Proof of Bean

Sorry, been a bit pre-occupied of late. Can't imagine why!

Oh yeah, this little fella!





Life has not been the same since he arrived - yet I'm still hopeful I'll be able to keep at the allotment, and grow him some good old veg which can of course be mashed and frozen!

Changes happen daily - and I don't mean just the nappies. Each day I come home from work and he seems to have changed again since I saw him last. The photos above were taken a couple of weeks ago, he looks different already.

I'm in danger of gushing here, but he is the most fantastic thing to have ever happened.

Can't wait to buy him his first pair of wellies, and a spade.

Look out for his first blog!

Back to thge gardening stuff - I've garlic and autumn sown onions sets in the greenhouse along with some allium flower bulbs. I've now also sown some broad beans - Martock harvested from my last seasons crops, so I'm hopefull they'll germinate and grow.

I've also planted various bedding plant seeds - hopefully to give a bit more colour to the garden this year and encourage both Bean, and bees into the garden (though perhaps not at the same time?). I'm twitching to get some more seeds into propagators indoors - tomatoes, chillies, basil.

Seed potatoes are once again chitting on the kitchen floor by the back door - Kestrel, Pentland Javelin and Sante.

Recently bought a small bag of spring planting onion sets too, as I seem to run out of onions to use early in the year, so hopefully will bolster stocks this year and be able to last right through.

Anyway, just a quickie for now. I'll hopefully be able to update again soon.

Who's the daddy?!

Well, that'd be me! My beautiful wife gave birth to our gorgeous son last Saturday - in actual fact, in about an hours time he'll be exactly 1 week old.

When people say that having a child changes your life - they were severely under-egging the cake. Having our little Hayden is the most profound experience I've ever known and he's altered my/our life in so many ways - every one of them for the better.

With the recent weather ("the worst snow for decades") we've not really had much chance to venture out, and certainly not to the allotment, though I'd dearly love to get out into the fresh air with him. If we're not careful, he's going to start thinking the world outside is permanently white!

Back to work n just over a week, and I'm dreading having to leave him home. I've only known the guy for just a week, but my heart aches whenever I'm away from him.

I'm looking forward to sharing life with our little Bean, I'm sure I'll post on here when he gets his first spade!

For now, tata.

Bean's arrival, back problems and Christmas

Not great as individual excuses, but combined they've all I've got to explain my reasons for not gardening and blogging.

Back when we visited Tuscany I felt a twang in my lower back, but having had several of these in the past I thought nothing much of it and get on with the holiday and made sure I performed my exercises every morning/evening which had always sorted it in the past.

After we'd been back a few weeks I saw no real improvement so bit the bullet and booked to see my osteopath, something I had put off due to the £30 a session fee. Again after seeing no real improvement I eventually went to the doctors and asked for a referral. Having had surgery on my back in the past to rectify 3 slipped discs, my doctor referred me back to the same surgeon/specialist. Once I'd seen him I was sent to have an MRI scan which confirmed what I'd feared - more slipped discs. This time the disc that had been operated on before was fine, having not much disc left it didn't really have much to slip. The problem this time is the discs above and below the "healed" one.

So, I was then booked in to have an epidural (at this point I had to check he was looking at my notes and not LadyWaynes). I've just got back from the hospital having had the needles stuck in my back and I feel ok.

It was a very surreal experience - I was taken from my room down to the operating room, and was one of several having the same treatment that day. I was laid out face down, and had a tap inserted into my hand - from that moment on it's all a bit fuzzy. I remember feeling the needles going in, and it being quite painful, but it was as if I was detached from the pain. I do however remember saying that hurt out loud, but I can't be certain.

Came round not long after and seemed very chatty, then taken back to my room where LadyWayne was quite happily watching some tosh on the telly - don't ask me what as things were still a bit fuzzy at thi stage.

Food was brought round a little while later and I was left to recover, with only the odd occasion where the nurse came to check bp and so on.

Just home now and the drugs are wearing off slightly, so I can again feel a "niggle" down my right leg, but I guess that's to be expected.

Fingers crossed the injections work, otherwise it's another operation, which whilst it doesn't worry me - I am concerned that I will not be up to full health to assist when Bean arrives - which is only just over 4 weeks away if all goes to plan.

The early signs are good, but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet. Cross your fingers for me.

In terms of growing I haven't done much other than plant onions and garlic in pots and put them in the mini greenhouse along with some bulbs of various descriptions.

The plot is looking decidely untidy, but with the abundance of cardboard we've acquired due to all the baby stuff I've simply covered a few of the beds and placed black bags full of leaves swept off the lawn to hold it down.

