Biopsies & PET Scan

Yep that's me and one can see what Tumour "George has done to my jaw appart from eating the roots to two of my teeth he has hollowed out my jaw making it like an aero inside and I have an egg shell of the jaw left. 

So at this stage I've had two teeth removed which can be seen on the left image and the void created by "George"  and four biopsies taken

I also had another two biopsies taken into my jaw and a number via needles into my neck and throat, by two different consultants one male and the other female called Alex thus the plasters on my face   

So based on your sugar levels and weight they dose you up with radiation and make you sit in a broom cupboard that is made to feel like being out in the country for 45 minutes and then they scan you to see where your body is sending help to fight infections and nasty stuff.

It made me fell like a captain of a federation star ship 

View from the Captains Chair 

 Once cooked it's about 40 minutes in the  MRI tube being scanned 

Bank Holiday

Monday Bank Holiday

Another long day on the allotment doing things I had not planned and not completing things I had planned. Does that happen to you?

I had planned to get the Plot 1 Greenhouse clear and ready for action and perhaps even get the Quadgrows going and the first tomatoes transplanted into them.

Then I saw that the sun has been drying the woodchip pile and that there was lots of nice dry woodchips on top of the pile that has been there way too long.

I decided that the first job of the day should be to skim the good material off the surface before someone else had the same idea, and complete the path to my Greenhous Climbing Frame from the pebble pool.

I sorted the storage crates out from behind the plot 1 shed and labelled them "Blank Sheets" and "Planting Sheets" and proceeded to sort and clean all the weed membrane & planting sheets that have been squirrelled away all over the place and store them away in the crates for easy access.

I also need to work out what other planting membrane sheets I need to make for this year.

Time is getting short and I really want to get everything in the ground before I have my operation so that the allotment only need watering and some weeding whilst I'm out of action.

Potatoes in buckets showing.

Excess undried coffee grounds now being stored in a Dalek and not the greenhouse as I need space in the greenhouse to grow.

Washing Planting Membrane Sheets

Washing Planting Membrane Sheet

s

A bit of a sort out in the potting shed as items are now being moved out to harden up or go straight into the ground.

Burpless Tasty Green Cucumbers into Square Foot Garden Bed 2 and I found the other two watering pipes that will go into SFG Bed 1.

Dwarf French Beans planted up last night and tonight Crystal Apple and Crystal Lemon & an additional Luffa added to the Climbing frame.

I need an overcast day to dig out the return leg of the bed and install the hedge cuttings and raise the bed up and get it ready for planting as I have some French climbing beans to plant in there

Shed Maintenance

The weather has been great over the long bank holiday weekend and I have spent a whole lot of time on the allotment.

I arrived about 9:15 and the temperature in the potting shed was already between 29C - 30C in the plot 1 greenhouse it was between 41 - 43.3C with the fans going and the door closed.

I filled in the open joints that are appearing in the Plot 1 T&G boarding to the front thanks to the sun constantly shining on the front elevation.

A couple of coats of red cedar paint over the filler later in the day and each time I passed on my trips back and forth past the shed I did some more boards on the front. I still need to do the rest of the shed but that's a job for another day.

I've had making this bird feeder in my mind for some time, and in clearing the greenhouse and finding bird feeders that Emma & Kelly had bought me in the past, and unearthing some basket hangers, I screwed them to the old handrail that I brought down to the allotment when I had the stairlift fitted 10 years ago. An example of how the wood pile I have in the racking is useful.

I moved the sweetcorn out into the Square Foot Gardening Bed to try and give them some more sunshine and to attempt the straighten them up as they have been leaning towards the sun in the potting shed.

As I gave all the plants in the potting shed a bath yesterday I put out the cucumbers I wanted to plant out in the sunshine to dry out so they would be easier to move into their final homes.

Dry path worthy woodchip skimmed off the top of the pile

Greenhouse on Plot 1 now clear of a lot of stored coffee grounds. I have dried , processed and put into containers what was in the greenhouse, and now have been filling trays of fresh coffee grounds to dry out.

The smell in the Greenhouse is great! I may be awake and high for some time.

Excess coffee grounds now stored in a Dalek on plot 1A near the greenhouse and I also shared the love a gave a sack to John, Wally and Machelle. My sister Elaine gets the coffee for me from Starbucks when she gets her morning fix for the day.

Full Day On The Plot

It's been about 10 hours on the allotment today which I started by making a planting membrane sheet specifically for the Butternut Squash and Courgette bed.

I opened the potting shed door in the morning to find that the Cookie Fairy had left a Chocolate Chip Cookie and a cake thinking that only one daughter would be with me but I had both of my girls with me this morning for a while.

Daughters Emma & Kelly Wooldridge worked on more Mares Tail removal from the Rhubarb Beds and then weeding the parsnip beds with the instruction that anything outside the loo roll was fair game. They both now know what Mares Tail looks like and I showed then what Parsnip leafs look like.

Kelly and I got the Butternut Squash and Courgettes In as Emma did more weeding.

Kelly worked on trimming the plum tree back more, as Emma did more weeding. We had a break and I had a cup of coffee and then they left me to my own devices

More plants got potted up, Plants got watered, and all the potted up plants had some time in the bath to take up water, as there is no top watering in the potting shed.

Melon planted out under glass on the grapevine bed.

Plant clips added to the greenhouse climbing frame ready for when the Luffa and Cucumbers start climbing.

Hoops and Debris netting added to the Butternut squash and Courgette Bed to keep the foxes out of it.

Lazy Housewife Runner Beans transplanted into the Cantilever Bean Bed.

Parsnip bed before weeding, I have at least 6 more parsnips to grow and however how many empty planting holes I find next visit, so I have a full bed of 105 Parsnips.

