Topic: Lottie withdrawal Symptoms

[busy_lizzie]

Hi,  Now that the dark days are upon us does anyone feel like I do?  "I miss my Lottie"!  :( I know the excitement of  Christmas is to come, but I miss going up to our lottie two, three and even four times a week.  The is our first year, and it has been fantastic - working in the sunshine, all that fresh air -  good for the body and good for the spirit, and though we have still things to do there,  DIY, and Christmas preparations have taken over at home, so trips to the lottie are'nt quite as urgent or frequent.  What do you all do, during the dark winter days to keep your spirits up?  :'(  

[Hugh_Jones]

Write jokes and Shaggy Dog stories, which pica pica  is too tired to read.

[ina]

I do miss the lottie but............. I finally get to read books again and actually enjoy the time at home. Between my job and the lottie, there just isn't much time left 7 months out of the year. After new years I start getting itchy again for the lotty.

[Hyacinth]

Vegetable patch in the garden, rather than a lottie, but after some time away, I'm longing to get out there this weekend - lots of leaves to bag up, etc., but I'm also thinking of how to extend (ie dig up more grass) the plot...brill time to be turning over the turves now that rain's finally penetrated enough to make it workable before frost hardens it all and makes it impossible to dig. So, for me, this time before Christmas is great .

[campanula]

I have still got loads to do at my plot- more digging, yet more digging, fixing a shed up, sorting the paths out. The second compost bay needs making. Oh yeah, then there's a load of digging.
I know that it is possible to get to a stage where you can kick back (certainly none of the other lottie owners are doing anything at the moment but then, they've already done it all). As this is my first year, I know I will look forward to a period of loafing with a non-gardening book. There's always the seed catalogues - garden porn my sweetheart calls it.

[MagpieDi]

My dear bubo bubo.........think you were too tired to see the very very naughty innuendo!!  :o  ;D

[Hugh_Jones]

My apologies. I never thought one so charming could have such lowly thoughts.

[MagpieDi]

Oh Hugh........if I'd known you thought me charming ....I would never have posted!!  ;)  ;D

[Mrs Ava]

I am lucky! Once I have dropped the wee ones at school, so long as I am happy chores are done at home, I nip to the lottie, even if it is only for half an hour to get my fix.  No cold turkey for me -  cold hands and feet yes!!  However, there is little to do, I just potter really, so I spend my afternoons in my garden and kicking back with the spogs and the Chrimble build up.  Before you know it, spring will have sprung and we will all be madly planting and sowing and weeding and looking forward to the 2004 bounty!  ;D

[legless]

well luckily since last friday i am 'between jobs' and likely to stay that way until january - its totally different being down my lottie on a weekday, brilliant - just pottering about, stopping for a cuppa to watch the birds - no hurry to do anything.

of course the main purpose of my time off is to build my photographic portfolio for a distinction i want, and if i make my subject allotments i can spend all day there if i like!

i'm mostly digging and weeding and staring in amazement that my onions have come up!

[Tenuse]

Goodness me I have FAR too much to do to take any time off from the Lottie!

I have even been going in the rain to dig out Brambles.

Maybe in 2006 I will be able to relax during the winter.

Ten x

[Doris_Pinks]

If it makes you feel any better Ten, I too was digging brambles in the rain this week (gotta be a song there somewhere!)
I find in the winter, my house is actually tidy, and we have more exotic meals, cos I am stuck in the house!! I often can be seen nose pressed to the window, sighing!! ;D

[campanula]

This will be my second winter working outside - I wondered how I would survive last year but, with flasks and thermals, I did. So, I should be able to get on with all those tasks which I would have considered beyond the pale a year ago - faint breeze would have had me moaning about the cold. I knew a milestone had been reached when I planted my first delivery of bareroot roses in my vest and knickers (not at the allotment obviously) at 7.10am (as soon as the postie arrived) on a dark, wet December morning- barefoot too.

[Tenuse]

I am worried that when my bare root fruit plants arrive the ground will be so frozen solid that I won't be able to dig at all, let along in vest and knicks!!!!!  :o

Ten x

[mysticmog]

I wish I could collect all you lovely people missing your lotties and get you merrily digging up my plethora of interesting yet unwanted plantlife.  Maybe a coach trip up to Sheffield?

Anyway, there's always the seed catalogues to read....

Mxx

[Clivia]

I am busy sorting the seeds I collected earlier. They have all been drying in various corners of the house, shed, greenhouse. In fact anywhere dry that will hold a bag of seeds!
I have been making little seed packets for them, and then I will go on the internet and swap them for other more interesting seeds with people from around the world. I got some really good plants last year through this.
I just received a packet of Kiwano fruit seeds, I cannot wait to try them!

[Mrs Ava]

Hi Clivia, I do the same with seeds - receive all sorts of little envelopes from all over the world with some real strange wonders!  I spend the first day on the web trying to work out what I have received, and what I am supposed to do with them!  Have lots of toms and pumpkins from Canada which I am looking forward to trying next year.  Hope they all germinate!   ;D