A rather mixed fortnight for me.

Fortnight ending 01/10/2022

During the evening of Thursday 15th of September, I was taken completely by surprise at Beavers when George was given his “swimming up” ceremony from Beavers to Cubs. This was unannounced and I was expecting it at least a couple of weeks after George’s Birthday on the 25^th. Alas, due to family logistics on Tuesday evenings he cannot attend the 3rd & 4th Norwich Cubs. However, the 35th Norwich Sea Scouts Cub Pack meets on Thursday evenings. On our way home from Beavers George and I called in on the 35th’s Cub Pack meeting and I spoke directly to Nikki, the pack’s Akela. George still in his Beavers uniform and with his good manners made a suitable impression, and I was offered a place for George in the 35th Norwich Sea Scouts Cub Pack, which I immediately accepted.

The Queen’s funeral was Monday the 19^th and like almost all of the rest of the country I watched the live coverage on the BBC. However, I kept flicking from the TV to social media post on my Kindle to read peoples reaction to all of the pomp and ceremony and one of the more poignant comments on Facebook was that the Gov’t had the money and the will to pay for and arrange such a grandiose affair at very short notice but cannot find the money to deal with the UK’s homeless situation which would have cost less than half what the funeral did.

On Tuesday morning the material for my fully funded TQUK online course was unlocked and officially my Level 2 Mental Health Awareness course began. I am a now a part time distance learner assigned to the Bridgewater and Taunton college in Somerset. I think this course will benefit my volunteer work with Community Chaplaincy Norfolk.

The Community chaplaincy course is going well, although we are only in as far as week three and it is only really an attendance course. The other attendees are becoming familiar to me and they are a pleasure to speak with socially during the short in the middle break time.

Back at the beginning of September I became rather irate with owner/admin of a UK Cast Iron Cooking Facebook page that I was a member. Basically he kept deleting the photos and posts I was putting up claiming them to be commercial, so I went in deep and deleted every post I had made on the page and then started my own Facebook Page called Cast Iron Cookware, Grilling and Outdoor Cooking and as I have now decided to incorporate Cast Iron and Outdoor Cooking as regular features on my Go with Gareth YouTube page, I will use my new Facebook page to promote my endeavours in this direction.

I managed to drag my Wolf-Garten 3 tine cultivator through my little 5sq/mtr vegetable patch and have assiduously tilled the soil. Even though over the last 4 years I have put over 500 litres (volume) of combined cow manure, lawn clippings, home-made compost, hot trenched vegetable peelings, at least 200 litres of finely chipped leylandii brash and around 100 litres of well-rotted rabbit droppings on to this plot, yet all of this organic matter has still not helped to retain any moisture in the soil. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a fair bit of rain and all 2000 litres capacity of our water butts and tanks are full, but only 2″ down the soil was still bone dry.

Steadily with rests between each task I got it tilled, levelled and raked. The far section has been heavily sown with alternating very close rows of (supermarket) dried green peas, mustard, pre-sprouted broad beans, mustard, peas, mustard, broad beans and mustard in 2″ deep drills.
The bottom part of this plot has been very heavily and indiscriminately broadcast sown with green peas and mustard seeds and then covered with a layer of last autumn’s bean tree chippings. Alas I was too tired to finish scattering the bean tree chippings on the far section.

This has all been done as no-maintenance cover crop to over winter which will be cut and turned into green manure for a no-dig & strip-tilled rotation next year. Although the Broad Beans should survive the winter and continue on, hopefully cropping in the late spring, but I don’t expect the peas to survive the late February and March frosts we usually experience.

Saturday, I spent a wet day at the Grapes Hill Community Garden Arts open day running Gareth’s Glorious Games free of charge for entertainment purposes only. It rained heavily, Norwich City FC were playing at home and the city roads were gridlocked from the usual cause of motorists queuing on the carriageways because the car parks were already full and all of these reflected upon the low public attendance at the community garden. However, I had my flask of tea with me and I did enjoy conversation with others displaying their art and wares and off course the free music performed by various local musicians including my friends Jon Fennel and Peter Turrell.

4½ hours on Sunday were spent at Trowse Primary School fete running Gareth’s Glorious Games. This is the school that young George currently attends, but that was not the reason I was there; I was there because either me and my games or my games and someone from the PTA have run them at this school’s annual fete for about 8 years as I recall. However, these few hours seriously tired me out and brought on another serious bout of gastric troubles that knocked me down for the rest of the week. Subsequently I was too ill to attend session number 4 of my Community Chaplaincy course on Tuesday Night.

We have been manually flushing the toilet using my 8 litre Maslin pan for a couple of days as I attempted to get the internal insulation for the ceramic cistern sorted out. On Monday, the first day it the cistern was removed from the wall, scrape out the previous mess I had made with silicone sealer that refused to cure and to thoroughly dry everything out. Tuesday, I decided to try doing the job with solvent based contact adhesive of which I had some in the hobbies draw, but there was not enough to do the whole job, so Lois nipped out to Toolstation and came back with a spray can of solvent-based contact adhesive. I stuck the newly shaped piece of Yoga mat liner to the inside bottom of the cistern using the old tin of spreadable contact adhesive and left it for a few hours to set. It worked so we called it a day on that part of the job. Wednesday was spent cutting and shaping the yoga mat to fit the inside front, back and sides of the cistern and sticking them in place with the spray on adhesive; they stuck really well, so I decided to leave it over night for the solvent adhesive to dry fully and cure properly. On Thursday morning I stuck a piece of Yoga mat onto the outside rear of the ceramic cistern to insulate it from the tiled bathroom wall and then I reassembled it all, fixed it to the wall, checked for leaks. Because of my illness it took me 2 whole days to do no more than 2 hours of easily completed work if I had been my fit former self!

On Thursday evening I felt well enough to take George to Cubs and I did manage to do the necessary running around in the car to collect his Scouts progress paperwork from the 3^rd & 4^th Norwich Beavers and deliver it to the 35^th Norwich Cubs which he now attends, this was because the 3^rd & 4^th do not utilise the national Online Scout Manager; OSM system.

Friday was another awful day for me, continuing serious gastric problems preventing me from visiting Sister Mary as I had planned, nipping around to have a cuppa with Clive Byers and then going to the Friday afternoon Softly Softly Yoga session. Instead I limited my travels to no more than 5 metres away from the toilet and just suffered with the horrendous intestinal pains and the many uncontrollable bowel movements; fortunately, our toilet can now be flushed again and we were not manually bailing water into it.

Late Friday afternoon I received the devastating news that Jurnet’s bar which had been closed from the beginning of the first Covid lockdown will now remain permanently closed due to water ingress during the lockdown period and the uncontrollable damp and mould this situation has created. Of course, this occurrence had absolutely nothing to do with the road and pavement improvements undertaken on King Street directly outside of Wensum Lodge and the burst water main caused by the contractors just metres from the external medieval wall of the bar’s under-croft.

Saturday I was ill again and all I managed to do was to spread some semi rotted Indian Bean tree wood chip on the second half of my 5sq/metre vegetable plot. The Mustard that was sown 7 days earlier has germinated well, but neither the Green Peas nor Broad beans that were sown in drills have poked up above the soil, but the broadcast sown Green Peas sitting on the surface have germinated and are pushing roots down into the soil. I have decided that as this is all an over winter cover crop and green manure to be cultivated in, that I would also broadcast sow 50g of dried Mung beans across the whole plot. Although the Mung beans will not survive the cold and frosts, they could provide Autumn and early Winter ground cover along with the Mustard and Green Peas to possibly encourage invertebrates up to the surface on warm days that hungry wild birds may feast upon.

