the South West Counties Allotment Association (clicky here). Note to self: I'll have to look into joining, if I've got it right it only costs £3 per year.

Finally, the grass mats have arrived. The ground around the shed needs levelling and they can be laid, making it much easier for those with mobility impairments or those in wheelchairs to get about. Pics will follow when we've got that done.