Hot, hot, hot and the allotment drying out yesterday. Just one of those days to work not too fast and yet get a whole lot done. Miles of netting now in place except that I have run out of holding canes (nothing fancy like proper cages here) so will have to go to the garden centre this morning.

Then there is still the game of potting on and potting out, waiting for things to grow big enough to fill in the last spaces on the allotment and not being in too much of a hurry to do the second sowings of some crops - the beetroot and spinach can wait another week.

I'm going to explore the garden centre to see what there is that I can still plant out in tubs to make use of some spaces where the soil has not yet been worked up or to hide the latest compost heap. That probably means another load of potting compost but what the heck? If the tubs are used for food the money spent is partly recouped and the spent compost will certainly improve the clay soil that is on the allotment over the winter. It seems to be a late year so we can be a tiny bit generous with the planting out guide being this far north. So I shall go and explore whilst hoping that the showery weather includes some sun this afternoon.

Radishes, rocket and rhubarb fresh off the plot today along with herbs. Whatever did you think I meant?

It's grey, windy and spitting with rain every so often today. So the jobs of erecting netting here and there as well as weeding have been put off for the day. I'd be chasing the netting around the allotment instead of covering plants if I even bothered. It's supposed to be wet tomorrow as well but I wouldn't call today wet - some of us where still watering this morning.

When I hand finished watering and went down to the shared tap on the allotments to turn it off, I had a bit of an overflow as I had turned on too hard for the hose. There was a sparrow having a paddle and bath in the resulting trickle. Everyone needs a sparrow or two. Unfortunately one of the merry gang was on the ground dead when I arrived this morning. So that had to be moved and disposed of.

It will be good to see the back of the windy weather which is doing no good for the allotment - it seems to have put real growth on hold. Despite this, the warmth on Sunday and Monday did help things along - the weeds are beginning to thrive as well so the soil must be warming up. The newer compost heap is under plastic to get it going - also the privet cuttings from the last 10 days would be a flying cloud in the wind without any form of securing to earth!

The useful job done today was the disposal of another bag of peculiar things collected from around the allotment - bubble wrap, various bits of plastic from unknown items, indescribable oddments that keep coming out of odd corners and general junk are now unfortunately waiting for the landfill collection next week. You would think that after 15 months of hard labour there would be no more "stuff" to be discovered. You would also be wrong it seems. But things like the old green airfix soldiers that some of us know from childhood do not grow and I can't see what on earth I can do with them around the plot.

So long, farewell, adieu, goodbye after 4.5 years. You've done the International Youth Music Festival, you've done the Royal Albert Hall Folk proms, you've beaten everyone else off the face of the local folk music district around Hexham and Northumberland.

Now you've all grown up, left school and had to find jobs or prepare for university. Today was the last day of being a famous youth folk group with parents on call as taxis and funding for all the music festivals. Tomorrow is the first day of working your way up the ladder of fame somewhere else, finding your own transport and your own funds, making your own way without all the local support.

Isn't life like that when you are a teenager? So much talent and then age catches up with you. Welcome to the world of grown ups. And good luck - we've all enjoyed listening.

The sun shone, everything warmed up, the breeze became a breeze and not a hooligan in training and there was a sudden spurt in growth on the allotment. I sat and read the local paper in the sun for half an hour and then settled down to do some jobs. Prepared a patch for planting out the sweet peas and put some canes up to mark the space. Seeded another couple of small patches of clover. Labelled some of the new pots where I've planted a second sowing of radish, lettuce and spring onion, surveyed the fact that there was a sudden sprouting of a few more runner beans and peas.

Got out the house and gave the place a thorough watering as the wind and sun had dried things out a treat and wished for more sunny days to come. Oh and found during watering that the right gardening shoe is leaking. Oh heck. That means that I shall have to replace the next pair of shoes in line as gardening shoes. Now I'm all for adopting the oldest shoes for gardening as a new pair costs me around £60 (no that is not a typing mistake) because I have stubby feet that are as deep as they are wide as they are long and nothing on the High Street fits. Perhaps I can make do for another 2 weeks but that makes a mess of the budget as it looks as if there is going to be a requirement for more compost as well at the end of next week.

