I haven't updated my blog for so long that I wasn't sure it would still be here so I was glad to find that it was. A lot of things have changed the big one being that I am no longer a student nurse but a staff nurse working on a surgical ward. It took 3 long years to get here but I love my job. The blog name will stay the same - for the time being anyway.

I have been busy on my allotment. I brought a new shed. I brought a small metal one that I thought would be difficult to vandalise - it was up about 3 weeks before it was vandalised and someone used my cutters to cut into the side of it, I was not happy. I have grown lots of veg, some with more success than others.

My blog is going to change a bit. I will continue to write about my allotment but I have read so many other lovely blogs recently about cooking and crafts that I am going to also blog about cooking and crafts.

I will be blogging again before the end of the week.

It is nearly a year since I last posted on this blog and a lot has happened in this time. I have now moved into the second year of nursing. I have been let loose on the wards and, among other things, have given injections, put in catheters, seen a total knee replacement operation (without fainting) assisted a doctor in minor surgery removing skin cancers as well as making beds and bed baths - great stuff. The academic work is getting harder and is taking up more of my time.
My allotment is doing fine but doesn't have much on it at the moment although I did pick my first rhubarb last week. Part of the roof of my shed came off in the high winds a month ago. My allotment neighbour did a repair job on it but I think I am going to need a new shed shed before too much longer. Today is lovely so I am going to go there this afternoon as tomorrow I have heard it might snow! Looking at my blog for this time last year it was already hot and I was putting my potatoes in but I think I might leave them for a while yet.

The picture above shows the bud that grew on one of my garlic plants. Thanks to RobD of a plot too far who advised me to cut it off that is what I did just after I took this photo, strangely enough it smelt of garlic. The lettuce that had started bolting looked like they were trying to become trees and I have cut them down. My allotment neighbour has taken some to feed his tortoise and my mum, who is feeding her neighbours tortoises this week, has taken the rest. I have planted a lot of extra veg including sweetcorn, beetroot and pak-choi. I have been waiting for the carrots to start coming up that I planted a month ago but they don't seem to be doing anything. I haven't been up over the weekend as there has been so much rain and it has been very cold and windy but I went up today to see what the damage was. As expected there were loads of weeds. I did however pick some lettuce, radishes and a small courgette that I had with my tea. I also picked my first garlic which I got really exited about - that might be the highlight of my week. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a nice day so that I can get up to the allotment to get rid of the weeds and pick the rest of the garlic that is ready.

On Friday it was my nephew Jamie's 12th birthday

Happy Birthday Jamie

I have been to the allotment a couple of times this week to try and get rid of the weeds that keep coming up and was up there quite a while yesterday. Some of my lettuces that I planted a while ago were starting to bolt. They weren't ready to be picked so I don't know why this was happening but as I didn't want them to go to waste I picked some that looked like they were just about to start bolting and have had a few salads this weekend. I don't know whether the ones that have already bolted are OK to eat. Another strange thing that has happened is one of my garlic has grown what looks like a 'bud' on the top of it (I really don't know how else to describe it) I have never grown garlic before so I don't know whether it is meant to do this. I will try and get some photos later this week. I did have a visit from a robin who didn't seem worried that I was so close to him, I hope to see him again.

I have an exam at the end of this week so I am spending a lot of time revising as I feel like I know nothing.

Haven't posted in the last few weeks as I have been very busy. I finished my assignment and got it in on time. At the allotment I have planted carrots and parsnips and have done lots of weeding as we have had a little rain so there have been lots of weeds. I have got a cover for my sprouts which have been eaten by birds! I hope to get back today weather permitting.

On Sunday it was my niece's 5th birthday.

Happy Birthday Bethany

I went up the allotment yesterday. I planted some lettuce plants, cucumber, courgette and marrow. I did lots of digging, it was very hot and I had forgotten to put on suncream so ended up with a red face and neck.

I have taken some photos. They are not great but give an idea of how the allotment looks. My fruit trees are looking very pretty. Two of them are cherry trees, one of them looks lovely when all the cherries are out but they are so tart that even the birds leave them alone; the other had a lot of cherries last year but they must have been sweet because the birds ate them before they ripened, I am going to try and cover it this year. The middle tree is an apple. I also have one asparagus spear, I'm not sure whether to cut it or not.

I am still trying to finish my assignment and as I only have one week left to do it I need to get a move on.

On Friday it was my nephew Adam's birthday.

Happy Birthday Adam.

This morning I went to my allotment to tidy my shed out. The shed was on my plot when I took on the allotment just over a year ago. It is very old - a makeshift type of shed, and full of rubbish left by the previous occupant. My mother came with me to help and to be honest I would never have got it done if she hadn't been there. We started pulling everything out of the shed and organising it into what I wanted to keep or what could go to be burnt or to the tip when we suddenly heard something moving in the shed. I'd had my suspicions that there were mice in the shed but the noise sounded too noisy to be mice and my mum took a look in and thought that she saw a rat!!! I was as far away from the shed as I could get at this point and left it to my mum to poke around in the shed with the end of a hoe, she poked in some material that was in there and there was a commotion and a squirrel jumped out and ran off into the trees on the edge of the allotments. We could hear some squeaking and realised there was a baby squirrel in the shed, it was very small and it's eyes were not yet opened. Neither of us was brave enough to deal with it and as much as I love wildlife I didn't want it to stay in my shed so went to find a friendly man on the site who moved it to the trees at the edge of the site in the hope that mother squirrel would come and get it. We then pulled all the old material out of the shed and found the nest along with another two squirrel's. So the friendly man came to help us out again. I didn't listen when he tried to tell me that squirrel's were just rats with tails! We finally managed to get the shed emptied and then what I wanted to keep put back in tidily along with the fold up wheelbarrow that I brought to replace the one that was stolen from my site. It now looks very tidy and I intend to keep it that way. I need to get back to the allotment next week so I can do some weeding.