Escaping the Rat Race

Everyone has a hobby or some other way of escaping the 'rat race' right? Well this is one of ours - spending time down on the allotment, one to one with nature, being all organic, working the land, recycling - you know the whole allotment ethos. ....and we're not alone!

This is a quick glimpse of what greets us as we walk to our own plot. Doesn't it all look lush and green?

We have reached the time of year when we have to go down at least every other day if not a bit more and as much time in the evenings and on weekends is spent down here as possible.

This is our plot and while we still have a few areas we haven't planted in this year, we are expecting a few good bumper crops of the things we love.

This is our potato crop which actually stretches the whole width of the plot so there's more than meets the eye in this photo! We are growing a couple of varieties and growing the red 'smileys' again this year. They're so weird - all pinky red in colour and every single potato has a creamy flesh coloured smile somewhere. They were delicious last year so we're keeping our fingers crossed for a good crop this year too.

These are some of my 'babies' waiting to go in the ground. I am growing 'bush' green beans this year as the others are too stringy and tough for my liking unless you pick them just right. Some of them failed to launch so we had to pot up more seeds. The others are peas - we've never had much luck with these so we're having another go. Both of these will be ready to go in the ground this weekend so you know how Dave and Iare spending our Saturday morning this weekend.

This shot was taken especially for Amanda and Kay so they could see their empty water bottles (they kindly save them for us) being to put to good use. The plants just come on in leaps and bounds using these and right now these ones are protecting my calibrese.

Beyond these is our sweetcorn crop - yum, can't wait! We have to put in a lot of time and effort into it but it is soooooo worth it.