Here's hoping 2009 is a healthier year.

The importance of labelling

This year I "successfully" (as in the plants have yet to die) grown 4 varieties of chillies - all of which have fruited to some extent. When sowing the seeds/planting them on I labelled them each with "chilli" and the initial of the variety - J=Jalepeno, PT=Purple Tiger, T=Twilight and C........

For the life of me I cannot remember what the C stands for, I have searched back through my posts on here and on The Grapevine to no avail.

Lesson for today children - label clearly and comprehensively.

Anyway, probably wondering why you haven't heard from me for a while? No? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

A combination of badly timed weather and a slightly dodgy back (yes, again) has mean that I have not been on the plot for soem weeks now, and I haven't really been able to do anything productive in the garden either - so little point on reporting if there's been very little going on.

I've been off work now for 2 and a half weeks, and I'm going somewhat stir crazy as a result. Been to see my osteopath several times - who in the past has managed to solve whatever problem I've been having. This time however, we seem to have drawn a blank. I'm on a cocktail of painkillers and still I have bouts of severe pain down my right leg (sciatica) which can keep me awake at night. I finally managed to pluck up the courage to ask my GP to refer me to a spinal specialist (something I'd been avoiding for fear of having to have a second operation which could result in fusion of vertebrae). My GP reassured me, stating that it's very unusual for them to operate a second time.

Anyway, I'm currently waiting to hear back (2-3 weeks wait apparently - and that's private!), and I've been referred to the same specialist that operated on me last time - which does give me some confidence as he fixed me in the past.

I'm now looking forward to just getting myself fixed so that I can make a bit of headway on the plot and get things ready for planting out plenty of fresh veg to help feed our new arrival when they get here in February - I'm planning to grow plenty of baby-friendly veg, and hopefully make the plot more productive.

LadyWayne has suggested that she may help out a bit more next year - she's suggesting going to the plot during the daytimes with Bean to potter about. Time will tell of course.

I'm not going to lie - my back has really been getting me down of late, and I am actually looking forward to getting back into the office tomorrow to hopefully take my mind of it for a while (with the aid of painkillers). Fingers crossed.

Timing seems to be the biggest factor in this gardening lark - some will tell you compost in the most important thing, others will suggest hard work etc, but in my epxerience timing is everything. Timing is the one thing I seem to be unable to get to grips with yet - my garlic is still as yet unplanted.

2009 should be better - there's always hope!

Not wishing my life away...

But, where does the time go?

It’s been ages since I’ve been to the plot (or posted here) – or even done any real gardening.

A combination of rubbish weather, nursery preparations and a dodgy back/hamstring/sciatic nerve has kept me away.

A couple of weekends ago LadyWayne and I gave the garden a bit of a spruce up – mowed the grass for what I think will be the last time this year, clipped back a few of the perennials, and swept up the leaves (not that you’d know to look this morning after last night’s winds!!).

I’m now at a point where I’m concerned that I’m getting behind – the greenhouse needs emptying (I’ve moved three chili plants indoors already – 1 each Jalapeño, Purple Tiger and Twilight) and cleaning, onions/garlic still need planting, ground needs turning over and the dead plants on the plot need lifting and throwing on the compost.

I still have a few things in the ground – parsnips, celeriac and purple sprouting broccoli (which I fear has outgrown its netting), but with people coming to visit, the fact that the ground is sodden, and whenever I get the time to go to the plot the weather is dire, time has slipped away.

It’s only going to get worse I’m sure when Bean arrives!

Anyway – one must look to the positives…

Bean will arrive in around 13 weeks or so – doesn’t sound that far away when you say it like that does it? There’s Christmas to look forward to. My neighbours are top of the list to get a plot.

Having pretty much given up on this year (I hear shouts of “again?” from the back), I am starting to think ahead to next season and what to grow/concentrate on. Let’s consider year 1 and 2 as foundation years. Not that one ever stops learning of course, but I now have a good idea about what grows well on the plot, where the most exposed areas are, what problems I’ll face etc .

So, plans for next year revolve around Bean – R-Kid, not the runner/string/French/broad varieties.

Potatoes seem to do well – so they’re definitely on the list.
Squashes – I know to get them in earlier this year.
Carrots – will plant plenty more this year, and net them in.
Parsnips – as per carrots.
Sweetcorn – plant them somewhere more sheltered, or plant something to shelter them.
Swede – root crops seem to do well.
Beetroot – will plant successional.
Peas – planted earlier and will plant closer together.
Beans – seem to be foolproof.
Onions – will plant more (and soon!).
Garlic – as per onions.
Courgettes – will plant a few varieties – including yellow ones, just to make things more interesting.
Apples – will take the ladder to the plot come harvest time.

