Refurbishing The Portakabin

Due to neglect the Portakabin had suffered over the years. The roof was damaged and letting in water. As a result, tsections of the fibreboard floor had become soft and was falling apart. To reinstate the roof would cost £1000 upwards. Nev came up with an alternative solution of putting a steel sheeting roof over the existing roof by fixing to the metal frame that surrounded the hut. Material was available second hand for £200 which was paid for by a benefactor. Nev covered the cost of the fixings and put the the new top on the hut on Wednesday afternoon with minimal help from Les and I who were lifting the sheets from the van and passing them up to Nev for fixing in place.

Since then with the help of other volunteers from the association the inner walls and ceiling have been washed down and painted with emulsion paint. Four bucket loads of soil and rubbish were removed along with four bucket loads of dirty water almost like mud from washing the walls. A call for unused spare emulsion paint provide material to put on a coat of pale yellow for the walls and ceiling with a contrasting olive green for the end walls and door.

I managed to find about two litres of the green masonry paint used on the outside and mixed with some white masonry paint I had at home there is just about enough to do the external surfaces in a paler green that is a similar shade to the green contrast walls inside. We are now waiting for a window in the weather for a few dry days to get the outside done.

After a few days with roof on the floor is starting to dry. The inside of the hut is now beginning to look respectable.

Cold Frosty Sunday Sunrise

On Sunday 7th October I happened to be at the allotment as the sun was rising with my camera handy. It was a cold frosty morning. In the foreground you can see my greenhouse with Tang Hall Primary School in the background with wonderful sunrise colours to round the image off. Since then we have had a burst of summery weather taking us back up to 21 degrees C and then cooling with bursts of rain.

The allotment association has recently restarted with about sixteen members. Claire Kennard is Chair, Norah Godfrey is Treasurer, Tara Mason is secretary, Efro is membership secretary, and somehow I ended up as Vice Chair.

I have been going through some of the information that I got on the start of allotments in York. Glen Allotments was created in 1919 from three parcels of land. The three parcels were pieces from Glen Lodge, church land and a parcel of pasture land purchased from a dairy farmer. the pasture field forms a corner of the allotment and a section of Fourth Avenue. Initially the allotments stretched through to East Parade more or less surrounding three sides of Glen Lodge. As time went by during lulls in the desire to have an allotment, sections were taken away to make Glen Gardens, the tennis and basketball courts and Poplar tree gardens flats. By the Millennium only about ten plots were still active. Much of the site was covered in Brambles. A large chunk was about to be appropriated by the council for other uses and a hard battle was fought to preserve the status of the land as allotments. Fortunately interest peaked again and once more there is a waiting list for a plot.

Vandalism has reared its ugly head again. Several sheds were entered recently and tools removed and put on to other plots. Most jumbled tools have been reunited with their rightful owners. I still have two items left that need to be reunited, a screwdriver with a red and yellow handle with a distinctive marking on the handle and a hoe with a reddish brown rubber handle. If these are yours, let me know so I can return them.