A year on the allotment: February 2016

In my January allotment update I said our battered old shed was 'leaning more than the Tower of Pisa'. We've been debating whether to buy a new one for some time now. On the 8th of February, Storm Imogen huffed, puffed and blew our shed down. So the decision was made for us. The shed had been lifted clean off its base and scattered across our neighbour's plot.

My Mum and I went to the plot once the storm had calmed down to clear up some of the mess. With no shed to store all our stuff we needed to take our tools, wheelbarrow and other gardening bits home.

We couldn't sort out the actual shed because it was too heavy to lift. But I knew Mr. M would step in to break it up into smaller pieces. He bought an axe a few weeks ago and he's been itching to find a project to use it on. I think he has visions of chopping down trees and living like a lumberjack somewhere rural. Sadly there's not much call for axe-work in our house, so when I said there was a shed to chop up, he jumped at the chance.


It didn't take long to break the shed up. We kept the door and some of the panels to make raised beds or edging pieces for the plots. We always try and recycle stuff if we can. But sadly, most of the wood was shattered by the storm, so it had to go to the tip.

Magoo was desperate to be involved with the shed-breaking, but we had to clear it away on a school day, sadly she had to miss out. I promised we would have a bonfire with some of the shed pieces in half term or after school one day.
A couple of days ago we managed to get down to the plot on a sunny evening. It was the first post-school trip we've made this year, it's lovely to have the lighter evenings back again.

Magoo helped stack some shed pieces into the bin incinerator. Then we stood back and watched Mr. M light the fire. Sadly the wood was a too damp to burn well, so it was a bit of a let down for Magoo. But it was such a beautiful sunny evening, it didn't dampen our spirits too much. We abandoned the bonfire and played a very long game of hide and seek instead.


We have finally taken the plunge and purchased a new shed. This one is wider and has room for a couple of chairs and maybe a little stove, which is exciting!
Mr. M has been roped in to put the shed together and hopefully March's blog post will feature our brand new shed...
This week I'm linking up with these lovely blogs:
How Does Your Garden Grow
Whatever the Weather over on www.lifeunexpected.co.uk and monkeyandmouse.co.uk
Share with Me over on www.letstalkmommy.com
Point + Shoot over on youbabymemummy.com and www.snowingindoors.com
Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com
Happy Days over on www.whatkatysaid.com and www.quitefranklyshesaid.com

UK Handmade Magazine: Winter Issue

The Spring Issue of UK Handmade magazine is due out shortly. However, there's still time to catch the Winter Issue. Packed with interesting reviews, business advice and the latest handmade events happening across the United Kingdom.

There are also interviews with designer-makers such as knitted textile designer Hannah Watson, ceramicist Elaine Bolt and my piece on Jennifer Collier.

If you turn to page 16 you can read more about Jennifer's innovative techniques working with upcycled paper to create beautiful 3-D pieces. Here is a snippet of the introduction I wrote for this interview:

"Jennifer Collier creates contemporary craft with a vast array of repurposed paper. Trained in textiles, she began to experiment with unusual materials at university to see how far she could push traditional sewing and weaving methods. Today, she uses a self-taught technique of bonding, waxing, trapping and stitching to produce unusual paper ‘fabrics’. She then uses these papers as if they were cloth. Jennifer’s main aim is to give a contemporary twist on traditional textiles."

UK Handmade Magazine is a quarterly digital magazine that celebrates the best designers and makers across the UK. I have been a features writer for the magazine since 2008 and have been fortunate enough to meet some amazing craftspeople, organisations and collectives. You can see a selection of my writing here.

To see all the past issues, please visit our website.

December on the Allotment: wonky parsnips

Way back in March I had this idea that I wanted to eat homegrown parsnips on Christmas Day. In the world of allotments you have to plan what you want to eat months before you actually get to eat a certain vegetable. I visited a local plant nursery and bought myself some parsnip seedlings. I didn't expect these tiny plants to grow into these incredibly wonky parsnips...

I planted them out in a raised bed in March. They looked so tiny, that I thought the slugs and snails would devour them overnight. As a precaution, I covered the surrounding soil with broken egg shells to deter the munching molluscs. Apart from watering them, they have just been left to get on with it. Nine months later and they are still there, uneaten by the bugs. So on Saturday we made a trip to the allotment to harvest them with Magoo.

Now I know people who are experts at growing vegetables will be horrified by my curly parsnips. On reflection, I think they should not have been grown in a raised bed. We didn't prepare the soil very well in our raised beds this year. I know that when root veg hit something hard like a stone, they grow away from it and end up twisted.

