Time to move the plum tree

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours at the allotment today in the weak January sunshine. I went down to dig up some celeriac and leeks for making soup. The snow has now all gone and we were hoping for a frost last night, as the ground is much easier to dig after a frost. However, the frost was negligible and the ground was very sticky. While I was there I decided that today was the right day for moving the plum tree. It is too close to the fruit cage and is going to become a problem in the future. It's two years old so the sooner the better. It turned out to be a bigger job than I expected - as always! When Peter came down he brought a very welcome cup of coffee and then started chopping wood for the wood burning stove back home. He keeps a large supply of wood down at the plot and as it's been a cold winter so far, we've used a lot of wood.

I needed help with moving the tree, so when the wood was chopped he came and helped with the digging. We dug a hole about 6 feet across but eventually had to chop the roots, as it was becoming too difficult to chase them all. The new place for the tree is beside the new lawn. I put some wood ash and manure in the bottom of the hole and then replaced the soil, putting more manure on top. It looks much better in it's new home.

I had left the celeriac soaking in a bucket as it's a very dirty vegetable to clean at home. The whole clean up operation takes longer at this time of year. Peter did manage to acquire a boot puller at the auction recently which works brilliantly for pulling off muddy wellies. He also got me a butler sink, but I haven't decided what to use it for yet, and a couple of galvanised buckets which are useful for putting the hot ash into.