Down the allotment I've cleared out the clutter - scrap metal has been given to the scrap metal merchant, wood that is useful for the daughter's wood burning stove has gone off to be used, rubbish that I can't use has been either burnt on site or taken to the local tip. All that is now on site is regularly used and useful.

I'm now into the same process with the flat whilst the ground on the allotment is so wet and today outside looks as if there is a foot of frost there. It's very pretty but I am not sure that I want to go out to play in a Christmas card.

I'm attacking those items which have been sitting on sideboards and work surfaces for a period and been shifted from pillar to post when I want to work in the kitchen (where the work top space is minimal) which were useful or a good idea that never worked. I'm also dragging out containers from the cupboard space that are not is use and questioning whether they should be in use, have a future in the house or a better one in the charity shop. And so it goes on. I have moved clothes that have not been worn for over three years and thrown out the allotment trousers where the elastic in the waist no longer keeps them up (most embarrassing that in a public place).

Life is too short for stuff if it makes the place look untidy and cluttered or falls out of the cupboard every time that you open it. Oh and clutter makes for more dusting and life is too short for unnecessary housework.

It looked a nice sunny morning so it was time for a walk down to the allotment. I'd spotted a pile of swept up leaves hiding along a path beside the Tory club as I came back from the shops yesterday. It stuck me that if no-one had moved them today then I could fill up last two empty garden waste bags for the compost heap.

Not leaf mould? I hear you cry. In this case no - the compost heap has a lot of green offerings and not enough browns in it. Leaves come under the heading of browns which are needed to stop you getting a pile of slime instead of a nicely rotted pile of compost which can be added to the soil to make it more ready to grow things.

I know that leaves are slow to rot but it doesn't matter if it takes till the spring of 2010 to rot down. The rotation plan says that it will not be needed before then. This is the heap that is going to grow marrows and courgettes that year. So it has a long time to mature. Long enough for the leaves to be included therefore.

So on my walk down to the allotment I filled up the sacks with leaves and carried them down to add to the said compost heap. I didn't pack the sacks full for two reasons. Firstly I knew that I had to carry them down to the allotment. Secondly when my hands got further down into the pile of leaves they were just on freezing point and it was no pleasant job filling the bags. No I do not own a shovel so it was a case of using hands or not having leaves. And by the time I arrived at the allotment I knew that what looked like nice sunshine was not nice WARM sunshine. Some of the late cabbages that I planted recently look a little unhappy but we will see how they do. I suppose they weren't expecting the cold and snow showers of the weekend and I did plant them a little late. But it they don't grow I shall know to plant them earlier next year. 

The allotment is still sodden as in it could easily pull off the wellington in some places. Therefore compost building is the most useful thing to do at the moment. It is quite likely that the last four sacks of grass sitting in the yard waiting for a lift will be the last major offerings till the spring when growth starts again. If spring is anything like last year that could well be April. It was snowing at Easter this year - though Easter was in March which is hardly spring here.

After I filled up six sacks of grass on Thursday I rang up the local family to see when there was the chance of a lift down to the allotment - I suddenly realised that they were going to be in town to visit the school for a parent teacher event that day so felt that I could possibly be fitted in as part of a round trip. To carry on down the hill from the allotment allows cars to rejoin the Prudhoe bypass and this one could then return home easily.

I'll be round within the hour said the voice answering the telephone. When the car turned up there was already a selection of bags loaded with vegetable peelings for the compost heap and a crate of jars with lids for the future making of pickles and jam. The poor little car was very full by the time it had gained the extra large sacks of grass.  It had already been to the local car park to empty a load of tetrapaks into the appropriate recycling bins.

Whilst the car was at the allotment it was loaded for the return journey with a large selection of wood which was no use for the allotment. There was a wood pile in a corner when we took over and I had put this wood to one side because it had no use on the plot. But it is perfectly usable in the little converted barge stove at the kids' home up the road. There was also space for the selection of neatly stacked empty compost bags that needed to go to the household waste disposal site otherwise known as the tip. Ye driver then went home and spent a happy couple of hours sawing up the wood along with some that he had hidden in a corner from when his old entry porch was replaced earlier in the year. A timely job well done as the temperatures have been very low this weekend and the stove would be greatly appreciated.

The sacks of grass and the vegetable peelings made an excellent addition to the working compost heap which had to be totally uncovered as there were so much to be added to it.

