Another year has passed, and I’m officially 41.  A fabulous evening spent in the company of good friends brought me happily into the next year of my life.  The last year had passed so quickly I can barely believe it.  A mixed year at that; lots of personal highs, the odd low, and then of course the trauma of Brexit and Trump (TRUMP! WT actual F?!) the new President elect over the pond.  Some horror movies you just can’t script.  What next?  Well maybe it is the ceaseless progression of time, maybe it’s the fear of what’s coming next in global politics, but as time marches on I feel more and more that I want to make life a little bit simpler.  I wrote latterly about wanting to decrease waste and just try to live a little better.  I’ve got a long way to go, and when you work in aviation you know it’s always going to difficult to claim any kind of environmental prizes, but I feel I can still make some positive changes which will be better than doing nothing.

So quite randomly, having talked about allotments over the weekend with my pals, I thought I’d have a look at the local council website to find out how to get my name on the waiting list for my own little plot of land.  There is something quite alluring about allotments.  The neat rows, the variety of colours, the intriguing foliage.  I used to walk past a large allotment plot on my way to Uni many years ago, and I loved looking in to see it change as the year progressed.  I also run past a rather large bunch of plots about a mile away from my flat, so I figured why not try to get an allotment in there?  So on Monday morning I duly emailed one of the site managers, asking how I go about adding my name to the list.  It usually takes a couple of years to be allocated a spare plot which is fine because I can learn about gardening in that time and figure out what to do.  Perfect.

Cue a lovely response on Monday evening to let me know that my email was fortuitously timed as the current annual rental period has just passed and there are some plots available now.  Would I like to make an appointment to see one.  Say what, like this week? Fast forward a mere 72hrs and I’m standing in front of plot 7C4, which is now officially mine! 😀

To say I’m giddy with excitement is an understatement.  Anyone who has come within an inch of me today now knows I am AN ALLOTMENT HOLDER, and they’ve been shown some photos.  It’s perfect for me.  There is already some shape to it, something to build on.  I’ve got a shed and a bench (cue 70 cups of tea whilst surveying the land) and two compost heaps.  There is an area that has previously grown fruit, and another couple of beds where veggies were grown.  There are also lots of weeds covering said fruit/veggie areas.  So plenty to get on with.

I am not being modest when I say I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING.  So much so only caps lock can adequately state my, erm, inadequacy.  But oh my god THINK OF THE BOOKS THAT I CAN READ!!! Aaaaah, there is learning to be done and that makes me very happy.  So a trip to the library is in swift order, and thank the web Gods above for all that is googleable.

The only key thing I need to do is make sure I don’t feck my back because I have some marathons to train for!!  Anyway, gardening is perfect cross training, so that’s that sorted!

I make no apologies – there will be many, many posts about this.  This weekend I’ll head back and take some measurements and stare at it a lot and try to discern weed from non-weed then take it from there.

Oh my god I can buy myself a pitchfork!!

Happy days 😀