"An English Thing" or not?

[snohare]

I'm at Nellfield Site 2 basketcase, which is tucked away between the wall of the cemetery and the two blocks of tenements just along the street - five little plots in what is effectively a walled garden. A locked door is our only entry point, so you can imagine we don't get to mix much even with the Nellfield 1 mob across the street - but I keep my ears open for all sorts of plot gossip, and the arson that led to the containers was the "hot" news in Aberdeen allotments for a long time... The containers were several centimetres too big by Council rules, there was a rebellion in the making, and in the end it turned out to be a plotholder who was stealing produce and burning down the sheds. They caught him when he gave a handful of tatties, all different types, to the local old folks home.
But on the plus side, I don't think he ever sat about drinking tea. Sounds more like one of those evil coffee fiends to me.
We just got an invite to piggyback onto your association (or advisory committee as it is currently known) so I may yet be along to visit...

[basketcase]

I'm at Nellfield Site 2 basketcase, which is tucked away between the wall of the cemetery and the two blocks of tenements just along the street - five little plots in what is effectively a walled garden. A locked door is our only entry point, so you can imagine we don't get to mix much even with the Nellfield 1 mob across the street - but I keep my ears open for all sorts of plot gossip, and the arson that led to the containers was the "hot" news in Aberdeen allotments for a long time...
<snip>
Sounds more like one of those evil coffee fiends to me

We just got an invite to piggyback onto your association (or advisory committee as it is currently known) so I may yet be along to visit...

Think this was all well before my time. I'm in Garthdee Field at the back. I (obviously) don't have a shed yet - but I do know where the communal shed key is... (I'll even forgive the "hot news" remark... rofl)

Well, that's the trouble with coffee, isn't it? You never know what it will lead on to...

[basketcase]

Load of bollocks! He's winding you up!

Possibly not, Snadge. When some of the others were talking about getting a group together they said that not everybody wanted to be sociable. Some people just wanted to turn up, do the work and leave "like him at the back".

[snakeshack]

I have a stove and kettle in the shed and spend much time as teaboy,and I do coffee too,even better with a small medicinal whisky in it.
By the way you should never take a thermos to the allotment.....nature abhors a vacuum

[basketcase]

...nature abhors a vacuum

Which is the best excuse I've heard of not to do the hoovering!

[miffy]

One of the biggest disappoints me for me was finding out i couldn't have a shed on my lottie as i dreamed of sitting in it with a mug of tea i'd just made on my camping stove with like minded souls discussing our onions!! Hubbie and i take a flask up the plot with us or cold drinks and we are a great source of amusement to one of the old fellas for some reason. I wish there was more socialising on our plot but folk just tend to come up work and go home, which is fine i suppose.

[snohare]

Some people just wanted to turn up, do the work and leave "like him at the back".

Yes, even on our site with only 5 plots we have one bloke who isn't interested in socialising, he will say hello and goodbye and that is about it. He has been seen to sit down and drink water, and a rumour once went around that he listened to a match in his shed, but most of the time he appears to water his plants etc at 7 in the morning before going to work, and is never seen, let alone heard from by phone. His plot is immaculate, he sprays religiously (but believes his tatties are blightproof, and that once infected tatties can be cured ) and if it ain't tidy it ain't right. But he goes his way and we go ours and well, that is the glorious diversity that is human nature, it takes all sorts. As long as we respect one another's boundaries we still get on fine.
(Pity I bothered to cut his blighted tatties off at the knees when I saw it getting down to the tubers last year, during a week long period of heavy rain - first time I'd been on his ground, and it will be the last ! But ho hum, if he doesn't want to see the photos I can't make him believe me...)

[NOG]

Sometimes it good to talk other time It a pain.....If I rush up for an hour to plant and water I dont wnat to chat for 40 mins......But it is a scocial activity.

[nikiwitch]

we have 3 sheds, one is dedicated to tea drinking

[Winged one]

I must be an Irish sassenach then - we're not allowed sheds but I am also very much - go, work, go home - mainly as I have very limited time to do my gardening!! Still enjoy it though!!

[basketcase]

One of the biggest disappoints me for me was finding out i couldn't have a shed on my lottie as i dreamed of sitting in it with a mug of tea i'd just made on my camping stove with like minded souls discussing our onions!! Hubbie and i take a flask up the plot with us or cold drinks and we are a great source of amusement to one of the old fellas for some reason. I wish there was more socialising on our plot but folk just tend to come up work and go home, which is fine i suppose.

Ah, but is it in Scotland, Miffy?

[Nicos]

We 'took tea' in the greenhouse...much more to see when it's raining!!!!

[SarzWix]

If you visit my plot you don't have to have tea - you can have coffee, hot chocolate, herbal or fruit tea, high juice....

[BUFFS]

i am on the west coast,below glasgow,and it seems that its the socialising that gets done first,then the work, when everyone is up to date on all the latest, and warmed by a cup of something(dont ask,i dont)

[matthew2riches]

I used to have a camping stove and the full range (coffee, tea, chocolate, soup, etc) until some selfish ba**tar*s broke in and stole the lot! :-( They even stole the biscuits!!!!