RIP little ones

It has been a tough month. On Thursday our beloved pet rabbit Giantess passed away, the Saturday before poor Frenchie succumbed, and 3 weeks before that, we lost Little Miss. This post is a tribute to them.

Giantess aka Maggie Pie



We adopted Giantess about 2 years ago from a rabbit rescue centre. She had been stuck in a small hutch all her life until then, so it was wonderful to see her glee at realising she could run around free. She quickly bonded with Bert and helped him overcome his grief at having lost Snoozie.

Giantess got her nickname because she was the biggest bunny we'd had: an English spot breed. She was over twice the size of Bert, and it was very cute to see them cuddling together, sometimes she almost draped herself over him!

She was quite overweight at the beginning: but luckily she soon got to a healthy weight with all the exercise. Her favourite was to get inside the round wicker toy we christened "the tardis" because she used to like to stand up in it and then swing it around, bashing into things to make a lovely attention-grabbing banging noise! When she'd had enough it also proved a great place for a nap (see photo).

Giantess was a lovely girl with a mind of her own. She quite liked being patted so long as there was a lolly at the end of it, but was never happy about being picked up. She really came into her own as a carer when Bert got ill. She spent hours each day grooming him and making sure he felt loved. I don't think Bert would have made the adjustment to being blind and paralysed back legs without Giantess's care.

Giantess got ill so suddenly we didn't have time to deal properly with it. One day she was bounding around, the next just flopped out and not eating, so cold and losing strength. Vet did tests and found her kidneys had shut down. The vet taught us how to inject saline fluids under her skin, to help keep her hydrated, and we managed that for a week, but then it just stopped working. The skin punctures from the needles weren't healing so we couldn't keep the saline in, and it was clear it was time to let her go.

Sadly, Thursday morning I took her to the vets. Before taking her up, I moved Bert over to be close to her. Even though she was so ill herself, she still spent 20 secs washing his face. I think it was her way to say goodbye. RIP Giantess, the house isn't the same without you.


Frenchie aka The French One



Frenchie was one of the three battery hens we adopted last year. She quickly became a favourite due to her quirky character. Frenchie was initially picked on quite a lot, and yet she was the smartest by far.

To help build her confidence in the early weeks, she used to practice putting on a fight in the mirror. She'd sit in front of it and puff out her chest at the reflection (her), then peer up over the top to quickly check there was no real chicken there.

She was the first to master the art of "carrying". Previously when we put in a treat for them like pieces of toast or cake, there would be a giant scrum over it wherever it lay. Frenchie figured out she could go in, grab some and then run away holding it so she could eat somewhere else in peace! It took months before the others caught on and started to copy her.

She was also the only chicken we've had who "used tools". Frenchie loved to eat snails, and of course the shells are quite a hard defence. The other chickens used to give up most of the time, but not Frenchie. She worked out that if she found a snail, she could carry it over to one of the garden stepping stones. She then banged the snail forcefully against the hard stone a few times to crack the shell. Such a clever girl.

Frenchie got her name because of her comb. When she arrived from the battery farm, her comb had grown so large it flopped over and covered half her face - like a beret. Over the year it gradually shrunk to a more normal size, but still she retained her distinctive look.

Poor Frenchie died in her sleep last Saturday. She had been ill the past week and although we'd tried to tempt her with treats, etc sadly it was not to be. RIP dear little one.


Little Miss



Little Miss was a pampered chicken. We loved her although I don't think she ever fully forgave us for taking her from her original flock. Back when C1 died we were left with a distraught C2. We needed to find her a friend, fast, and the only place we could find in London that was willing to sell us a hen was a children's farm in Islington.

A huge donation later, and I was driving home with a very grumpy clucker in the back seat! She'd had an idyllic life there with her flock, lots of barns all with hay for them to play in.

Back home she was introduced to C2 who was just so clearly delighted to see another hen she couldn't stop chirruping. Little Miss gradually warmed to her new life and ended up forming a close friendship with C2. At nights they would snuggle together, and Little Miss laid us the most fabulous pure white eggs.

