Why am I doing this?
It’s cold, it’s windy and as I open the front door I’m contemplating just staying indoors where it’s nice and warm. Nevertheless, I step out and am grateful for my woolly hat.
Walking onto the allotment site isn’t fun! stepping around the muddle puddles and listening to the wind whistling and thinking please don’t let any branches fall on my head!
I see the She shed standing proudly and firm and I think ‘can’t wait to get inside and get the kettle on’ – and we make sure the kettles always on – get the chairs set up as near to the warmth of the kettle as possible. Once filled the kettle starts to warm it’s time to see what’s to be done today? Two of the beds need de-weeding and due to the winds lately, there’s a couple of posts need banging in to sturdy the fence and we really do need to sort out the greenhouse soon. This was badly damaged during a storm a few months ago and now sits with a twisted frame and still a fair amount of broken glass inside and apparently can’t be repaired
We know we need to get another one soon, just not sure where or how at the moment though, hopefully someone will have an old one we can take off their hands? That’s how we acquired this one – in fact that’s how we’ve got most of the items on our allotments, always happy to accept a donation and as they say “one persons’ rubbish is another’s’ treasure eh!” Hey Ho – we’ll crack on and see what happens.
By the time the others turn up the kettle is singing its tune- funny how they always manage to get here in time for that lol Tea and coffee made and there’s a buzz of chatter and laughter whilst we all agree it’s so cold we should all be at home in the warm but there’s work to be done, so we crack on and soon get warmed up – and slightly muddy!
It isn’t long before it’s time for a break and this time the biscuits come out and they’re quickly devoured. We sit and talk about plans of ‘what to plant’? We decide we’ll give aubergines another go and rainbow carrots - remembering to plant the carrots further apart this time to ensure we don’t end up with the tangled creations we pulled from the ground last year, although they did look pretty funny. Sweetcorn went well last year so
they’re back on the list and definitely more flowers this year - we all love flowers eh! A variety of tomatoes is also agreed and decide we may try to make chutney this year OR MAYBE WINE.
After one more cuppa and a session of putting the worlds to rights and stories of funny events each has had during the past week, it’s time to finish for the day, everything’s tidied-cleaned and packed up, goodbyes given to each other and all head home.
Once through my front door I’m straight into the bath for a soak then into my slouchy stuff ready to write up the planting plan before it goes out of my head. And as I sit at the table I find myself chuckling about some of the things said and stories told during the day and it’s then that I realise exactly ‘why I am doing this’.
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