full of eastern promise

I'm not quite sure what possessed him. You'd have thought he'd have had enough of gardening all week without taking on another allotment.  You do, however, have to admire someone who takes on  the challenge of creating something beautiful out of yet another junkyard full of glass, couch grass, bricks, bottles, jars, couch grass, corrugated plastic, cast iron, brambles, hawthorn, railway sleepers, lino, carpets, guttering, nails and broken glass.  And did I mention the couch grass?

He's starting to lick it into shape with the help of the extraordinary long handled (Irish) spade and lashings of hard work.  I think he's very much inspired by the location which, he told me today, has so many of the attributes necessary for the perfect allotment - a canal, a pumping station and sewage works, the occasional sound of a railway nearby, gas works in the distance, enough green space and trees nearby for plenty of birds, hiding places for passing cats and foxes.

And a south facing shed.