One of my allotments is an apple orchard, with most trees planed around the end of WW2. The crops this year has been utterly amazing, causing some branches to break, such is the weight of the fruit. I crush the majority of fruit and make juice which I give to several neighbours. A banknote collection… Read more »

I have an electric grass cutter for my two allotments. Alas, the battery needs charging every twenty five minutes so it takes over a week of trips to an fro to do the full job. Our banknote collections need re-charging every so often as well. IT’s good to sort out the notes and keep them… Read more »

One of my two allotments is an orchard which was planted in 1946. I took it over twenty years ago after many years of neglect. It now produces apples in abundance and I crush tons of the fruit to make juice for my family and neighbours. The nectar of the gods! A banknote collection can… Read more »

The hot summer has made this the best year ever for the grapes in my garden. I have two vines, one that grows over the summer house and the other that has spread along a wide fence. The grapes taste so sweet and are utterly delicious. A banknote collection also spreads and grows over a… Read more »

This marrow won a prize at our Allotment Society. The size was enormous but the grower has no interest in using it for cooking. A banknote collection may have a lot of notes, bulked up with perhaps low value banknotes. However, a smaller collection with a good selection of Firsts and Lasts, Replacements and Errors,… Read more »

This week, a fellow birdwatcher and I walked through a reserve that used to be a wasteland. For a hundred years it was used as a quarry and a rubbish dump but now it has been transformed into a large nature reserve. I noticed in the river backwaters the huge increase in pennywort which is… Read more »

Liz Truss tells us she is going to focus on tax cuts. For many millions this is meaningless twaddle. The concern of how we as families and individuals will pay our energy bills is a cause of extreme worry and the hopeless inability of our leaders to have a clear strategy in place is in… Read more »

Yesterday, I saw this butterfly on the door of the summerhouse. In the light of the sun, the colour on its wings was nigh perfection. Beautiful. When you look through a collection of notes, the colours, the quality/grades can be so enthralling, at least to me. MY wife rolls her eyes when I speak of… Read more »

I harvested my first onions from the allotment. I planted them out in late April and even in this hot weather with little rain, my personal fertiliser of liquid comfrey and nettles has led the onions to grow firm and quite large. A banknote collections starts small and over the months and years it builds… Read more »

I have kept cacti for many years. Each year I take cuttings, plant them and watch them grow steadily over the rears. I use my own fertiliser – comfrey and nettles soaked in water for weeks. It smells but my goodness, it makes the cacti grow, The secret is not to over-water.  Taking  care of… Read more »