Sunday, January 14th, 2002

Happy New Year to you!    First visit to the allotment this year.   Nothing very much to do - bit more harvesting, and lifting the brassica stalks.

I managed to make it last almost three hours though, just wandering around the site on a lovely mild January day.   It's only at this time of year that you can get into some of the wilder bits; the Japanese Knotweed patch which has spread in from the back fence looked ominous - nothing manages to survive its spread. Not another plant growing amongst it.

Hardly a bird to be seen anywhere - this last cold snap may have taken a few, or perhaps they've just moved into gardens nearer human habitation. But I did find a ladybird, which seems to have crawled down the side of a parsnip a good 12 inches underground. Odd to see the little beetle dug up out of the soil - as fresh as if it had just landed on a summer flower stalk.