June has been a mixed bag for me on the allotment. Crown rot spread through the plots at our site like wild fire. I thought I had hit a new low of gardening ineptitude by managing to kill rhubarb. I didn’t think such a thing were actually possible. But it wasn’t just me. Apparently crown rot is an airborne fungus and there’s not a lot you can do to stop it. Some of the old gents on our site lost crowns that had been going for forty-odd years so there was some deep grieving going on over it. In case you’re wondering, crown rot looks like the picture above.
My potato patch looks like this. Yes, I know, lots of weeds. Ahem. The point is, where are the potatoes? They are there. Just. But they’re all yellow and covered in funny black blotches. I’m going to dig it over this week and dread to think what I will find. And of course, packets and packets of things that never came up. Or if they did, they were eaten within seconds. Only one of my kale plants germinated and was, almost instantly, eaten by the rabbit.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom. There have been some lovely surprises. The chamomile that I slaved over last year with little to show for it, has self-seeded all over the place. Butternut squash plants have sprung up from our homemade compost, so I have scooped them up and stuck them in all the gaps left by the unproductive seeds. Beetroot, broad beans, peas, chard, pumpkins and strawberries are all doing well. Who knew the buckwheat I planted as a green manure would be so pretty? (See above). I cut it down with Finch last week and mulched it in with a layer of cardboard and a snug blanket of manure. And I grew four whole dahlia flowers! I know! Dhalias?! That’s serious allotmenting! Little Owl and I made a pretty posey for the kitchen table with some of the rambling roses from the garden. Not all bad then.
The most exciting thing has happened. There are blue tits nesting in the bird box we put up on our gable end! We have seen the parents flying in and out, and when our bedroom window is open there is a constant chirping sound to be heard.
I’m in a funny period of waiting. I have a provisional start date for my job but nothing can move forward until the wheels of officialdom at the university have cranked out a proclamation of fitness to practice. In the meantime I continue to work away on various writing and illustration projects, and have been looking through my old nursing bits and pieces. Is there a word for these symbolic things that go with particular professions? Items that act as signifiers as well as having some sort of function.
I can’t tell whether I’m coming or going this week. At the weekend we hosted thirty eight of Finch’s friends in our local church hall for his fifth birthday party. There was a bouncy castle and a face painter and lots of food. I’m still reeling but he had a blast. Then school was closed today in order to host a polling station for the local elections. I took the kids over to a nearby garden centre to order a small half barrel to make a little pond in our garden. It’s going to be located in the middle of a dense flower bed so that Wren can’t accidentally drown herself in it. We have been inspired by the 
I hope you all had a lovely Easter and got to enjoy some of the sunshine. We headed up to Yorkshire and sweltered in our woolly jumpers, entirely unprepared for the heatwave. We had a great time but at the back of my mind I couldn’t help worrying about was happening to my seedlings in the greenhouse at the allotment. I imagined them all limp and scorched. My dad kindly nipped over and gave everything a water so that in the end I only lost a couple of pea plants. And look what else came up over the bank holiday…an asparagus spear!
