Michaelmas marked the traditional start of the agricultural year, as of the academic year, and Monday 29th September, the feast of Michael and All Angels, was our last day on the allotments. Much as we have been doing at home prior to our move, we spent the day tidying up and disposing of things. We took surplus pieces of wood to the tip to be recycled and harvested the last of our parsnips, Bramley apples, some Jerusalem Artichokes and flat leaved parsley from the big greenhouse. Then that was it, we locked the gate and drove away.
Today, we took the gate and hut keys back to the designated office and handed them over in person to a pleasant and helpful council officer. Once more we drove away. Now I am coming to terms with the fact that our tenure of the allotments has ended. I comfort myself by looking at what we have harvested - the Bramleys have been magnificent this year - and what we have saved - the parsnip and squash seeds stored in paper bags, the pot of oregano that is coming north with us, the Michaelmas Daisy clump that my husband dug up yesterday which originally came from our senior customer G. These few significant things will carry us forward.
Meanwhile, waiting to be packed are all the books that I found in charity shops during our time here. I thought that I was buying them for reference for our customers. I think that that may be true, but that I was also buying them for myself - books about borders, container gardening, small gardens, kitchen gardens. These are ready and waiting to be used when we finally arrive in the north west and begin to plan our sowing and growing in yet another avenue.
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