1. I make the most of the limited sunshine by going to the allotment. I’ve not been for a couple of weeks – it’s not stopped raining for long enough in daylight to go – but I’m pleased to see it’s not doing too badly: waterlogged but otherwise faring well. I work for a couple of hours – taking down the last of the pea & bean supports, pruning back fruit bushes & removing the dead leaves from the strawberry plants and finally digging over half of one of my long beds & cheekily sowing some spare broad beans seeds (it’s a little late for overwintering them but it’s so mild that I thought it was worth it). It’s clearly a rest period for the plots but by the time I go home for lunch, they look a little neater.
1b. Decanting water from one barrel to the more sheltered one. Something about it scratches a thirty year old memory – of playing at the water table on a hot day in infant school.
1c. Breaking up a coir block with minimal water: it flakes into rich brown fibres as I scrape at the surface.
1d. T-shirt weather for digging on the shortest day of the year.
2. Lunch is very pale but not bland: the turkey has a rich flavour, as does the cheese, and the toast is almost nutty in its browner spots.
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