Hi you all, thank you for your lovely welcome back as usual. I think I have the e mial going now so all should be well.
Manics.. there are not many plots on the site. It was originally a large farm area that was used by the local mental hospital, the long stay disabled patients went there every day. When the hospital closed down a few years ago the land was made into a park/rec area, the lotties are newish. It is set in lovely surroundings very wide grassy roads between which are maintained by the parks folk.. very pretty,there are fruit trees set all among the lawns surrounding it, the downside is that it is all open to the public. The lotties are individually fenced but only 3 foot tall picket type fencing so very easy to reach over. There is talk of opening up more of the area to lotties and making some much bigger. Odd thing is.. they only get allocated in February so even if one becomes free it sits idle till then.We are allowed up to 6, but only 1 for the first year.. however I was lucky and the organiser thought he was OK to give me 2 as he said I sounded like a gardener and it wasn't a whim which they get a lot of. There are hose pipes to every site which is great. It is on the net.. Colony Farm.
GrannieAnnie..drats no, my patio sadly faces north, I have a superb view of mountains but not a lot of light. I did manage Tumbler toms in hanging baskets though. No, I am not adding eh yet.. cheeky monkey!! Most of the other redidents here are white haired with little hope of growing anything.. and there is a smashing flat roof in full sun. I have tried to get permission to use it but no one voted with me, they thought the roof would leak!!
Caroline.. the climate on the whole is much warmer than Hull, it has cooled now but the temps were pushing 88F for a few weeks. I still have all the windows and patio door open even now.
SamLouise.. yes I am back in BC, just outside Vancouver on the coast.. place called Coquitlam. and yes, tea would be great, let me know when you are coming and your itinery and we will work something out.
Tony bloke,, thank you for the offer of seeds, very tempting but I think I should pass, I have so many and very little chance of using most of them. I had them all out the other day.. we had packed them around evry thing you can imagine, inside shoes, teapots, handbags etc.. it was really funny when we unpacked, but they are together agin now and well organised.Just before I left the UK I got some seeds from Australia which travelled in my bra!!! They were Galapogos toms..from the island of the same name and grow in salty areas..neat eh!!
I am surrounded by all kinds of growers and get can get a lot of things direct. We drove to an orchard farm the other day and actually got Bramley apples.. unheard of here.. also some smashing crab apples that were brillian red right through to the core.. now turned into apple jelly. I have managed to do most of my usual preserves except green tom chutney but I have found a source for the toms for next week. It was exciting picking brambles as we did it on the edge of a forest close by, the bears come out of there to our garbage bins so I found myself looking over my shoulder a lot! Sad thing is they have built a lot of millionare homes across the road up the mountain and sadly many of the bears have lost there habitat so they come into the bins and fruit trees in gardens. There was a picture in the local paper last week taken about half a mile away of a Mummy bear with two cubs in a garden eating the apples.
We are glad to be back, it is much easier for us to live here than the UK. I am not knocking Britain but we fit in here better.
We have thw apartment more or less how we want it so I guess I will be looking for volunteer work soon or I will go stir crazy!!
Highlight of my week... I got a huge live Alaskan King crab from the Oriental supermarket, cooked it myself.. it was so good,ah too good, cost a fortune but it was a real treat.
Well I think that is all for now.. lovely io be back online
XX Jeannine
