John Grant: Pale Green Ghosts

Back then I often found myself
Driving on the road at night,
And the radio was broadcasting the ocean.
Warm late spring wind whips through my hair.
I am right here, but I wanna be there,
And no one in this world is gonna stop me.

Pale green ghosts at the end of May--
Soldiers of this black highway--
Helping me to know my place.
Pale green ghosts must take great care;
Release themselves into the air--
Reminding me that I must be aware.

At 25 and 36 to Boulder
I was getting warm, but now I'm getting colder,
And I stomp my feet--demanding like a child.
I hope you get everything you wanted boy.
I hope you conquer the world and turn it into your toy,
But don't come crying when you're forced to learn the truth.

Pale green ghosts at the end of May--
Soldiers of this black highway--
Helping me to know my place.
Pale green ghosts must take great care,
Release themselves into the air--
Reminding me that I must be aware.

Pale green ghosts at the end of May--
Soldiers of this black highway--
Helping me to know my place.
Pale green ghosts must take great care;
Release themselves into the air--
Reminding me that I must be aware.

John Grant video Pale Green Ghosts

Quinces, medlars and Russians

Headline news: The Russian Olive Tree has had babies.  After three or four years this plant has now produced fruit.   And they are gorgeous, speckled orangey rough little things. The olives are sweet tasting with a massive long seed running down the middle.  When we first planted this it measured just one and a half feet, now it’s over five foot tall and lush with green foliage which produces some much needed shade on the plot. It’s also nitrogen giving. A winner.  

 Coming through this spring is the new baby medlar, it’s very beautiful if not handsome.  We only just got this in this year and already it’s showing good progress. I can’t wait to see the medlar dog fruits when they aren’t so pretty later in the season.  The quince is showing signs of improvement but hates this windy weather.  Everything is a learning curve and if I’d have know more I wouldn’t have planted this baby right in the middle of the plot where the wind can whip through. We had to perform some minor surgery on a small drooping branch to help with the balance of the structure as it was showing signs of stress. They are so lanky and lollopy and rather proud.  

Pulsatilla

Sometimes there is very little to say but so much to think about. I love this beautiful plant.  It's much stronger this year. It loves poor soil, full sun, hardly much water  unless it falls out of the sky and I keep it weed free. It's a regular in homeopathic remedies and having seen this plant in action I have a deeper understanding of how and why this remedy works.   

Secret Spanish Allotment

Every year for the last few year's we go to this appartment on the Med in Spain. It's in Malaga.   It's lovely, there's no doubt about that and I've had great holiday's there.  But something different happened last time I was there. It's a frustrating place for a gardener like me sometimes because the garden is kept within an inch of it's life, everything is so ordered and clipped.  Well that's what I thought. On the last day I started to look a little closer and noticed the tops of  broadbeans, about 3 to 4 foot high about 12 foot straight ahead of the porch.  I went over to look and saw for the first time that week, a long row of them growing right down the garden sandwiched between the clipped hedge and the prickly cactus growing out of the sand.  I started to look around and I started to see shallots growing, the sweet peas, the mint, the rosemary, more broadbeans, enough to feed a small army, and then I noticed the banana tree, the fig trees, the orange tree, the olive trees 3of them, the lemon tree - it just went on and on.  How on earth had I missed all this right under my nose?  This is a different place for me now - it has much more meaning now that there are plants and veg growing that you can eat.  Here's to Juan the Spanish gardener and secret allotment holder and yes I put a good handful of his broadbeans into the Andalucian soup.  I hope he didn't mind. Many thanks. 

   

Crocus Garden

We've had 5 or 6 days without rain and a few good days of sunshine. This means we are leaving the cold of the winter behind and moving to better weather. Daff bulbs are coming through as well as these crocus and all the fruit trees are developing big shoots ready for the heat of spring and summer. I noticed my neighbour - the one with all the flags- has put up black curtains in his potting shed. I think he has an afternoon nap in there. To be honest I really just wanted to get these photos up to celebrate the spring season and my new phone. 

Allotment Wars!

The two flags at the front belong to a plot holder. One is for the Isle of Mann, the other is the Union Flag. Came down the allotment today to find the house behind the allotment has put up a pirate and Canadian flag. There is also a rainbow flag at the front, really, I didn't know he was a friend of Dorothy. What a a gorgeous sight for everyone, whether they want it or not.

I watched this doc the other night: spot on BBC Allotment Wars  

Woman gives birth to strange snowcrow

Braved the blizzard like conditions today to get to the plot. Been waiting 3 winters to take some photo's down there. Everything looked gorgeous but covered in the white stuff. To keep warm I decided to build a snowcrow a cross between a snowman and a scarecrow. This is the result. It is actually harder than you might think rolling a body of snow around on an allotment. I couldn't understand the science behind it. How does the snow all stick together like that? Coxie would probably know, but like all science to me it's pure magic. Still no sunshine. I did see lots of birds bobbing around, two great tits and a magpie. That reminds me this morning Lottie was looking out of the window when a magpie jumped from a wall outside to the window ledge. Lottie pounced with her whole body into the wooden blinds, got tangled up in them and had to be rescued. She didn't look good. Just as well there was a pane of glass and the blinds or she'd have had maggie

Fog

I've been trying to write a rubbishy poem about fog. Here it is:

Fog is a strange word
Fog makes the world blurred
Fog backwards is Gof,
which isn't a word or a thing
But it does descend from above
And hovers on the ground
Freezing fog is to be feared
And it is always good when the fog has cleared.

There we go a blog about fog.
Worst blog ever.

Sunshine kicks off 2013 shock!

It is official, 2012 was wet. I’ve had nothing to say about gardening on the allotment which is reflected in there being no blogs since the beginning of December.  I think the whole country has a low level depression because of the continuous rain since around April. However, we have had two days were it hasn’t rained and they were today and New Year’s Day. As is tradition the autumn fruiting raspberry canes were pruned to about 3 inches from the ground on the first day of the year. Tomorrow is wassailing the apple trees. This will involve me toasting some bread hanging these up on the branches of the fruit trees drink a toast of cider and wish them all well for 2013.