St Patrick's Day on the plot

Today was warm and dry after a wet night ,everyone who took part in our parades were delighted with the weather. I did not attend the parade in Cork where over 60,000 attended one of our biggest parades yet. The theme this year was our maritime history as Cork has been a major port for hundreds of years.There were pirates and strange creatures in abundance and our Grand Marshal was Lisa Cummins a local lady who swam the English Channel both ways!It also celebrated our diverse cultures with participants from all over the globe.
I went out to the plot at 12 and came home at 5 tired and sore but pleased with my days endeavours.
The rabbits are checking out the allotments already ,2 of them hopped across the path as I was leaving, this one just turned his back I think he thought if he could not see me I could not see him!
I set 4 rows of centurion onions, 2 at each edge of the bed with room in the centre for carrots and parsnips which will be going in by the week end.The idea is to confuse the carrot fly with the smell of the onions. I remembered to net them to stop the birds from pulling them out.
This bed has been covered with manure and a covering of black plastic since last year. I dug it over today ,the soil was black and rich looking. I put in 2 drills of second earlies, Wilja which is a strange name for a spud and made me think wilja grow or wontja!The second drill is Maris Peer a salad potato.I lined the drills with a layer of manure and scattered pellets over them.The pellets are from Aldi, Christy gave me a bag of them the last day I was out,he had bought a big bucket of them but he said they are selling out quickly as everyone had great reports of them last year.I did not mound up the drills,I will wait for the shoots to come through and then earth them up into drills.
I widened the paths on both sides and moved the plastic down to the next bed ,its a bit tatty after over wintering for 2 years on various beds so it needs replacing soon.
I dug out a new rhubarb bed along the top of the new plot, there were 3 plants in already since last year but it is something we will use a lot of so I must get 4 more crowns to fill the row.I moved one crown from the centre as they were too close together, I dug a deep hole put in a layer of manure and put in the crown,hopefully it will never know it has been moved!
Back to St Patrick's Day, there was an awful lot of green plastic and multi coloured wigs around both on TV and around the city.I remember growing up, we went out looking for shamrock a couple of days before the big day,buying it was not an option!We always came home with sprays of it and this was worn going to Mass on the morning,the hymns sung in Mass were all very stirring and patriotic ie: Faith of our fathers Holy faith and Hail glorious St Patrick dear Saint of our Isle. The girls also wore green ribbons in our hair and all the children wore badges.The parades back then did not have fancy floats but legions of marching men from the army, gardai and various organizations with lots of bands.
Now it is a day of celebration all over the world and I hope where ever you are you had a great day!