She never lost her attitude though - her name truly suited! She was a lovely chicken in her own way though and we were very sad for her to have gone.

revamping the shed

Besides making cheesy videos of house models, this weekend I did some real work too on our London backyard.

Specifically, we finally tackled the shed problem.

The shed was old when we bought the place nearly 10 years ago and we've done nothing to it except stuff it full of junk.

So... On Saturday we cleared it out. By giving stuff away (eg: a drawer full of aquarium equipment), throwing the really badly broken stuff out and taking the remainder "to the allotment" ... we managed to get to a shed that was more than half empty. Incredible.

On Sunday we tackled the junk that had built up outside, around the side & back. Mostly this was old wood and broken garden furniture. Dave salvaged what he could and then burnt the rest. Our decorative chiminea has turned out to be a brilliant incinerator. :-)

Then today, Monday, we wire-brushed the outer walls then I painted it a lovely blue to match the chicken house, and Dave replaced the broken glass and put on new roof felt. Now it looks like a brand new shed, I'm really pleased.

Here's the side view where you can truly appreciate the roofing:


This is what it looks like from the back step:

our new garden edging

A few weeks ago we did a little Ebay splurge and bought some reclaimed edging tiles from a Gloucestershire manor house.

They're ultimately destined for the garden at Amherst, but in the meantime I'm using them here. They make a much nicer edging for around the chicken run don't you think?



(PS: you can see no chickens as this photo was taken at dusk - they'd taken themselves to bed!)

We also had far more than I expected, which is brilliant. Here are all the leftovers that I need to figure out how to use:



Gosh we're going to have a fun time scrubbing the dirt off them when it's time to send home. *sigh* Still, it will definitely be worth it. :-)

architectural models

On my recent visit to the V&A museum I visited the Architecture Gallery for the first time. It wasn't as big as I thought, really just the one room:



However, what it had was delightful. Here are a few photos of my favourite models. We are *definitely* going to have to make the model of Amherst into something like this, I love them.

My favourite: inside this even had furniture!


Some others:

Wrought iron at the V&A museum

I'm a big fan of wrought iron, and so one of my favourite parts of the V&A museum is their iron gallery.

I had a chance to visit it again on Monday and this time I took pictures. :-)

It's just so beautiful, the sad thing is I expect there's hardly anyone left who has the skills to do this sort of work nowadays. If money were no object I'd have this sort of ironwork on the fences and verandah at Amherst...**ah, dreams***

rescuing 3 darling hens

September 15th was a very eventful day in the lives of 3 chickens. (Well, actually about 500 chickens in total, but we were only involved in the rescue of 3). It's the day they were rescued from a battery farm and rehomed as pets.

The Battery Farm Welfare Trust runs an adoption service, they have a deal with friendly battery farmers around the country where instead of sending them to be slaughtered after the first year of laying, the farmers allow the Trust to adopt as many as they can handle. The lucky rescuees are then adopted by people around the country as backyard pets. It's entirely run by volunteers and so far this year they've rehomed nearly 20,000 hens. A drop in the ocean but a hell of a lot better than nothing.

The way it works is that you put your name on a waiting list. Yes, we waited 3 months, there was such demand. At last the big day arrived. On Saturday 15th the rescue people collected hundreds of lucky hens in the morning from a nearby farm... gave them all health checks and claw trimmings, ready for everyone to converge in the afternoon to collect their new little ones.

When we arrived the remaining chickens were waiting in playpens on the lawn:


It was nearly 2 hours drive home, so we used the bunny travel boxes and borrowed a third from the vet. Lined each with paper and straw and got them tucked into the backseat. They were model passengers!



To give them time to recover, we put them in the old Omlet house - within sight of C2 and Little Miss in the new cube, but separate. We let them climb out of their travel boxes in their own time, although a few nudges to get them facing the right direction were required.



To begin they just stood there, then tentatively began to walk around. We have a lot of wild birds in our garden and so they spent a lot of time looking up, enthralled.