Lois however took me completely by surprise and in a return to her socialist-hippy younger days she decided to go out to stand and sing in protest with other union members on the picket lines outside the Royal Mail sorting office and the Norwich Thorpe Railway Station.

A rather mixed fortnight for me.

On Thursday evening I was taken by surprise at Beavers when George was given his “swimming up” ceremony from Beavers to cubs. This was unannounced and I was expecting it at least a couple of weeks after George’s Birthday on the 25^th. Alas, due to family logistics on Tuesday evenings he cannot attend the 3rd & 4th Norwich Cubs. However, the 35th Norwich Sea Scouts Cub Pack meets on Thursday evenings.

On our way home from Beavers last Thursday evening George and I called in on the 35th’s Cub Pack meeting and I spoke directly to Nikki, the pack’s Akela. George still in his Beavers uniform and with his good manners made a suitable impression, and I was offered a place in the 35th Norwich Sea Scouts Cub Pack for George, which I immediately accepted.

The Queen’s funeral was Monday the 19^th and like almost all of the rest of the country I watched the live coverage on the BBC. However, I kept flicking from the TV to social media post on my Kindle to read peoples reaction to all of the pomp and ceremony and one of the more poignant comments on Facebook was that the Gov’t had the money and the will to pay for and arrange such a grandiose affair at very short notice but cannot find the money to deal with the UK’s homeless situation which would have cost less than half what the funeral did.

On Tuesday morning the material for my fully funded TQUK online course was unlocked and officially my Level 2 Mental Health Awareness course began. I am a now a part time distance learner assigned to the Bridgewater and Taunton college in Somerset. I think this course will benefit my volunteer work with Community Chaplaincy Norfolk.

The Community chaplaincy course is going well, although we are only in as far as week three and it is only really an attendance course. The other attendees are becoming familiar to me and they are a pleasure to speak with socially during the short in the middle break time.

Back at the beginning of September I became rather irate with owner/admin of a UK Cast Iron Cooking Facebook page that I was a member. Basically he kept deleting the photos and posts I was putting up claiming them to be commercial, so I went in deep and deleted every post I had made on the page and then started my own Facebook Page called Cast iron Cookware, Grilling and Outdoor Cooking and as I have now decide to incorporate Cast Iron and Outdoor Cooking as regular features on my Go with Gareth YouTube page, I will use my new Facebook page to promote my endeavours in this direction.

I have managed to drag my Wolf 3 tine cultivator through my little 5sq/mtr veg patch and till the soil. Even though over the last 4 years I have put over 500 litres (volume) of cow manure, lawn clippings, home-made compost, hot trenched vegetable peelings and at least 200 litres of finely chipped leylandii brash on to this plot and yet all of this organic matter has still not held any moisture in the soil. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a fair bit of rain and all 2000 litres capacity of our water butts and tanks are full, but only 2″ down the soil was still bone dry.

Steadily with rests between each task I got it tilled. levelled and raked. The tar section has been heavily sown with alternating very close rows of (supermarket) dried green peas, mustard, pre-sprouted broad beans, mustard, peas, mustard, broad beans and mustard in 2″ deep drills.
The bottom part of this plot has been very heavily and indiscriminately broadcast sown with green peas and mustard seeds and then covered with a layer of last autumn’s bean tree chippings. Alas I was too tired to finish scattering the bean tree chippings on the far section.

This has all been done as no-maintenance cover crop to over winter and it will be cut and turned into green manure for a no-dig & strip-tilled rotation next year. Although hopefully the Broad Beans will survive the winter and continue on, hopefully cropping in the late spring, but I don’t expect the peas to survive the late February and March frosts we usually experience.

Saturday I spent a wet day at the Grapes Hill Community Garden Arts open day running Gareth’s Glorious Games free of charge for entertainment purposes only. It rained heavily, Norwich City FC were playing at home and the city roads were gridlocked from the usual cause of motorists queuing on the carriageways because the car parks were already full and all of these reflected upon the low public attendance at the community garden. However, I had my flask of tea with me and I did enjoy conversation with others displaying their art and wares and off course the free music performed by various local musicians including my friends Jon Fennel and Peter Turrell.

4½ hours on Sunday were spent at Trowse Primary School fete running Gareth’s Glorious Games. This is the school that young George currently attends, but that was not the reason I was there; I was there because either me and my games or my games and someone from the PTA have run them at this school’s annual fete for about 8 years I think. However, the day seriously tired me out and brought on another serious bout of gastric troubles that knocked me down for the rest of the week. Subsequently I was too ill to attend my Community Chaplaincy course on Tuesday Night.

We have been manually flushing the toilet using my 8 litre Maslin pan for a couple of days as I attempted to get the internal insulation for the ceramic cistern sorted out. It has been out. On Monday, the first day it was remove the cistern from the wall, scrape out the previous mess I made with silicone sealer that refused to cure and to dry everything out. Tuesday I decide to try doing the job with solvent based contact adhesive of which I so at home, but not enough to do the job, so Lois nipped out to Toolstation and came back with a spray can of solvent based contact adhesive. I stuck the newly shaped piece of Yoga liner to the inside bottom of the cistern using the old tin of spreadable contact adhesive and left it for a few hours to set. It worked so we called it a day on that job. Wednesday was spent cutting and shaping the inside front, back and sides of the cistern and sticking them in place with the spray on adhesive and they stuck, so I decided to leave it over night for the solvent adhesive to dry fully and cure properly. On Thursday morning I stuck a piece of Yoga mat onto the outside rear of the ceramic cistern to insulate it from the tiled bathroom wall and then I reassembled it all, fixed it to the wall and check for leaks and all was well.

On Thursday evening I felt well enough and I did manage to take George to Cubs, do the necessary running around in the car to collect his Scouts progress paperwork from the 3^rd & 4^th Norwich Beavers and deliver it to the 35^th Norwich Cubs which he now attends, this was because the 3^rd & 4^th do not utilise the Online Scout Manager system; OSM.

Friday was another awful day for me, continuing serious gastric problems preventing me from visiting Sister Mary as I had planned, nipping around to have a cuppa with Clive Byers and then going to the Friday afternoon Softly Softly Yoga session. Instead I limited my travels to no more than 5 metres away from the toilet and just suffered with the horrendous intestinal pains and the many uncontrollable bowel movements; fortunately our toilet now flushed and we were not manually bailing water into it.

Late Friday afternoon I received the devastating news that Jurnet’s bar which had been closed from the beginning of the first Covid lockdown will now remain permanently closed due to water ingress during the lockdown period and the uncontrollable damp and mould this situation created. Of course this occurence had absolutely nothing to do with the road improvements directly outside of Wensum Lodge and the burst water main caused by the contractors just metres from the outside wall of the bar’s undercroft.

Saturday I was ill again and all I managed to do was to spread some semi rotted wood chip on the second half of my 5sq/metre vegetable plot. The mustard that was sown 7 days earlier has germinated well, but neither the peas or Broad beans that were sown in drills have poked up above the soil, but the broadcast peas sitting on the surface have germinated and are pushing roots down into the soil. I decided that as this is all an over winter cover crop and spring green manure that I would broadcast sow 50g of dried mung beans across the whole plot. Although the mung beans will not survive the cold and frosts they could provide ground cover along with mustard and green peas and possibly encourage invertebrates up on warm days that hungry birds may feast upon.

Lois however took me completely by surprise and in a return to her hippy socialist younger days she decided to go out to stand and sing in protest with other union members on the picket lines outside the Royal Mail sorting office and the Norwich Thorpe Railway Station.