It all depends on the weather - if I can pot out the sweet peas, beans and peas there will be spare space for another few tubs of a second sowing of carrots. And the compost pile of usable stuff is disappearing rapidly.

Of course today the weather has changed and it is now grey and windy again with no signs of the sun!! Tomorrow is attendance at a concert given by two of the local youth folk bands - final performance ever by one before they all grow up and go on to work, university, travelling. They have done very well nationally and will be a loss to the local scene but the other group is coming along just fine and may well be as good.

Despite getting thoroughly wet on Saturday, I returned to the allotment on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday I took the two pairs of hand shears down to the cobbler who also sharpens scissors who said yes I will sort those out for you. Nicely sharp they were when I collected them.

Oh heck there was a frost overnight on Monday-Tuesday. Goodbye marrows, courgettes and pumpkin. After replacing the courgette plants yesterday with the last two from the garden centre, I potted them out and tucked them in the shed. They should survive till tomorrow morning and are out of the cool and wind. I discovered that I had 8 marrow seeds left in the packet so I potted these up and tucked them into the shed as well.

On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning I gave the shears a good working out on a length of allotment privet hedge that avoided the hedge cutter last Friday. My goodness the was some privet to rake up and barrow to the compost heap when I had finished. It was off with the cover from the new heap and rebuild the heap into a state on Wednesday. Although I had added Don's hedge clippings on Saturday and some late on Tuesday, a proper job was required. One impertinent blackbird was no great help with this rebuilding. It was hop along as I shovelled and raked to see what he could see as I moved things. Darned bird did not seem to understand any version of "go away". I also pulled out some of the nets to cover two of the strawberry beds as fruit are just beginning to form. The blackbird and thrush are far too fond of looking for food in theses beds!!

A light watering was done and a general tidy around saw me finish late yesterday evening. I've decided to have a day off today as there was nothing urgent left to do yesterday evening. An afternoon of tidying up around the house, sorting out the filthy gardening gear and generally putting things straight at home means that I can get straight down tomorrow morning and decide what to do next. If the rather strong, cool breezes that have been blowing for days on end would drop, we might even get the soil warm enough and the seedlings growing more willingly. The sun has been warm but the breeze has taken the heat off the allotment. How about summer Mr Weatherman? Any signs yet. A couple of nice days next week would be good - it's half term with the schools and I might even persuade the tall family to come and do the tops of the hedges around the allotment for a morning. Two people would make a vast difference as I'm willing to do sides and sweeping. I'm just not one for going up ladders.

Having handed in the completed coursework to the tutor at college this morning there is no real need for me to put in an appearance after half term. There seems no reason why I should fail the course either as the paperwork is good and the production on disk also good.

However, the news for study next year at the same place is not good. It seems that Newcastle College is pulling out of its community education programmes in Hexham, Cramlington, Blyth and Byker. The word is that the building will not be open after 31st July 2008 for the sort of classes that we have enjoyed this year. The tutors seem to have been given their notice.

This decision appears to be in line with the decline elsewhere of adult education classes and general community education provision across the country. Whilst there no argument that money should be funnelled towards ensuring that the young are trained be employable, there is still a requirement for an on-going provision of adult education for returners to work (think parents of young children, carers, those who have recovered from illness or bereavement and need to have their workplace skills upgrading) and also for those who are no longer eligible for retirement at 60 or 65. With the raising of the retirement age, there will be a pool of those who are 50 and over who will need community education to ensure that they have a new variety of skills when they are no longer quite as fit and agile as they were. Many a skilled manual worker will wear out physically and need to find another job before he or she retires in the coming years. At this point the withdrawal of community adult education will be shown up as lack of foresight.

I may be 62 but there are others who have been on courses this year who are of the same age and even older than me. The ladies and gentlemen I have met have been involved in keeping pace with changes in IT and digital photography as well as learning a variety of creative arts skills which are new to them. There is no reason why someone of my age cannot discover skills which may lead to a whole new career for a few years. We are but spring chickens in our 60s nowadays.