A few weeks ago I was watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's War on Waste. They highlighted the mountains of vegetables rejected by supermarkets because they aren't 'perfect'. In particular, they visited a farmer who grew parsnips. This particular Norfolk farm had to bin 20 tonnes of freshly dug parsnips because they were deemed 'wonky'.

I think if a supermarket buyer saw my parsnips, they would pass out. We've all been trained by the supermarkets to expect our veg to be free from mud and perfectly formed. Some of the things we grow on our allotment are pretty odd looking, but shouldn't it be more about what things taste like?

I haven't been put off growing parsnips. In fact, I will definitely be planting more next March. This time we will dig a deeper trench in the main beds of the allotment. This will give the parsnips a chance to grow bigger. I'm not bothered about the shape of them, but it would be nice to have some larger ones.

Having said all that, I am proud of my first crop of parsnips. We roasted them last Sunday and ate them with some slow cooked beef. And do you know what? They tasted bloomin' delicious.

This week I am linking up with these lovely blogs:

Whatever the weather hosted by lifeunexpected.co.uk and monkeyandmouse.co.uk

Country Kids over on the lovely Coombe Mill blog

Let Kids Be Kids over on letkidsbekids.co.uk

How Does Your Garden Grow? over on mammasaurus.co.uk

Chilly Walk in Clevedon

We love Clevedon in North Somerset. It is a special place for us because it's where we tied the knot back in 2009.

We went to Clevedon on Saturday for a Winter walk. It was a very chilly, crisp December day...but unbelievably still. I happened to turn around just as we were about to climb the hill and the Marine Lake on the seafront was so calm it looked like a mirror.

For years we've been visiting Clevedon and turning right out of the car park to walk along the seafront. Lured in that particular direction by the views of the elegant pier, ice creams and the amazing shops in Hill Road.

Today we decided to turn left out of the car park and walked up the hill towards an area called Poets Walk.

It's a bit of a climb, but once at the top you are rewarded with views across to Wales, the Mendips and the Somerset Levels. You also pass a pretty church and graveyard, in fact, it is the church used in the ITV drama Broadchurch.

The area between Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon is a beautiful part of the levels, it is virtually untouched by roads and probably hasn't changed for hundreds of years. Sustrans have been campaigning for a cycle track to be created on the section of the coast between Weston & Clevedon for over twenty years. It would create a much needed link between the two towns and I would love to cycle along that particular stretch.

Now we've discovered this part of Clevedon, I can safely say we will be back for many more walks in the future...

I'm linking up with #countrykids fun over on the Coombe Mill blog

I'm also linking up with the Magic Moments link-up on the Oliver's Madhouse blog

And linking up with the Brilliant Blog Posts link-up on the honestmum.com blog

On your bike!

The United Kingdom has been battered and blown about by gales and flooding for weeks now. As a Brit you get used to the damp and dreary weather, but every now and again the wet weather takes a day off and lets the sunshine have a turn. Saturday was absolutely glorious. Beautiful Winter sunshine, bright blue skies...a perfect day to take our daughter's new bike for a spin on the prom.

She proudly calls it her 'big girl bike', it's an upgrade on the trike she's been pootling around on for about two years. It's got stabilisers (thank goodness) and brakes she can't quite master, which makes for concerned looks from other prom-walkers...but so far we haven't collided with anyone or anything. She has to wear a helmet for the first time, one with Mickey Mouse ears to be precise.

I know the photos look sunny, but believe me it was freezing, so we had a pit stop outside the cafe on the seafront. Hot chocolates all round, we needed the calories!

Despite my daughter's cavalier attitude to braking, we had such a fab time. Once she mastered the steering and strength needed to make a bigger bike move forward, she was off like a rocket!

And, for the first time in ages, we all got some serious exercise. Walking with a toddler or pre-schooler can be a slow process, not just because their legs are little, but because the world is such a fascinating place we have to stop to look at everything, question why this that or the other does X, Y or Z and generally take in life at a (sometimes) slower pace. I like to walk fast, when my daughter was in her pram and then her pushchair, I power-walked everywhere. I didn't have a car, it was better (and cheaper) than gym membership and it was quite possibly the fittest I've been in my life. But once my daughter got too big for her pushchair, we've walked everywhere at her pace. Which is lovely in one way, to slow down to little-legs-speed, but it's not been great for my fitness levels!

So it was such a joy to put her on two wheels and chase about after her on the seafront. It opens up a whole new world to us as a family. We can go further with her on two wheels. Once she is confident and we don't have to walk along beside her making sure she doesn't flatten anyone, we can get on our bikes too. And then we're really off!