I’ve been out of Norfolk and to seven other counties.

Week ending 04/09/2022

Lois & I began this fortnight with a visit to the Maui-Waui festival on the Sunday curtsey of our good friend Hannah and her friend Queen Addy. Lois and Hannah had planned to go to Maui-Waui for several months and at the last-minute Queen Addy pulled out and I was offered the opportunity of her Sunday ticket, so I took it. I had quite a pleasant afternoon wandering around the festival site and visiting the various stalls and vendors, but nothing took my fancy and my wallet stayed deep within my pocket. I took many photographs and my personal theme of the afternoon seemed to focus upon the handful of festival carts being used around the site.

This is Earth Energy: kirstiesteadman@hotmail.com instagram.com/Earth_Energy_Art/ facebook.com/Earth-Energy-Art-by-Kirstie

I spoke with a couple of local crafts-persons that I had already met at other events and during previous years.

Dan, Isaac G’s father took part in the drum and percussion parade, and I took a photo of him as the parade marched past me as I stood outside the Albion Fairs’ nostalgia tent. A little later I purchased a jacket potato with a vegetable chilli topping and then Lois took part in the battle of the bubbles whilst I stood back filming and photographing it all. Next it was the paint bomb and 7-year-old Isaac G. and his little sister Nina took part in this coloured cloud of fun, and I photographed them covered in a rainbow of what I believe was coloured chalk powders; theses photos I have passed across with all copyright to their mother, Kay. Then came the main event and the closing act of the 2022 Maui Waui Festival, the Dutch band from Amsterdam “My Baby” a favourite of Lois’s and whom she has been following for a couple of years now. At the end of that performance, we decided to drive the 20 odd miles home rather than camp overnight even though we had the all the gear in the boot of the car ready for us to use.

My writing has suffered dreadfully this week with nothing of any substance or value being added to my still work-in-progress novel, but I did take some notes for another set of stories that will hopefully become my second novel.

Thursday came and I had arranged to mind George, Eddy, Isaac G, and Isaac V for the day. With all four boys assembled that is when I realised that our little Ford Ka has only four seats and only four seat belts, and with me as driver there was now five of us, so I had to make the decision to walk with the boys for the rest of the day.

We went to explore Mousehold on the Valley Road side of the Heath, crossing the pitch & putt golf course where we picked and ate some ripe eating apples from a tree and then we ventured deeper into the woods until we came across the high walls of HMP Norwich. These imposing structures impressed the boys, along with the many signs telling the public to keep out and that the area was patrolled by security dogs.

We then went to the site of the old Britannia Barracks WW2 shooting range backstop wall to dig for spent bullets but the remaining ground was too hard for us to dig with sticks and I already knew that the heaps of spoil against the wall had been previously plundered for the lead bullets to sell as semi valuable scrap many years ago. After lunch the five of us traipsed down Gas Hill to go fishing at a nice little spot between the Norwich Yacht Station and the Bishop’s bridge where George and the two Isaacs’ both caught fish but unfortunately when it was Eddy’s turn to wet a line the river became overcrowded with after-work canoeists, stand-up-paddle-boarders and hired day boats, which were now rushing back to the hire base in Thorpe St Andrew before it closed for the day. The speed of these electric dayboats caused far too much of a wake and the inexperienced canoeists and paddle-boarders were also too noisy and constantly slapping the water with their paddles due to their inability to propel their craft correctly which scared all the fish away.

Friday morning Lois & I loaded up the car and drove the 200 miles to Leek in Staffordshire. I don’t recall ever going to Leek before except possibly to collect some desperately needed tractor parts from the Burgess depot there maybe 32 or 33 years ago. We stayed at the Old White Hart dining rooms B&B on the main street. During Saturday Morning Lois and I toured the town, took in the exhibits at the Leek Town Library where Lois got talking to a local artist about his display and I wandered about the community project building and got talking to a couple of the craft tutors there. I quite like the industrial architecture of Leek and I especially liked all of the original Victorian era cast iron gutterings with the fancy cast iron brackets holding them up in place, but I also liked the century old and more still existing smears of industrial coal soot staining showing on most of the buildings and brickwork and features.

At around midday we departed for the Gradbach Scout Camping Grounds where I had arranged to meet my two sisters. The three of us had not been together since my father’s funeral service almost 7 years ago and we had gathered to spread the ashes of both my father and my recently deceased mother. Dad had requested that we spread his ashes in the Peak District and Mum wanted her ashes to be spread with Dad’s, but neither I or my two sisters are fit enough or well enough to go hiking up Kinder Scout or across Bleaklow moor so I chose to spread my parents’ ashes at the Gradbach Scout Camp, which is on the edge of the Peak District, the Roaches and the Dane Valley. However, I ensured that I left it to my sister Jo to sort it all out and arrange a date and time, etc. Lois and I arrived about an hour before my sisters and we walked up to the campsite flagpole, where it had been suggested we might spread the ashes and although the views are staggering, I felt it to be an inappropriate spot, so I slowly wandered down the slight slope about 200 metres to the Campfire amphitheatre. During the Summer of 1975 we camped at Gradbach as both a family and as part of the 4^th Melton Mowbray Darwin Scout troop on summer camp. It was one of the best holidays I can recall with my family and with dad being both a troop and group scout leader and mum being the first officially invested female scout troop leader in England I thought that this was a much more appropriate spot…… Dad loved the whole pomp & ceremony of a “proper” Scout campfire and he was a much sort after Campfire Master, often travelling to the campsites of other Scout troops many miles and several counties away to lead their campfires and he also conducted Campfire Master training sessions down at the UK’s Scout HQ at Gilwell Park during the late 1960’s through to the mid 1970’s….. alas these training sessions ceased in 1976 due to a dispute between him and someone associated with/employed at Gilwell and one day I may tell you about that situation because it became sort of relevant to me personally here in Norwich during 2015.

My sisters and I spread my parents’ ashes at the head of the campfire amphitheatre under the canopy of a mountain ash and an oak tree, both of which are tree species which dad loved and I think that my parents will contently rest in peace there. We then regrouped at the nearby New Inn at Flash, the highest village in Great Britain where I drank a pint of John Smith’s bitter; one of Dad’s favourites to honour both of my parents and the upbringing they gave to me and my two sisters.

On Sunday Lois I travelled the 25 miles or so across Derbyshire to the national Tramways museum at Crich. Somewhere I have wanted to visit for about 30 years ever since my son Karl went there on his first school trip at 5 years old. I had a wonderful time wandering about the exhibits, taking photographs and walking (rather slowly) along the adjoining wooden sculpture trail…… I love trams and love sculpture so it was for me an excellent day out. However, the sprinkles topping on the cream of the pie was the entrance fee. Normally it is £22 for an adult ticket but as I am now 60 years old I qualified for the seniors’ concession, when I flashed my medical alert card, I also qualified for the reduced mobility concession, reducing my entry fee to just £13.50 and the girl in the ticket kiosk then deemed Lois to be my full-time carer, so Lois got in for free. When I mentioned that I was excited to be there because of my love of trams and because I had wanted to come and visit for 30 years; since my son’s school trip, they decided to give both Lois & I complimentary free tickets for a return visit that must be used within 12 months….. I think I’ll take them up on that one!

For our route home from Crich in Derbyshire I decided to take in a nostalgic mini road trip across Nottinghamshire, North East Leicestershire, East Rutland, the Droves and Fens of South Lincolnshire, North Cambridgeshire and North Norfolk much to Lois’ annoyance, but I was totally vindicated when traffic news flashes on the radio indicated there were problems on the M1 South bound, a serious accident on the A1 South bound, considerable delays from Barwell to Cambridge and then on to Newmarket along the A14 and then substantial delays in the northbound contra flow system on the A11 south of Norwich.

