Potentially perfect potato patch preparation

It was flippin' cold this afternoon, but clear, so we decided we should make the best of the opportunity to dig some dirt, and headed off.

[Actually, Amanda and Abi headed up to the allotment while I went to Tescos. Nominal reason: to get some light hand weights for training. Real (secret) reason: to get the new Springsteen album. I've been most remiss about this, as it's been out for several days now. In the past I've normally got these on the day of release, but I must be slipping in my encroaching decrepitude. But, in the words of the inimitable Ronnie Corbett, I digress.]

When I eventually got to the allotment Amanda had removed the remains of the grass paths from the root-crop-area-to-be. Abi had added what looks like a miniature swimming pool to the hedgehog hotel, in the interests of encouraging wildlife on the plot. I can't help thinking that it looks remarkably like a trap-of-certain-death-for-small-mammals, but to her credit she put bricks in it so that the inmates stand some chance of escape. And she was remarkably focussed on digging out the hole, which was the most impressive part of the whole operation.



Amanda and Abi have also hung a bird feeder from the shed roof, to encourage the wildlife a bit. We've started seeing one of the local cats on our plot regularly when we go up there, and he seems to think that having more birds about would be a splendid idea.



In the end we dug over most of the root crop area. It turns out that cold days are great for this sort of thing, as you're incentivised to make some effort.