Do you believe in Santa?

I was walking through the woods when a certain person caught my attention. Hat and long beard, and I'd swear he was winking!  I took this picture to dispell any doubt. What do you think?

Here's somebody else I came across. Not walking in the air but dossing in the park!

Merry Christmas one and all.

Skippy Recycles Again

2010 has been a year of recycling:

Here's my latest acquisition - Looks like 20m polyurethane piping that was on the way to landfill. Ideal for cloches, mini polytunnels etc.

One pair of these Ikea bunk bedsteads is our own. Coincidentally an identical pair was being thrown out in a local skip.  That's getting on for a polytunnel's worth!

 But king of the skip is the humble brick:

 Mind you they take a bit of cleaning up!

This protective cage is  from bed parts.



You've guessed -  I can't turn down the offer of free hardware  - more recycling and less landfill.

All I need now is the time to reconfigure these resources to best effect.


Snow photos added 27/12/10

Chardenfreude?

Sorry - no chard visible in this post.

Prompted by fellow Edinburger Linda at Slow Growing in Scotland  here here is a sad picture of collapsed brassica cages on a neighbour's plot. His newly constructed wooden frames have been snapped like matchwood.

...and I haven't fared any better.

There should be a net over those posts. Retrieving it proved impossible so I strung a new net over the top to keep the pigeons off until the thaw arrived. Instead we got 6 inches more snow the next day and I'll have two nets to retrieve and repair once it does. In the meantime I have to hope the pigeons are on diet.

Here's what we are up against. The spikes on the railing have disappeared!

Here's a familiar view with added snow.

Edinburgh Snow

It's still here:

Remember that picture of the Castle I posted last week. Well here's how it looked on Thursday:

But this is an allotment blog, so here's the plot today (the view from the end). The brassica netting is well and truly buried. Those two black sticks in the foreground are signposting the jerusalem artichokes. Now I wish I'd dug up all the carrots and a few more parsnips. The forecast says less snow but cold temperatures. Maybe until Christmas...

Here's a slightly different angle. Not much to see but snow!

This sight made me laugh. If you look closely you can see the day by day accumulation on the roof. You can't see much of the wheels.  A lot of people have been digging their cars out today, Saturday, as there were no new falls, it's the weekend and the temperature has gone up above zero for the day. (Now back sub zero.) Half the houses in our street have lost their gutters, brought down by the melting snow falling off roofs and taking them with it.  Ours are still there, but so is the snow. It's only a matter of time unfortunately.