They also loved the grass. It was so moving to see them attempting to scratch. They'd never done it before but clearly their instincts told them they should. Chickens have a particular way of scratching - a kind of 2 step scratch then step back to see what they've uncovered. It's very rhythmical and every chicken I'd seen did it - except these guys... they were so uncoordinated. Poor little Frenchie (so named because of her huge comb looking like a beret when she's standing upright) especially had trouble, she nearly fell over once when she tried to scratch with both legs at the same time!

Our new hen

After the sad demise of C1, we were intending to rescue a battery hen as a new companion for C2. But it turns out there's a 2 month long waiting list!

After seeing how despondent poor C2 was, we decided it wasn't fair to wait. So, I took a day off work to find her a new friend. After a morning calling round various shelters, I discovered a community farm in North London who agreed to sell me a lovely little hen who had just come into lay.

Here she is!


We don't yet have a name for her, for now she is "new C" or "little one" because she is much smaller. C1 and C2 were OK names despite sounding somewhat clinical, because really they were named in honour of the Bananas in Pajamas. But I want new C to have a proper name, I just haven't thought of a good one yet.



She is clearly a different breed, although I don't know what kind. She is smaller and has a funny shaped crown - it's more like a plate actually, with lots of little pointy bits on it. She is very sweet but best of all she and C2 seem to be very good friends already. C2 was so happy to see another chicken she did friendly chirrups for about half an hour! There was a little bit of pecking but nothing like I feared and after a few hours they settled down together quite happily. So, crisis averted, C2 is happy again.

But I felt very guilty because we'd not rescued a battery chicken. So, to offset that (and also as a reward for some great news that I can't write about yet) I've ordered a new chicken house that will let us keep up to 10 chickens! Here's a picture of it from the Omlet website:

In terms of size, it's 3 metres long by 1.6m wide. It is about shoulder height so there's room for them to do play jumps inside from the ladder... I wish we'd had this for C1, she loved pretending to fly.

The house is due to arrive in August and we are on the waiting list with a battery hen rescue shelter in Essex to adopt 3 hens in September. Even though we have space for up to 10 we don't want to be deluged with eggs and also want them to have more space.

we now have a thatched fence

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration... we have a garden edging made out of sticks that is about a foot high. This is what we did last weekend and it took nearly 8 hours(!)



Doing this served several purposes.

First and foremost, it provided a way to use up all the branches and trimmings leftover from the "great cherry tree pruning" done at the start of November. We had this done professionally as the tree was so big and, perhaps stupidly in hindsight, I asked them to leave all the branches in a pile so I could use them in the garden. The tree is still huge and so I can't quite believe how much was left. The pile was fence high and engulfing an entire section of lawn! It couldn't remain so we had to get busy.

We invented this notion of fencing on the fly. We used some bits as pegs, to mark out an area for the sticks to go in. Then we put down some of the bigger branch cuttings to form the framework. Finally, we threaded through smaller twigs etc to create a kind of layered thatchy stick effect.


I'm really happy with how it turned out. Not only did it use up all the cuttings, it'll be great for insects, stop the C's from rampaging (hopefully) and it helps to make the back part of the garden have some more structure. It was looking particularly dreadful this year since the grass had turned into mud so there were no defining features. (I'm not panicking about the grass yet - we reseeded and top dressed and aerated but then it didn't get a chance to grow properly before it got suddenly cold so we're stuck with a mess for winter!) By having these little fences, not only are the garden bed shapes outlined, but it'll make it easier for Dave to mow without fear of destroying plants.

the great Apple tree search

So often I find myself embroiled in a hunt for some obscure object. This time it's a variety of heritage apple tree.

Last weekend, I took Mum to the RHS's show gardens at Wisley and it turned out to be their annual "Apple Day". They had tastings of lots of different varieties of apples that they grow - they have over 700 varieties of Apple tree alone in their orchard, and that's only a small part of the garden! Anyway, I am not normally a fan of eating fresh apples, having had one too many bad experiences of floury horrible tasting ones. But, I made an exception at this event as I was curious.

Thank goodness I did as I'd no idea how different each variety would taste. Out of the 30 or so varieties we got to taste, I discovered two that I really love. Of course, neither are commercially available in shops which means I have to grow my own... hence, the great Apple tree search begins.

