This past Saturday I joined Carla on her allotment.....was told to bring a book and that the deck chairs would be ready....and true to her word, they were....
Needless to say not much work was done by moi - the book (Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott..bought on my recent trip to NY...I nipped into one last bookshop before meeting the long suffering Caroline for lunch asI think by this time she was heartily sick of bookshops..) was discarded & I couldn't resist playing with my camera instead....no way could I just sit there & let all this go unrecorded..
Carla has already put in lots of hard graft getting her raised salad beds ready for the winter tenants..corn salad (lamb's lettuce), winter purslane ....
This is a time when most of the production is over...but the dahlias are still in full swing..
and the autumn fruiting raspberries - variety Autumn Bliss - are showing no signs of stopping....
I like to call this - Trio of Produce....
The artichokes have had it and the cardoon is on it's last legs too but, from an architectural point of view, still striking...
After some lovely filter coffee and a bit more harvesting we bid the allotment goobye..until next week..
These allotments in the UK are many things to many people - to numeous men an excuse to escape the domestic chaos, to parents of little ones a chance to produce healthy food and teach their offspring that vegetables don't have to come shrink wrapped from the local supermarket and to many others - working singly or communally in contemplative silence - a calm oasis from which they emerge refreshed & more able to deal with the (sometimes harsh) reality that is modern life...we love them!