Allotment calling.

I have never grown potatoes before and the pink fir earlies that I planted took over a month to put in an appearance. I had given up all hope but they eventually appeared and thrived. Today I dug the first and shared them with the local family. Sort of late early new potatoes. Oh well.

But even better - I've grown a marrow on the compost heap. Just one so far - it is not the biggest of marrows but I decided to bring it home before someone else (the slug, the snail, the bird) decided that they were more deserving of my marrow than me. I gave the rest of the family courgettes but kept THE MARROW all for me.

There were carrots, radishes, spring onions, lettuce, beetroot, various salad leaves, shallots and a few peas as well as spuds and marrows. Not a bad day.

The daughter decided to we had to go to Rothbury yesterday. Rothbury? - read all about it here - it's my favourite place in all of Northumberland. It's next door to Cragside - the first house to be served by hydro electricity. Oh and the grounds are brilliant when the rhododendrons are in full flower but lovely even when not.

We didn't get to Cragside as it was far too hot and there were lots of places to take pictures in the village. It was a toss up between Cragside or dropping into the garden centre at Heighley Gate on the way home. I chose the garden centre so Cragside is another day.

Anyway - the pictures of Rothbury can be found in my photo album and here are a few of silly things that amused me at the garden centre ....

For weeks life has been a round of allotment weeding and housework. All work and no play makes Jill a boring girl. Today the money went out of the bank for the camera batteries (but they also arrived at the door this morning) and the bill arrived for the knackered bras and nighties - well has been a month since I put them on the card. Add to that the topping up of cleaning and food staples as well as buying shoes in sales and the bank account is now very bare although the cupboards will last for months. Time to batton down the hatches, top up the savings for the next time that all the bills come in together. So Jill is going to have to go on being a boring girl.

The local coach company that arranges day tours out and around has had a dearth of customers this year - must be the free bus passes for the older folks that is doing it as it used to be the older folks who supported the outings - and none of the things that interest me have run. I don't think that much else has happened either. As these are low cost days out, it is sad to see that they are not being supported. Three years ago things were so much busier but you can't order people to support local businesses. Except that then there are the endless moans when the business is suddenly not there.

Even the Hexham campus of Newcastle College has closed its community education courses due to lack of support - trouble is that there is no longer the government funding for learning for pleasure. All adult learning courses are now geared to gaining work place qualifications as that is where the funding is available and of course older, retired people with time on their hands are not exactly going to be interested in work qualifications now are they?

It must be the retirement thing - not having to work five days a week that makes the difference.

On Monday I decided to get "that allotment" job done and burn the pile of hedge cuttings that had resulted from the lowering of the length on one side of the allotment gate. It was a bit of a hot day but once I had decided to do the job I was determined to see it through.

The cuttings burnt fair enough - shame the breeze kept blowing round in circles and every so often the houses over the road knew about things although I kept the fire small (which took longer).  But it was done with only one unhappy lady who had washing out. Oh dear. I hope I never have to have another one on the plot - most unlikely but I said that in spring when I cleared the rubbish that was on the plot when we went on there. It has taken two washes to get rid of the smell on self and clothes - the working shoes still pong a little. However, tis done.

And the polythene over the big compost heap is also tightly in position again - well for the time being. The heap had started to rot down and needed the edges turning side to middle before the cover was pegged down in the new position. I'm hoping that I can ignore that heap till late in the year when I have space to move it out of an obscure corner behind the shed. Then I could barrow it out and turn it all in one go - there is a possible new place for it at the moment but it isn't quite ready to turn and the weather is a bit on the warm side for setting off a big stink. I feel that it's going to be a good warm me up occupation in the cooler weather when it has really got itself rotting down well - it will be needed early next spring to help along the soil that at present is growing a great amount of produce.

A school friend generously offered to take me to Wallington Hall and gardens as she has a car and I don't. Thank you Jenny.

We both enjoy our gardens and the walled garden at Wallington is a pleasure to walk round. Oh and we did find the vegetable plot hidden away in a sheltered spot eventually. We were just beginning to think that this was a walled garden that had lost track of the original use which would have been to provide food and flowers for the house. Jenny was very patient with myself and the camera and suggested things that I should take pictures of as we walked around.

