I love foraging. I especially love foraging with a particular thing in mind, and in the process finding something completely different that you needed just as much. That is what happened today. I have been wanting to patch the hole in the fence between me and the new neighbour for a while now, but it's been difficult to find a piece of chicken wire the right size. My new neighbour has several pieces that would fit well, but he didn't respond to my email about them, and I don't want to start hostilities by just taking it anyway.
Today I went on a foraging expedition to find some chicken wire elsewhere. The wire gate of my mate Pete's disused allotment was left open invitingly, so it would have been rude not to go in. I didn't find any chicken wire, but I was delighted to find a beautiful terracotta pot, sturdy and with a good green patina. It was exactly the right size to contain my blueberry plant. I had borrowed one of my Dad's ornamental pots for it, but didn't like to bury it in the earth, and I felt it looked a bit precarious just perched in the fruit area, its roots exposed to the cold through the clay. Blueberries need ericaceous compost, and a way of keeping their roots in it is to plant them in a pot in the earth. My soil might be acid enough for them, but I want to make sure they thrive.
So I fell on this pot of Pete's, and hurriedly squirrelled it away to Smallotment, where I immediately filled it with the blueberry. I know Pete won't mind, as he's said I can take anything I want. Allotmenteering has proved too much for him, and he's turned his attention to his garden instead.
I won't dig the hole for the blueberry until I'm sure I know where to put it, and that depends on where I put the two blackcurrants which I haven't bought yet. Instead I dug a hole for the small cranberry plant which arrived in the post today. It is quite small but has a good root system and healthy new growth.
In the process I found a small piece of blue china. I'm a bit obsessed with these pieces of china I occasionally dig out of the ground in the allotments. I wonder if someone had a massive tea party there once that got a bit wild. Maybe the rabbits invited the badgers round, and that would only have led to chaos. Anyway, it's like treasure to me, and I gleefully clean it up and place it around the earth in the ornamental pots around the allotment. Today I found not one but two pieces. The other one was just sticking out of the ground like a shark fin in the herb area.
Before leaving I thought I would go on a foraging tour in another attempt to find the chicken wire, and imagine my delight when I found a piece the perfect size in the scrap metal area at the very end of the allotments. It was a bit bent up and coated with old leaves, but I could tell it was perfect. So I've straightened it out and its all ready to tie in, once I've replaced the rotten fence post.
Just as I was leaving I saw the barn owl gliding softly through the cold air, on the prowl for vermin. It is such a radiant thing, and to see it always feels magical. It's only the second time. My first encounter with it was so close that I could feel the breeze from its wings as it flew past my head from behind me, and it was so surpising it took my breath away.
So today has been a day for the unexpected in the allotments. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
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