Now, luckily, we actually have a head start because I discovered when I got home that one of them, Egremont Russet, is the variety we planted at the allotment a few months ago. I picked it at the time because it seemed the most obscure of all the varieties at the gardening centre, having no idea what it tasted like... I'm so glad I like it! (otherwise I would have just used it for cooking & given to the birds).

But, the other variety, my favourite, is far more elusive. It's a cultivar called "Puckrupp Pippin" which looks dreadful both whole and cut up. Here's a picture:



But looks are deceptive, as it tasted amazingly creamy and I liked it so much that it's sparked this search.

I've managed to find a UK supplier and placed an order for delivery in September 2006. It takes so long because they graft the trees to order. Apparently apple trees planted from seed don't 'come true' to the variety of the original apple the seed came from. The only way to get a copy is to graft a cutting onto the rootstock of another apple tree. They do this in January and then they're ready to be planted out in September.

So, the problem is solved for London for the short term, but I would love to find an Australian supplier so that we could have a tree at Amherst too. So far no luck, but I've emailed a few heritage orchards in Australia so fingers crossed.

making your own curtains

This morning I've been trying to catch up on houseblogs reading and I've discovered there are loads more new sites. I can see, very soon, I'm going to have to start limiting myself on the ones I follow.

One of the new members I found was Stately English Manor, which is a cute bungalow in the US. Looking at their floorplan it seems amazingly small for a US house - in that, it looks London-house-sized! I'm so used to all US houses being ginormous mansions, it's refreshing to see it's not all like that.

They've just been making curtains - lovely simple clear sheer panels - and it reminded me about the ceiling curtains I made for our conservatory here in London. Originally, we tried to get away without curtains but even in the English climate we were baking in there. It was too expensive to get custom-made blinds (and I didn't like them much anyway) so we decided to improvise. It's one of the most successful of our improvisations so thought I'd share:



I had some gorgeous sheer green silk from a previous project for the lounge-room windows, which we abandoned to go with wooden shutters instead. It was so lovely I couldn't bring myself to throw it away so had kept it... and it turned out to be just perfect for this. It's really light-weight so was simple to hang, I just sewed a hem on the ends, threaded through some bamboo canes (from the garden!) and then we fixed them via strategically placed cup-hooks, screwed into the timber rafters. I like how it hangs enough to give the sense of draping & sails, but not so that it looks sloppy. I also adore the play of the light through the fabric so you see the swirly pattern. Most importantly of all, despite being so sheer, it has really cut back on the heat. Now in summer it still gets hot but not unbearably so.

our new perennial bed

As we've got an allotment now, we don't need to allow space in our back garden for vegetables. So, we converted last years tomato bed into a perennial border, with me attempting to put into practice some of what I learned from my research.

We planted this a fortnight ago so it's looking even better now as a lot of nasturtiums self-seeded themselves amidst it. This photo shows the view from the back door looking down the left side of the garden. The C's bed is in the middle. We keep them on bark chippings which, when mixed with their manure, turns into great compost.

london backyard in early july
Originally uploaded by lynetter.


This is a closeup of the new bed. If you click on it it'll bring up a bigger view with details of the plants we used.

yesterday we made an alpine garden

I haven't been in the mood for blogging for a while, but thought I'd catch you up with the most recent project we finished yesterday. It's our first alpine garden. We figured it was good to start learning about these plants as they are so well-suited to Amherst conditions that we'll probably be growing quite a lot of them there. It turned out better than I expected!

Click on the photo for info about the plants used

new alpine bed
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

London bombs

So it has been an eventful few days. We always knew London was a terrorist target and were expecting something bad would happen, someday, but it was still a huge shock when it did. Especially as it happened at tube stations that I use... I was really lucky and running late for work so didn't get caught up in it, but it's just terrible.

Now everyone is shaken up, giving suspicious looks to anyone who carries a big bag onto the tube(!), but there's nothing you can do except go about life as normal... to do anything else means "they've" won. I tell myself the chances of getting blown up in a terrorist attack are less than the chances of getting killed in a car accident, but it still gives you a funny feeling to think about.