There’s less than one more calendar month until the Autumn Equinox!

There’s less than one more calendar month until the Autumn Equinox!

I am losing my recently hard earnt mojo again, there is so much I want to do but my illness is seriously holding me back and I have to ask friends to help me do reasonably simple tasks that I could previously do quickly and effectively on my own. My current incapability is allowing depression to nip at my ass and I don’t like it and I definitely don’t want it….. I’ve been there, done that and I never want to repeat that darkness. However, I did get my application in to the people at Community Chaplaincy Norfolk on Thursday the 18^th of August and on Tuesday the 23^rd they accepted me on to the eight week long training course. This will be weekly 2 hour long sessions comprising of: Wk1) Definitions. Wk2) The Criminal Justice System. Wk3) Communicating for change. Wk4) Does and don’ts. Wk5) Theory and reality of change. Wk6) Goal setting. Wk7) Safeguarding. Wk8) Working with Women (optional unit for male mentors). I know the training will be stimulating. However, even after completing the course I am fully aware that I still might not be accepted on to the team.

Retail Potatoes; a serious rant.

I am going to have a personal rant about the potatoes on sale in British shops. The quality of the potatoes on sale has plummeted in recent years to placate the money grabbing directors of Supermarkets and the greedy speculators that prowl the (completely unnecessary and costs burdening) Futures Markets. There was a time when you bought potatoes that retained their physical integrity when you cooked and even double cooked them. For ages unless I have grown the potatoes I have been unable to make things such as bubble and squeak, fried mash potato cakes, fishcakes, cheese and potato pie; the potatoes available today just turn to mush or the amount of cornflour starch I have to use to stiffen them so they hold together overwhelms taste and completely ruins any texture. My gripe is aimed squarely towards the profit driven wholesalers, supermarkets, medium sized retailers and especially towards the obscene money grabbing Futures Speculators. Currently there is approximately 1½ to 2 years worth of British main crop potatoes held in cold storage to keep the prices artificially high. Most of these potatoes are destined for the for the food processors to make oven ready meals, chips, hash browns and waffles, etc. but a lot of retail potatoes are held short term for up to 9-10 months in cold storage with any deteriorated potatoes sent for making starch and industrial purposes. What really peeves me is that the potatoes are coated with a both a germination and growth suppressor as even in dark cold storage at 4°C a good amount will chit and sprout which deteriorates the flesh of the tubers even further. If a growth suppressor was not used the potatoes coming out of dark cold storage would register a warm, light and airy shop or supermarket as spring time and would immediately begin chitting and sprouting….. and we couldn’t have that now could we; it would reduce profits! Potatoes held in cold storage for over 6 months also start to experience breakdown in the cells, the amino acids and the naturally occurring sugars begin converting to starches. The Crux of the matter is I would like to buy “old” potatoes that have been stored in a good ol’ fashioned traditional straw clamp.

Exercise.

I currently weigh 101kg and I am determined to get back down to my pre illness and pre-pandemic lockdown average weight of 80kg, but 85kg will do as an achievable target to maintain. However, for a 1kg loss in a week there needs be a reduction of 7000 calories either by not initially eating those 7000 kcals, by burning them off with exercise or ideally a healthy combination of the two. For a continued 1kg/wk loss there should be a net daily reduction of at least 1075 calories per day. Fortunately for me 85-90% of the excess weight I want to lose is retained fluid mass caused by the oedema and this is best managed by a sensible dose of diuretics and a monitored intake of liquid, although I really do not want to be restricted back to 1 litre of fluid per day and 80-120mg of diuretics again. I really need to be at a sustainable 1.5 to 1.75 litres of fluid consumption and about 30-40mg of diuretics daily. I returned to the Lottery Funded Friday afternoon Softly Softly “Breathe” Yoga session after an enforced break of five months due to Pneumonia and other ongoing infections. Lois ironed my tracky…. a sort of branded mark to let the other ladies there know I am married now. Lois has sewn my “Om” patch on to my tracky top and the Dragon Ying-Yang patch on to the right thigh of my tracky bottoms. I sorted out my yoga kit including my cork yoga mat, my two cork blocks, my meditation fleece and my new and never used yoga strap and off I went. It was nice to be back, I tried to stretch, I tried to balance, I farted, I nodded off during the meditation, I startled myself awake with a snore, and then at the end of the session Sue our Yogini gave me a hug. I am walking more, but I am also pushing myself beyond what is good for me and to the very detriment of my immediate health and well being.

Writing.

I am writing again and I am writing around 4500-5000 words a week; but I am not presently writing anything of any substance or worth in my novels and stories. Example; there are over 1400 words in this blog post, I have written some stuff for the recipe books I intend publish and I have written far too much on social media postings. From Tuesday August 30^th I shall be more disciplined and focused writing for at least one hour per day. Over a week 3 or 4 of those hours for writing the novels and stories, 2 hours writing blog and Go with Gareth, recipes, etc. and 1 or 2 hours of writing everything else.

Projects.

Things have moved to the “collecting up the materials and the measuring up stage” of the repurposed gas cylinder wood fired stoves. That is because as I said earlier it is my intention to cook in my Dutch oven on my repurposed gas cylinder wood burning stove. OK, my 4.25 litre Cast Iron Dutch Oven is 25cm in diameter and the 4.5kg gas cylinders I have will accommodate that, just. Therefore Tony’s stove will be made first then it will be followed by my one; I shall be using Tony’s stove build as the pre-production prototype to smooth out any issues I may have and to allow me the scope to modify mine according to the requirements of my Dutch Oven and the style of cooking I wish to achieve.

Social & Domestic.

Mid week Lois and I sat down for half an hour together and discussed future plans for the garden and we have come to a sensible agreement albeit an expensive one in the short term but extremely cost effective and durable one over the mid to long term and I’ll be able to tell you a lot more about that next year. I began to make some room for my new bicycle shed and have set about the overgrown laurel tree at the bottom of the garden, lopping off branches and passing them through the chipper with the larger bits being sawn into 8”/200mm long pieces and stacked up. It took me a whole 8 hours long day to deal with 6 laurel branches utilising my now well established routine of 30 minutes of light to medium work followed by 90 minutes of rest and sensible rehydration in this still hot weather.

On Thursday I had the boys for the afternoon. They were supposed to be camping in our back garden overnight but the rain came early on Thursday morning so I cancelled the event, mainly because I didn’t want the hassle of drying out tents and other camping equipment. So I took Eddy Banning, George Sandall and Isaac Goldsworthy out to Cromer for the afternoon. We visited the Deep History Coast event at the Cromer Museum where the boys learnt about flint napping and digging holes with antler picks to poop in. We then went to the lifeboat station, walked along the beach, climbed the 46 steps back up to the town and had combo rainbow coloured ice creams before returning back to Norwich. The boys then had a mad hour on Pilling Park before their parents collected them, and we now have a more sedate visit to Ketts Heights and fishing on the River Wensum planned for the last Thursday of the Summer Holidays.