The classes are also social and lead to the exchange of ideas and experience - some of my working experience may be of use to those who would like to undertake similar work to my recent employment. And some of the ideas of the younger ones would have been useful when I was working.

We have pictures from yesterday on the allotment in the album - or you can see them in larger glory at my other on-line album if you want to see things in larger quality. That's the allotment up to date yesterday. For those who want to know what the allotment actually looks like!

Yes I know it has stopped play at the England/New Zealand Test Match at Lords. It has also rained me off the allotment. Shades of summer 2007 today.

So I am not exactly sure what to do with the rest of the day.

I have found out where to get the shears sharpened down the High Street anyway despite the rain, collected some privet hedge cuttings from someone who was just going to burn them instead of putting them on my compost heap, given away a marrow seedling, greatfully received some more large tubs and some top soil. Having some more tubs which I can use for second sowings of carrots now, I have planted up the four that had been filled with compost with the last few potatoes instead despite the rain.

As soon as the some comes out and warms the place up a bit I shall be able to plant out the first of the sweet peas from the seedling patch. There are a few more peas beginning to show at last so there will be more of these and there are at least three more runner bean seedlings coming along which will eventually get planted out when they are big enough. The tagetes are nearly big enough to handle so I should be able to plant some of those out as well next week. Oh it's all coming together at last. I have pictures of the allotment on someone else's camera - however we are not sure where it is so I can upload them into my on-line photo files at the moment - another job put off for now.

Three really bad excuses for being late for college yesterday. I missed the 8.47 bus because I was reading a blog on the internet. I missed the 9.23 bus because I was talking to a case worker from a charity. I missed the 9.53 bus because the son phoned up to say he was working overtime manning the ambulance at the first day of the Lords Test match. He said that he couldn't possibly let his principles about not working overtime take control of the offer of overtime at a test match but it was raining. However I think he had a good day's cricket to watch when it did get going.

The son-in-law has bought a petrol hedge cutter for the allotment as a present because we are all fed up with hand shears around the long tall hedges on three sides (think hawthorn, privet, ivy) and the privet at the bottom. Hawthorn isn't too bad for growth but privet grows faster than grass in muggy wet weather. We are going down later on to learn how to use it - don't ask me as I have only watched others using them. Well there is a first time for everything. The time it takes with hand shears just has to be done to know. At least this year we have the wheelbarrow to cart away all the hedge trimmings from the road side of the hedges which makes life easier. Sad to say we have not been able to scrounge a working hedge cutter free which is very sad indeed.

Meantime I have said to the tutor at college that I will take the top soil that he has spare from his garden off his hands tomorrow morning. Whatever state it is in, I can make use of it along with compost to help some of the patches that are not yet in use - you know the famous corners that seem to take forever to get around to sorting out. I have just got to clear a space for it to be put by 9.30 am tomorrow. Ho hum. And the sun has taken off his hat and left this week - wherever the nice weather has gone, it has left us grey and cheerless for the last few days with a cool breeze from the sea. Perhaps last week was summer.

The time came yesterday when the compost heap had to be turned. The composting box was rotten when we took over the allotment and someone had started the very old fashioned cold heap which has been completely used twice. It was built up again in November and hasn't had enough of the hot stuff to rot it down - it was far to wet in the centre when I turned it inside out. The cheering thing is that it's full of red worms but could I please have the hot weather back now for a couple of weeks to warm up the heap? The hot April last year set the heap off a treat before the rains came. I'd like a hot month now and though rain is welcome in preference to endless watering, I would prefer not to have to live through the monsoons again. Especially on very high class clay which still needs a lot of help despite a lot of hard work over the winter.

Everything seems to be suddenly sprouting - those few hot days (before the sea fret in the north east hid most of the hot for the last few days) did the world of good warming up the ground. Oops though - on investigating the runner beans for planting out today I discovered I had put one in the pot the wrong way round and it was desperately trying to grow leaves through the bottom of the pot. I've turned it round now and am hoping that it will recover.

