Globe Artichoke

Beautiful warm(ish) sunshine today which had me running to the allotment with my garlic in hand.

I chopped the beans down. I dug over some soil and planted green manure. I harvested the pumpkins - which still think they are marrows despite starting to turn orange. I planted the garlic ready for next year. I weeded, always weeding to do. And I paused, sat back, admired, considered and smiled. The calmness the allotment brings can soothe any day and make it so.

I also came away with the last of the courgettes, some raspberries and beetroot, which is finally growing. The sweetcorn are a lost cause. Plenty of cobs just few corn kernels on them and not enough sun to ripen them. It's not been their season.

These globe artichokes grow near me every year. Every year they are left to rot. They are very pretty but I never understand why you wouldn't pick even a few?

My girl recently gave me her old i-pod for the allotment. I've not uploaded any of my own tunes yet. A play on shuffle can bring an interesting variety. One minute you have Adele, then Timy Tempah, Eminem, The Jam, and tunes I've never heard. No Mozart, or John Martyn, or Frank Sinatra.

She left at midnight on a 'Physics Field Trip' to Alton Towers. Remember, ever action has an equal and opposite Re-action. So, after a day twisting and twirling and faced with a 7 hour coach journey home, I do hope she remembered to take a sick bag. She may need it.