There are other things I intend on growing, but in terms of staple crops, those are mine.
As you can see – there are a large number of “mashable” veg among the list, which is deliberate – I aim to get Bean eating as much home grown from an early age as possible. Teaching them what’s in season, what/how to cook, etc. Stuff I never really had as kid, but wish to an extent that I had.
Time (or the lack of it), will tell of course!
Of course, sitting on one’s backside isn’t good either – physically or psychologically, so I’ve been busy doing other things. The main “thing” being the nursery, and I’m pleased to report that it’s just about there now – just awaiting the arrival of the cot and more importantly, Bean (although they will be in with us initially of course).

2009 is going to be an interesting year – for many reasons. 2008 was just a hint.

Tuscany

We flew out the day before my birthday and when we landed in Pisa we were greeted by 37 degree heat and blazing sunshine. We then stood in the heat waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the car hire area. Twenty minutes passed, and the buss finally arrived. We got off the bus two minutes later having travelled no further then 2-300 hundred yards! Good job us Brits are World Champion Queuers (read that carefully).

We then plugged our destination into Sat Nev and set on our journey.

Two hours later we arrived in Radicondoli and attempted to find the house where the owners of our villa lived. Finding every house but, we drove into town and parked outside the bakers and called the owners (guiseppe & Pasquelina) on the telephone. It was then that I discovered they didn't speak a word of English and that my Italian was woefully inadequate. They arrived and told us to follow them to the villa. Once again we set off on the beautiful Italian mountain roads until Guiseppe turned off onto a dirt track. We duly followed.

Guiseppe in his 4x4 was clearly acustomed to this road and my brother-in-law, armed with his meaty Peugeot 307 1.6 diesel estate car gave chase up the steep "track" in a cloud of dust and rubble. I decided to take the more leisurely approach in my Fiat Bravo 1.6 turbo diesel and the bangs and loud scrapes that were coming from beneath the car confirmed my choice. Until that is I stopped because I couldn't now see where I was going and I was very conscious of the steep drops either side of me. I tried to set off again, but modern technology was not doing me any favours. The traction control monster had other ideas about getting us up this slope. Eventually (after 6 attempts) I managed to get enough momentum going to carry us up the drive. We arrived at the top greeted by a "what took you so long" look from our hosts.

The strugle was worth it though, because at the top of the drive we were greeted with this stunning site:



With views like this around us:

View from the upper balcony.


This one is of the view of the town Radicondoli (top of the hill)


LadyWayne talking to our neighbourly sheeps.


Views to the south.


Pasquelina gave us a tour of the frankly massive villa and we chose our rooms. For the first week there were only four of us rattling around in the villa, and we set about soaking up some of the sunshine...



Little did we know that we needed to make the most of it. We enjoyed two days of glorious weather - including the day we'd arrived, and then we experienced 4 days of typically British weather. Rain - well, showers for the first day, then that night we had the most viscious storm I have ever experienced. Thunder and lightning like I'd never seen (or heard), the closest bang was less than two "elephants" away. None of us slept vry well that night, it hit home how isolated we actually were.

Here's an idea of how exposed we were - our villa is the building in the centre of this picture (viewed from Radicondli).



After the storms had passed we had typically British summer weather - temperatures no greater than 24 degrees and most days were sunny with some cloud. The upside of that was that whenever we visited the tourist destinations, the queues were pretty much non existent. There's an upside to everything.

We visited the usual places - Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, and to be honest they all tended to look pretty much the same, narrow streets, full of charm, but just smaller or larger scale versions of each other. I have loads of photos, but here's just a selection.

Pisa - the tower of.


LadyWayne propping it up (well, when in ........Pisa).


I also stumbled upon (quite literally) the lesser known tourist atttraction in Pisa, which is just around the corner from the tower.

The Leaning Bollard of Pisa.



Just some more random photos.

Typical Tuscan street, complete with car.


LadyWayne loving Siena.


One of the stunning sunsets we had during our stay.


British weather in Siena (I think).


World Champion ice cream - yes, we had one, and yes it was bladdy lush!


An allotment (of sorts) - by jove did they know how to grow tomatoes. If only I could find some seeds....


Dining out - Italian style.


The best fresh produce I've seen on sale - in a tiny town called Casole D'Elsa. Lovely.


In the same town the residents seemed to have this fascination with sticking tiles on their walls and painting them. Charming.


My favourite sunset photo.


Looking through the photos - there are far too many for me to post here. In Tuscany almost every view is a photo opportunity so I'm sure you can imagine there are quite a few.