I was thinking that today would be a good day to make another visit to check up on the plot but I awoke to find a covering of snow and frost outside. So I sat down and finished reading the weekend papers whilst waiting for the accomplices to help me to complete an annoying jigsaw puzzle - Venice by Night - where I was unable to fit in the last two bits of the sky. It took the daughter five minutes. The puzzle has now been covered in glue which has to be left to set for 24 hours. Tomorrow evening I can put the puzzle into the frame and fit the lights into the back. It will then light up. 

This evening I have been ripping up and crumpling up the weekend newspapers and putting them into sacks ready for a visit to the allotment. I'm a bit short of brown offerings for the compost heap so will use newspaper. I'm going to collect some more grass so that it can be mixed with this paper. I have an offer of a lift down to the allotment on Wednesday morning. I should be able to come up with another six sacks of goodies (that is including the two with newspaper in). 

Composting needs to be an all the year round occupation where there is a double allotment. Buying it in is an expensive hobby and takes the profit out of the vegetable growing. I doubt though if there is much cash profit but there is the profit in pleasure.

I enjoy having visitors who read by blog and I enjoy your comments. You are all welcome. It would be nice to be able to read the blogs of all the visitors in return but it is your right to keep it private and only share with those whom you trust if that is what you want.

But to the person who left an enormous advertising comment on the guest book - DON'T DO IT AGAIN. I consider that your unrelated advertising without permission is downright rude and another form of spam. No-one will get permission to add advertising or spam to my blog. It's not something that my visitors want or need in my opinion and it is my blog.  So be warned - such things will be removed.

A team of council gardeners has turned up to cut the steep grass bank next to the bus stop over the road for the last time this year. As it has only been cut once this year - in late March - it's pretty tall and thick with leaf fall from the trees along with a few windswept nettles in amongst the grass. It's an area where dogs do not walk due to the steepness and lack of pavement.  So it is worth collecting some of it for the allotment compost heap.

When the team has finished and gone I shall cross the road with two or three large green garden waste type sacks and fill them up from what I can reach without playing the mountain goat. All composting type offerings are gratefully received at this time of the year when there is little enough growth of weeds and hedges to add to the kitchen waste. Maybe I shall have to ask for a lift down over the weekend unless I'm happy to carry the sacks one at a time. Who knows. It all depends on how many I fill and how heavy they are.

I spotted the team as I was going to speak to the tenant of the flat upstairs about the fact that there is a housing association contractor due to come and do the pointing on the gable end of the building. Not someone who actually inspires confidence of a proper job being done but at least the ticket is out for it. Ah good said upstairs tenant now I can go and ask about my door which has wet rot and needs replacing as this was on the same report about damp then - if they are doing one recommendation they should be doing my door too.  Good luck to him I say as he has been asking to have this door sorted out for two years now. It is surprising though how sometimes though a bit of external pressure helps to get things done with respect to repairs.

That's on the front of a catalogue that came with an on-line order with one of the bigger supermarkets.
Now hey - hang on a moment. Some people have other religious or cultural backgrounds and don't actually celebrate Christmas. Please to allow us Pagans and other cultural or religious groups for whom the big Saint Consumer is not included in our lives to get on with things and spend exactly nothing on Christmas.

Hey ho - so my children make a passing nod to Christmas with at least a decent meal - except for those who are working on the day itself (think ambulance drivers who pick up you drunks, carers who look after those in the community and the forces who have to be on standby for whatever emergencies happen which could be flood, fire or famine as well as war). Sure there are presents for the grandchildren but mostly these are now useful things that would have to be bought anyway as they are all well over the Father Christmas age.

So get off our backs for goodness sake - there are lots of people who aren't celebrating Christmas and wanting over £99 worth of wine by the case delivered free (sheesh and I'm allergic to alcohol on top of that) and who are either vegetarian or vegan so not in need of a humongous great, bigger than that turkey.

Mind you it's not just the supermarket - think junk mail of the Avon/Argos/Betterware catalogue type selling you garbage you don't need for Christmas. If I want something I'll save up and buy it at any time of the year because I can. Mostly there is nothing that I want or need for Christmas.

The grandchildren will get money as an acknowledgment that they do celebrate Saint Christmas Present (and that stops at 18), the local family up road needed a recycling bin for the kitchen (think self interest and my allotment compost heap) and the London family would like some National Garden Centre vouchers towards the summer but this is as much a nod towards a December birthday as anything else when I go to visit - they are actually having to keep up the garden now due to neighbour pressure.

