Poetry, digging and sunny day out

Yipppeee my poem is finally coming up on Everyday poets on the 4th June. It's called British Museum - there's a bit where people can score the poem out of five so that's going to be nerve racking.

Sunday we went to Kew Gardens. These Alium's buds look amazing and they haven't opened yet. Makes me smile to think they are in the same family as onions and leeks.







These Aliums were in the bed next door to the ones above. You can get months of flowering Aliums by choosing different types.







.This bridge is so deceptively simple and beautiful. I like the way people's shadows walk beside them along the bridge.







Me and hubby had a whole afternoon and day while my sister had the kids and we spent it at the allotment. It was hard earthing up the potaoes in the hot sun but we did it! We also built a structure for the beans to grow up - must take a photo of it. The my sickly tomatoes I repotted look great now. I think my friend was right that by overwatering I had leached all the nutriants out of the soil.

day out

Had a day out to Myddleton House a few days ago. This structure was in the middle of a wisteria glad pergola. Kids loved running around it and hiding from each other. Later the kids found a gentle slope to roll down but my friend complained that they weren't doing it with the same abandon she'd done it with as a child. So there followed a ten minute lesson from me and my friend on how to roll down the hill. It didn't half make me dizzy. Why do you seem to get dizzier as you get older or is it coz you do less dizzy inducing things? There were lots of different types of irises. I love them they look like they are dancing.




Here's the photo of the currants- my husband's friend gave us them and he can't remember if they are red or black currants. So here goes currant watching.

It's been really hot in London so naturally I have caught a cold!! At the allotment I have sown dwarf french beans and we have been doing weeding, weeding and more weeding.

allotment

I've had to accept partial defeat with my tomatoes so I've been and bought some from my favourite local nursery. I've put some of my sickly ones in bigger pots and they do seem to have perked up but I can't risk a relapse so needed to get back up plants. I love eating tomatoes straight off the plant -they taste so delicious especially when the sun has warmed them so I don't want to end up with none. My courgettes and cucumbers are looking well - in fact I need to plant them out in the allotment soon as they are rampant. I keep the tomatoes at home as it's nice for the kids to be able to step outside and pick them whenever they fancy. Also blight often sweeps through the allotment destroying the tomatoes. It spreads between potatoes and tomatoes really easily. You can spray the potatoes to stop it. Alternatively you can twist the stem and leaves off the potato plant and burn them (or put it in the rubbish bin) and that stops the blight from travelling down the stem to the potaoes and turning them into mush. Blight travels by spores so is easily blown around. Tomorrow I will try and bring you photos of the currants forming at the allotment. We have black, red and white currants.

Payment

Yipee - looks like one of my poems will be on EverydayPoets http://www.everydaypoets.com/ next month. Complete strangers will get to comment on it. I'm up for it!

Saturday had a good evening at a fundraiser at my son's school. It was a karoake evening and yes I'm afraid I did sing and dance a little. Would have danced more but my son was mortified. I was far too self conscious at his age to care what my parents were doing.

Went to the allotment today and sowed my parsnips. I used a dibbler to make holes 6 inches apart and put a soil and peat mix into the hole to provide a easier medium for the parsnips to grow in - did the same for my carrots as we have clay soil which makes it hard work for root veg.

Here's my kale. In February my mother-in-law told me that if you snap off the tops then you get lots of flowering shoots. Before they open into flowers you can eat them like broccoli (delicious). Just don't let it flowere or it will stop producing new shoots.

Potatoes came up a couple of weeks ago -wasn't expecting them so fast. My father-in-law did a grand job.

Daughter's forgotten dresses

danced all day and night

quickly drying under

the bright blue sky

Poorly tomatoes

Tragedy -the tomatoes aren't looking too good. I don't know what's wrong with them! Husband thinks I have overwatered them - which is a first for me as I usually forget to water stuff. There is moss growing on compost which is an indicator of too much water(isn't it??). My courgettes and cucumbers seem ok as i keep forgetting to water them.

I entered a writing competition a while ago on the net and was rather disappointed to find I had not won. I got to the first round - which is better than I've ever done before but I do feel rather deflated as I was convinced this was the one. Oh well back to the blank page. Happy writing and gardening everyone!

Bluebells

Yesterday the kids planted some pumpkin seeds from Ukraine. They are doing an experiment to see if they will grow as enormous in England as they do there. They were engrossed for ten minutes. Don't laugh that's a lot better than previous years.

Today we went to the bluebell woods (Dockey Woods, Ashridge Estate). We weren't very confident that we would find it ok as our Navigator has died- hopefully she can be revived but we didn't have the right equipment in the car to try. We spent a long time driving through lovely countryside waiting for a roundabout that never appeared. Seems I had somehow got us on the wrong road. Anyway after nearly attending a classic car show (beautiful old cars and fire engine by the way)we made it!! And what was even better there was an icecream van so the kids even stopped moaning. It was quite busy but that did not interfere with the beauty and serenity of the place. There were mishaped tree stumps that turned into horses for the kids to ride and a tepee of branches leant against a tree(as you can see below).

It really was a calming and beautiful place.

I loved the lime green and bluey purple going on here.

let it grow

My friend and I left our kids to their own devices in the front room and this is what they got up to. It was so cute that they had made a bus for their 'mens' as they like to call them. They got round not being able to bend the red head to sit by giving her a side bed on the bus. Good improvisation.







Took new friend I met at poetry workshop to my allotment and she helped to hoe and said lots of nice things about my plot.

Onions and garlic are growing well as are the broad beans, strawberries and cabbages. It was so lovely to be at liberty to spend time outside in the sunshine in such a peaceful place.