The building of the shed has started. Nick and Matt laid the base exactly to measure wit6h a nice little patio outside the door and window. When I say started, I mean that the bit are laid all over the lawn and painted. I am not sure which has the most paint on it, the shed or the lawn!
A selection of other beans are 'Butter Beans' 'Bellotta Beans' and what ever you call the beans that come from dwarf french beans. I have also shelled some runner beans that had got too big and they tasted great as well. At this stage it is OK to cook them as they are but I have a load that I am hanging to dry and store to use over the winter.
These do look good hanging in the kitchen especially as the pods are so different. They will lose their colour as they dry and I am a bit worried that the beans will start dropping all over the kitchen floor but I will overcome that problem if it happens.
We don't seem to have as good a crop of onions as last year but it has been very dry and they do like a lot of water. I realise that I don't have anywhere to store then as the beans have taken all the room on the bottom of the wine rack where the onions hung last year. I have asked Nick to make a rack to hang over the kitchen table but I think it is fairly low on the list of jobs that I keep adding, and the shed has priority.
The elephant garlic looks fantastic and I am saving a couple to plant for more next year. It has a really mild flavour, more like leeks than garlic (that reminds me, I must photograph the leeks to show you next time).
In my mission to be organic and to save my own seed, I have gone a bit mad and am even saving seed from the passion flower that is fruiting like made in the garden. Unfortunately the fruit seem to be more seed that fruit so I really don't fancy eating them altough they do look lovely.
Another one of my missions is to make more of the hedgerows and our hedge at Churchill Way includes the hazel that I cut for bean poles and elder. So, having missed the elderflowers, I couldn't miss the change of the berries. After wine last year, I decided that 2007 was the year of the chutney - elderberry chutney that is. Surprisingly it is not a very strong taste and in my opinion ideal for cold meats. I will be circulating jars shortly for the taste test.
Back to the shed, or rather the bus stop. I think the telegraph pole is what gives it its name.
Now an update from the bowls green. I was in the final of the novice singles against Lyn. At this point of the game, we had completed 10 ends and she was beating me 9 points to 3 and the game is the first to 21 points. I now have the reputation as the come-back queen as it got to the point where she needed 1 point to win and I needed five. I got one, then another one and then three - so you can work out who won. Another cup to match those of last year. 
Remember the giant apple. It has grown so big that it looks as though it is bigger than Nick's head. He was determined not to pick it except one day last week we arrived at the allotment to find that it had harvested itself and was sitting on the ground.
The James Grieves Apple is getting bigger and bigger and we are approaching the time when the decision has to be made to pick it. After all the effort of growing it to this size, it will be such a shame if it drops from the tree and is bruised.
Something new at the allotment this year is flowers. I hear you say 'but you can't eat them', and you would be right, but in such a disasterous year for vegetable growing, it is lovely to have something to show off. The gladioli are magnificent and there is a lovely selection of dahlias (to follow next time) and we have actually
Anyway, back to the successes of the day. Out of a total of 51 entries, we came away with 15 prizes. Five 1sts, Five 2nds, Five 3rds. You will notice that one of the rosettes for 2nd is missing, this is because it was rightly Katy's as it was her tub of flowers that one this one (see below) so the rosette was heres. 
and last but not least, the cup for thE best home produce class. In my book, that makes me the best cook in Basingstoke!
Class 64. Chocolate Chip Cookies. Also best exhibit in the home produce class.
Class 66. A trifle for one person.
Class 69. Five cheese straws.
Class 50. One names pot plant grown for foliage.
Class 30. Three blooms of large flowered roses of the same variety.
Class 71. Homemade white wine. (OK I will admit that there were only two entries in this class, and I am sure they didn't taste it)
Class 68. Five fruit tartlets.
Class 57. A window box or tub/container (maximum size 80cm/32").
Class 32. One large flowered rose of any variety.
Class 23. Two vegetables of the same variety which is not listed above (elephant garlic)
Class 63. Five biscfuits of the same variety (ginger and cinnamon biscuits)
Class 19. Two cabbages with stalks trimmed to a minimum of 2"
Class 16. Five spring onions.
Class 9. An odd shaped vegetable.
Never one to miss out on a chance to get Matt working on the allotment, Nick and Matt put in yet more posts, this time for the cage at the top of 51 to hopefully keep the flying rats of the cabbages.
While they were busy at this Brian and Marlene magically produced a hole in the ground which was exactly the size and shape of the pond that we had aquired from Barry. The original pond we had bought from the tip for £2 but decided that it was too small. We were chatting one day and Barry mentioned that he had a pond which was too big, so in true allotment fashion we swapped. The reason I say, magic is that Rebecca and I popped to Morrisons and when we got back, there it was. We weren't gone long enough for it to have been dug by conventional methods, so I am very suspicious.
A bit of soil sifting later, it fit perfectly giving the ducks a larger pond when they are out of the compound. They also love the fact that there is lovely soft mud all the way round the pond in which they can dig their beaks and get loads of slugs and grubs. Yummy!
The twins especially love it and rush around like a couple of teenagers diving in at the deepend and swimming lengths. They haven't yet worked out that there is a shallow end so make a lot of splashing and wing waving trying to get out of the deep end, but I am sure they will learn.
The reason why we went to Morrisons was to get refreshments for the workers and we decided that it would be easier to BBQ. We had a BBQ sitting in the shed but it took two to put it together. 
All was prepared and cooking started when we noticed a huge black cloud heading our way. Matt fixed a tarpaulin over one end of the duck compound and we hastily moved in. A bit smelly but as long as you didn't look down at what you were standing in, all was OK, except the BBQ really didn't want to light. Guess who was a boy scout!
