Tattytastic!

It's been a while since my last post but things have been busy on the allotment (and in the garden) as Emily mentioned.

We've added two vegetable tunnels this week which are now full of brassicas of various types (purple cauliflowers, curly kale and savoy cabbages). Whilst Emily was busy planting those I put three rows of parsnips in, they will eventually be turned into a nice soup no doubt.

The peas we planted earlier in the year were particularly popular with the allotment's resident pigeons so I've constructed a new frame for them to grow up built of chicken wire. Hopefully with an extra layer of wire around the seedling we can protect them and keep the pesky pigeons at bay until they are mature enough to look after themselves.

Photo 44: Tunnels and Chicken Wire - all a cunning ploy to keep the dastardly butterfly and pigeon population away from our veggies.

The strawberries continue to produce with another large bowlful taken from the garden yesterday. Enough for two desserts and one Emily working from home day. More still to come!

Photo 45: More strawberries.

This evening was a momentous occasion. After the frost earlier in the year which damaged the potato plants we were unsure what to expect when we went to harvest our first crop. Happily I can report two plants gave us plenty to eat for our dinner this evening. You can't beat a nice freshly dug boiled potato with melted butter, salt and pepper. Delicious!!!

Photo 46: Our first crop of potatoes.

One final and rather exciting thing to note took place on our walk past the allotment on Wednesday evening. A barn owl carrying a mouse or shrew (difficult to tell as it was wriggling) flew silently and low over the hedgerow and off into the woods. A great way to round off any day (I guess the mouse wasn't too happy though). Hopefully we'll be honoured with the owl's presence again soon.