The house is quite interesting - not a castle but an old house that had servants and shows a way of life that is now passed and gone. The things that money was spent on in the older days - portraits and books - and the talent that was involved in needlework for the house show a completely different way of life. The digital camera and computer have really changed the way of life - can you imagine many people sitting to have their portrait painted nowadays?

Note to visitors to National Trust properties - they do make money out of the food in the cafes and don't always have the facility to take payment by card. So if you are not a trust member and need to pay at the gate or in the cafe, carry cash. Probably a good idea to take a picnic if the grounds are the interest and the weather nice. Unless you are feeling rich on the day.

I've been doing a clean out of a cupboard and replacing the cleaning stuff that has run out. White vinegar, borax and soda bicarbonate. Yep - they all still clean perfectly well. And mixed right like granny did they are just as effective as all the "stuff" that has fancy names on the bottle and costs you a fortune. It's the costing a fortune that sent me off down this track - oh granny trained me well. I suspect that when I have ordered a large sized washing up liquid (say 5 litres), washing powder and bath-cum-shower gel (that could just be simple soap) I shall be able to say that it costs £1 a week to keep the home and myself clean. 5 litres of washing up liquid you cry? Well yes but I can pour it into a smaller bottle and use as normal - have bottle, no problem.

Why do we need such a variety of cleaning items? One for the toilet, one for the bath, one for the floor, one for the cooker, one for the person in the bath, two for the hair if you count conditioner, one for the windows ............ Let's get real - the marketing people have had a field day with us haven't they? So borax and soda bicarbonate will move nearly everything so long as you do the cleaning once a week and make the effort not to burn the cooking and vinegar cleans the windows quite well - not to mention a cupfull in the washing machine being a decent fabric softener and brilliant for the hair in a small dose as a final rinse. Sunlight is good for your whites - hang them outside to dry instead of using the tumble dryer unless you live in the middle of a motorway.

Granny also knew that if you are growing swedes on the allotment, you can shred the leaves and steam in place of greens. Likewise turnip tops. Add a little butter and you have a lovely extra vegetable. You can use beetroot tops the same way but they need longer steaming.

We are loosing a lot of useful old tricks by getting into the habit of going round the supermarket where everything is packaged, cleaned, cut and sold for specific purposes. The supermarket is there to take your money in all ways possible. If it can't see that it will make profit by leaving the leaves on the swedes or selling  large sized soda bicorbonate for cleaning, well it won't. And it would much rather sell you smaller items so that you come back more often and spend more money. Ho hum. Conflict of interests. Your pocket and their pocket don't always co-incide in the spending stakes you know.

Good heavens - I even found a website called The Nag for heavens sake. Can't you even go on the internet in peace

But if you want some good, simple ideas about ways that you can be a bit more environmentally friendly without having to do too much - then possibly The Nag is the place for you.

And even worse it came up with a website called Junkk which gives you ideas about how to reuse all sorts of well - junk that would otherwise be packaging thrown in the rubbish bin.

I'm telling you that wet weather on the internet throws up some very funny things.

Your update didn't need to upset the firewall. Or perhaps I should look at not using a free firewall! Whichever way I spent about 45 minutes talking to technical support at the ISP on an 0845 number to dig into the depths of why I had no internet access in spite of  the fact that the router was showing all lights green and it was only after doing the restart that the problem happened.

First one does all the technical things that all technical people do and when all else fails - switch off the firewall. It worked but it did mean uninstalling it and then doing a clean install. I thought to try a different firewall as if I have to do a system restore I will only get the same problem with the old one. Oh well. Of course this means training another firewall.

I'm going to have a look at installing the firewall that goes with the anti virus software but this does provide one or two hiccups as I missed out on taking up the special offer of upgrades when it was around. I shall still ask the question of how it will affect the present anti virus system and do I uninstall, overwrite or just generally panic. Nothing like firing off another email. so much for going out today and getting anything done. Another morning stuck sorting out problems when I could be out in the wide world doing nowt in particular. Mind you it was too wet to get onto the allotment till last night and there are still things to be done down there.

