It was another flying visit to the allotment last week.

It was a wet week again and Martyn’s foot isn’t yet improved enough for him to wear any footwear that would be suitable for working on the allotment.

We spent an hour or so at the weekend taking some waste materials to the plot to compost and also to uncover the winter onions and garlic. These had been protected under enviromesh after planting but now the enviromesh was likely to be doing more harm than good. The shoots couldn’t grow straight under the weight of the mesh and also if we do have any snow the weight of the snow on the mesh would flatten the young plants. Hopefully, now the mesh has been removed the plants will straighten as they usually do.

In autumn I collected some seeds from our calendulas and scattered them on the mulch in front of a row of raspberries. Many seeds have germinated so I am hoping for a colourful display next year.

The two cardoons have put on a lot of growth already.

Whilst we were at the allotment we also harvested a few more leeks. The variety that we picked is Batter – a new variety for us.

Some of the Below Zero leeks that we used last week were affected by the allium leaf miner despite the leeks being grown under enviromesh. The leeks had been covered from planting so either the pest had sneaked under the mesh somehow or had managed to get in when we were weeding. We’re just hoping that at least the protection will mean that we have fewer plants affected than we did last year.

With rain forecast for the afternoon, on Thursday we decided on a morning visit to Nostell which was just as well. 

The scenery has changed – the photo on the left was taken last Thursday and the one on the right was taken, from the same spot, in October 2020.

The paths around the lake have been mulched with wood chippings and so thankfully it is mud free,

The sluice that controls the depth of water in the lake was very active unlike during the summer when there was no water flow at all.

The temporary lakes that form over the winter months are starting to reappear.

One set of plants that are enjoying the damp conditions are the mosses which I can’t resist stroking.

The young swan – is it still a cygnet? – still hasn’t followed its siblings and left the lake.

The parent birds are still tolerating its presence. No doubt as the next breeding season approaches it will be a different story.

I can’t resist posting a couple of photos of Ruby. She’s always so interested in anything that is going on around her.

Onto some of last week’s meals. I made a turkey curry. Into this went some of our garlic, onion, and mixed frozen peppers. It was served with a homemade naan and mango chutney.

I also made some Glamorgan sausages which should be more appropriately called Wensleydale sausages as I used Wensleydale cheese rather than a Caerphilly, which doesn’t seem to appear in our shops.  As well as cheese the recipe used some of our leeks, spring onions and parsley.

I served this with our savoy cabbage cooked with our garlic and carrots. I didn’t have any celeriac so I substituted this with celery and I left out the bacon which we don’t eat.

As always until next time – stay safe and well very