I spent 2½ days installing the plywood cell walls into the loft; 19 joists with 4 panel sections fixed to each, making 76 pieces of plywood lifted into the loft and screwed down by me, along with making a box section for the loft hatch and a new box to act as the loft hatch which is also to be filled with 200 mm of insulation.  The insulation installers turned up at the allotted appointment time, and 30 minutes later the job was completed, and immediately I began to feel the difference in the whole house. Each room is warmer by 2-3⁰C, and the house is quieter: from inside generated noise, and especially from the background noise of the city: which over the last 15 months we had become so use to.
I have decided to dispose of the old sections of bedroom units and old wardrobe pieces that have made up the floor of the loft and will replace them with 9mm plywood, I may even glue a piece 18 mm insulation board to the underside of each new section of plywood flooring before I lay it down in place. Yes, it will be more expense, but we are here in this house for the long term, and once it is do, it is done. …… and it will save us more on the heating and fuel bills.
While I am still on the subject of fuel bills, insulation and the like, the main contracting company that installed the insulation under this scheme has informed us that we also qualify for the Barclays bank carbon off-set scheme for a completely free solar panel installation: up to a maximum of 46 sq/mtrs. In a nutshell Barclays bank premises across the country consume a lot of electricity and have a very large carbon foot print, and they receive off-set carbon credits by covering our roof with solar panels with us producing electricity which we either consume and use to reduce our bill, or sell to the national grid. So we are now going along the road of checking through all of the small print, whilst waiting for the pre- installation survey later this week.
Clearance work has at long last begun in our garden ready for the installation of 2 of the new planters which are a major part of our 9 sq/mtr project. I have a large fibreglass storage box to move before grubbing out a spindly Buddleia tree.  He frames for the new planters have been made from reclaimed pallet stringer timbers, and are waiting to be clad with old pallet deck planks before they are put in place.
However, work as a contracting mechanical engineer and pallet bar sales have really taken off and all of a sudden I have not got all the time I need to get these projects done. Add to that the fact that my 50th birthday is approaching: only 8 weeks away, and Lois wants it all in place, the decking cleared and the garden tidied before I can have a party, I am really going to have to get on and do at every available opportunity.
The plywood cells in the loft prior to the extra insulation being installed:

One of the many wasp nests that I found in the loft while doing this job. That is Norfolk reed  the roof tiles have been laid on; it’s been there for 77 years:

The yellow fibreglass storage box that will have to be moved. It will be turned around 90 degrees and placed tight up against the blue water butts. One planter will be installed where the yellow box currently is, and the second where the pallet is sitting. Alas the small Buddleia will have to come out.
In this photo is where all of our 9 sq/mtr project will be sited. Our original 3 tier vegetable planter is on the left of the photo. ,
The current state that I have our decking area in. Lois is getting fed up with not be able to enjoy it, while I have a pallet reclamation yard there. I have over 1000 linear mtrs of timber stacked up there.

Just another week that has gone by. 20 August 2022

This week has been a little better in general for me.

One of my pleasures on every other Friday morning is to visit my friend Sister Mary Richards. She is 95 years old, a retired Catholic Jesuit Nun and we have been friends since late October 2004. She now lives in an assisted living apartment at the Great Hospital, Norwich. Sister Mary has been an inspiration and has had great influence upon me, and especially from when I moved to the Norwich area in June 2006. I really enjoy my fortnightly 1½ hour long visits I have with Sister Mary and she still manages to inspire and influence me. Recently during one of our visits she encouraged me to write down my story beginning with the incident that ultimately brought her into my life and I have agreed to do that on the single condition that it is only offered for publishing upon my death. I also have at least a couple of funny stories involving my interactions with her, but I think I’ll save those to tell another time.

Sister Mary Richards is a 95 year old retired Catholic Jesuit Nun, and she has been my friend since late October 2004

Another highlight of my week was feeling well enough to go fishing at the bottom of the hill on the River Wensum between the Norwich Yacht Station and the Bishop’s Bridge. Not one but two short session and on the second I took 7 year old George along with me on his first ever fishing trip. We landed two small Roach on bread paste under a waggler but missed several more on the strike. Katie asked me to mind 2 year old Arthur for a couple of hours on Friday morning while she went to work. This was the first time Arthur had been with me without his brother, but he was absolutely fine. First we popped into Angling Direct to buy a new disgorger to replace the one I lost earlier in the week and a couple of new floats and float rubbers. The guy at the till informed that if I spent another quid I would qualify for a free 3 metre long whip introduction to angling set-up because I had walked into the shop with young Arthur with me. Arthur and I then went to Waterloo Park for an hour and he was as good as gold on the play ground. During the afternoon I was unwell again and enough for it to prevent me from going to my lottery funded Softly Softly Yoga session again ….. I’ve been too ill to attend these session for far too long and come Hell or high water I am going next Friday afternoon. It was also my intention on my way home from Yoga to go and have a cuppa with my friend Clive as he has just been discharged from a 3 month stay in hospital, alas I was yet again thwarted by my illness, but there is always next week

Presently my creative writing is sort of languishing in a lethargic literary labyrinth. I know where the story is going and where it ends but I have decided to lengthen that journey, adding a few more twists and turns. In late March due to me having contracted Pneumonia and then whilst still being ill and discharged from hospital, I postponed my first novel’s late April launch which would have coincided with the 80^th anniversary of the commencement of the Baedeker air raids upon Norwich and which was the real and now historical event I have chosen to close my first novel. It was an overly cautious and now looking back on it also a foolish decision made on my part. However, I was originally discharged too early from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and I then almost immediately I contracted a serious ear infection that placed me straight back into hospital due my local GPs concerns over my suppressed immune system and any subsequent complications that may arise.

During my bout of Pneumonia my diuretics were withdrawn and this overturned all of the good work they had previously been doing at reducing my size and weight; basically I was pissing away this excess fluid and I was on target to bring myself down to a comfortable 85kg. Alas, I am currently languishing at 101kg, but the diuretics have been reinstated and after only a single week I am starting to shed some of that retained water mass.

My exercise is rather limited at the moment and has been since the onslaught of my Kidney failure. A build up of oedema around my heart and lungs is continuing to make me breathless, tired and unable to maintain anything physical for more than a few minutes. I have realised my limitations and have now attained myself the position of being able to do light housework, hobbies and projects in 30 minute long sessions accompanied by 90 minutes of rest. This has also given me the opportunity to undertake a daily moderate 15 minutes long Tai-Flow module 1 Tai Chi exercise, which I have been following after a 30-45 minutes rest with a 15 minutes long session comprising of 10 repetitions of basic stance and the first four positions of Tai Chi Staff exercises. I am stiff, ungainly and rusty through lack of practice, but my Holly wood staff is now a pleasure to use since I debarked and oiled it. The online advice given by present day Medieval Marital Arts Staff Fighting Masters indicates that my staff is too short and all though I’m not following any of the European staff fighting styles I would tend to agree that a staff of the length they recommend would be better balanced and allow me to make more fluid and graceful movements. To that end when Lois & I go out anywhere I have my eyes focused on the hedges, tree stands and copses seeking out a suitably straight growing piece that I could make into a staff that has length that is 115% of my height. To date I have seen some suitable growing Beech, Blackthorn, Hazel and Hornbeam that may become new staff candidates once the winter arrives. Even then it is going to be a long and drawn out process as the freshly cut timber will require at least 18 to 24 months to season in a dry dark place prior to debarking and oiling, so I think I am going to make the selection of a suitable piece of timber, harvesting it, seasoning and producing a staff an annual event that will encompass a different indigenous hardwood species each year.

10 days ago I re-oiled my Holly wood practice and training staff with Walnut oil for the 13th time. Then it was laid up against this south facing wall on our house in the sunshine for the oil to soak in and surface dry, but because of my illness it has remained there throughout all of last week’s heatwave and up until this morning The Walnut oil has not been soaked up, nor has dried this time but it has remained on the surface which means I’ve hit the sweet spot with 12 individual coats on my my staff and after a proper wipe down it will not require re-oiling until maybe Christmas or the New Year

Norwich Community Chaplaincy.