But thanks for nothing Mr Microsoft on a sunny day!

Nice little digital camera - no problems and doing well. But I decided to track down a couple of spare batteries for future use. I'm finding that I can run out the battery before I can fill up the memory card. So back I went to the shop that sold it to me and said "can I buy a spare battery please?" Nope because they didn't stock anything suitable. Ring the maker. Well at least Pentax has a UK number that is not 0845/0870 so that was not a problem.

Called them this morning and was promptly passed to the right place (admittedly another telephone call but at the time it took - no great cost). The other number had an efficient person on the end - knew what he was talking about, knew the make of the camera, said he would ring back with the availability of the battery as soon as we had tracked down the right code number.

Call back came within ten minutes with availability of stock and order placed over the telephone on the spot. It's a shame that there is no viable alternative battery for this particular camera so of course the price is whatever the supplier wishes to charge. No it isn't cheap but with the service thrown in - no problem at all. It's rare to get good service like that. I was told that the customer service back up was good when I bought the camera and it certainly has proved to be so. For a middle of the road, point and shoot camera I'm not really unhappy - in fact I'd recommend a Pentax Optio L50 to you if you want a camera that does quite a bit more than you would expect for the price. I've no experience of using a camera till recently and it is doing me proud. It's just that two batteries came to £53.51 and I could have bought another pair of shoes for slightly less than that as there is something on special offer.

Hey ho - what it is to have feet that do not fit into anything that the High Street has to offer - think EEEEE wide and deep. Enough said? They aren't big feet my feet - just short, wide and deep

Friday was beautiful. And ever since the weather has been - well reminiscent of last year. So much for time on the allotment - the ground is now too wet to walk on - or time out with the camera - it's too wet to take pictures. The house is tidy, the shopping is done. I'm bored.

I wanted to use the camera but had to be down the allotment to wait for a delivery - so there are a whole lot of new pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/flohewitt/ - sad isn't it?

And it was such a lovely day too - I could have gone out on the bus and taken pictures of the seaside or Alnwick Castle or the links at Alnmouth or Craster Harbour or loads of other exciting places but there you go. Today is supposed to be soaking wet and I have to wait for a redelivery of the parcel that I missed via Royal Mail yesterday. 

Oooooooooooooh new shoes - exciting Tomorrow could be the same and anyway the Sunday bus service is a reduced one.

I planted a variety of squash seeds this year on the allotment just to see what happened - sometimes you have to do things for the fun of it and not just profit.

Two little butternut squash seedlings peeped through and the daughter said she would put them in the sunny little entry conservatory at her house to bring them on till the fine weather came. Trouble is that the tomato plants took over and grew huge so the two little squash plants got shoved in the garden (windy and north facing) and forgotten about. Eventually I persuaded her husband to bring them back on Monday (they had lost interest as the tomatoes were more important to them). I managed to beg another tub from the lady next door as she cleared up her front garden and nipped along to the garden centre for some compost to fill it. One squash went in this and one in a pot that needed filling up. I've given them a dose of proper, suitable fertiliser which I had for the pumpkins and marrows on the allotment.

Front yard you say? Well there is no space on the allotment compost heap now and also the front yard is very sunny with concrete that reflects the heat back when the weather is warm. Also I can keep a good eye on these daily even if rained off the allotment. But I don't hold out much hope for the poor things - the courgettes are flowering, the marrow is nearly doing so and the pumpkins are a bit late. You can see the difference on the pictures ....

Maybe I won't let the kids take charge of the allotment if I want a summer holiday - obviously better to go on holiday over the winter then

I've reduce one length of allotment hedge with three humps down to a reasonable height from almost 6 feet up - it looks terrible at the moment as the top is bald and not quite level! Well there is a serious difference between the level of the base ground in the allotment and on the road. Nuffink to do with me that - I didn't ask the allotment to be lower than the road did I? OK so it's on a hill as well.

Trouble is that the privet is starting to sprout again in the middle already. It's taken a good few hours over the past week to the amusement of all the locals but it had to be done. I've told them that I have hopes of it for Christmas - it should be a lot more green on the top by then she says laughing.