We decided to attack the last remaining uncultivated bed on the plot this month. It’s been under a black plastic sheet for the last year in order to try to kill off the many brambles and perennial weeds that flourished there.

The right end of the bed was absolutely fine with some pretty decent looking soil. We ran into trouble about half way across however as the patch of clay in the bed below obviously continues into the new bed. With all the rain it has proved impossible to dig so we’ll leave it until the ground dries out a bit.

In the process, we found an old carpet buried in the topsoil and beneath it a nest of slowworms which we transported into one of our compost bins. We’re hoping that they’ll help to keep down the slug population so they’re very welcome on our plot.

We’ve also been visited regularly by a beautiful pair of Stonechats. They appear every winter (though of course it may not be the same pair) and give us hours of pleasure. They are really trusting little birds and come visiting as soon as you sit down for a cup of coffee, to hunt on the patch you’ve just dug.

We went to our daughter Emma for Christmas and took over the last of the parsnips for Christmas dinner. Rob, her fella, cooked a fantastic Christmas lunch, the best I’ve ever eaten, and won a few brownie points by saying you can’t go wrong with such good produce. He’s a bright lad and father in law is impressed.

I bought Sue a new stainless steel fork for Christmas. Friends told me it wasn’t a good idea – not nearly romantic enough. But I know my Susie. She loved it, better than the Crown Jewels she said, and my brownie points score also went through the roof.

My other daughter Jo and her fella Joe (confusing isn’t it) bought us an electronic weather station. It’s great. I can now tell you the inside and outside temperatures, give a forecast for the next twelve hours and identify a waning gibbous moon with the best of them.

All things considered it's been a very good year. Although not the most productive due to the poor summer, it was still extremely enjoyable and as the year draws to a close I think we are more on top of the development of the plot than we have ever been. I'm really looking forward to 2008 but then I almost always look forward to everything. You've got to be an optimist to be a gardner.