It's all a game of patience waiting for things to be big enough to take out of pots and plant out in proper places at the moment. The nasturtiums are showings already, there are going to be more sweet peas than I have canes and I need the space to put out tubs to fill with a second sowing of salad onions and radishes. It's a sad thing to have a double allotment and after fifteen months still have unusable spaces where produce has to be planted in tubs.  There was apparently a pigeon loft in one area years back and I'm still reclaiming some of the soil. Just  one more challenge I suppose.

The local council is is full mowing mode now. With the hot weather, the grass is not growing but there are dandelions on all the verges and in amongst the daffodils which will not be cut back till next month. There has been a rash of vivid yellow all around the town and it is being followed by a rash of white dandelion clocks. The next breeze will blow these seeds around and we shall all get a share of dandelions - one dandelion seed head is a whole lot more dandelions within a few weeks. I think that if things go on as at present, it will be a plague of dandelions in the near future.

Other than that, think ripe tomato! I caught the sun yesterday and have decided to stay indoors till much later today rather than do more serious damage. Hey ho, the allotment is in reasonable order, it was well watered again yesterday and there is nothing urgent to do today - a proper shower managed to appear last night but I expect that everything is drying out well again. So tomorrow is back to watering unless there is a good healthy amount of rain comes - and of course the forecast is wall to wall sun for days.

Stopped at the charity shop this morning on the way down to the allotment and spotted an Ikea shoe rack what would make an excellent storage unit in the allotment shed - paid £1 and wondered as I left if it cost that much in Ikea originally. But it was a bargain anyway. It certainly sorted out some space in the shed. Cleaned out the dratted cold frame and decided to leave the pots and hose pipes there as there all clean and tidy. There's no room for all the pots in the shed and the cold frame would just be an empty unit if stuff was moved. Wouldn't be able to sit in the shed in the rain if I filled it up completely.

Talking of rain - it clouded over nicely late on and I thought well here I go - no need to roll out the hose today. Humph. 6 spots of rain. So much for the forecast showers. So it was out with the hose and water the seeds again. Had to plant out the first of the peas as they were outgrowing their pots - Mr Blackbird cast a beady eye at the activity so I've netted them against any of his silly ideas. Also had to reseed the beetroot row as nothing had happened - this probably means that there will now be double growth. Everything else is showing so I assumed disaster. Be the first one on the allotment. Another plot holder passed saying that he had just planted out a huge number of potatoes. None of his earlies had shown up after a month. Glad to know someone else has moments when things don't grow - his spuds cropped just fine last year despite the weather.

The first of the runner beans are sprouting so I'm going to have to get the act together and put up the canes in readiness. I spotted the first two of the sweet peas sprouting so that's another cane job. Methinks I'm going to need some more 6 foot canes if both beans and sweet peas get a spurt of growth on. I'll probably need more short canes for netting out the strawberry beds as well. Another visit to the garden centre - unless something comes up on freecycle again.

1. Electric nail files
2. Laser guided scissors
3. Electric candles
4. Soda stream
5. Foot spas
6. Fondue set
7. Hair crimpers
8. Egg boiler
9. Electric fluff remover
10. Electric carving knife
11. Trouser press
12. Face steamers
13. Teasmade set
14. Mini disk player
15. Facial tanners
16. Egg slicer
17. Electric tin openers
18. Yoghurt makers
19. Towel warmer
20. Back scratcher

Additions suggested by friends:
1. Mobile phone socks
2. High frequency mole scarers
3. Spectacles for chickens
4. The alarm fork : you should care about calories when you eat too much.
5. duster slippers for cats: now the most boring job around the house becomes hours of fun.
6. The 'drymobile': your laundry dries as you drive.

One person wanted to take the electric nail file off the list as it was essential to her and another wanted to take the back scratcher off for the same reason.

So there you go - one person's useless invention is someone else's necessity! Feel free to add and subtract by comment or email please with reasons!