Hmmm! For whatever reason I seem to keep forgetting to fill out the application forms for a voluntary position prior to going on the training course in September. First a hospital admission got in the way, then our wedding got in the way, then my mother died and then I was quite ill again and as always it is precious time that is constantly slipping away from me. However, on Thursday morning I sat at my keyboard for a couple of hours and got the application forms filled out and emailed off. Now I have to wait a week or so to see if my application was successful, because if it is my weekly two hours of training will begin on Tuesday the 6^th of September and will continue until mid October..

Gareth’s Glorious Games seem to have taken a back seat although they are still going out on loan to various clubs and groups, but making and painting new games has ground to a complete halt. Partly because of my illness but mainly because of the heatwave and my lack of enthusiasm at wanting to work up a sweat rather than lounge about on the sofa with my Kindle. The cooler weather is just around the corner and with it I will begin the work on the games again.

My friend Tony wants a portable wood-burning stove suitable for camp cooking on and I want some MDF discs laser engraved so guess what he and I are getting for Christmas from each other. I have found one of those short DIY video projects online and this one seems to be the home-made gas bottle stove design that ticks all my boxes: http://www.facebook.com/craftypanda/videos/1110197826579220

There are a couple of suitable donor gas cylinders that I’ve had for some considerable time, they’ve both been earmarked for repurposing. I would now like to convert them into wood-burning stoves and it will be Tony’s that I make first, mainly because Tony wants to use his stove as soon as I can physically make it, but also because I want to build his as a working prototype for the wood-burning stove I want to use next year. My repurposed gas cylinder wood burning stove will be used almost exclusively for Cast Iron Dutch Oven and Cast Iron Skillet cooking that will be featured as video segments in my Go-With-Gareth blog postings and on my YouTube channel and as such I may need to make specific modifications to it to suit both me, my style of cooking and the Cast Iron cookware pieces that I use.

On that note, I’ll close this week’s blog post with a link to the recent video of me cooking scrambled eggs in a Cast Iron Skillet for the very first time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lGE43MgMI so please like the video, subscribe to my channel and ring the little bell to keep up to date with the video segments of this blog.

Here we go again!

It has been about 5 months since I last posted in my 9 sq/metres blog. All has not fared well with our efforts and we kind of, almost, but not quite gave up completely upon the 2012 season during a continually wet September. Having lost so many  crops to the weather, pests and blight, our next  stumbling block was a serious infestation of  Spanish Super slugs, and these are the tough guys of the land molluscs. They will literally eat anything including plants normally considered slug proof because of bitter tasting parts, poisonous plants and carrion……………. they made short work of the leaves on our rhubarb, even eating the leaves of the Leylandii hedge clippings brash, and according to the University of East Anglia and the John Innes Centre scientists they will even eat carrion. Suffice to say that even the birds that regularly visit our garden will not eat them, so the buggers flourished through the wet but mild autumn we experienced. The only effective natural predator seemed to be the abundant numbers of common Toads that are either resident or visitors to our garden, but alas before bonfire night had arrived our most welcome and encouraged indigenous amphibian allies had already retired to their annual winter hibernation slumber.

The only crops that we continued to harvest through until January were Brussels Sprouts, Curly Kale and some odd Parsnips. The cold weather, snow on the ground and frosts (although not too many seriously harsh frosts) began in December and have continue through January and on to the end of February. During the first week of January  I developed a bad cold and before the month was out I had suffered a dose of flu that although only lasted 72 hours or thereabouts, it incapacitated me for over a week and since recovering from that I have endured both ear and sinus infections, a bad chest infection and yet another cold along with bad cough. With the  exception of the week spent recovering from the flu I have continued to work: I am a self employed one man band and if I don’t do it no-one else will. Fortunately I have been confined to my workshop with little if no direct interaction with the outside world, and though my workshop is unheated I found that 30 minutes of welding first thing in my work day was enough to bring the temperature of my workshop up to an acceptable level and if I continued to weld 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off throughout the day the radiant heat given off by the work pieces as they cooled down was sufficient to maintain reasonable working conditions.

At times during the last couple of months I have struggled to keep up with the orders for my products, and the Dual Head Pallet Dismantling Bars have exceeded the sales I made during this time last year by at least 125% and up to almost 135%. Alas, I still have an unheated painting area and have experienced some difficulty with paint drying and hardening; around 24 hours when the ambient temperature is above 5*C, but increasing to well over 72 hours drying and hardening time when the temperature is hovering at around zero or lower; as it has been for the last few weeks. This has created lulls in my day to day work load of several hours here and there as my paint drying racks have been filled to capacity even when my  self-erecting scaffolding tower was pressed into service to provide temporary extra drying rack space. This semi down time has not been wasted, but it could have been better utilised undertaking maintenance and improvements within the workshop and business in general. Essential jobs have been completed, but others have been postponed until the warmer weather arrives. However, an elderly retired beekeeping friend has kept me on my toes and together we have recently made 8 national beehives from reclaimed pallet timbers. 2 of these hives will be for us, 2 will be for Keith and thus bring him up to 6 hives that he manages, and the remaining 4 national hives we have made will be offered for sale and thus hopefully financing and covering the running costs of both Keith’s and our hives…………… although at the moment he is not too happy with me securing the waste fondant produced by a small local independent bakery. Keith had already approached this bakery about disposing of the waste fondant and using it to feed his Bee colonies through the winter months, but he was turned down. However, I have a newly acquired EA waste licence (more of this to come in the following months), and by “flashing my ticket” I can now collect the waste fondant on a regular basis which will be stored in a freezer until needed, and when this time does arrive I will of course share it with Keith and some other newly made beekeeping friends.

Our 9 square metres project has stalled, but it has not died; it is not necessarily in need of resurrection, but a little resuscitation would not be amiss. Yet again I have turned our garden into an over winter mess that needs to be tidied. Most of this mess has been generated by reclaiming pallets for some really nice projects that I wish to complete during this coming springtime and summer, but I also started to lay a garden pathway in early December which then got abandoned due to both work commitments and the appalling weather we have endured, and commitments in our social life have also exacted a toll. Norwich AlleyCat has been rather unsuccessful during the winter months, and my illness has not helped in anyway, so AlleyCat has been shelved until after Easter (I have not even ridden a bicycle so far this year!), and if I am completely honest I am tempted to restrict the Allycats to only the warmer months of the year.

I have committed myself to producing a 12 track compilation CD in aid of replacing the aging and now unreliable sound system for the Norwich Music House, and work towards this goal is both on track and very satisfying: I should have all the music files in, fully produced and edited before the end of May, which will allow us the opportunity to release the (first) album for sale on the Autumn Equinox as planned. I have generated more than enough interest and enthusiasm throughout the Norwich live music scene to the point that I have the promise of material to produce 3 and maybe 4 CDs to support our cause.  As yet and 2 months into this project we only have seven of the required twelve tracks for the first CD, but that is only because the additional five tracks needed are still in the rehearsal stages having been written especially for this album………… such is the enthusiasm from the local bands and musicians for this project of mine. 

Regardless of my condition, or the prevailing weather on the 2nd and 3rd of March I will tidy the garden up, and present it ready as a canvas for both Lois and I to resuscitate back into life our 9 sq/metres project. Our current plans are drastic, and will included the removal of almost if not all the plants from the vegetable patch and relevant planters allowing us to begin again, and to build upon the knowledge gained and our mistakes made last year.

OMG, it’s been 8½ years since I last posted.

Oh my goodness, it has been at least 8½ years since I added anything to this blog, and I think it is high time that it was resurrected.