I didn't feel like posting or thinking about the house over the past few days so excuse my silence. We went to my Aunt's for the weekend on the Isle of Wight, just to get out of London. We got back this afternoon and got an email from my Dad to discover - unexpectedly - that we're embarking on a whole new phase of work at Amherst. The "old house" is being repaired! It's the reverse of the order we were planning to do things in, but hey you have to roll with the punches... more in the next post.

and some planes came flying by...

A really cool thing just happened which I wanted to share, even though it's nothing to do with Amherst. A whole lot of planes in formation just flew past my office window churning out coloured smoke in red, white & blue (UK flag colours) as a celebration for London having won the Olympics! It happened only a few minutes after the news was announced so they must have been in the air, waiting.

I like it when unexpected things like this happen, it brightens up the day. The last time something like this happened was for the Queen Mum's funeral when some old Lancaster Bombers and Spitfires did a big fly-by in honour. I found out later it was the first time they'd flown low over London since the Blitz and the Lancaster was the last of it's kind in flying condition, so quite poignant. They did several laps and on one they flew low between my building and next door so I got a really close, almost eye-level view and could hear the distinctive roar brrmmmm-ing sound of the motor... it was oddly familiar, I guess from watching old movies!

Anyway, there'll be a lot of celebration in London today I think... mostly for the fact of won the Olympics, but also because it's the best revenge possible against Chirac for his recent uncalled-for and just plain wrong rudeness and insults.

indoor jungles, shallots & chickens

We've given up planting tomatoes and peppers at the allotment. The third lot were devastated by we don't know what - some insect, slug, cold, who knows. We have just 3 tomato plants remaining, struggling on out of the 20-plus we planted. Luckily we had a fallback - growing them in pots in the conservatory! It is working well so far, although it has turned the room into a bit of a jungle.


We've had our first harvest from the allotment and here's the proof! Three plaits of shallots, hanging up to dry. I think they'll be dry in a few days as it's pretty hot in the conservatory, then I'll move them to the pantry. I'm proud of them, I think they look quite authentically rustic (except for the wire coathangers!)



I included this picture in big size because if you look out the window you can see our backyard, and the "C's" house. It' s an Eglu which is specially designed to be fox-proof, easy to clean and well-insulated, although we still fuss - putting up a special umbrella when it is hot and covering with clear plastic when it's raining. We used to move it round the garden but they trashed the grass so now they have their own special garden bed which we fill with bark chips... we replace them every week or two and it gives us lovely garden mulch; plus, the C's love scratching in it.

And in case you're wondering if we're mad to be keeping chickens in central London... if we are, we're not alone! Apparently urban hen-keeping is a bit of a craze in the UK at the moment, although I didn't know the extent of it till I read this article: "Thanks to changing work patterns and the preoccupation of children with computer games and television, the number of homes with pets is decreasing. One animal, however, is quietly and improbably bucking the trend. Hen-keeping courses fill up weeks in advance, sales of poultry books and magazines are up, and the waiting time for the designer must-have coop that is partly responsible for the newly fashionable status of chickens has, at times, reached three months". (Yes, the designer coop they refer to is the Eglu! Although ours wasn't a fashion purchase - we bought it back in the early days because we wanted to learn how to keep hens in preparation for Amherst). Apparently they're in negotiation with a US manufacturer so keep your eyes peeled.

Of course, our darling C's don't spend all their time in their coop. Whenever we can be out there to guard them we let them out for a "walk" and they potter round the garden. That's usually at least for half an hour a day. On weekends it's longer, and when it's hot they often come into the kitchen for a nap. Here they are last weekend on the floor next to our lettuce baskets (which sadly they later demolished).

Liberty's 2005 arts & crafts sale

Liberty is my favourite store in the whole world. It's in central London and even though it has now been given a modern glass extension, the original store building still thrives. It's made out of wood salvaged from a sailing ship, coupled with Tudor decorations on the outside. I always walk up the staircase there rather than the catching the lifts because I just love the polished oak rails. Visiting the shop is an experience in itself, and it isn't as expensive as you might always think. They have a gift section in the basement part that sells great candles and pewter / silver-plated things. I've bought gifts there for under £20 that looked like they cost £200. It's just a lovely place.

