Allotment Things

I haven’t posted about the allotment before and thought that it was about time that I did. Reiss and I have a little bit of land thanks to his mum 🙂 We currently have 5 beds, a poly tunnel, a courgette patch, a bath full of strawberries, one full of herbs, some fruit trees/bushes and 4 chickens.

Last weekend we decided that we would start to document our progress and failures through photography and film.

Some weeding was desperately needed! This is a long and backbreaking job but extremely rewarding!

If anyone can identify this extremely annoying weed and a way to keep it at bay, please help! Why does it only grow in the beds and not in the grass? I have been told it is bindweed but am not entirely sure?

Whilst we were weeding we pulled some of the smaller onions as they were fallen over and apparently ‘ready’. However, as you can see they are still not much bigger than the bulbs… Again any thoughts as to why this could be? They have been overwintered.

These garlics were overwintered also, as you can see nothing has developed. The evidence above ground was healthy and strong. I am very confused!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Kew Gardens

The weather the weekend just gone was beautiful and to celebrate this, Reiss and I went to Kew Gardens.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was founded in 1759 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. Kew Gardens is one of London’s top visitor attractions and Wakehurst, the second garden in West Sussex, is home to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank.

Over the past 250 years Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has made innumerable contributions to increasing the understanding of plants and fungus with many benefits for mankind.

‘Our science and conservation work helps to discover and describe the world’s plant and fungal diversity, safeguards the world’s plant life for our future and promotes the sustainable use of plants.’

The area covers 300 acres and is divided into many sections, covering a diverse range of plant life. Also to be seen are many different exhibitions and wildlife such as peacocks, geese and squirrels. Due to this diverse range I will be splitting my posts into 4 areas to break up a large amount of photos taken.

I am going to start with the outdoor gardens.

The classic image of the Palm House at Kew Gardens, this is the rainforest conservatory and is the most important surviving Victorian Iron and Glass structure in the world. It was designed to accommodate the exotic palms being collected and introduced to Europe in the early Victorian times. (sorry about the people :P)

 

The Japanese garden area is dominated by a massive structure shown above, it can be seen across the park. Although impressive, it is extremely difficult to capture! I much preferred the texture underneath 🙂

Finally, outside the Lillypond House there were some beautiful flowers being pollinated by some wonderful bees! Again hard to capture but I gave it a go!

 

 

North Weald Redoubt 2nd visit

This is the second time that I have visited North Weald Redoubt, for information about the site please see my previous post. This time there was the three of us, Reiss, Tom and myself and the weather was much better, however it is still heavily flooded as you will see from the photos. We managed to explore the whole site this time, minus the underground vaults, due to the flooding.

 

 

 

Coalhouse Fort – Tilbury

Saturday 5th April

Reiss and I decided to take the dog for a family outing/photography trip to Coalhouse Fort situated in East Tilbury on The Thames’ Estuary.

“Strategically placed on the Essex peninsular, Coalhouse Point, this unique site has been developed as a defensive position from 1402.  With a near 180 degree arc of fire across the bend in the River Thames at Stanford-le-Hope and back towards London this location was chosen as earthwork defences, Henrician blockhouse and the Victorian Coastal Defence fortress which stands today.”

There are many aspects to the area now, which include; a park area with a zip wire and picnic benches, marshland areas, the coastal area on the estuary including the watch tower, the Fort itself and some inlet water areas. Reiss and I didn’t venture into the Fort as it is only open on set days throughout the year, however the surrounding area is fascinating and offered fantastic photography opportunities.

In the opposite direction, a power plant is in full view. A stark contrast to the natural beauty around you in the park area.

The lookout tower has fallen into disrepair and has had some railings removed to stop the public getting to it.

Lastly their was the ‘beach’ area, it had so many wooden structures that have just been left to rot. They really were beautiful.

 I don’t know if Reiss was aware that I was taking this picture, but he looked straight at me 🙂

 

 

 

Amsterdam Day 2

On the second day in Amsterdam we visited the Stedelijk Museum as covered by my previous post. After this we went and had lunch in Vondel Park. It is a beautiful open space with ornamental lakes, wild parrots and plenty of dog walkers.

Special Photo Challenge – Inspiration

Well the special photo challenge fits in with my inspirational Friday quite well 🙂 I love nothing better than walking the dog with my wellies on and camera in hand. You never know what you might see. This is why I started this blog, a ramblers catalogue really. My partner Reiss took this photo whilst I was engrossed in trying to get a photo for silhouette.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Silhouette

So I have decided to take part in the wordpress weekly photo challenge. Armed with the fugifilm on my ramble yesterday I tried my hand at some silhouettes. Please let me know what you think.