Stinky

The kitchen is pongy at the moment and the reason for this?  I harvested the garlic and some of the overwintering onions.    Quite a reasonable harvest and will definately last us a while.   I was hoping to leave the garlic a little longer,  however the tops were telling me they were ready and I have since learnt that if left in the ground too long the cloves will start to split ready to loosen the bulbs for growing again.

I didn't know that about garlic and having harvested one last week and saw exactly this I decided they really did have to come up.  As with everything that comes from the Lottie they are a mixed bag of big and little ones,  but all are perfectly usable and having cleaned them up ready for storing I can confirm they are very very strong smelling!

A couple more potato plants were dug to keep up topped up for the next week or so,  some more lovely peas are now ready for podding, blanching and freezing and just to cheer me up - a lovely very sweet smelling bunch of sweet peas came home with me today too.

And lastly my lovely hubby is on his way home  - he has been to the Isle of Wight for a couple of days to spend time with his Dad and I have missed him  ......  A LOT!  I am very much looking forward to seeing him and I now really appreciate how rotten it is for Mr Milly when I am away for a couple of days EVERY week,  unfortunately in the short term that is something which is not going to change.  :(

April Showers

I know we needed the rain,  I don't know about you - but I am getting a little fed up of it now!   Typically I have 2 weeks off work and it looks like it will be raining virtually every one of those days.

I have managed sometime at the Lottie this week, dodged the showers sometimes,  been caught in down pours often and sat in the shed with a mug of coffee during some thunder storms - which was a tad scary!  Mr Milly is fed up now with all the muddy washing this week as I seem to have brought home a good part of the Lottie clinging to my clothes everyday!

Anyway - I had a plan of what I wanted to achieve and have worked hard this week,   by Friday though the new Plot 96 was looking a complete bomb site and I had to keep reminding myself that it is often this way to achieve the end result.

This week I have taken down the tatty pallet compost bins, cleared a corner of the plot, removing brambles along the way,  laid weed membrane and wood chips,  constructed a new compost bin with the best of the pallets and then dug all of the partially composted material from the old bins and moved it into the new bin.   Finally a cage to protect the peas has been made and what a difference this has made to Plot 96 - which is now looking heaps better!

Plot 96 In February 2012

Tatty compost bins 

New tidy Compost area

Plot 96 in April 2012

Pea Cage with little pea plants starting to appear

On Saturday I had a Lottie free day and we travelled to Kent to spend the day with My Girl.  It was lovely to see her and apart from her recently broken rib (as I have said often,  she is the most accident prone creature!)  she is looking healthy, well and happy - which is all you can wish for really.

We went into Canterbury for a little retail therapy and our lovely daughter cost me a fortune!  We did have fun though.  We haven't been into Canterbury before and what a lovely town it is,  next time we visit we are going to do the Cathedral tour.  I was a little shocked at the price of tickets for the Cathedral - £9.50 for an adult,  I hope it is worth that amount of money!

Cathedral Gate

A glimpse of the Cathedral

Mr Milly and My Girl

Look at that - our 2 favourite shops right next to each other!  How handy :)

 My Girl and Me

I hope you had a good weekend and haven't been washed away!
Alison x