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Let me take you by the hand

and lead you up the garden path - or rather, up through the allotments. I'm enjoying my allotment so much this year. I've been sharing a plot with my friend Helen for about four years now. Last year was a turning point because we really never got going at all. This was partly due to the truly dreadful weather we had in the spring and summer and partly because the partnership neeeded to be rethought. I like to go up frequently and potter. I don't want to do heroic sessions lasting hours, after which I am so stiff and tired that I go off the whole enterprise. Helen works more hours a week at her job than I do and has younger children, so she has a completely different schedule. She needs to do long sessions at weekends with help from her husband. We decided therefore to split the plot (not quite 50/50 because it really always was her plot overall) and we are working independently. The funny thing is that we are each putting in much more time and I think it's because we're each determined to show up well against the other!

That's a view of part of my plot taken I think last Monday. My beanpoles are up, I have some runner bean plants in and seeds of climbing french beans sown (not visible yet). In the background are some broad beans (dwarf, 'the Sutton'), a rosemary bush and some thyme in flower. The rest of the plot is pretty bare at the moment, but I did notice that I have two potatoes just peeping up - at last! I'll take some more pictures soon.

Allotment society is fun. Our allotments are mainly taken by Italians and Portuguese. They are fantastic gardeners (if a bit gung-ho with the chemicals) and very generous with plants and produce. I've been promised some Portuguese cabbage - it grows about 6 ft high!

My beloved broad beans again. Just to the left are some cut-and-come-again leaves:

Am knitting socks, don't worry.

Still here

Yes, I'm still here, though not knitting as much as usual. Things have been quite hectic, in bad and good  ways.

My mother-in-law died suddenly at the end of April. She was 86 and had a very full life right up to the end. Of course we miss her - my husband and his two sisters and brother especially - but because of the sort of person she was, her faith, and her many friends and achievements, there is also a feeling of rightness and fulfilment. The funeral was the week before last, in the countryside on a beautiful day, and it was a celebration more than anything else.

Then, there's the weather, or rather its effect on me. I just want to dig and grow seeds! I've spent a lot of time on the allotment and in the garden. Lots of activities can be combined with knitting: reading, listening, talking, walking, eating, even cooking, but digging cannot. You just have to go on and on until it's worth washing your hands well enough to handle yarn. At this time of year I can't really take knitting or books into the garden because I just end up weeding and twiddling. The iris above, 'Jane Philips', and the cistus behind it, are giving me a lot of pleasure at the moment.

Next, exams. Actually my sons' exams. One is taking GCSE and the other A2 (A levels). I can't really pretend they are cutting into my knitting time - it's just another change from the usual routine.

Finally, knitting. I've finished the neck shaping on my top-down cardigan and have done enough of the body to try it on properly. (Note to self - do it!) The green tweedy Kathering Hepburn cardigan is stalled. I am, however, making good progress on the second sock of a pair I've been knitting for a while. Perhaps socks are the thing for now. I want to finish this pair so that can knit some Koigu socks - I just have a feeling that I want to knit some Koigu!