Anyway, I am forbidding myself from going there for the next few months because I've just discovered they have an Arts & Crafts exhibition on with all these gorgeous antiques on show WHICH YOU CAN BUY!!! Now, if I had to pick my favourite style it would be Arts & Crafts (although I am more eclectic... sometimes just having it *all* is just a little spartan and puritan). Anyway, Liberty's are the spiritual home of Arts & Crafts in the UK... William Morris, Archibold Knox, etc all were supported by them.

I've been through the show catalogue online (which you can look at here) and these are my favourite pieces. I thought I'd include them here partly to share, and partly to have as inspiration if we ever get round to doing some furniture DIY.

This is my absolute favourite - an upholstered arm chair in oak with carved decoration. Circa 1905. And it's only £2800! which of course I can't afford but it is not as extreme as what I was expecting...

upholstered armchair
Originally uploaded by lynetter.


p>...considering that this clock costs £8,500!!! Now, fortunately I don't have to be tempted by this or attempt to make it myself, because Dave bought me a replica of something similar for my birthday in Liberty's sales a few years ago. (The joyous thing about Liberty is they have proper sales... things marked 50, 75% off and thus bringing them within the just-affordable bracket). It has pride of place on our dresser. Anyway, this one is the real thing: Liberty & Co Tudric mantle clock in pewter, copper and enamel. Designed by Archibald Knox. Model 0608. Circa 1902

archibald knox tudric clock
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

Back to the chairs... this one I like because it's such an interesting shape, although it doesn't seem like it'd be as comfortable to sit in as the other. Upholstered porter's chair in mahogany. Glasgow School. Circa 1905.

upholstered porters chair
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

Finally, here is a gorgeous chunky sideboard in oak with adzed decoration and burr panel doors. Designed by Robert Thompson (The 'Mouse man') circa 1930.

sideboard
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

update on allotment

I didn't get back from Athens till late on Saturday so Sunday was a very busy day at the allotment. While we were away the tomatoes had gone beserk so we had to plant them regardless of the weather. We spent around 7 hours up there in total - mostly planting them up and then building frames and frost/wind protectors. (In the UK it seems the key to success in vegetable gardening is knowing how to swaddle up plants!) Also we did some weeding and watered in the nematodes (which are supposed to kill slugs organically), etc etc. This photo shows Dave watering in... you can see we still have a few beds to clear at the top end, but we're getting there.

061corner view
Originally uploaded by lynetter.

7 Hammersmith Terrace

There was an article in last week's Property supplement with the Evening Standard newspaper about an amazing house in London that is going to open to the public for the first time. It is Emery Walker's house... he was a printer heavily involved in the Arts & Crafts movement, and good friends with William Morris etc. The place is pretty much as he left it so it is a real treasure trove of Arts & Crafts... they claim it's the last original interior left (there are others that have been recreated but this is the only one that hasn't been changed since the 1930's). You can see some pictures here

It's opening for a couple of days each week for 3 months only, to coincide with the V&A's latest exhibition about Arts & Crafts. We're trying to book a time to go see the house, it would be amazing to experience it in real life in a home rather than a museum, and we might get some good ideas.

RHS advice about growing potatoes

We were in a panic this weekend thinking we had to get some of the potatoes in the ground right away as they were sprouting (or chitting as it is apparently properly known. That was why we attempted to work yesterday even though it was so cold. But, great news... as I was researching how far apart we needed to plant them I found this: "Keep the trays of tubers in a cool but frost-free place with at least moderate light, such as in an unheated room. Direct sunlight is best avoided. Sprouts will form within a few weeks. The tuber is therefore ready to grow away as soon as planted. Tubers can be laid out to chit from January onwards, but planting should be delayed until March in sheltered and southern areas or April in less favoured districts. Earlier plantings can rot in the ground or the shoots can be frosted off on sharp nights. By this time the sprouts should be about 5cm (2in) long and dark coloured. Longer thinner sprouts are caused by excess heat or too little light or both, and tiny sprouts suggest conditions are too cold. If the weather is unsuitable for planting, tubers can be left to chit further, even into May, without too much loss of crop.
Although unsprouted tubers can be planted, the chitted ones benefit from their flying start. Early cultivars will crop earlier and more heavily if chitted. You can help the process by rubbing off all but the four strongest sprouts so that the tuber's energy is diverted into a few really strong shoots that form new potatoes as early as possible. Second early and maincrop potatoes also benefit from chitting but they don't need thinning of sprouts. Chitting later cultivars results in earlier foliage before blight or drought strike and they mature earlier and can be gathered before slugs damage the tubers."

