The new part of the plot begins to take shape

Spent most of the day at the allotment. Good to have had a few days of reasonably dry weather. The morning was taken up with sorting out the new part of the plot. I moved the compost and manure bins back a little to give use more growing space, then filled both with supplies of manure to rot down over the coming 12 months.

I then sorted out a huge pile of debris which had been dumped on our plot, some ligitimately, some not. Piled all the evergreen stuff in one area and all the woody stuff in another area ready to be burned. Finally moved one of the wooden paths from the main part of the allotment to give a route to the compost bins.

In the afternoon all I did was to prepare the beds for the runner and climbing french beans by digging 2 trenches and filling them with a mixture of manure and compost. In digging in the compost I found a kitchen fork that had been missing for over 3 years. It must have got thrown out with the vegetable waste into the compost bin by mistake. That makes a fork and a knife I've found in the compost this year. Still 3 teaspoons and another knife to find Susan tells me.

Pleased to say the new shed survived the storms, undamaged and dry - which suprised me.

Nice to work on the plot and pass the time of day with people walking up and down the path alongside my allotment. At least 4 different people stopped to have a chat and together with the other allotment holders who also came to have a word it was a wonder I got anything done.

You get to know people - there's one old chap who has a very disobedient dog called Charlie. You know when Charlie is being take for a walk as all you hear is "Charlie come here", "leave that alone", "come back" "get down" "Charlie, Charlie, CHARLIE" All part of life's rich tapestry.