I feel that I have covered all the bases with my dodgy knee this week:
It will be difficult to get to the Allotment this weekend because Spouse & I are finding it hard to tear ourselves from the tv set where 'bird-box-cam' has been broadcasting all day. Two blue tits started nest building on Thursday night. The first picture was taken at 8:30am today, the second at 5:30pm.
I can see myself starting bird-blog at this rate... 
It was with a deep sense of foreboding that I arrived on Allotment 21 after work yesterday. It has been a really busy week and although the Big Drippa and Capillary Matting are all (in theory) operational, I was convinced that the greenhouse would be a bloodbath of dried up seedling corpses. I am pleased to report that the technology has worked and all is well, in fact everything is thriving.
Yesterday a therapist from the RNCB advised me to use a white cabbage poultice for my knee. Rowan-the-herbalist agreed and consequently I went to bed with a cabbage strapped to my leg. It was a strangely familiar sensation...
Rowan the herbalist has given me some comfrey roots which we planted near the water butt on the weekend. 
With my little eye something beginning with P
A dodgy knee (again) prevented me from digging this weekend which was a shame as the potatoes and carrots are ready to go in. I confined myself to the greenhouse and potted up the marigolds which have germinated at home. They have become very leggy this week and I think they would have all flopped over and died if something hadn't been done.
I am highly skilled in the subtle arts of killing seedlings and although I took great care with the dibber and only touched the leaves, I fully expect a tray of dead plants by the end of the week.
The beer traps seem to be working really well now that the weather is warming up and the slugs are becoming more active. Dr Marie at work has advised me on some organic biological warfare which I will use if the beer fails. Apparently nematodes are the thing, easy to use and Marie swears by them.
We were just about to head off to Allotment 21 when a Great Tit was caught on Spouse's birdbox cam. I had noticed some blue tits looking last week and had rigged up the tv set just in case...
Just as spring arrives and the weather warms up, we have got the greenhouse heaters to work. They still stink but they have managed to burn continually all week.
The Big Drippa is my exciting techno greenhouse wonder toy which I installed on the weekend. The idea is that you fill the plastic sack full of water which drips very slowly into the soil over quite a long period. Our salad leaves are looking pretty dry and the hope is that this will cut down watering trips in the week. I called in on the greenhouse last night and was really pleased to find it had worked. 
... A great big trench lined with cardboard and filled with manure. Welcome to the world of runner beans. 
Nephew is convinced that Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is based on Auntie Frankie and Allotment 21. I wonder where he got that idea from?
"Do not eat garlic or onions; for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant." - Cervantes (Don Quixote)
John Gerrard writing of the 'vertues' of comfrey in The Herball 1597 said,"The slimie substance of the roote made in a posset of ale, and given to drinke against the paine in the back, gotten by any violent motion, as wrestling, or overmuch use of women, doth in fower or five daies perfectly cure the same..."
I'm sure Spouse will be relieved to know this, next time he fancies a bout of wrestling.
Rowan-the-herbalist has suggested making a comfrey feed for the marrow which is also good for tomatoes. She has promised to bring me a comfrey root to grow on the allotment.
Step 1
I am pleased to report that Allotment 21 is officially on the rhubarb bandwagon as reported in Anything but Sprouts and Horticultural. In our case by accident rather than design as this was the only identifiable edible plant on the plot when we took over. Spouse spotted it first and Mel rescued it by moving it before the shed covered it.
I was going to show off loads of pictures of Allotment 21 under a carpet of snow today but thought better of it after viewing Plot c81 and Claire's Garden who both look as though they had a really good coating.
For a brief moment I did consider bringing the almost-sprouting tomato home where it is warm but I figured that it has managed to get this far in the greenhouse so it might as well stay there!
At long last some of the tomatoes have germinated-
We may be rubbish at tomatoes but I am pleased to announce that the Rubine Sprouts have sprouted. 
No sign life with our tomato seeds which prompted Sister to give me the benefit of her vast wealth of gardening knowledge. "Well all the supermarkets sell them on the vine these days. Just buy a few and string them round the greenhouse - nobody will be able to tell... that's what I'm going to do."
Last night was pub night where Lard, Steve, Den & Nick continued to deny being Cyril. Lard, no birder, had no idea what a Cirl Bunting was however I am positive that Steve has been leaving silly comments on the previous post.
'Cyril Buntin' left a comment on 28th February... 
Mel still reckons that our greenhouse tomatoes will germinate because the coriander went in on the same day and has only just started to appear. As an insurance measure, I heated up my home propagator and sowed the remaining tomato seeds last night. Not being on the plot, I ingeniously cut up a yogurt pot and used the black felt tip pen from our kitchen calendar to label each of the four different tomato varieties. The overall effect looked rather smart and I took this photo before watering them.
Sister, pictured here arriving at Allotment 21, has regaled me with her plans to grow veg on a designer plot in her garden constructed from railway sleepers. Every detail has been meticulously planned from the sleepers to the seeds. The source of all this sudden and encyclopedic knowledge? None other than her weekend bible, the Mail on Sunday and their gardening guru, Monty Don. 
My old friend Dood phoned to tell me how she had been dancing 'till 3am to the band Big Top last night. Dood thinks they are brilliant and wants to go to more of their gigs. She was really surprised to see that their Bass guitarist is another old mate, Den who the Dood hadn't seen for approx 20 years. Knowing that we are friends she asked him if he had seen me lately and he said, "She's so obsessed with digging that allotment that no-one sees her anymore."
A very quiet weekend on Allotment 21. Mel & Steve went off to Saundersfoot for the weekend while Spouse & I spent Saturday at the dinghy show in London. I was therefore expecting to find thousands of slug corpses in my beer traps this morning. Much to my disappointment, all the traps look as though they have been frozen throughout the week and our slugs are obviously expert in ice skating.
I was pondering this thought when Spouse appeared on his mountain bike. He had returned from a long, muddy cycle ride to find himself locked out and a 'gone to the allotment' note pinned on the door. He rode up and down the manure heap a few times, was duitifully impressed with the seedlings and hurtled off with the house keys.
It was by pure accident that we caught the start of the Gardeners' World Allotment Special. I rang Mel to let her know and settled down to watch. It was great seeing all the different plots, tips, and the persistant allotment rule breaking. After the show, Spouse and I walked to the local with Mel & Steve to compare notes:
