We’re back!
After almost a one year hiatus, we are back at the allotment.
A new job in Sheffield and a some rather significant lifestyle changes have made it very difficult to find the time. But we’ve had a breakthrough.
Joe’s grandad came over from Japan a couple of weeks ago and he is a very keen gardener. In just three visits to the plot he managed to turn over about a third. Tomorrow, I’m off with Joe to do a bit myself. I hope to bring back some photo’s of our efforts.
There has been a price to pay for our absence. Obviously, most of the work I put in last year to clear the weeds and bramble has been rolled right back to square one. But I suppose that’s no more than we deserve. The other, more upsetting penalty is the arrival of our new neighbours. Of course, not specifically their arrival, but the fact that they have come in and appropriated a substantial portion of what I thought was our land. Now, I have to be careful here as I have never actually measured our plot with an appropriate instrument, I simply worked to the borders that already existed. Now since we allowed our plot to once again become overgrown, these borders became unclear. The upsetting part is that the line that has been re-drawn by our new neighbours does not look very straight. It appears to lean conveniently, just enough, to incorporate what we thought was our pear tree - in their favour.
I could be wrong and the people next door may have measured their plot correctly. If so, fine. But I just feel I need to measure it myself to be sure. So that will be our first task tomorrow. I have my tape-measure and luckily we have an absolutely defined edge to our plot from which we can make accurate measurements. As per our rental agreement I shall be marking out a 295 yd2 area.
I really hope it includes ‘our’ pear tree. If not, that’s cool. But at least we’ll know.