Growing

Whilst the UN have been dithering on the important topics such as Climate Change and Gordon Brown is complaining about Great British Food wastage I have been busy working on, and taking produce from, our allotment. We have also very kindly been offered and shared produce with other growers and have not had to visit the green grocers for a day or two, other than for fruit.

It has so far been a very successful year in our first attempt as allotment growers; we are still hopeful that next year we will have an allotment of our own.

The ‘Great’ British weather, although good for growing vegetables, needs to change for a while so we can have a few sunny spells enabling us to get out and about on our push-bikes.

Moves afoot

My absence from the internet over the last day or two can be attributed to the nice weather we are now experiencing in the UK, well some parts of it are. It has been a while in coming but hopefully the sunshine of today and yesterday is an indication of what we can expect over the next couple of months. However, the forecasters are predicting that this year will be a typical British summer, which will see moments of optimism, such as today, followed by rain and then more rain.

Our produce on the allotment continues to thrive and people are still generously offering us their excess seedlings to plant out. It will be my turn to reciprocate this kindness as we have overestimated the quantity of tomato plants we had planted; we now have far more than we have space for. [I don’t even like tomatoes]

Our neighbours have put their house up for sale, claiming they need to move closer to schools for their young son, who has not long turned two, to attend. We think the real reason is that they are struggling to afford the repayments on their mortgage and are looking to rent elsewhere in the town. It would appear to be neither a buyers nor a sellers market right now as we, like the US, have seen a dramatic downturn in the housing market.

Having said that I have seen a rather nice flat close by to where we live that would be ideally suited for my Mother. She has lived in the same house for 50 years but as she gets older and the friends and neighbours she has known all her life disappear I sometimes worry for her remaining at the old address and believe she would be better moving closer to us. Besides which, the balcony on the flats over look the allotments we are currently growing our produce on. She is probably too long in the tooth to consider the move but I would like to give her the option.

I am off to print some house details off the internet, to pick Mum up to come and stay for a few days and to look over the produce.

Things that pain me

I have been missing from my laptop for a day or two whilst I allow my self time to recover from a change over of prescribed tablets from the Pain Clinic, and I will be changing them again over the next day or two. I have not been able to attend the allotment as I would have hoped, however, it does seem to be doing well without too much care and attention as the produce continues to flourish. Now that the rain has stopped I may be able to get back up there and clear some of the weeds.
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I read with interest that Barack Obama has declared himself winner of the Democrat nomination race in the US, thank fcuk for that, unfortunately his opponent is still not bowing out just yet. [She will no doubt end up running along side Obama despite the dirty campaign she has had].
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The youth who lost his life in a motor bike accident down the road from our home last weekend was apparently under the influence of alcohol, underage and riding [pillion] without a crash helmet [A crash helmet is a legal requirement in the UK]. I feel for the poor woman whose car it was that unavoidably ran into the bike and the family of the deceased. I also watch with interest as school friends of the dead boy continue to ride their own scooters along the road in a manner that can only be described as foolish.