Just Call Me A Failure - Its What I Do Best - Ask Anyone....

Ok....... When I was married to 'the tosser' we use to own a little plant nursery....where we grew over a hundred different varieties of old English Cottage periennials and about 70 or so different alpines..and which we would wholesale to garden centres and shops and other little nurseries and then we would have displays at all the big Garden Shows in the South of England (which I LOVED)and sell our plants there....I loved this little corner of England that we had bought out at Worlds End.....HE had worked for his fathers nursery since leaving school (25 years or more) and when my Sam nearly died in a road accident the father sacked my 'tosser X' for taking time off work lol yep you read right.... anyways HE went into a deep depression, its a long story, but to cut it short after a year of supporting us all lock stock and barrel, I asked HIM what he wanted from life, cos this was so not a life anyone was enjoying 'just to have me own little nursery he said'..so I helped him build HIS dream with every fibre of me body and soul....and after 4 years it was almost built he decided he wanted it on his own....and he dumped us on the poo pile of life.....lol....... such is life......

Anyways, up at our little nursery I use to keep chickens and ducks and I had a corner of the field dug over as a veggie plot..... just to dabble ya know, in between the working 70 hour weeks to earn enough to support us all whilst we build HIS dream LOL.... it was my little bit of MY time, just digging and weeding late into the evenings when it was to cold or dark to do the other nursery work.... it was my little bit of something just for me... a quiet time away from it all and me 4 young lads and the responsibilities that I had carried for so very long...

Well it was me first taste in growing stuff.... and jebus was it fun or what..... I dream of owning land and having enough space to grow proper and have animals and become as self sufficient in stuff as well as self sufficient in the person I am.... but I do realise now at my age and after all this time on me own that, the dream will never come into fruition, and that at times makes me sad, cos Ive supported everyone on me own for so long and helped build other peoples dreams and now knowing that mine will never come to pass.... oh well lol

Anyways.... just tell me to shut up LOL.....

So me little house here is a little turn of the last century cottage with a long THIN typical garden of the time..... and I mean thin..... its sort of split into little areas, this end is where we have BBQs and we have a garden table and flowers and tubs and hanging baskets..... then we have a play shed filled with minded toys and then we have a 22 foot big shed filled with everything under the sun lol..... then we have a 17 foot trampoline, then Janet and Mabels house and then there was a 12 footish bit of grass then me 'shrubb of life' (thats another story lol) then 16 foot or so where we can put one of our cars then the back gates onto a little back track out to the one main road through this village......

So early last spring, I was moping around and looking at an allotment book which I had bought, with a huge self sufficiency book and just dreaming, ya see I was thinking of getting meself a little allotment up by the farm so that I could once again grow stuff...... and I was talking to Jacob about it...... and he was explaining the pitfalls of how the stuff would get nicked and how I would have to get in the car to go dig it etc etc.... so I put the idea to the back of me mind and he said he was off out so I put away me books and got on with boring house stuff lol.....

3 hours later Jacob appeared in me kitchen covered in mud LOL...... I thought he must of been up the woods with his maties and had fallen in the stream or had a mud fight or something........ but oh no........ he took my arm and said 'mum come with me' and he dragged me down the garden.........

OK tears now just remembering.......... past the BBQ, the play shed, the big shed, the trampoline, Janet and Mabels house ...... and there I stood...... this lad, my precious son...... had only taken 3 hours to dig over the 12 foot by 7 foot bit of garden and had made me a veggie plot....... he had taken one of me books and had read how to over dig and under dig and turn and weed and he had dug me a bloody veggie plot in the back of me little garden right next to our shrub of life......

Can you see the tears running down me face as I type this...... he had even got some long bits of wood and had edged it all proper.... he stood there beaming and I stood there crying....... 'there ya go mum, I know its not very big and ya wont be able to compete with a farmer, but its the best we have' ....... where does he get it from, this huge heart, this soul that so cares for everyone and everything around him.....

So...... anyways BACK to the story I started to tell LOL

One of the dads that I childmind for gave me half packets of seeds that he had left over to start us off...... and ya know me 'waste not want not' so instead of going out and buying seeds, I just used what he gave me....... and there was a packet of
Beetroot seeds, and anyone that knows me KNOWS that more then anything I LOVE beetroot..... I eat it grated raw in salads, cooked and sliced but best of all PICKLED beetroot is me favourite and there is always an opened jar on the go in the fridge........ and now I would be able to grow me own and pickle it and have a cupboard full and give jars to me maties from me own garden.......



I buy jars and jars of these beetroots, but now I would grow me own :)

So, I planted me seeds and I told me maties, you must remember me maties DONT do digging or growing or soil or animals LOL...... and they laffed at me...... but they said they would save any glass jars so that I had something to put me garden treasures in.......



See a cupboard full of jars just waiting to be filled with pickled beetroots :)... I couldnt wait..

I planted loads of other things, ya usual bog standard tomatoes and courgettes and peas and carrots and lettuce and and and.... they all begain to sprout and grow and it all looked lush and gorgeous and it was mine and I had grown it and nurtured it....... and then came 3 months of the wettest weather that Britain had ever had since records began lol...... but still me stuff grew, and we picked courgettes and tomaotes and peppers and lettuce and shoo'd Janet away and weeded and it grew and grew..... Colin the bloke that had given us the seeds was impressed with me little plot and told me to leave the beetroots all summer and pull at the very end......

I was sooooooo excited..... I would have jars full all winter...... it was a start on me road to a self suffient life LMFAO.....

So it was time to pull and cook and pickle......... ONLY.......... well......... I had to laff and boy did I laff as did me maties and Colin and me twat neighbour and me lads were creased up.........

The big pulling of the little rows of beetroots..... it was the big day........ and this is what they looked like........



WTF was that lmfao....... it was tiny..... not even big enough to cook and pickle...... Im now laffing whilst typing lol



I mean aint it pathetic lol hardly enough to pickle and store and give to friends and sell the rest out the front on a little gingham covered table with a hand written 'Pickled Beetroot For Sale' sign......

Im a bloody failure....... go on, admit it...... like everything in life...... Ive failed at me pickled beetroot business LOL

Ok....... enough boring Twaddle for a freezing cold Easter Monday....... oh, and Happy Easter to anyone that reads down this far LOL...

x