Friday 9 October 2015

Autumn at the allotments and glittery ponderings















There's a light scent of rotting cabbage down at the allotments. Things are starting to decay as the days get shorter and cooler. The weeds on my plot are still romping away though. I brought home leeks, beetroot, apples, courgettes and a small cucumber. There won't be anything to harvest over winter, but I don't mind, I tend not to go very regularly during the winter months. It's nice to have a break. Work is continuing over the hedge on the new football pitch. It seems to involve a lot more than just sowing a load of grass seed.

I had the pleasure of an evening with the Beavers (like Cubs, only smaller) earlier. We went out on a jolly on the minibus. There was a sign in the front window saying "This vehicle carries a first aid outfit". I imagined an emergency where I might say something like, "Just hang on a minute, and I'll put on a nurse's costume". The Beavers had a craft evening involving nuclear amounts of glitter. I fear I may have inhaled some. Did you know, you can get edible glitter now? I'm wondering if it stays glittery if you follow my meaning.  Only one way to find out. I wonder the same thing about eating gold. I've seen Kirstie Allsopp put gold leaf on a pear. She has more time on her hands than me. A touch more money too. We hardly ever have gilded pears round here. You?


33 comments:

  1. Beautiful, still so much colour, and so green. My son was a Beaver many moons ago, I remember them being quite a boisterous bunch xx

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  2. Your allotment looks very colourful CJ. I would imagine that glitter (and gold) tarnish a tad..

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  3. No guilded pears here. But...I have the honor to be perhaps the only woman alive who has found glitter in the crotch of her pants. Too much for your readers I am sure, but I was, after all teaching kindergarten. Wonders never cease, n'est-ce pas?

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  4. We don't gild our pears.. I wonder about anyone who might do that.. seems it's taking nouveau cuisine a bit too far? We just had the best dinner.. DIL made an orange marmalade glazed pork roast with rosemary and roasted carrots and parsnips.. and home made yeast rolls! No gold, though. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  5. Gilded pears are conspicuous by there absence round these parts too! I remember that programme - I think there was a bit of a hoo-ha afterwards about the expense. We do have a small pot of edible glitter from when my eldest had a 'tea party' for one of her birthdays,complete with glittery cupcakes. I can't remember if it 'stayed' glittery or not - I'll have to pay more attention next time! Have a great weekend. xx

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  6. There is definitely not any gold gilded pears in this house. However there is glitter, the Grandchildren love to add it to their pictures and then it seems to stay in the house for days even though I vacuum everyday. My little plot has come to the end, a few carrots and some late salad leaves is all their is left. Have a great weekend.

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  7. No gilded pears in this household either. We had delicious bean soup and cornbread and salad greens with some of our neighbor's pear tomatoes he kindly gave us. Loved your photos...especially your nasturtiums which I have been having trouble growing here. Happy Weekend to you and yours.

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  8. I always remember as a child going to my mother's friends allotment, the gardens to the row of cottages where she lived were down a very narrow track...and then on a late,hazy summers eve i can still remember the beauty of all the gardens together with picket fences and rows of overgrown veg and loose hanging sweetpea...little shed like huts and people sitting on outside chatting and swapping their crops and fallen apples. I remember playing hide and seek and falling down the bank into the stinging nettles. I was lucky growing up as we had a very large garden with a pond, apple and plum trees but now i have a court yard and although i tried many times over the years to grow veg (only being successful with baby toms) but mostly getting munched away by slugs...but we are in the process of finding a new home, which is exciting because it will be my first proper garden in 10 years!!!!!.ive been day dreaming and collecting cuttings from magazines to imagine what i will grow...thanks for sharing your lovely allotment posts they take me straight back to my childhood ;)x

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  9. I love allotments, we have some at the bottom of our road, I always try and sneak a peek when the gates are open. My allotments in my garden, very small but perfect for me :) xxx

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  10. You've reminded me we have a tiny pot of silver glitter in the cake decorating tin leftover from when my daughter used to make and decorate biscuits to give to her friends instead of Christmas cards. I wonder if it's gone off? My pear tree at the allotment looked golden in the setting sun yesterday evening. Glad you survived the Beavers and that you didn't need to practise your first aid skills...

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  11. No gilded pears here either - nor glitter in my knickers (Ellen!). We do however have the same slight smell of rotting cabbages down on the allotments! Your allotments still look very colourful. Just some butternut squash, parsnips and raspberries left on ours.

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  12. Oh how beautiful is that allotment, no wonder you love spending time there. So much growth and colour and fertility and general nature-loveliness. Gilded pears, no, but we do have lots of gilded chocolate in the cupboard.... :o) XX

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  13. Loving the look of your allotment, CJ, it all looks very lush (especially those orange flowers - Tithonia?) but it's quite a relief as the productivity slows down for winter, isn't it? I'm planning to get into the garden this weekend (much overdue) for some clearing, weeding and mulching and more bulb planting. You did well to survive the Beavers; I can't bear glitter as it turns up in carpeting and clothing for weeks after! Glad you were up for a bit of dressing up if the occasion demanded!

