A chilled afternoon

This afternoon I ambled down to the allotment to clean out the greenhouse. Phil and Steve were down and stopped to say hello. It turns out that the new people on Plot 1 were down. I walked across to say welcome to the site. John, his wife and all three children were all busy digging over the plot which has become extremely overgrown. Full of enthusiasm and smiles, they will make an excellent addition to our community.

In the greenhouse, Leia and Lilja watched me suspiciously as I began to clean out the old bedding. Lilja is still quite jumpy and spent the entire time dashing from one side of the greenhouse to the other to avoid me. Leia shouted her disapprobation about the situation at the top of her voice. After removing all the old shavings, I left temporarily deafened in my right ear.

Down in the main coop, all the chickens were sleepily perching in the corner. It’s lovely to see them all together without squabbling. On the floor were tons of speckled grey feathers which have to come from either Rey or Polly. Ridiculous birds deciding to start moulting now!

As I returned to the greenhouse, I stopped to open up the shed to air it. Standing on the veranda, it was lovely to take a moment and enjoy the view of the sunset over the site.

Next, I put in a thick layer of shavings into the nest box in the greenhouse as well as some on the floor. To sweeten the deal, I grabbed some mare’s tail and threw it in for Leia and Lilja. It kept Leia quiet for a bit which is a win! On a roll with pulling up weeds, I quickly pulled out the worst offenders in the strawberry bed. The netting needs replacing urgently and some of the frame needs a bit of work. I mentally added it to the spring jobs list.

My final job before I left was to dig over another bed. I managed to get most of the way through the bed behind the pond. It was tough because of the weeds and the ever present and overpowering borage. My wrist was quite sore from digging the other day so I finished it as quickly as possible. Happily there are only four more beds to do and if the weather holds, I should be able to finish all the digging by the weekend.