Allotment Fire: second attempt. Progress.

I'm a firestarter..smoky firestarter...

Well, wouldn't you know it, I made a fire, all by my little self. It worked well and didn't take too long. And all of this without the help of a man. To be honest, it was far more smoky that I hoped, despite trying to build a big dry fire and adding the brambles little by little - there's a little sign by the water tap that says 'No smoky fires please,' so it must be an issue on our allotments. Sorry, I tried my absolute best. But I have to let you know that if it's any consolation, allotment committee, most of the smoke seemed to blow directly in my face, no matter where I went on the plot. But, since there are no more fires of any smoke level until the winter, hopefully all will be forgiven.
In other news, I stripped the black plastic from the raised beds area. The soil seemed to improve the higher up the slope, which I suppose makes sense. There were quite a lot slow worms, which were momentarily exciting because I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid (and then just became me feeling guilty as I'd removed their duvet) and some weeds. More of the joyous couch grass, obviously, more bramble roots and some long white slithery roots. I have no idea what they are - they're like tagliatelle. I try and pull them out in one piece, which  is an effort that enjoys about a 40% success rate, but they don't look like they'd be a big deal to keep pulling. Also, there are some tiny buds, for a plant I can't identify - probably weeds, but I'd never seen this type before. Look more like lettuce to me (Nothing, but nothing makes me feel more like a beginner than sitting there, brow furrowed, trying to work out what the stuff I'm pulling out of the ground could be)? Anyway, regardless of exotic or boring plant life, I've stuck in some poles and planks and now I have an idea of what I'm doing in terms of planning space. I'll probably get five beds out of the raised area, added to the little one I have already. It's going to take time, I know, but I'm feeling more optimistic about timescales now. I hope to have them all dug over and filled in within another 14 days. Which, depending on how I feed the soil, could potentially mean a reasonable growing season and at least six separate types of crop over the year if all goes to plan. Fingers crossed.

Weed suppressed strip, Happy to forget this.

On the other side of the plot, I laid down some cardboard and weed suppressant fabric in order to prepare a long bed which I'll probably try and dig over and manure in October. I have to confess that the parlous state of the soil under the black plastic I pulled off hasn't filled me with a great deal of confidence about this technique on the clay soil but I have to give it a shot. If it's just a little easier to dig over, I won't have lost anything - I wouldn't have done anything with that area this summer, anyway.

So, I'm waiting in order to see if I can get some manure this weekend. There's apparently a site shop that sells well rotted manure amongst other stuff, but I don't know how up to date their info is. In the meantime, more weeding and sorting my planks to build the beds. Not much more I can do outdoors for now. Fingers crossed for dry weather. Dry that bastard clay out.