Brilliant, means that we don't have to fret about planting them yet as it is still way too cold and also they only have sprouts which are about 1cm long.

We have 3 varieties we're going to try and grow:

ORLA: this is an Early kind which means they mature in 100-110 days from planting and you eat them right away as new potatoes. So if we planted at end March they'd be ready in late June or early July. Apparently we are supposed to plant these 300mm apart in rows 600cm apart. Their description from the Organic gardening catalogue site: "Has the highest blight resistance ever seen in a first early, plus resistance to scab and blackleg. The appearance and flavour are pretty good as well".

SANTE: an early maincrop, which I think means we can use it for either? Maincrop potatoes mature in 125-140 days and you plant them a little later I think. e.g., plant end April, ready mid-August. I guess if we plant it early they will be littler but we can eat them sooner, and if we plant it later and leave longer they will be bigger and better for storing. The description: "The most commonly grown variety on organic farms. A strong growing early maincrop with a reasonable yield. Resistant to white and golden eelworm and blight. Oval/round tubers with creamy yellow flesh."


CARA: a late maincrop, so I guess that means we plant early/mid May? These would be the ones that we store for winter use. "A well known household name. Stores very well and has good blight resistance. Expect a large yield of red eyed tubers with creamy flesh ideal for roasting and baking".

Today had a very busy first half then a very slothful second. We were up early because the guy from AngloPacific shipping was coming to collect the trunks. These were the shipping trunks that we bought from Camden a month or so ago, which we'd pack full of stained glass panels, tiles and various other things like sheets, fabric for sewing, Dave's t-shirt collection... They've now embarked on the long sea journey to Australia. We decided that even though it's more expensive to ship things in small batches, that's offset by the cost we'd have for storage here in London since our flat is just too small to have a lot of things lying around. With this shipment we've cleared out everything we'd been keeping, so with luck we won't need to send anything back for another year or so as all the things we buy now can go into the recently vacated "hiding spots"! Because of the nature of the things I'm buying, you just have to get them when you see them. Although I'm being very disciplined these days... eg: only buying stained glass that I adore and would regret not buying, rather than just things that I really really like.

After that, we went up to the allotment since it had stopped raining. Our seed potatoes are sprouting in their boxes so we wanted to get them into the ground. Unfortunately, the beds where they're due to go aren't ready yet so we had to do some digging, although that amazing new upside-down spade thing makes it a lot easier. It was so cold though that I got frozen even through my thermal gloves, so we gave up after we got just one bed ready. Tomorrow we have to hope the weather is better. For the potato beds we're just doing a rough job... not attempting to get out all the stones, weeds, etc like we have for the others. Partly this is because of sheer lack of time, but also it's a test to see what a difference it makes in terms of the weed volume. Potatoes are meant to be pretty resilient though so hopefully they'll not have a problem, and at least I know what potatoes look like! We did go stupidly overboard on seed potatoes though, suspect we will end up with 4 beds worth by the time they're all planted. But that's OK, potatoes are good for the soil and it's not like we won't use them.

I got so cold at the alloment on my hands, but so hot with the two scarves I had tightly tied round my neck and head that I started to feel really sick, so when we finally got home I went to bed! Of course, that meant I was asleep by 6pm which is why now at 11pm I'm wide awake. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little kinder and we can do some more up there, at least get one lot of them in.

first plantings at allotment

Even though it was freezing, we decided to go ahead and plant the garlic cloves and shallot bulbs. They are in the same bed, half each. We are definitely going to have to get a move-on in clearing out some of the other beds or else we won't have enough space to grow all the things planned! Dave also bought some Scottish onion sets from a local man at the allotment, but we decided not to plant them as could wait till next weekend when hopefully it'll be a bit warmer. (The garlic cloves were already sprouting and the instructions said to plant them as soon as possible).