Parsnip bed after weeding

Butternut Squash & Courgette with blue waterpipe hoops in place

Butternut Squash & Courgette bed with Hoops which are covered with debris netting to keep the foxes at bay.

Broccoli Blue Finn divided up and ready for potting on.

Broccoli Blue Finn after potting on.

Broccoli Blue Finn having a dunk in the bath tray.

Jens Forget Me Nots

Jens Forget Me Nots

Jens Forget Me Nots before being put in the hoop house to stop the foxes digging them out. I need to make a mesh cage to go on top to stop basil and his mates digging them out.

Vegetable clips added above each plant, in anticipation of them growing and getting past the slugs and snails. When I'm in hospital my daughters will not need to look for the clips they will be there for them.

Water Melon went in under glass in the Grapevine bed

Kitchen area had a tidy and I've written on the tins what's inside again to make it easy for my daughters when they are looking after the plot for me.

Lazy Housewife Climbing/ Running Beans. I dug a hole and filled it with Dalefoot Composts Vegetable Compost, inserted the plant and then filled in with more Dalefoot Compost.

Lazy Housewife Climbing/ Running Beans. I dug a hole and filled it with Dalefoot Composts Vegetable Compost, inserted the plant and then filled in with more Dalefoot Compost.

Lazy Housewife Climbing/ Running Beans

Allotment Site Reps Meeting

Allotment site reps meeting this morning and a couple of hours on the plot this afternoon. Enjoying the sunshine and the pebble pool watching the bees coming and having a drink and listening to the birds.

I find the allotment so good for my mental well being and Radio Static that is playing constantly in my left ear seems to become much quieter when I'm on the allotment plot.

I put on some sun block when I arrived, although I knew I would be spending time in the potting shed as well as outside.

Had a chat with a couple of plot neighbours as they walked by. Being on plot 1 everyone walks past, but these days they don't always notice me if I'm in the potting shed beavering away.

I harvested a couple of early rouge raspberries that are trying to escape their bed and coming up in the Square Foot Gardening Bed, and gave them to my plot neighbour that want some of that variety .

Washed all the self watering pop bottle propagators as I will be keeping these ones as since the love of my life departed we just don't go through as many pop bottles as we use too.

Potted up Micro Tom and Red Robin Tomatoes for the Westland Horticulture V Dalefoot Composts challenge or head to head I'm planning this year.

Solar Powered Battery Chargers doing their job for the DAB Radio in the Potting shed. I have two sets one in the radio and the other in the chargers.

Morning On The Allotment

Broccoli Purple Rain.

Allotment in the morning today as I had things to do and people to see in the afternoon. So about 3 hours of potting up vegetables and planting bunches of spring onions in Square Foot Gardening Bed 2.

Six Broccoli Purple Rain Plants

8,081 steps on my Fitbit by the time I made this post. I need to get fit for my impending surgery to make me a new jaw out of my hip thanks to the tumour I've named George because the biopsies are not providing the information needed to determine just what kind of tumour George actually is and thus give it a name. All they have said so for is it's not showing as a known cancer, and that I'm an enigma wrapped up in a mystery, and we will need yet another biopsy or two!

Tomato Rotkappchen all sown at the same time

'Forest Garden Potting Shed staging top shelf. As the seedlings in the self watering pop bottles are being decanted into vending machine cups with two holes melted in the bottom with a soldering iron, I've moved the gravel tray forward.

The batteries in the bottom right are in a solar charger and I have two sets of batteries one in the DAB Radio in the potting shed and the other set on charge courtesy of the sun.

Forest Garden Potting Shed staging top shelf Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Courgettes & Water Melons

Broccoli Claret F1

Broccoli Claret F1

Broccoli Claret F1 Potted Up

Square Foot Garden 2 installing watering system

Ramrod Spring Onions sown in bunches in the SFG Bed 2 along the watering pipe.

Watering pipes both installed.

Forest Garden Potting Shed Staging at the end of play before going home for lunch.

Forest Garden Potting Shed staging bottom shelfs include Dwarf French Beans, Lazy Housewife Climbing Runner Beans, Sweetcorn two varieties one nearly full germination and the other very poor germination. and this tray of Broccoli Purple Rain & Claret and Rotkappchen Tomatoes.

Forest Garden Potting Shed Staging top level Aubergine & Butternut Squash

Forest Garden Potting Shed top shelf of staging tray of tomatoes and water melon seedlings.

'Forest Garden Potting Shed staging top shelf. As the seedlings in the self watering pop bottles are being decanted into vending machine cups with two holes melted in the bottom with a soldering iron, I've moved the gravel tray forward.
The batteries in the bottom right are in a solar charger and I have two sets of batteries one in the DAB Radio in the potting shed and the other set on charge courtesy of the sun

Forest Garden Potting Shed staging top shelf Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Courgettes & Water Melons

Plant to be potted up tomorrow around an Aztek Tomato Plant which include Broccoli Blue Finn, Red Robin Tomatoes, Micro Tom Tomatoes & Red Peppers.

Charlotte First Early Spuds now showing in all square flower buckets along the boarder boundary beds.

Grapevines Lakemore White (Seedless) to the right of the cantilevered runner bean frame and the Comfrey pipes and Flame Red (Seedless) behind the greenhouse.

Onions bed 1

Onions bed 2

Onions bed 3

KC5383 Grapevine Plant - Flame Red (Seedless)

KC5383 Grapevine Plant - Flame Red (Seedless)

Luffa & Cucumber Burpless Tasty Green in the Greenhouse Climbing Frame

Luffa & Cucumber Burpless Tasty Green in the Greenhouse Climbing Frame

Potting Shed as I went home