The allotment is looking more respectable at the moment. Most of the weeds have been re-cleared, and our runner beans are almost as good as everyone else’s. They’re not my favourite bean, particularly, so I have been giving a lot away; this afternoon I traded some for a bag of bright red apples from one of the neighbours.

We spent half an hour or so down there today. Pete dug up some of the maincrop potatoes (Cara, if I recall correctly). The yield seems much lower than the Pentland Javelin, and they’re not as pretty. He also turned the compost, and it looks fantastic! There was real compost at the bottom of the heap; I was most impressed. I watered everything, especially the poor plants that are stuck at the back under the trees, like the wimpy calabrese and the jerusalem artichokes (not that the j-chokes seem to be suffering). Bernard stole some peapods, interfered with the neighbour’s row markers, and dropped White Cat in the mud.

We have acquired a cold frame, so now need some thoughts on what to do with it. And we are thinking about where to place Bernard’s personal plot for next year, and what to put in it to keep him quiet while we battle with the weeds.

Pete and I have a few days off. Unashamedly, we allowed Bernard to go to his childminders today; and then we spent the entire day doing Adult Things that you can’t do with a toddler in tow.

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