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  14. A delightful post and lovely pictures. Nice to see the cosmos, nasturtiums and pot marigolds. I'm doing more pottering than plotting now, and as you say it'll be nice to have a break.
    As for edible glitter, and gold, it certainly conjures up some rather vivid images. Flighty xx

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  15. Ha, I inhaled some glitter last weekend and I am sure it is not a good thing for your lungs, as for the gilded pear, who has that?
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

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  16. I love the post! Have a wonderful weekend:)

    Www.theprintedsea.blogspot.com

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  17. Your allotment looks wonderful dear C.J, so many shades of green in the foliage and vegetables, lovely apples and your flowers are so colourful and beautiful too. I love the marigolds, nasturtiums, cosmos and the bright orange geums/tithonias. It sounds as if you had a fun evening. Gilded pears, now that would be a luxury. :-)
    Have a great weekend, hugs!
    xoxoxo ♡

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  18. No gilded pears here but I've had my fair share of glitter explosions around the house. The allotments looks lovely, I expect the photos were taken during an early morning visit, everywhere looks to be just waking up.

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  19. No gilded pears for us either! In fact, all is a bit shabby here. You'll have a glittery hankie next time you sneeze.... Have a lovely weekend. xx

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  20. We haven't had the pleasure of a gilded pear here either, but at Christmas, my incredibly easy chocolate fruit cake (from 'Nigella Christmas') gets a good dousing of edible glitter and no, it doesn't stay the same! :o) Have a great weekend xx

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  21. Loving the neat row of wheelbarrows in the background behind the Tithonia. Your allotment looks such a fab place. Never gilded a pear (!) or anything else for that matter. My tolerance for glitter was/is disappointingly low, according to my daughter. She used to love visiting friends' houses where the glitter was in abundance.

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  22. no gilding of pears here. but if the relative colour-fastness of large amounts of beetroot is to be extrapolated to glitter......i'll just leave that with you.

    i love, love, LOVE the allotment views -- autumn still has such a lot of colour and life to it. xo

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  23. I have seen the edible glitter and had the same sort of ponderings. :) I try to avoid glitter in my crafts, though I do think it's very pretty. You know what they say, glitter is the herpes of crafting. Haha. I love seeing your allotment, as always. You do still have a lot of life and color there. I wanted to tell you that your sharing about your allotment has finally given me something I know more about than my husband does. We were watching a dramatic UK show where people were, I think, being arrested or at least questioned in their allotment for some crime unrelated to gardening, and he wanted to know what kind of place it was. I was able to tell him everything I know about allotments, which pretty much all comes from you and Leanne! So thank you. :)

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  24. If it's metallic I really think I'd rather not eat it!

    Is that honeysuckle I spy there, flowering in October?!

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  25. not much glitter or gilding happening at this end of the earth :-)
    I could look at your photos all day. these allotments ones are so quiet and sleepy - though that bright orange dahlia is doing its best to shock us.

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  26. Okay ......I might have actually snorted out loud at the gilded pear.

    Hmmmmmmmmmmm......sparkles, eh???? Interesting, but I think I'll let someone ELSE conduct THAT experiment. LOL

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  27. Lol! We went on ATV's in the summer and let's just say that I was sneezing dust for days after!!! Your photos are lovely.

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  28. Hey CJ,
    Glitter is the bane of my life. That and old appke cores behind the sofa. How beautiful your allotment looks. Those apples for a start. I was thinking about Beavers for Olly. What do you think?
    Leanne xx

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  29. Oh those yellow dahlias are out of a dream, so beautiful!! All those flowers are lovely! Wonder what the purple plant is. I looks like swiss chard but it's purple and it is so pretty! I had to laugh about the glitter, yes they do have edible glitter. I imagine it does not comes out glitery, ha! :) Have a great week!

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  30. No gilded pears here either. But how do I envy you your English weather! Don't laugh - here (Bosnia) we had very hot and dry summer, autumn was so far either hot or drizzling and miserable, and this morning we think there was frost. Your allotment looks so so beautiful!

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  31. no gilded pears here. I could probably find a spider or two to gild if I looked under the sofa though, that might make them slightly less scary..........

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  32. What wonderful pictures of your garden - sometimes it's so nice to have fog or mist to set off the colors of the flowers. But everything looks so rich and fertile, even as much is going to decay...

    I like seeing your dahlias; I haven't grown any for years, but I recently photographed my daughter's and blogged about them. They always remind me of being in my grandpa's garden as a child. He had prize-winning dahlias and zinnias and saved seeds in his basement.

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  33. Love the glitter conundrum! :D

    So happy to have found another beautiful blog to follow.

    Beth @ http://flandersvianewyork.typepad.com/blog/

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