20th May 2018 - Royal Wedding, Football and a bit of the allotment!

Well this weekend has been super busy but not so much with the allotment.  Yesterday was the Royal Wedding and there was no way I was going to miss it but the weather was amazing and I really didn't want to be sat in the house all day so I decided to go up to the allotment, take my Kindle and watch it there!  I didn't watch it all the way through but I saw Megan arrive at the church, and some of the vows (I watched the rest of it on catch-up when I got home later).

Once I'd watched the main part of the wedding I needed to get on with covering 86a.  I had to move the shed that was leaning against the hedge and I also had to move all of the bricks that we'd found.  My neighbour was able strim the plot for me so that I can keep on top of it.  I still didn't manage to get it all covered but there is much more than half of it down now; in order to finish it I have some big stumps that need moving (I'm going to make a stumpery with them but I'll talk about that another time).  I want to move them outside of the plot for a short time but I'm worried about them going missing so I want to be careful about where I put them.  I haven't taken any pictures because to be honest it doesn't look much different to last week; except there's more membrane and less grass!!

On 85a I didn't do a great deal this weekend.  I had some bits and pieces that needed potting on and I've got loads and loads of seedlings that need to be split in time for the plant swap in a couple of weeks, but I haven't been able to do that yet either!  Unfortunately because of the heat and because I was working away this week some of the seedlings in the polytunnel have suffered.  Some of the sunflowers really had a battering by the sun and I may have lost some of them.  Thankfully the millions of sunflowers that Littlest L put in a couple of weeks ago seem to be germinating so hopefully I'll still have some more to plant out.

Today Littlest L had her football cup final.  It is the first time that the team have made it to the final but on this occasion they lost 2-1.  The achievement of getting there and the occasion was just a bit too much this time but they just keep getting better and stronger and I'm sure they'll win another time.

Because of the cup final I didn't get to the plot until 4.30pm today and rather than trying to get more membrane down I decided that I'd clear out my shed (which has been desperately needed for a while). 

As I started bringing things out of the shed I heard quite a loud cheeping noise and when I looked there was a small parakeet on top of the arbour.  I decided to go into the shed to fill up the bird feeders for him and while I was bent over getting into the bird seed I felt a draft against the back of my neck.  When I stood up the parakeet was in the shed!  He then hopped around and cheeped at me for around 45 mins while I filled all the bird feeders.  I also put some kibbled peanuts onto a tray for the parakeet and he hopped across to eat them.  He was so close to me that I could almost touch him (although he kept just far away that I couldn't).  

It felt like such a privilege to have him hopping around me and watching me work.  Eventually because I needed to clear the things from the table I lifted the tray and moved it to the door when he then flew out and onto the bird feeder.  I added a mix of sunflower hearts and kibbled peanuts to the tray that he was sat on while I carried on clearing out the shed.  When I sat down for a drink he hopped up to the top of the shed above me and immediately went to sleep!  He stayed with me for the entire time that I was there (approx 3 hours).  I was very worried leaving him because the Rooks and Magpies would give him a hard time if he stayed there on his own, not to mention that a bird of prey would pick him off the roof easily.  I was hoping that when the adult parakeets came in to roost that he'd go and join them and be safe.  

I'm hoping to get back up to the plot tomorrow after work and move the stumps so that I can do more of the membrane.  Then I'm away again until Thursday so I hope that I'll be able to get back up on Thursday night or Friday.  Ultimately I have got to get the rest of the plot covered.  Without that I'm going to be constantly battling the weeds until I can get the beds in place.  

I hope you all have a lovely week, until next time - happy gardening x

Update on the bird.  I have been told that he's a love bird, not a parakeet (which I'd assumed given that we have loads of them around us) and that he's unlikely to survive in the wild :'(  I've put a notice out to the other allotment holders but nobody has seen him for a week or so.  I'm hoping someone has caught him and he's safe but given that we have rooks and jays all around us I suspect he's been killed by one of them, which is really sad!  I'll keep you posted if anyone lets me know anything x