Saturday 31 July 2010

Life is Just a Bowl of Blueberries!

The plot thickens and I am not referring to the Mystery of the Disappearing Trainers, which I have now given up any hope of finding now that Gilbert turned up on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago NOT wearing them, but to Plot 24A Prospect North Allotments which is now exploding with produce keeping the various Baltzer household tables overflowing with soft fruit, salad and vegetables.

The fruit cage crops this year have been particularly good with pounds and pounds of strawberries, raspberries, red, black and white currants, gooseberries, blackberries just coming up to the boil and a continuous supply of blueberries off just five small bushes.

Without a doubt this has been the most productive year in my short loonar allotment adventure.
The other good news is that we have recently been joined by fellow blogger and author Mike who after a three year wait has been allocated Plot 1 next to my mate Sav, thus considerably lowering the average age of the tenant base! It has been left unworked for a year so is in a bit of a state but is nowhere near as bad as mine was when I took it over in 2007.

Just to give Mike some encouragement here are some “then” and “now” photos of Plot 24A:

2007
2010

While on the subject of allotment produce I received a communication from EvansAbove, the Welsh Bard, earlier this week. In it he included this ode in celebration of his allotmenteer mate Bernard turning up on his doorstep, “clutching a weapon of mass destruction”.

Bernard’s Big Un

As steady as an arrow, he spun his mighty marrow
Across the wide divide of Old Church Road.
Like Gareth’s pass to Phil, the memory lingers still...
It spawned a sea of soup, and this small ode.
Like Prince’s Red Corvette, Bern’s massive green courgette
Has climbed the veggie charts, and there it stays;
With onions and some toms, this monster bomb of bombs
Will keep us fed for days, and days, and days!

Talking of Wales I came across a beer rather strangely named “On the Head” brewed by Brains, the Cardiff brewery, in the Falkners Arms last week. Now it might be a custom in the mean streets of Cardiff to tip a pint “On the Head” but I would have thought “Down the Throat” would have been a more apt name for a beer in these more civilised suburbs!

Much more worrying though was the person depicted on the beer clip:



Brains and Rooney – I think you will agree a clear breach the Trades Description Act!

But advertising beer seems to run in the family - here's Waynes dad from the seventies:



Hey Ho!
Stay in Toon!