Any of my Bookface friends wll be able to view the whole album once I'v uploaded them all.

Now, to see what's happened down the plot....

I've been a bit neglectful!

And it doesn't take long for the weeds to make their mark.

With the weather having been what it's been this "summer" visits to the plot have been a rare occurence as I may have already said and certain things have done really well despite my neglect, and others haven't faired so well. Peas have been a disaster with beans coming a close second in the rubbishness stakes.

Thankfully two of the varieties growing this year have been Heritage varieties - so should be ok to grow from next year (unlike F1 varieties).

Some of the peas/beans have dried in their pods and others I'll have to dry "manually" as you can see.

Martock broad beans:



Stephens peas:



In other bean news - the Blauhilde climbing beans have finally started to produce and I walked away with a fair decent haul - two hands full from the 5 plants that have survived. A sample of which we'll be trying with dinner tonight (slow roasted lamb).



I pulled up the last of the beetroot today too - the final two. One of them was a respectable cricket all size and the other slightly smaller. I also pulled up a few more carrots, three of which had been keeping slugs in food and shelter for some considerable time it would appear (one slug was sat halfway down a carrot with one whole half having been stripped away. I also had a pretty decent harvest of courgettes of various sizes as you can see.



However - that isn't all my courgettes. One of the consequences of neglect and rain has meant that in place of a couple of my courgettes some monsters have taken their place!

Monster 1 (7lb in weight)



Monster 2 (8lb)



I had to weigh them on our "big" scales as the kitchen scales just kept displaying "err". Not sure if it couldn't make up it's mind if it was a courgette or marrow, or if the cour-marrows were just too heavy for the scales. Either way, I still have to figure out what to do with them.

The apple tree is nicely laden with apples and I managed to reach (ok, so I can reach higher than most) a whole carrier bag full - which should see us ok for apple sauce and crumbles for a while. I was going to pick some blackberries too, but I ran out of bags/carrying recepticles.



I'm going to need a ladder to get the rest.

Dug up the rest of the Kestrel potatoes to - 5 plants that gave me a big carrier bag full. Not enough to last through the winter, but should give us enough spuds for some weeks to come yet anyway.

In my haste to get to the plot today I forgot to take the camera - hence all the photos are post-harvest, and my phone is low on battery having left the charger at work (d'oh). Anyway, there are a few things still growing well en-plot. The sweetcorn plants are all showing a husk (?) or two - I only hope that they don't all come to harvest whilst we're away on holiday.

The sweetcorns' neighbour - celeriac is also growing seemingly well and some of them are about the size of tennis balls now - so I'm pretty sure it won't be long now before we taste our first home grown.

The Achocha is in need of further support - I may put the second garden arch next to it to give it some height (the short canes and netting are looking woefully inadequate).

Asparagus peas are chucking them out at a rate of knots - yet we have still only eaten them once (they go beyond being "edible" rather quickly).

The brassicas all look quite happy under the netting - purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts - I'm just hopeful I'm not too late. Maybe a winter harvest?

Squash has established itself quite well, with several flower "buds" along its length, but again I fear I may be too late - unless we have some of those trendy "baby" squash. The same can be said of the pumpkins, I think I was too lax in getting them out of the pots and into the ground. Hey there's always next year!

I had some spare Sub-Arctic plenty tomatoes and I thought I'd stick them in the ground to see what would happen - and to my surprise I noticed a few green fruits on a couple of the plants (I only planted three). If they're anything like the ones I've got in the greenhouse though - they'll be green for sme time yet!

We've been using the herbs for some time now - regular cutting from the oregano, rosemary (some is cooking with the lamb as we speak), sage and thyme. Some of the decent sized onions are nicely dry in the greenhouse now, and the ones I forgot about and left on the floor didn't dry out so wel, so I may have to make some chutney/marmalade with those.

Oh, one more thing before I go - as fellow Grapevine members will know one of us (Hazel) recently entered into her village show and came away with some top prizes. Well, yesterday was our village show and no, I didn't enter, but did go along to see what all the fuss is about having never been to one before. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. In part because it was just the village hall with four lines of tables with various things on them - some vegetable/fruit, some cakes and jams/chutneys. some with flowers/pot plants and others with kids "art". I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. Also what was slightly disappointing was the number of entrants - our resident "expert" seemed to feature quite a lot and also the village gardening society's secretary. LadyWayne has convinced me to enter next year if for no other reason than to up the numbers.

Watch this space!

Well, after all that typing I think I deserve an ale, so I'm off for a bottle and a feed.

Which reminds me - did I tell you I'm going to be a dad?