Rain Rain go away

It's been a terrible day weather wise here. It's rained all day and I had lofty plans to dig up some of my dahlia's and store the tubers and spread some more manure on the allotment beds, but all my good intentions went out of the window.

I don't mind the rain, in fact it makes the soil easier to work,( when the rain stops of course!) but the dark and dreary skies I hate, they put me in a bad mood because I can't do what I really want to do.

I did some photo printing instead. I love using my digital SLR camera, I never thought I would ever say that as I was a real Film enthusiast and swore never to go digital. Anyway I love digital now, but, hate that I have all the photo's ( hundreds) on my external hard-drive and hardly ever have any proper copies around like in the good old days of FILM. So today I was printing some of my favourite photo's of the family to put into a large cream frame I bought from Ikea recently. It's a big enough frame to get quite a few in, a kind of rogues gallery of the family ! I never got it finished though, I was in that kind of mood where I couldn't finish any one job, and kept flitting from one thing to another. Ah well there's always tomorrow and hopefully some more sunshine.

Remember the poppy seeds 'fruit punch' I mentioned in a recent post ? I planted the seeds, all 50 (average 50 seeds the packet said) about 3 weeks ago, and only about 17 have germinated. I don't think that's a very good average, and I didn't expect them all to germinate, but I thought perhaps over half! anyway I have e-mailed Thompson & Morgan about it and I'm awaiting a reply.

That's about it for today. One last thing before I finish this post ! if you like nice handmade crafts (and who doesn't ?) have a peek at Pam's (from Hortensia) new blog and where she is going to sell her 'wares' from here is the link :

http://www.hortensiadesigns.blogspot.com/ Pam has only just set it up, so more things will be added later on.

Have you visited Kella's Jewellery and craft blog ? she has some lovely things as well.:-
http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/

Good friends are a blessing. And also very handy !!

I had help on the plot today from a very good friend David (thanks David) I have been desperate to empty two VERY large builders bags that we filled with all sorts of rubbish when we first took on the plot in February 2008. We had put earth, weeds, grass, in fact almost everything we dug up as we were clearing the plot. I fully intended that it would one day go to the council tip, but a month or so ago we opened the bags and couldn't believe out luck! all the rubbish had rotted down into lovely crumbly soil. So with the help of David (Austin was out of action with a very sore arm having had a flu jab yesterday) we set to and emptied the two very large bags shoveling the soil onto the beds, making sure it was all really weed free.

We then levelled the area were the bags had been and put our two compost bins there. The area is now tidy and the compost bins are at the far end of the plot, instead of dotted around and are now less unsightly. David is the sort of friend everyone needs, he sorts out my PC problems as well if I can't sort it and in return we have him over for dinner and share a bottle of wine, my way of saying thank you, and I love cooking for friends.

I also had a delivery of a HUGE mountain of cow manure, a full truck load which I am sharing with my daughter and another plot holder. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that David also dug me a trench to bed five breeze blocks into, so I could level out a very sloping large area, so we worked very hard, lost track of time completely and only stopped for one cup of tea.

David in action, I caught him unaware I had my camera with me. I did however tell him and said I would post the photo here.

These tiny little plants (below) are Oriental Poppy seedlings 'Fruit Punch' . The packet says it contains a delicious mixture of Vibrant shades of red, hot pinks, bright oranges and the often elusive plum shades. Knowing my luck the plum shades wont show up in my packet !!! They can be sown either Feb-June or September - October, so I decided to sow them now as I will have too many other seeds to sow in the New Year. When they are big enough to pot on I have to overwinter them in a cold frame or in my case a cold greenhouse. I can't wait to see them grow. The macro setting has made the compost look like Boulder's.

My creative mood has stayed with me and I have made some more cards including a start on the Christmas ones. All very simple and uncomplicated, but it's a start on my return to my 'Other hobbies' all abandoned when I took on allotment life.