Two very repentant gardeners and one million rampant weeds

We finally made a long overdue trip to our allotment this week. Due to a combination of circumstances involving a key that doesn't fit the gate padlock, the lack of a car, trips to visit poorly parents, sibling's hen do, friends getting married abroad, 30 reports to write and moving house, Andrew and I have been to the allotment a total of 2 times in the last two months. Our fellow allotmenteers are so outraged by this blatant disregard for our plot that almost as soon as we arrived on Tuesday evening, one marched over to us and demanded to know where we'd been and why we had let our plot turn into such a jungle. And to be fair to her, it was looking like a jungle. We didn't have the heart to take a photo, but it looked something like this:

There were weeds as high as our waists, or even higher. According to this old lady, four days is the maximum amount of time it is acceptable for any decent allotment holder to be away from their plot. We've been four times since January. The weeds are everywhere. 

Feeling suitable admonished and assuring our neighbour that we would be much more dedicated now we have a car and a key to actually let us through the gate, we set to work. And it was a very depressing task. Most depressing of all were the strawberries. Our strawberry plants are wonderful. Fruitful, luscious, plentiful...we had such high hopes for a summer of jam, Victoria sponge cakes, strawberries and cream... but instead, due to our neglect we found literally punnets and punnets worth of strawberries...all rotten and mouldy on the plants. Only a handful of ripe strawberries remained. What an awful waste. We feel very bad indeed. 

However it's not all bad news. We do have three beetroots growing, and one Brussels sprout plant. It seems that it's not a good idea to ignore your allotment during the driest Spring on record. Our broad bean plants are growing but there's no sign of beans. Our peas never even made it to the surface. Our onions are growing though, we've got pears and apples on the trees, a bountiful gooseberry bush and the potatoes are doing well. Tonight we've just eaten some of our Charlottes. Delicious.