Two full days of sun? Seriously?

OH and I couldn't believe our luck: two whole days of sunshine and warmth! Had a nice lie-in on Saturday and then we loaded up the cart with tools and the sack barrow with sacks of shit (sorry, "spent mushroom compost"), and OH took the tool cart and I pushed the full sack barrow to the allotment. Make of that what you will.

The breeding swan couple by the gate had clearly raised their young and had taken them to water -- only an old frying pan full of birdfood and a bowl of fresh water were left behind. And the sign that told us not to disturb the birds. As far as I was concerned, any bird who decides to set up camp right next to an allotment ground's busiest thoroughfare clearly wants to be disturbed on a regular basis.

OH and I bimbled along with our nutty cargo in the glorious sunshine, bickering good-naturedly, until we ran into the new Allotment Committee Chairman, who told us about the annual allotment competition happening in the not-too-distant future. "We don't want to come last again," he said, ominously. Did we come last? I shrugged and grinned inanely. I couldn't give a bag of spent mushroom compost, frankly. "Are you entering for the competition?" he asked. "I'd pay money not to enter the competition," OH said, amicably, and then launched into a discussion as to why the timing was too early after the bad spring we've had and that there was nothing much to see, that August would be much better and that it was surely more important for a plot to be productive instead of pretty or tidy. I nodded vigorously. Well, I would, wouldn't I.

An Old Boy hove into view and joined our conversation. Apparently, the judges had caused much upset in the past by preferring some minimalist zen outfit with pebbles and a single shrub in the middle to a fellow allotmenteer's profusion of blooms. Complaints were lodged, councillors came round to take a second look and it all became tediously political but Old Boy was still quite upset at the memory. He too was ambitious not to end up last this year. Then he started bitching at the last time they had to resurface the central path -- only 8 volunteers came and helped. "When was that?" I asked. "Three years ago." Well before our time -- why did he sound as if he was having a go at us? I felt a cup of tea coming on. "We need to get a move on," I said to OH. "You'll have a job to do today," the Allotment Committee Chairman said to us. By which he very probably meant: "I've seen that dandelion-hellhole plot of yours and I am relieved to see you finally turn up and sort it out."

Off we trundled. At the plot, the dandelions had indeed taken over everything. OH took himself off to the back of the plot to weed and dig over the rest of the currant bed. As ever, his beds always look so "zen" at the end of it but it does take him a fair while to crunch through an area. Whereas I furiously, if randomly, fork through what feels like an acre of soil but it still looks as if it hadn't been done at all. Over the course of Saturday, I must have dug out more than a hundred dandelion. Later in bed that night I was still seeing dandelion roots.

We came back dirty and shattered and a little sunburnt and managed to get ourselves ready for the neighbours' party next door.

Back to the allotment the next day. This is what we managed this weekend:

 The comfrey in flower -- soon to be shaved and the leaves to be used as fertiliser.

Everything you need for the allotment: tea, freshly brewed, milk, kinder chocolate, sesame sticks, and beer. 

 This is how much we still lifted out of the ground, what was left over from the winter. Not bad! Parsnips, leeks and some garlic.

 OH's Mueller-Thurgau -- a little reticent yet.

The currants, well on.

 Currant bed, original. Next year, we'll move it.

 The new old freshly manured curcubit bed.

 Lupins, almost flowering. Great nitrogen-fixing plant.

 These are flowers I sowed last year but back then nothing came of them. This year they're growing really well but the label has disappeared and I've forgotten what they are!

 OH's "zen" second currant and gooseberry bed. This is where some of the strawberries used to be but it often got too muddy and the slugs got to the berries in a way that they probably won't where the strawbs are now.

 The old sweetcorn bed, only half dug over. Man, that was hard!

 OH has planted the potatoes and the second set of onions.

 Planted the lettuces, some yellow and red chards and the broad beans.

Our strawberry field -- thriving on benign neglect.

At the end of a long day on the plot.