Large selection of plant pots and tubs gratefully received by way of freecycle were delivered from house to allotment by way of a smart, two seater red kit sports car in full shiny, well polished glory courtesy of the son-in-law. Not exactly what you expect to see on an allotment but it added style to the day. It was closely followed by white van man and a delivery of compost a day early (no complaints about that as it saves me rolling out of the house so soon tomorrow morning).

Meantime I had rolled out the hose pipe, thoroughly watered the allotment and filled up the two empty water butts and made plans for tomorrow. Wish me good luck with cleaning out the cold frame which seems to have accumulated a large variety of oddments and general rubbish. It's a case of empty out, sweep out, stack some items elsewhere and take a tally of all the things that we inherited which have been left there in safe storage because it has been hardly used for its proper use. Something to do with the fact that as yet we have no greenhouse anywhere that lets us start off seedlings which can then be hardened off in the cold frame. Next year is going to be different so I'm told.

I see signs of seedlings just putting in an appearance too. I thought that the seed potatoes that I planted out had forsaken me but the first ones have put up shoots. So we shall have a few Pink Fir potatoes from the looks of it. Some of the peas will have to be planted out tomorrow as they are outgrowing their pots and a general re-organisation of seedlings in pots around the place will have to be undertaken. It's about time to go round the fruit beds with the second dose of feeding of the season. A checking of netting is also going to have to be undertaken ready for covering strawberry plants and raspberry canes. I don't think that all of those things will get done tomorrow but that's the order of play.  Watch this space for the next installment and perhaps even pictures!

On Monday morning the son-in-law Stevie rang up and said that he and the daughter wife were coming down to the allotment to put up the stakes and wires for the raspberry and tayberry canes. Hurrah! He excelled himself by finishing painting the other two sides of the shed that had been waiting for a year. He has promised to paint the metalwork on the retrieved garden seat some day as well. The grandson turned up on his bike and laid out the hose from tap down path to fill up a second water butt - oh dear the nozzle wasn't working and when he took the kink out from elsewhere, poor father Stevie got the first soaking of the season!!

The neighbours from one of the houses across the road came down to see what was going on when she fed cats at house directly opposite allotment because the owners were on holiday. She was impressed with the place even though daughter had the instruction book in her hand to see how to put up the posts and wires for the fruit canes properly - yes some teasing went on. Apparently the allotment looks much better than it has for a long time. Of course it does - I'm in charge.

As soon as everything starts to grow it will look even better! Except that something keeps taking the runner beans out of the pots - that is today's job to sort out. When I have done all the other bits and pieces that have had to wait over the bank holiday weekend and been to the garden centre. Still - after a full day on the allotment yesterday, I can take a day off as I can then put in another full day tomorrow if time runs out today. After all it is a hobby and there is no pay for doing it. But I am now beginning to develop the seasonal sun tan - about two or three weeks late.

Despite everything and other distractions, I  managed to get to the allotment on Friday to plant a row of calabrese seeds, plant out a row of spinach seeds for baby leaf, plant out all the swede seeds and put in a row of purple sprouting broccoli as well as to plant another area of clover.

The radish, rocket and lettuce have already made a show and the peas in their pots are now really beginning to come away. They should be ready for planting out mid week at this rate. The weather has been warm and muggy which is good for getting growth on. The onions are beginning to really shoot up too. It has sprinkled rain today which means that as it has not been sunny but muggy again, things should be moving on. I was hoping to get down to the allotment today but decided that the rain could become heavy so gave it a miss (wrong decision).

Tomorrow I intend to go and erect wigwams for the peas ready for the end of week and planting out. I might also erect the wigwams for the runner beans and have the job done and finished. At that point I will know how much space I have left for other vegetables to be planted. The sweet peas can go amongst the fruit trees this year as they are so new and haven't started to spread. I have a couple of small spaces in amongst the herbs which will need filling when the tulips die back. I'm told we should try cauliflowers but am not sure that I have the space for them and would like to try half a dozen cabbage plants for the fun of it. But the allotment is filling up and could be well full sooner than I thought. If the marrows, pumpkins and squash actually grow I shall  be overfull. But that is the general idea - not to have empty spaces but to have lots of good things to eat both for self and family.