All I'm asking really is that Christmas should be regarded as the religious festival it really is and time off work where possible - not as a spendfest that will cause people private budgeting grief for the rest of the year.  It seems no good thing to me that businesses rely on Christmas to keep themselves going for the rest of the year. There's something wrong with our values somewhere.

Walked out to the local garden centre yesterday in the sun (only because I missed the bus mind you) to see if they had a tray of spring cabbages left to grow on. I bought one tray and then found that I was far to early for the bus back as there is no coffee shop there at present. So I walked home again. Sat down, had a cup of tea and a sandwich and then went off down to the allotment to plant said cabbages.

The 12 plants look sturdy and filled in the spaces left where the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars had caused devastation in October despite the netting - that shows how warm it has been for most of the time that the grubs and insects are only just beginning to disappear from the allotment. I don't think that there will be the same damage done this late on and the garden centre had kept the plants out in the open so they are hardy enough to stand the weather.  I topped up the very last raised bed that was in need of attention whilst I was plodging around for the ground is still completely sodden despite a few warm and drying days last week (well the washing dried outside anyway). Today there has been further rain so no sign of improvement in the ground conditions then.

There is another bag of scrounged goodies waiting to go down to the compost heap and I noticed that a few strawberry plant leaves can be cut back whilst I am there.  At least those are jobs for tomorrow.

There are also tools to check over and I am still putting off the pot washing till I have a dry place on which to stand and a day when there is a chance of them drying before I stack them away.  So that will be some silly day like Christmas Day or New Year's Eve then.

I was reading another gardening blog and came across these comments on things that the writer composts. I asked for other people's thoughts on a gardening forum that I enjoy.

It has led to me learning that shoddy has been used previously - didn't know that. Other people seem to use cotton and wool (if pure). And I did enjoy this composting song - everyone needs a laugh or two along with the harder graft involved in composting. 

I was down on the allotment with the skylarks - well at 9.30am anyway - with a bag of donations for the newest compost heap that I am building. I stopped to plant out the aquilegias that I have been growing on in little pots and a couple of clumps of chives. I've picked up the last of the planks of wood and put them on the hardstanding with the others to dry off if the weather ever permits anything to dry. I also topped up another two raised beds with compost out of the bags I bought.  I want to check over the herb beds before I am totally happy that all the raised beds are in good order. Another job for another day.

I've also had a word with a local jobbing gardener I know and may be given a couple of bags of grass for said compost heap if he can get the work done - I'm quite happy to take these offerings to help the heap to grow.

When I came home someone had sent me a cheque for some expenses which I was due after my last visit to London so these have gone straight into the bank this afternoon.

Which leaves me to return to the compost heap and looking for goodies to add to it over the winter period. Ho hum.

A morning on the allotment! It was definitely cool sunshine but sunshine none the less. I decided to clear the last of the carrots and the last of the parsnips, empty the spent compost under the fruit trees and add a few collected items to the compost heap including items taken down from the flat.

It wasn't much but it ensured that the last of these crops were taken home for use before the rain drowned them and the slugs decided that they had a better right to carrots and parsnips than me.

I've put the tubs to one side so that when the ground dries I can have a cleaning session. At the moment the ground is so wet that it is senseless to undertake jobs that include adding more water. I've put the wooden planks supporting the cleared tubs onto the hardstanding where the sun gets so that they can dry out properly before being stacked in plank corner.

There are a few small aquilegias which could be planted out in various corners to free up the pots and a couple of small pots of chives which could also be used as infill in order to clear the last of the planks which have been supporting tubs. The spring onions have stopped growing and those tubs can also be emptied when the best of this late crop has been cleared. This looks like another hour or so actually working on the plot.

The shed could do with tidying up and the working compost heap needs to have its cover more securely fixed down. After that there is nothing which can be done until the ground dries considerably. At that point, there is one compost heap which can be moved into position fro the summer crop of marrow and courgettes. That is going to be a fairly heavy job but it will ensure that the heap is turned as well as positioned suitably before the height of the spring work happens.

Well nothing actually - there's far too much stuff in the flat and no space in the cupboards at all. I bought the seeds for the allotment when I had some spare cash and took advantage of special offers as well. I bought the compost needed for the allotment weeks ago, paid the decorator's bill from the savings which will be topped up again by Christmas, went to London on other people's expenses, paid for enough jars to do the pickling when I needed them and generally have no need of stuff. The wardrobe is stuffed full of clothes and the food cupboard is stuffed full of dry stores as I don't want to suddenly have a big bill and no food.

