Blooming Grand!
Well, after the fun at the allotment last weekend, related in my last, I dragged weary bones round the hypermarket for the weekly shop on Monday, then spent a busy afternoon driving the Bookings Desk. Tuesday was out of the ordinary: another Companion and I went with Mike and a Trustee to a site visit of a potential new venture which I will not scupper by mentioning here - suffice to say it has exciting possibilities! Then after lunch we joined the training session and in the evening we had a poignant treat, having a meal at a local restaurant to say ‘Farewell’ to our longest-serving Volunteer, who’s decided to call it a day at the age of umpty-2 or so!
On Wednesday I spent the day with Companions Jason and Andy on the allotment, getting a lot sorted out ready for the Invasion of the Seedlings which are threatening to completely take over the house at the moment! It would have proved an even greater success had the anticipated delivery of one ton of compost to the site in general taken place; unfortunately the lorry got held up in traffic so the delivery had to be cancelled - so much for reducing ‘food miles’ then!
I was cooking on Thursday, when we had confirmation of yet ANOTHER new venture proceeding somewhat sooner than we expected : Mike and John H had a site visit to the Council Tip in Vale Street (we send them to the most select places, don’t you know - no expense spared, they walked!). Lambeth are turning the whole site over to Recycling, and have invited us to have a spot there on a permanent basis, so we can haul items out to be reclaimed before they get broken in disposal, etc. It’s no joke : we’re starting there on 1st April….
It was back up to the allotment on Friday and then helping Andy in the kitchen on Saturday, when he put up nice meals for his first time as Cook. We were donated a Baby Grand Piano which we collected on Saturday, and I just wish I had been there to see this beautiful, but massive - and extremely heavy - object being manhandled by six Companions through the pretty narrow doorway of the electrical shop. We’ve been told it is worth around £4-5,000, which we think is quite a Grand number of Grand, and very many thanks to the generous donor. Quite some Baby, too, since it’s about 120 years old!
The 3 hyacinths in a basket we were given a couple of weeks ago are in full bloom, and the amaryllis (another kind donation) is about 2′ tall now, ready to burst into bloom as well; SOME Companions have been putting up a running commentary on the slugs, birds, mice and diseases the hundreds of seeds I’m raising will succumb to, but guess what - I’m NOT LISTENING…
More news next week,
Take care, Elizabeth
thanks for sharing!