Two More Beds Dug and Weeded

Yesterday it was cold and I spent the afternoon cutting some more weed membrane for used under the wood chip paths. This morning when I went out to scrape the ice off the car windscreens it was -2C. By the time I made it to the allotment at around 8:45 it was -1C and there was a thick layer of frost everywhere and the rain water in the wheel barrow had frozen and there was a layer of ice about 10mm think on top. 

The builder who has been converting the old office / industrial units building to residential have built for want of a better description a single story brick building to house services equipment to the development. 

They have built it off the concrete slab that was already there and it does not have an independant foundation and they chose to build in front of the dog leg 225mm wide wall that has a 20mm crack in it and has moved and rotated. 

I'm not surprised the whole thing was supposed to be completed mid last year and in fact one of our plot holders have bought one of the top floor flats. Seeing the quality or lack thereof of the construction work and their method of limping along for the last five years I would not touch a property in there with a barge pole!.  

Electric cables and other comms cables have been sitting on top of the boundary wall since they set up the site, but for the last few weeks they have been dangling over my storage area and shed at the dog leg in the wall. My chair and wheelie bins were covered in 9 bricks and mortar snots from the brickwork. 

I was not best pleased when I saw what they had done, especially as I have no hose or water to wash off the snots and clean up the area. 

I did manage to attract their attention and finally they found someone who could speak English, which was the same guy who promised me the cables were going to be built into the wall and it would all be done last Monday. 

I reminded them that they said the cables would be gone two weeks ago and that I wanted it sorted straight away or I would take matters in my own hands to remedy the situation returning the ends to them. Who was I kidding as if I would cut them I could electrocute myself, but I had to appear bonkers and angry enough to actually do it.   

My daughter has not often see me loose it, and I could see on her face that she was a little shocked. We went and got on with digging the outer bed and I saw the cables being played with and pointed it out to her. It was funny how it went from the cables were not long enough to them suddenly being able to resolve the problem, so they must have found some slack in the cables somewhere.

Where as I would have normally disposed of their plastic debris that had blown over and onto my plot it was gathered and returned over the wall.

View from the dog leg on the wall looking up the plot at the end of the morning work The yellow tarp will be the next area to be turned over and the two long blues boxes in the area that will be the bed to the right of it will need to me moved and stored somewhere until I can erect them as a fruit cage. 

View from the side of the Greenhouse looking out towards the rest of the allotment. The newly dug beds have been left uncovered for Beautiful the Robin to help himself to anything he can find, and for the frost to help break up the soil a little more.  

Next visit I need to take my drill and screw the frame in the bottom left of the picture together and perhaps pre drill a number of the other long boards ready for assembly. 

Once again thanks to my daughter Emma for coming to help on the plot and my daughter Kelly for being at home Sunday morning and making sure my wife was up OK and had her morning cup of tea and was settled in before she went out for the day.