Tollesbury's Magic

I have given you glimpses into Tollesbury before. It's a bit of a secret place, one road in, one road out. The feel of it harks back to the 50s when life was so much more simple. Children play in the streets, at the salt pool and mud dipping on the marshes. Generally they behave themselves because the adults know who they are, so they can guarantee any misbehaviour WILL be reported back. They probably also have a lot more freedom here than many kids and seem to spend a lot of their time outside engaged in healthy activities. The mobile phone signal in Tollesbury is useless (especially in the pub which can be useful!), we don't have gas (woodburners are the way to go) and you can forget über fast broadband (fibre optics, what on earth is that!). Village events are always well supported and people go out of their way to support local businesses (anyway its a bit of an effort to bring in those expensive 'foreign' workers from Maldon or Colchester!). Tollesbury time is on a different timeline to everywhere else (except perhaps Spain's) and people know that, a so much more relaxed way to be.
But all these advantages to our way of life does prove attractive to those outsiders who manage to find us. Many of them discover us by accident when they sail in to the marina. Having taken the nerve wracking decision to navigate the fleet and creek (perilous to the uninitiated) they end up in our posh marina, complete with swimming pool, restaurant and tennis courts. It actually is a great place to bring your boat if you have kids, but shhh don't tell anyone that! They end up staying and making Tollesbury their home port, coming down each weekend and not even bothering to leave the marina. Then they discover the Sailing Club, that the locals use and that they can moor their boat up cheaper in the Saltings. From then on they are caught up in Tollesbury's spell, there is no escape and they have to sell their homes and move here permanently. Caught, hook, line and sinker (excuse the pun). Princess Anne once asked me 'why Tollesbury?' And when she left she said 'Now I know why Tollesbury'. Over the next few posts I will give you some more glimpses of Tollesbury, today's view is of the marina. But please once you have read this post, delete it quickly, we don't want the world to find us!!!!

Windows

Look at these windows that we found in the reclaim yard.  Almost the perfect size for the barge (small ones for the bottom, larger ones for the wheelhouse). They are brand new and need double glazing but they have saved us a fortune.  Pete said he couldn't even buy the wood for the price that we paid.  I love the reclaim yard, it is so full of goodies that I have to be restrained from buying up all sorts of weird but beautiful things!  But there was some bad news in that Andy from the yard was hit by a scaffold pole that fell from a lorry.  He is out of intensive care now and is being looked after by the head injury ward, but we wish him a very speedy recovery as he is such a nice chap and one of this world's real characters.  Funny what life can throw at you.

The Day After The Night Before!

Well the rain held off yesterday, but it was cold and windy. That just meant we all had to play a bit harder! Pete worked yesterday morning and then joined us later in the afternoon. We partied until fairly late, so today he is knackered!! I have just taken this picture (three o clock in the afternoon) of him gently snoring away the last hour. As you can see Alfie was also partying last night!

Shame About The Weather!

Every year Tollesbury has a music festival called Tollesfest.  There are lots of live bands catering for all tastes, drink and food stalls and various activities for kids and adults.  Each year it has grown, to now where people come from miles just to be there.  It is great fun, families take picnics, you can catch up with people you haven't seen for months and there is lots of dancing (specially later when the alcohol kicks in!!). This year it has also coincided with Tollesbury Open Garden weekend.  So what does the weather do?  Chuck it down with rain and blow a hooley!  Still, we Tollesbury folk are made of sterner stuff, as long as we have wellies, woollies and wine we will be there!!!

First Harvest

This year I tried something different, a couple of polyculture beds.  Basically you just chuck everything in together, whether they are 'supposed' to go together or not, and hope for the best!  I am sure it is probably supposed to be more technical than that, but I am a lazy gardener.  The upshot is that it seems to have worked and the plants are all happy.  I have just had my first harvest of turnips and broad beans from the bed and am thinking risotto tonight.  This harvest is ahead of the other beds where the veggies are planted in a more traditional way.  Where I have taken stuff out I will pop something else in later, such as some brassicas.

This is a shot of the greenhouse with tomatoes, peppers and aubergines.  They are planted directly in to the ground so I have gone for closer planting than they probably should be.  Fingers crossed on that one! But it is lovely that the allotment is now beginning to feed us again.  Roll on the strawberries in the next few days xx

To two of the Most Important People...

.....in my life. Friday was Mum's birthday and today is Father's Day, so I would like to say Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day to two very special people. You are loved and appreciated by so many people, both family and friends, but nobody can love you as much as your children, grandchildren and soon to be great grandchild. I hope you have had a great weekend, I know we have by sharing it with you (especially as Dad paid!!!!). See you very soon xxxx

Flaming June

Well, I think this is the only source of heat we are going to get this weekend. Flaming June, more like freezing November!