Hiatus

I looked at my blog this morning and realised that it has been nearly three weeks since I wrote my last post here. I'm not quite sure why - I just haven't really felt like it, and the last thing I want is for this blog to become a chore in any way. I've been pretty distracted from veg growing, knitting and baking in the last few weeks by the sudden and unpleasant realisation that I am actually going to finish my PhD next year (OK, this is actually an extremely welcome realisation) and that I need to decide what I'm going to do afterwards. I'm actually feeling very positive about ending my long stint as a student, finding a job and moving a bit further into the real world, but as is the way of big life-affecting decisions, deciding on future plans is proving as mentally draining as it is exciting.

The upshot of all this is that there hasn't been much to report, good-life wise. Now that Autumn has well and truly come to Cambridge, the patio allotment is slowly wrapping up for the winter. The beans finished with a final flurry of activity and should probably be pulled out soon. The courgettes died off without producing any more fruit, and the single patty pan should probably be picked soon. There are still plenty of green tomatoes left, but continuing blight and cold are taking their toll on the plants and I've started to bring the most promising looking ones inside to ripen on windowsills. I don't have much that will over-winter, but three of my kale plugs are doing a lot better than expected, especially now that the colder weather means that they no longer need to be guarded quite so obsessively against caterpillars. I've also got some spinach and baby beetroot growing in the hope that they might provide another winter crop, but despite the two neath rows of seedlings, I rather get the impression that they don't like it very much in their planter. In fact, nothing seems to like it very much in that particular planter, and I have a growing suspicion that it doesn't get quite enough sun.

Job hunting aside, I now need to decided what I'm going to do with all these newly-empoty pots. Nothing is concrete as yet, but I'm tempted to plant spring bulbs next week. An array of snowdrops and crocuses on the patio would be very welcome come the dark days of January and February.