But the daughter would only be upset if I said nuffink so I suggested that a shovel for the allotment would be useful. It was harder work than necessary moving a compost heap with a spade and fork so I can put off moving more compost heaps till after Christmas if I am going to get a nice shiny shovel - I mean we'll have to get it trained won't we? It's a good thing that I got her family something in a sale - half price and they'll like the result. I've time to keep an eye open for something stupid to annoy them as well - like the cuckoo clock which has been a real success in tacky and irritating presents as it is still cuckooing two years on! Her father in law thought that it was totally hilarious but there you go - he has the same mad sense of humour as me but would not have been allowed to buy any such item as his wife would not have allowed anything so tacky through the door to be wrapped up.

I haven't been down to the allotment this week due to having been in London on Monday and Tuesday and returning to rain, rain and more rain. However late this morning the sky turned blue and the sun came out. I knew that it would be far too wet to do anything as the ground was sodden last weekend before all the rainfall this week.

But it was a pleasant afternoon and nice weather for a walk. Instead of taking the compost down for the heap as there is only a very small amount, I decided to go by the recycling bins at the end of the shopping street in order to get rid of the glass and tetrapak that have been collecting in various corners and bags.

 I notice that the Original Factory Shop which opens on Tuesday 11th November (that's next week) in the old Kwik Save shop is well on it's way to being fully stocked. We only have one small clothing shop which aims at youngsters and three charity shops so something like this which offers a wider variety - it's a shop that likes to work in smaller towns so Prudhoe has struck lucky with a suitable shop and no competition to speak of. 

I wonder if the charity shops will notice the difference or if we shall see people coming in from surrounding villages to make our own high street a little busier.

 When I arrived down at the allotment the only thing that I could do was to check that there was no real damage done to anything as it really was too wet to work - the walking areas around the growing spaces have standing water and the beds are like sponges with nowhere for the water to drain away.  I would like to be able to get on with the last few jobs of the year like moving compost heaps ready for next season. But this won't happen until we have at least a couple of properly dry weeks. Last year we had six dry weeks from mid October till the end of November and some good frost which enabled the ground to drain. Oh for the same again this year in the near future as I could do with some exercise.

I suppose that I shall have to take the compost heap additions down in the next few days and get muddy lifting the cover to add these to the heap.

I don't drive so have to rely on public transport. Now I have to go to London again in the third week of January for a one day event. It's more than a bit expensive but possible to do the event and the travelling all in one day. But it does mean that I would have to walk down to the local station half an hour away before either the buses or the local taxi firms have opened in the dark. So I've asked the London branch of the family if I can stay overnight the day before (they don't have to put up with me often in a year!!).

So I've been looking at travel arrangements today. Fuel prices and advance Internet booking make trains and National Express coaches almost the same in price it seems.  After much price comparison for down one day to London and back the next in January there's only £6 more travelling by train than doing both journeys by coach and by booking this far ahead there's a £7.98 saving on travelling down to London by coach and returning by train.  It involves travelling from the main station Newcastle on Tyne rather than from the small local town station but I can start out much later and use my free bus pass to get to the station doors.

There do seem to be a lot of anomalies on the train fares - for instance by buying a ticket from Newcastle to London and then from London to Truro using a seat on the overnight sleeper on a Tuesday in January and returning overnight and then going on to Newcastle - buying 4 tickets, 1 for each leg of the journey I could have a week in Cornwall for travel expenses of £75.80 return before on-line discounts.

You could do the same trip for £68.50 by coach without buying 4 tickets but you are looking at 14 hours sitting in a bus each way as against 7 hours with a break for leg stretching on the train each way. Maybe the extra £10 adds to your comfort.  But of one thing I am sure - there is no comparison with what it would cost you to drive down.

But one thing for sure - it may cost you more to stay as a single guest in holiday accommodation but you can sure make it up on travel in the UK unless you sign up for a package holiday (not always the most fun if you are a bit independently minded). Hey ho - just a thought. Not that I shall be going far till I've refilled the bank from the decorating bill. By which time it will be the gardening season again and the allotment will require my undivided attention. Nice dream though of going on holiday. 

It doesn't do the cooking, clean the house, do the washing, do the ironing, sort out the garden, MOT the car, do your hobby for you or actually give you a social life .... but it sure takes up an awful lot of the day to the detriment of a lot of other things if you aren't careful

What did we do before the web? Hmm - an awful lot of things that don't get done now I suspect. I wonder if use of the web explains the lack of social ability of a lot of people?