Greetings one and all, as the title suggests, we are still around, the pumpkin patch is still viable, however after the year from hell, its taken some time for me to be able to start to move forwards!
The past year I've.............
been under enormous pressure at work,
been put in a difficult position by the actions of others,
had to work 2 back to back 80 hour weeks,
made some mistakes and faced them,
and ultimately lost my job of 23 years in November 2011, having been put in an untenable position I resigned rather than be pushed any further, I was near exhaustion, pretty much burned out and came away with major feelings of anger, sorrow, regret, low self esteem and more besides!
Because of the stress and problems our attention to the plot hasnt been what we would like, we still harvested about £500 organic fruit n veg last year, but the plot got away from us a bit, we kept up with the bees, and still have 8 hives between the 4 of us.
Since November I have applied for 500+ jobs, had 40+ first stage interviews, 10+ 2nd stage interviews, been shortlisted 20 times, been offered 3 jobs that weren't doable financially, yet ultimately not been successful in finding a new job, until this week, when I got offered my first financially doable job!
Rest assurred, as things return to normal so will the allotments and the more regular posting!
Sue and Lee's Vegetable Allotment pages, detailing all that we've been doing on our allotments, from clearing the 8' tall weeds that they were covered in when we started with our first plot in October 2006, through to where we are today, with 2 neighbouring full sized productive organic vegetable growing plots, 2 apiaries and 6 Beehives!!
FYI
Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.