Last week was drama-free, thank goodness, but I must admit we are very wary when walking in the park, as is Ruby.
I’ve managed to find quite a lot of information about the group involved, which has been passed on to the police; however, whether they follow up on it is anyone’s guess.
I described the incident on Facebook and had lots of responses. Social media often has a bad press, but it can also be very useful.
On the allotment, autumn is tightening its grip. The leaves on fruit trees and blueberry bushes are now wearing their autumn colours.
We really seem to be ahead of the game with respect to bed clearance. We started clearing beds much earlier this year, as crops went over earlier.
We had a morning trip to the plot on Sunday and removed the old strawberry plants. We have had quite a bit of rain, so the soil is much more workable.;
The reason for our morning visit was that we were having a load of manure delivered.
Someone who keeps horses delivers it, and as it was our first delivery, we wanted to be there to meet her. In future, this won’t be necessary, so she can just drop off a load when it is available until we have enough.
Martyn is piling it at the end of beds where it can break down and be spread in spring.
We always lift our carrots to store over winter. One bed was lifted last week. Carrots often suffer quite a bit of slug damage, but the dry conditions last summer meant that slugs weren’t as active, and most of the carrots were undamaged. We’re hoping the carrots in the other bed are as good.
We are continuing to harvest a few remaining crops,
The cauliflowers have done well. They need a lot of water, so toiling with the watering can paid off there.
I am still steadily picking blackberries and found another small squash when clearing a bed. I’m not convinced that there will be anything to use from it, but I brought it home just in case.
We didn’t think the quinces would be any good, as the skins are marked. Dry conditions often lead to bitter pit in quinces, apples, and pears, but surprisingly, we haven’t noticed any this year. Maybe the roots tapped into moisture quite deep in the ground. Fruit trees have produced really good harvests this year.
Pears are beginning to drop so we harvested those fruits that were ripe.
Cauliflowers featured on last week’s menu. One meal was a variation of cauliflower cheese with red pepper and spring onions added.
We grew peppers in the garden greenhouse. As they are now unlikely to ripen any further, I picked and froze them.
Last week’s day out was to Kedleston Hall.
On previous visits, we haven’t explored behind the hall.
We had a glimpse of All Saints’ church peeping through the trees. The church is all that remains of the medieval village of Kedleston. The village was demolished to make way for the hall.
The garden area is mainly an extensive lawn with one or two large flower beds.
The flower beds were past their best, with only one of two patches of late colour.
After a quick walk across the lawn, we headed off on our usual walk.
You may remember that earlier we spotted three young pheasants exploring the allotment site. On Saturday, we spotted three pheasants – an adult male and two young males. The youngsters hadn’t completely grown their adult plumage.
That’s all for this week, so as always, until next time, stay safe and stay well.
Again, I am joining Harvest Monday on Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog.
That sounds like a most distressing incident Sue and yet another example of anti-social behaviour 😢 I hope that the police follow that information up. Always a plus when manure is delivered to the plot. I remember those days well 😂 Some most delicious looking crops and that blueberry foliage is so attractive. Our best year ever for apples!
I hjink that the police have drawn a line under it Anna, but I am going to contact the school as I have the full name of one of them.
All the tree fruit has done really well.
That manure should gets things growing for sure. Glad you had a less dramatic week than last week!
WE have told the girl who delivered the manure to keep it coming, Dave