Allotments in the News

Our local newspaper has a story this week concerning a disabled lady who was trapped at her allotment in Calne. Some local developers are using the site to store their tools and have changed the lock from the usual padlock to a combination one that she couldn't open. The poor woman wasn't rescued until after 9pm and it's been rather chilly round here lately!

Her ordeal reminded me that I failed to report my all-time allotment lowest of the low in yesterday's posting. I managed to get the car stuck up there last February. I'd only popped up there to get a few leeks and before doing so decided to turn the car round at the far end, so I could make a quick getaway. How naive! There'd been constant rain for the past few days, so the car slithered half way round the turn and one wheel ended in the edge ditch of Plot 22. I'd also forgotten my mobile (typical :0), so sat there and had a good think about what to do. Inspiration struck - I'll use my carpet stash from the shed to put under the wheels to get some traction (see Allotment Society, there are good reasons for having carpet on site)! Try as hard as I might, it wouldn't quite budge. Now what to do? I know, I'll walk over to the Office Park over the road and ring NAH. It turned out that all but one (the last one of course) of the offices had secure doors, so I couldn't get into them. I entered the last office, only to find that very day they were having the entrance carpet refitted - a lovely, clean off-white colour, so I had to stand on the 1 piece of plastic sheeting available at the entrance, in my muddy wellies, looking like a creature beamed in from a totally different planet, shout my plight to the receptionist 20 feet away and ask her if I could borrow her phone. Phone duly obtained, I phoned NAH, only to find he wasn't at his desk at the time. I left a pathetic, female in plight voicemail and trudged back to the allotment to await my knight in shining armour.

He didn't come by the deadline I'd given him of course - half an hour as it was freezing cold and getting dark by then, so I trudged the 25 minute walk home, with said leeks, so it wasn't a completely wasted journey. Of course, when I got home, NAH had left a message on our answerphone saying he was at the allotment, but couldn't get in because I'd locked the gate. By now it was dark and NAH's hometime. Duly home, his advice was to call the RAC. They did come out an hour later, but couldn't get the car shifted either. Luckily, NAH has a colleague with a Land Rover, so they went up to the allotment the next day and got my car towed out. Naturally, a couple of other plot holders saw this happen, so I've had much leg pulling over my exploits since then!

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