"...but Toad--for it was he--shook his head and settled sternly to his work"

I went back to the plot for the first time in aaaaaages to plant the rapidly softening jerusalem artichokes I got in the post a week or so ago.

It wasn't too bad really. The polythene had been blown around a bit but there were still a few tenatious paving slabs hanging on to it so it was reseated correctly. One small piece was moved to the other end to provide a new bed for the aformentioned "fartichokes".

It was great to be up at the field again - it was really rather busy. I managed to maintain my standards of excellence by remembering my shiney new spade but forgetting my boots - I appeared to be the only person digging in a pair of Tony Hawks skateboard trainers...

A quick visit to the hut to order some manure took a good half an hour extra while John & Jerry (the most Irish guy I've ever met) brought me up to speed with allotment politics (half an hour was for the brief summary - I reckon there should be a Westminster style podcast).

One sour note was that Big Bob's expanding allotment empire has been hit by thieves. He'd hammered in huge 8ft posts to hold the horizontal wires for his fruit (I think) & the scabby bastards have pulled up some of these posts & buggered off with them. Some of the posts have been found at the far end of the field & the concensus is that he should paint them with engine oil which should fix the problem, but Hell's Bells! It's a bloody ALLOTMENT! Do these bloody nuggets think we're doing this 'cos we're excentric millionaires? Sheeesh!