I’ve finally managed to get to the allotment when there was nobody else around and record a video there, and tag a visit to the potting shed on the end.
Although the allotment is technically a public place and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t film there, I feel that in some ways I’m invading the privacy of the other plot holders by catching them in a video, even though they probably won’t know or ever see it.
Anyway here’s an update from the plot and potting shed, I hope you enjoy.
I’m behind. Normally by this point in the week I’ve written this post and it’s scheduled to appear around 10am (GMT). Today although I’m behind it will probably appear a bit before that.
I have an allotment talk coming up at the beginning of April, so I’ve been doing a little bit of prep-work for that this week, making sure that the slides I want to use are still relevant.
I’ve also been following up with a few clients on work that is ongoing or bids that have been submitted but haven’t had a response yet.
My exploration of the Maigret novels continues. I had a book token for my birthday and have purchased a few more to keep my curiosity going. This week I read The Night At The Crossroads which was very good. All these novels are very short, most seem to barely 150 pages, and only take a few hours to read. They are also very good, I’m surprised that it’s taken me this long to discover them.
I also read An Arabian Journey by Levison Wood which is an incredible tale of his journey around the Arabian peninsula. He undertook the journey when ISIS were still very much present and there was civil war raging in Syria. This really is a tale of what that part of the world is going through, and if you have any interest in that part of the globe I’d recommend reading it.
Warren Ellis posted about wearing a watch this week. I can’t say that I’ve ever owned or wanted to own a “smart” watch, and I flip between wearing an ordinary timepiece and not wearing one at all.
Beginning to think that Elon Musk is a pretty unstable and a not very nice person.
I wrote a short review and recorded a video about my Pineider Pen Filler, which was a birthday present.
I also recorded my first allotment video of the year (and actually the first one for quite some time).
I also managed to get my potato trenches dug, I’m hoping to get the potatoes in the ground later on this week. With that and the rate of progress of some of seeds that I’ve sown recently (swede, cauliflower) it won’t be long before the season is really underway.
It’s that time of year when the preserving pan comes out and I turn some of the produce from the allotment and elsewhere into preserves: jams, chutneys, jellies, and pickles.
I made some pumpkin and ginger jam (which always turns out more like a marmalade) and a first for me, quince jelly. For both of these I made videos of the process. You can watch these below.
Pumpkin & Ginger Jam
Quince Jelly
I had a gift of a bag full of cooking apples at the weekend, and made a couple of different things. First an apple crumble, and then also a Dorset Apple Cake. I recorded the apple cake production (see below). I’m also planning to make something called Friar’s Omelette, which is nothing like an omelette, but another cake, before I can do that I need to top up some ingredients.
On Friday I recorded this short allotment update:
We had a little rain overnight on Friday, and a little more on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday we had rain pretty much the entire day. As I sit at my desk writing this it looks like we might get a little more. We needed that Sunday rain more than either of the two previous showers, which hardly made the soil damp, but even so the ground isn’t wet, and our garden pond is still a long way off of being full again.
The tomatoes in the potting shed are starting to ripen, it’s only been 7 1/2 weeks since they were planted out and they’re good to be eaten.
It’s been a while, but here are a couple of video updates (one from the allotment and one from the potting shed).
A quick video update from the potting shed on how the tomatoes are doing.
Electronic Scrapbook 