As a lad from Carlton, I’m frequently reminded that I still have a leaning towards a Nottingham accent. I still say ‘tek’ and ‘mek’ instead of take and make and ‘Sent Anns’ instead of Saint Ann’s. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do find it interesting to listen to younger folk and the major…
The great thing about St Ann’s Allotments is the opportunity they provide for personal enjoyment and time with family and friends. Even a little quiet time, with just the song of the birds and the buzzing of the bees, can improve our mental state. One bird we don’t see or hear these days is the…
For the past few weeks, I’ve been woken early by a blackbird singing in a tree opposite my house. He’s staking out his territory and letting other blackbirds know that he is this year’s tenant. Equally, the robin sees the space as his patch and will fly up close to me in the garden to…
On one of the first occasions I met Charlie Wesson, STAA’s oldest trustee, I was carrying a bundle of the last of the rhubarb on my plot and he told me quite firmly “They say if you eat all those you’re going to die”. What Charlie was referring to was the belief that eating rhubarb in late Spring or Summer was dangerous because of…
After the frosts and dry cold winds of April let’s hope that we are into a normal May. That might enable us to seriously think about starting the barbecue season, which has been delayed by the chilly April evenings for many of us. However, what we don’t want are incidents that one plot holder experienced in April 1834, where someone was clearly not keeping an eye on…
Although we hear constant references to climate change, we don’t always see those changes around us. As a lad during the late 1950’s the cold war between Russia and the West was at its height, so any severe weather patterns were satirically blamed on the Russians. I was too young to recognise seasonal changes in the weather and birds such as skylarks, lapwings and song thrushes were plentiful. I was…