Allotment Week - Saturday

Wake up to snow. This is not off to a good start.

I have 4 days holiday left over from last year. So I decided that they would be best spent down the Allotment. Today sees the influx of the new allotment holders.

I have recently received all the tenant data from the Council. Now we're going fully self managed there is a lot of paperwork to sort out. Most important is the names and addresses of the tenants of the site. We have "sort of" had this data for a while. That is to say that we have a main list, but not a complete one. Nor do we have a full list of plots. So when I received the data in a spread sheet, the first thing I did was to put it into something a little more manageable. So I created a small database to handle the data. This immediately showed up some anomalies. Such as missing plots, and plots which were the wrong size. It also gave us a list of plots that were vacant. Those and the plots that have been handed back to us by tenants giving up their plots meant we have some vacancies to reduce our 2 year waiting list. New prospectives were contacted and offered a position.

So here are 7 more eager beavers joining the rest of us on a freezing cold morning on the allotments. Normally we would hold this in the marquee, but as winter still hasn't released it's grip on us, this has not yet been erected. We we offer tea and biscuits inside the shop where we are somewhat warmer and give the necessary talks to introduce them to the system.

I am drafted to help show some of the newbies around and show them their new plot. As it turns out, their new plot is right next to mine. So welcome on board James on plot 31.

This was one of the plots that was handed back to us by a very nice couple who have decided that as they are getting on a bit in life, the allotment is getting a bit much for them. But they have worked their plot really well and have beds nicely laid out. So the new tenant is really happy with his plot. I look forward to meeting him later in the week/year, when the weather is a little warmer.

Now I know this is supposed to be a week of working on the plot. But I'm afraid my fingers really don't work well in the freeze cold. So I head home to put my feet up in the warmth and plan the rest of the week. Tomorrow looks out as well. But Tuesday is when I have a shed being delivered and Thursday is the greenhouse delivery, so I really have to be out and about some time. But today I am calling in a tactical retreat.