Lots in my life has changed since I last posted.

In May 2022 I turned 60 years old, on the 17th of June Lois & I got married and just twelve days later my 80 year old mother passed away.

I have been ill with Kidney failure for three years and being seriously ill during the Coronavirus Pandemic inflicted a heavy toll upon both me and Lois.

I have been associated with the Scout movement all of my life and during September 2021 I managed to obtain places for Isaac Viggars and his school friend Isaac Goldsworty in the Beavers Lodge of the 3^rd & 4^th (Ack’s Own) Norwich Sea Scouts. When Lois & I got married I inherited her niece, Katie who has a seven year old son, George and just a few weeks before our wedding I also managed to obtain a place for him in this Beavers’ Lodge as well.

I have recently taken up Cast Iron Cooking; only I could take up up cooking in and on Cast Iron during a summer heat wave. I intend to both cook with Cast Iron Dutch Ovens and Skillets on a camp fire and on the gas stove in our kitchen. I have been associated with the Scout movement all of my life and I personal began campfire cooking 50 years ago as a 10 year old when I was in the 4^th Melton Mowbray “Darwin” Cub Pack. One of my proudest achievements still is that I obtained my Cub Scouts Cooking Badge during the 1972 annual Scout Group Summer Camp that was held in a field just outside of Tywyn in mid Wales. However, it was not Cast Iron that we cooked on in the Scouts but ex-MOD surplus disposal British Army enamelled cookware from the 2^nd World War and the 1950’s National Service eras.

Due to ill health I closed my one man business; Cargo Cycles back in February and I still have a reasonably large stock of now old-new stock steel including an amount of 4mm thick chequered floor plate that I picked up for nothing from a site clearance in 2014. These pieces are 1010mm x 320mm rectangles and I have sufficient of them to make myself quite a large wood-burning combined stove, oven and grill set-up. One big enough to accommodate two large Cast Iron Dutch ovens on the stove top and a grill/oven section. I also still have two 1000mm x 1000mm squares of 4mm thick steel chequered floor plate that I purchased in 2018 to make two “chopped-off” pyramid fire pits for our garden. I shall be making one of these uniquely styled fire pits and using it for both spit roasting and as an indirect heat source of piled coals for lower & slower cooking in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven. Today it is August the 14^th 2022 and I have set myself the goal of having these all these out door cooking steel fabrications made and working on or before my 61^st birthday on the 8^th of May 2023 (subject to my on-going illness). When completed I will introduce them as part of the cooking segments for this revived Go With Gareth Blog.

In the meantime here is a short video of me cooking the most delicious and creamy scrambled eggs in one of my Cast Iron Skillets in our kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lGE43MgMI

Got myself one of these for a very reasonable price from ebay, and the only new part that I needed to refurbish it was a new wick:

As soon as we’ve had a couple of dry days, I’ll shall be up that allotment to burn off all them weeds, ready to grub out the roots. However, paraffin with 0% duty and only 5%VAT is priced at between £2.40-£2.75 a litre here in Norwich……… which is considerably more expensive than either Petrol or Diesel (both of which carry extensive amounts of duty and VAT on them!) and it is therefore nothing less than profiteering by the paraffin retailers; so my Sheen flame gun will be running exclusively on Red Diesel.

OMG, I’ve only gone and done it again.

Here are a few diary posts that I made on the internet during 2008 & 2009 regarding my efforts at being an allotment keeper.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject: Gareth’s lost the plot
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and I am fuming!

I should have check my mail first thing this morning, but left until I was going out.

A letter from the city council regarding my allotment. Due to an oversight on their part. My 125 sq Metre allotment already has a paid up tenant. I have to vacate the plot as the original tenant is all paid up, etc.

I have just spent 4 weeks clearing the overgrown vegetation, digging the whole plot over, eking out all of the bramble and other weed roots, building a 3 section compost heap out of second hand pallets, and had made the framework and laid in the planking for two 12ft X 12ft X 2ft raised vegetable beds made from reclaimed scaffolders boards.

Information gleaned from other allotment holders, indicates that the original tenant lives in a property overlooking the allotments, and speculation is that they have been watching me working over the last month, and have put their claim in just as the plot is ready for planting.

The council has offered me the adjacent overgrown jungle plot.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:56 pm
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I’ve been on the phone to city hall this afternoon, and have met with one of the Parks and open spaces officers (covers allotments). A council worker had marked out the plot for me with spray dye, but it seems that he marked out the wrong plot.

The P&OS officer spoke to the original tenant on the phone, and he is adamant about keeping the plot (even though the other allotment holders that I have spoken to today say that it is over 3 years since he used it).

The options that I have been given are a cash refund pro-rata as tenancy runs from 1st November to 30th October. So even though I have paid my annual £36 rent I will only get £24 back. Or take the adjacent plot and start over from scratch again.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:18 pm
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I have just got off the phone to the P&OS officer. It turns out that the adjacent plot is the one that I should have had, and that I should have checked the dye marks against the plot number on the map I received.

As a gesture of goodwill a work crew of offenders on community service will appear on Friday morning to clear, dig, and transfer the structures to the correct plot for me.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:51 pm
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I’ve calmed down a lot in the last 90 minutes and have seen the funny side. I think it was the threat of the digi photos and video that I had taken of the work in progress being emailed to both ITV Anglia News, and the Eastern daily press that did it.

This afternoon, I got to the point where I was going to spread Sodium Wotsit on the plot, as a sort of scorched earth policy….. ….. ….. If I can’t grow stuff on it, then neither can you!

Tomorrow I am going to move my compost bins and raised bed frames. That way the greenery from the plucked and dug weeds will have some where to be put on Friday. Thankfully it was this morning, and not last week that Wendy & Ray and their 10% wrinkly discount card went to B&Q to buy me a Wheelbarrow, Wolf Hoe, First early and Main crop Seed potatoes. If it had been last week when they were purchased, I would have planted them in the last few days, as I have seen spuds being planted in fields around Norfolk over the last 10 days

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:40 am
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I arrived at the allotment for just before 9 am. Within just a few minutes the mini bus containing the Community Service work crew arrived, and less than 5 minutes later, 15 people were hard at work on my plot. An hour later work stopped for 10 minutes, and when I stood back and perused the work in progress to date, a serious inroad had been made. A crew of 12 wielding spades undertaking the digging and 3 undertaken brush and heavy weed clearance.

The crew broke for lunch at midday, with tea in a big insulated box type urn being served, from the back of the mini bus. 30 minutes of tea, jovial banter, and a few roll ups was enjoyed by all. I spent a few moments surveying the work, which showed that significant progress had been made. The surface weeds and most of the grasses had gone from most of the plot, over half my allotted area had been dug over, and the bottom of one of the raised beds was used as a collection point for various clumps of soil with weeds and roots still attached.

Work resumed at a decent steady pace, 12 people digging the virgin ground, 3 going over the previously dug section, removing missed clumps, and odd pieces of weed roots. At 2 pm work ceased, as Friday is their short day, the same as it is for many in the real commercial and industrial world. Over 2/3rds and closer to 3/4qtrs of the plot had been dug over and weeded. In less than six short hours, a very serious in road had been made, with a promise to return next Friday to help me finish off, and complete any other tasks that I may need help with on the allotment.

Considering all of the duress the allotment had provided for me during the previous week, I am a reasonably happy man.
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Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:05 am
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Another cuppa and I’m off to the allotment to move the compost heap pallets, and the raised beds structures. Hopefully tomorrow when the CS guys arrive, all we have to do Is to dig the plot over. If the surface
Is only dug over, that will be good enough for me, as that will make pulling out the bramble roots and the like so much easier for me
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Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:47 pm
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I deemed it prudent not to take my camera with me yesterday, although I do have photos of WIP on the old plot. You may rest assured that the camera will go up the allotment later this week, and the usual long winded posting will be made by me.

