Outdoors

Another glorious sunny day - so time for the allotment after doing chores round the house. I did let Milkshake outside before I went.She was most curious by everything in the back garden and wasn't too bothered by Tilly and Polly in their run. They seemed pretty indifferent to her too! I shooed her back in when i left as I don't want her getting out of the garden and then finding she can't get back in - the drop the other side is much further. I will have to move the bamboo from my back door and see if she can get in and out under that, blocking it off when the chickens are out of course! Cats out chickens in will be the rule in more ways than one! 
The allotment was positively humming - not just with insects but people! Everyone felt the urge to get on with allotment tasks! I chatted with several and gave Colourful Mai some shoes that were too small for me when I bought them - but they were for a wedding so one day of discomfort I had been willing to endure for matching outfit and shoes!
I then pulled back the carpet on part of my plot to start digging it over ready for the potatoes to go in. I was so pleased to find 3 slow worms - 4 if you count the little baby one with it's mum!  
My fellow Allotmenteer was there of course - and we looked at my wonderful soil full of earthworms and my leeks - I was undecided whether to pull some or see if they would get bigger without producing a flower stalk. I decided to pick the biggest and then photograph it against my purple shed whilst he made us a cup of tea! He thought I was mad and should take it in my shed and caption it "leek in my shed!" and came up with lots of variations on the theme! 
I didn't get much digging done as I started at the edge next to the couch grass - had to take out the long white roots from every spadeful! Once I had done that I came up against the raspberry roots - just as invasive!  All very satisfying to get out but time consuming! But if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing well!