A thief in the night…

Up at the crack of dawn this morning to say goodbye to my allotment buddy Fiona. It seems that a week can go past very fast! Upon leaving the house, I stopped outside the door and looked for my allotment shoes – a mud-caked pair of semi-walking boots complete with holes in the soles. They weren’t there. Annoyed, I checked inside. Nothing. Irritated, I then went to the wellie box outside the door to find my wellies had disappeared too. Seriously, who pinches a pair of shoes and heavily worn wellies?! So this afternoon, it looks like I will have to go and buy replacement wellies – no point in buying new allotment shoes with the weather closing in.

We drove to the allotment to pick up Fiona’s payment for all her hard work – potatoes, runner beans, a marrow and a handful of rhubarb. I was tempted to give her a tube of putty as a souvenir but perhaps this was going a little far…

After she left, I settled down to a serious amount of weeding. Leaving the top section of the main plot, I concentrated first on clearing the weeds around our pumpkin and marrow plants situated behind the temporary coop the chickens were in the day before. Two hours saw the section clear of weeds and the compost bin overflowing.

Next,  I moved into the next big section of weeds between the  Brussels and the fruit trees. I took a short break before starting and wandered down to feed the chickens. On my arrival I spotted a rather large and unwelcome visitor. A rat. Yet again they seem to be invading my coop – I called Cliff and we set a couple of traps. Sadly for Cliff he has lost one of his chickens yesterday either to a rat or the rat has helped itself to the unlaid egg in the dead chicken.  Concerned for our new ones, we have decided to leave them on Chris’s plot until the rat has been caught.

So now it is a waiting game – will the rat take the bait?

I gave up weeding at about half one, deciding not only was it lunchtime but that I had got suitably covered in dirt to call it a day. Onward to finishing the main plot weeding tomorrow!