On Monday I plan to order 1 ton (possibly more) of deep litter Turkey muck, which is £8 per ton delivered (basically transportation costs), using this as the base lining for the raised beds. I have changed my mind regarding the size of the raised beds, and now wish to alter them to; four 12 X 6 X 2 beds, rather than two 12 X 12 X 2 beds. This will allow for better all round “from the ground access” rather than tramping all over them.

I shall also chat to the other allotment holders regarding Horse manure from local stables, etc. Society membership and group seed purchases.
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:02 pm
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Unusually for me, chaos has ruled the earlier part of my morning, as I had forgotten about the CS work crew arriving at the allotment to continue the good work started last week.

A quick trip over there to get them started and then off for my first music lesson and DIY exchange session.

The CS crew are continuing with the digging and weed grubbing, and will finish the alterations to the two remaining raised beds. I managed to alter and move two of them earlier in week, with the intention of getting the other two completed and moved before this morning. If they finish these tasks, their supervisor has promised to ridge up 4 rows for potatoes if there is time. Today will be the last time that I will get assistance from a CS work crew, and so far they have done a sterling job.

I have just had my first one hour guitar lesson, and I can now play the A minor, and the E minor chords from classical gas, and I am very chuffed with myself. But will I be able to remember it later tonight, or more importantly over the next few days ? My Tutor’s door has been rubbed down and primed, and so I have met my part of the bargain. I’ve now just got to wait for my Landlord to arrive to do the quarterly inspection on my flat, and then I can get back up to the allotment, hopefully before the CS crew knock off at 2pm.

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:48 pm
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The work that the CS crew has done is magnificent, the whole plot is dug and weeded. One of the compost bins is loaded with loads of bits of weed, grasses, and clumps of roots. The second two raised beds have been assembled in their final positions, and two rows of potato ridges been made. I am extremely happy with all the work and effort that has been put in for me.

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:26 am
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I have got a load more Freecycle scaffolding boards to collect tomorrow, which I will use as a second skin on the raised beds; a bit like double glazing. Because I have used 4 X 4 timbers for the corner posts, nailing the additional boards to the insides of the raised beds should present no problem. I’ll just have to find something to act as an insulation layer between the boards; a bit like cavity wall insulation.

On Monday I have a ton of well rotted deep litter from a Turkey unit being delivered. That works out at 2.3kgs per square metre of Turkey litter for the plot. I have also been offered a free 20 cu/metre load of freshest stable muck. As I have no intentions of using the raised beds straight away, all the stable muck will be placed into them to rot down over the coming months, ready for planting in the Autumn. The 4 raised beds will require about 14 cu/metres to fill them, so I shall heap all 20 cu/metres into them. Hopefully by then the horse muck & straw will be rotting away well, and provide me with hot beds for fresh veg through the winter months.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:50 am
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A very interesting day yesterday.

Pillsbury popped over for lunch (which I managed to burn), bringing with him a bottle of his home-made Mead for me to sample. The original plan was for him to assist me for the day on the allotment. However, last week the City Council temporarily closed access to the allotments due to a possible asbestos contamination scare. Fortunately, I had already spread the Turkey litter as a top dressing on the plot, ready to be worked in with Hoe and Rake, and had heaped up around 25+ cu/mtrs of stable litter into the raised beds. The weather has been appalling this week being both wet and cold, so in reality with the closure due to the asbestos scare I have not lost anytime. Hopefully this week, we will receive the results of the soil samples, and can get right back to it.

Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:18 pm
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Two months on, and the Asbestos decontamination crew arrived this morning to start the clean up process. I managed to sneak into the locked off allotments, just to view what had happened over the last few weeks.

All that hard work wasted! as the weeds have grown back and are approaching waist height. I got off lightly compared with others, as I had a covering of fresh stable manure put down on the surface, but this has only served to reduce the weed ground cover, but has encouraged the growth rates of those that have managed to pushed the straw and muck.

For all intent and purpose, I as well as the other allotment holders have effectually lost the most important part of this Year’s growing season.

On the plus side the council has refunded the ground rents for the whole year, and have promised to get a contractor in to help with the hard preparation work (the cost of this is probably covered by some insurance policy that the council has), and I guess that if I/we push hard enough the Community Service Crew will be made available to us again.

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 7:05 am
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I hope that the few “Set backs” will not defeat me. I had the advantage of being further ahead than I expected, due to the help from the Community Service crew, and I have secured the loan of a Two wheeled tractor. These are the cultivating machines use by the professional growers. So when I do have access restored, I can fly in like a good’un. If I treat the rest of this year as a preparation season, it will be considerably easier in the long run.

It would have been nice to get on, the prospect of low cost fresh veg was the major appeal, but it would have also gone a long way to keeping the Bi-polar condition that I suffer from in check, and me on a more balanced and even keel. However, all is not lost, and with everything else that is pending in my life at the moment, the need for prioritisation and planning will go a long way to reducing the periods of depression that I experience

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:08 pm
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OK,

Just to bring you all up to date.

It was an eventful few months on my allotment; The doubled tenancy, the asbestos contamination scare, and the appalling weather of last season.
It didn’t really work for me, although I did crop some Potatoes, Parsnips, carrots and Swede.

I received bad news in January; Gareth really had lost the plot, but in a sort of good way. My tenancy on my allotment was rescinded as my plot was required to make an access road. Norwich City Council have recently been opening up new areas on our allotments from the adjacent overgrown “waste ground”. My allotment was in a direct path for the diggers, and dozers, along with building a new access road. However, I have been offered (and I accepted) one of the new plots. As from today (05/03/09) I have become the tenant of this new plot.

It is right at the beginning of the growing season, I am really looking forward to get over there in my spare time. This year Mikki; one of my 3M’s will be sharing the allotment with me. She is a professional gardener, with loads of energy and enthusiasium, and amongst other things she is a vegetarian.

We are going over there to make a start on the new plot this weekend, and I promise loads of photos and a decent write up as we progress through the year.
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Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:54 pm
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I popped over there this afternoon, and it is another virgin plot that I have been assigned; more hard work for my spade.

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:01 pm
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Gareth’s New Plot;

Most of you will have followed the trials and tribulations that I experienced with my introduction to an allotment and allotment keeping last year. Two virgin plots, an asbestos contamination scare, and some personal disillusionment;

http://overthegate.myfreeforum.org/about7487.html

Well,

Gareth has a new plot; his third virgin plot in 15 months. I received the tenancy agreement and keys last Tuesday, but today was the first time that I have been up there to survey properly. It is 250 sq/mtrs with a ground rent of £14.99 per year, has a mature Walnut tree at the east end, and a Hawthorn hedge at the west end. This year, one of my 3M’s; Mikki will be sharing both the labours and the fruits with me, and hopefully it will be a success third time around.

Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:58 am

I continually battled against brambles for over 4 months, applying many doses of weedkiller, using a commercial strimmer with a metal blade and hacking away with a sickle with some gusto, along with digging for glory with extreme determination only to have the continual growth and creeping of the Brambles knock me into total and abject submission.

No doubt you are now wondering why I have bored you almost to death with such a long post reminiscing my failures with allotments about 5 years ago. Well, the answer is extremely simple; my friend, Sachiko has just been granted an allotment tenancy here in Norwich, and ask for someone to share the plot with her….. and guess who volunteered?