Chance meeting

On the way up to the allotment this evening (preparing space for some leeks) I bumped into Stephen!  It is a funny thing because only today we announced this year's plant swop party would be in his garden next month, and then he turns up, miles from home, half way between my house and the shed!

I dragged him off to look at the coriander seedlings and the thousands of apple flower buds on the tree.  He was polite enough to poke around for a few minutes.  Very nice.

The leeks are Musselburgh from England.  Actually they are from 2011, but I've kept them in a seed tin in the shed so they should be okay.  They're going in down at the damp end just down-hill of the cold frame.

Villa is on its way out

 During three days of dry warm weather, we were able to make a big dent on the villa.  Because the ceinling was pretty robust, we could stand on that to attach the gable end.

Without gable end

With gable end

Sadly, during the process of taking things apart, my Blackberry must have got a bit bashed.  The screen was alightly cracked, the loud speaker made it sound like everyone was talking through a kazoo, and the camera only made blurry pictures.  The fuzzy image shows the view just before the corner under the gable end furthers from the river was knocked through.  The chunk on the top is some massive kind of ring anchor, which none of our tools can penetrate.  The column is now gone and the ring anchor is hanging in space above half the walls.

And I had to get a new Blackberry today.

A fist full of splinters

Yesterday the skips were delivered at 08:30 and we made plenty of progress taking down the villa.  All the roof structure is off down to the level of the ceiling, apart from the concrete gabled end.

All the nails are out apart from two nails (each 6 inches) in each of the rafters, which we need to get out this morning.  Once the rafters are de-nailed and stored, we will get to work on gable end.

Obviously nails were cheap when they put the villa up 50 years ago.  We have pulled out hundreds in order to keep the waste wood purely as wood.  This keeps the cost down for the skip, but adds quite some effort.

One or two passers-by were a bit misty eyed looking at the villa being taken down.  They remember the happy days of Tilli and her garden ... but things change and move on.

Villa coming down - first photos

Over the weekend we started taking the villa down.  The only real problem was the noise the rusty nails made being dragged out of the wooded beams - and on a Sunday!  We had to stop because of that in the end.

 Under the pitched part of the roof was a good strong ceiling which we could/can stand on to get at the battens and rafters.

With all the tiles off, its easy to see what a reasonable state the wooden part of the roof was in underneath.

 We took the river-side tiles off first.  With that done, it still looks like we hadn't started.

 All the tiles off, battens still in place.

Battens removed and the first of the planking over the porch removed.  Next step is to remove the rest of the planking.

Panzies putting on a show

AT the end of the autumn, there were little panzy plants for sale at the local supermarket.  I bought a few to make the allotment look a bit more cheery as winter drew in.  We had a really mild December, and I was rewarded with panzies right through to new year.  Then came three weeks of permafrost with temperatures down to -19C and the panzies duly withered away.  Fair enough.

Panzies back from the dead

But here's the thing ... either someone has sneaked in and replaced the dead panzies with new ones or they have all magically come back to life, and burst into full flower.  I'll go with the coming back to life version; it fits somehow with the time of year.

I have decided to add panzies to dahlias in the list of acceptable flowers to be grown at the allotment.

Over in the raised bed (home to the currant bushes and last year's beetroot) there are also signs of life.  The final poppy plant waiting for transplantation to a tub at home is looking very well, and the first of the currant bushes is full of fresh new leaves.  The other two bushes (different cultivars) are a bit further behind.

Currant bush and poppy in raised bed

With the eye of faith, it is even possible to make out a self-sewn leek plant in the centre of the bed.  I think it's Blauer Wunder or something like that.

The beech hedges are also setting leaf and look full of life (apart from the dead bits, that is).

Beech hedge

I just couldn't hold off any longer

Really it's still too early to be planting most things.  At night the temperature is down close to freezing and the mornings are still fresh until after the second cop of coffee.

But it's the SUN.  Everything was swimming in vanilla light begging to be set free.  I couldn't hold back any more.  Although I had firmly decided not to bother with any potatoes this year after last years rubbish results, they're one of the only things I dare to put in the ground.  So I grabbed a pound of floury Oldenwald sourced (local) seed potatoes and popped in a row.  And also a row of garlic.  And twenty or so decaying gladiola bulbs I found in the back of the shed.  I don't suppose much will come of the glads, but the sunshine at the allotment was worth it.

Note to EHS competition people:  you are all going to lose.  My "red devil" chilis have germinated and are about 1 cm high already.  That trophy will be mine!

Cold frame in action and log tagging at plot

The sun came out on Saturday and at last I could get going with out side stuff.

Up at the allotment, I went over most of the beds with a (dutch) hoe to slow down the weeds a bit.  Then I planted the coriander seeds directly out in a seed bed (next to the compost bins).  I also planted the celeriac seeds, squash seeds, pumpkin seeds and a few runner bean seeds in modules, and put them in the newly completed cold frame.

View from inside the cold frame

The window on the top needs a bit of refinement but it works pretty well.

Down at the plot, the neighbour has been dumping plenty of soil.

Mole hills ... not really

 If he manages to dump enough soil on his plot, he should be able to bring the level up to ours.  That will make things much easier when we come to plant the hedge later on.

I also took the chance to mark the fire wood.

Chopped wood duly tagged

I got special spray paint for timber marking, so it should be okay.  The plan is that any wood thieves will find the marking and be scared off.  Hmm.