Thursday, June 15, 2006

What a pane

Life on the allotment is settling into a routine. I turn up after dropping the kids off at school. Connect a hose to the site tap and leave it filling the water butt whilst I water the seedbed with a can. Check the water butt is still only half full so leave it filling whilst I get on with a bit of digging. Other allotment holders pass by and make encouraging comments,
"You're doing really well"
"Thanks, it's not exactly digging weather is it?"
or,
"Do you need any cabbage seedlings? I have some left over"
"That would be brilliant, thanks!"
or,
"Do you know your butt's overflowing?"
"Yes, it's these shorts"
Oh, I see what you mean.
I've got double digging down to a fine art. Working along one strip at a time - dig to a double spade depth then dig the next strip, heaving the earth into the hole left by the last lot, like this http://tinyurl.com/frt4m Until I hit several panes of glass stacked one on top of the other about 18" down. So I spent the last hour scrobbling around in the muck like one of the Time Team http://www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/ picking out millions of shards of glass and trying not to catch tetanus. I think I may need Ed to do some digging at the weekend after all.

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