Also, we did the first of our sowings at home. We made little pots out of newspaper using this wooden roller thing we bought. Then planted 3 trays... each tray holds 24 pots. One tray is full of broadbeans, one is full of tomatoes, and the third is full of various kinds of peppers. Dave did the seed sowing as he has much more like than I at getting things to sprout. I made the pots and helped fill with dirt.

allotment update and some links

As part of practising for living at Amherst, where we'll be reliant on growing a lot of our own vegetables, we've got an allotment here in London. We got it mid-2004 and so far we have been just focused on clearing it since it was full of weeds! We also built a lovely shed and spent almost all weekends in Oct/Nov digging and spreading barrow-loads of manure onto beds, to let them rot down over winter. We are still only about 1/3 of the way through but we have enough to start with for our 1st year.

Today was the first day we went to the allotment for working in 2005. The previous owners had made a kind of seed/planting out bed thing out of wood with old windows for a cover. It was full of weeds and the glass all covered in algae. I cleared out all the weeds from it today, then Dave put bunny paper (=old newspaper from the bunnies toilets! v. smelly but v.good for compost) on top. Then he wheelbarrowed several loads of leaf mould compost and a load of sand to make a nice fine mix. He was told to do that by one of the old gardeners up there he met last year. It's so nice that the council provides all these materials for free, means I don't feel as annoyed at paying all that council tax as I used to!

We'd lifted off the windows while working on the soil in the bed, so while Dave wheelbarrowed, I got to work with the Windex. Took 3/4 bottle plus a full roll of paper towels but I managed to get off about 98% of it. We haven't planted anything in it yet but are thinking of starting in the next few weeks. I'm looking online now to find some advice about what to plant first and good seed suppliers. I've found a couple of really good sites that thought I'd note down here for future reference:

Growing vegetables on a Leeds allotment This is a diary of some experienced allotment gardeners and has lots of good advice and links

HDRA what to do now This is organic gardening association site that has lots of factsheets, including a monthly guide of what to do in your vegetable garden

Organic catalogue This is linked to HDRA and where we have bought all our seeds from this year

Get Digging This is a UK supplier of unusual gardening tools, in particular the Azada which Dave had been searching for for ages (he had one in Australia but they don't sell them here)

Practicing for Amherst life in London!

We are practicing for Amherst life. We are getting two
chickens! and a cute imac looking henhouse that they promised me is
foxproof and really easy to keep clean. The whole lot are coming from
http://www.omlet.co.uk, you can see pictures there plus it's a very
amusing site I think. Dave reckons they are henhouses for yuppies,
which is true, but at least it's a place to start. Besides, a normal
henhouse would stand no chance against the foxes here. There's an 8
week waiting list for them, they were just released here and
attracting lots of attention. I figure, I talk about wanting to have
lots of pet hens and ducks at Amherst, I may as well get started
learning about how to keep them on a small scale. They will give us
eggs, eat slugs and be nice pets too I hope.

Also, we signed up at the weekend for an allotment! It's a 17.5m x
10m plot, just as an English style allotment should be, with a railway
line at the back, and in the middle of lots of other plots with
falling down sheds, mixture of wildly overgrown and cultivated. It's
only 10 minutes walk away from us, through a park, so there'll be no
excuse not to go. It's even on the way home from Dave's work so he
can stop in to get the vegies for dinner. We were given a great book
called "Self Sufficiency - the classic guide for realists and
dreamers" http://makeashorterlink.com/?U10B5362A which among other things has instructions for doing practical things like clearing an allotment, planting vegetables, etc. With that book as a guide, I drew up a crop rotation plan and planting schedule on Sunday afternoon! :-) We don't get the allotment key officially for a few weeks yet, but then we will spend the first few months
clearing it properly, building a shed, seed beds with cold frames,
compost area, etc. Get it all set up so that it will be ready to go
with a vengence come Jan/Feb for the first lot of plantings.