ANOTHER WEEK WITHOUT RAIN / EMMA'S SUNDAY DIARIES

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to my Sunday diaries. My name is Emma. These are the Sunday diaries where I vlog all about my London life, just life in general, basically. Might take you down to the allotment plot this week. We might harvest some things. I'll do some cooking, some recipes, some baking, and of course show you my home garden and my house bunny as well. So if that sounds like your jam, do hit the subscribe button. We are already in August. I actually can't believe it. I think my last Sunday vlog was August, but I didn't realize because I actually filmed it in July. Now I'm filming this in August. I actually can't believe we're already here. Been a really weird, bumpy year so far just because we went from a really cold spring to a really hot summer where we've had like five heat waves in a row. So the allotment is looking nothing like it did last year. It's all, like last year, everything was up here. This year, everything's still low to the ground. Just been a really off year for growing. I know I kind of keep going on about this in a lot of my videos, but I think it's important because I know that so many of you who watch these vlogs, you are beginner gardeners or you've just got an allotment plot or you want to grow more or you're looking for advice. And I think it's important to say that if you just started your gardening journey this year or you just started an allotment or growing your own food, this has been a really difficult year. It's really hard. It's not just you. You're not the only one finding it difficult. So if nothing's growing and you're getting frustrated and you're like, oh my goodness, this is so much work. Yes. Even as an allotment gardener, I've had my allotment for six years. I've been gardening for a little bit longer than that because I used to garden in my home garden as well before. Even I am like struggling this year. Struggling, not just like physically with like watering everything and keeping it alive, but like mentally, I'm drained. My allotment is draining my energy at the moment and I'm literally just looking forward to the autumn time and it's keeping me going. I'm now coming up with projects for autumn time. I'm sowing stuff for autumn. I'm really looking ahead and it's helping massively. So everything's like banking on autumn being a really good autumn because the growing season is not over yet. It's not over till the first frost. And even then it's not really over because there's still stuff that you can do in the garden. So it's not over. The summer growing season has been very difficult but we've got more growing seasons coming. So it's all good. You guys seem to really enjoy my little mini Q&A that I did the other week and you've left me more questions, things that I didn't answer. So I'm gonna answer them at the end of this vlog as well. I will do another mini Q&A just to kind of round up all the questions that I knew I was gonna get a load more questions. So I will answer as many of those as I can at the end of this vlog. Sorry, this is the second vlog I filmed today because I filmed an allotment vlog this morning. So I literally cannot talk anymore. So I think I'm gonna pop outside, check on the garden, give everything a really good water and hopefully fix that hose pipe. Also, before I go any further in this vlog, can I just quickly say, I bought these shorts, these jeans shorts the other day from M&S. They are so nice, such a nice color. I picked up a hanger that said size 12 because I'm always a 12 on the bottom. I picked up the hanger that said 12 and when I got them home, they're actually a size 16. So they're really, really big. But the thing is, is I really like the length of them in the size 16 and the feel of them around here. I just need to get myself a belt. So if you see me kind of pulling my shorts up a lot, it's because they don't fit me. Wow, it is so, so hot out here. It's not even funny how hot it is out here. I'm really hoping this is the last hot day. Apparently, tomorrow we're getting rain. Fingers crossed. Obviously, I will let you know immediately if we get rain. And then I think the temperatures are starting to drop a bit, which would be really, really nice. I think it's still staying in 20s, but today's 33 and it's just too hot. Just wanted to super quickly share because I'm gonna sit out here just for literally 10 minutes. It's probably all I can manage out here. I'm just gonna sit and read this book. This is Fellow Creatures and it's, honestly, I am loving it. I'm so enjoying it that I'm actually trying to read it slower on purpose so that I don't finish it too quickly. But I'm already almost halfway through. It is so, so good. Exactly my vibe. I love the cover. I just love everything about it. It makes me so happy. So if you think that the books that you like are anything like the books that I like, you will love this one too, Fellow Creatures. I suggest you go and buy it immediately. It's on the new sellers. It's on the New Fiction. So it must have been released fairly recently. Haven't seen any other book reviews on this yet and I don't want to because I'm still reading it. But yeah, I'm just loving it. It's just such a good read and I'll give you a more detailed kind of review when I finish it. But I'm gonna get through it quite quick because I'm gonna have to look for the next book already. I'm just gonna sit out here and read this for a little bit. And then we will go in and make some dinner. Is it time for your dinner? Yeah? All right, I'm gonna cook the rabbit's dinner first. It's coming, it's coming. All right, Pips, just be patient a second. It's coming. No, Pippin, Pippin! Pippin, what are you doing? Excuse me. Excuse me, Pippin. Come on, you're not gonna get it any quicker just by coming in the kitchen. Come on, come on. Come here. Wait, oh, watch your head. Oh my goodness, I need to cut these things off of you, don't I? Might be a good time to do it because he gets a little bit nervous, don't you? There we go. Look at that. This is something that apparently only really forms on lop rabbits, so mini lops and lops. Don't really know why. Pips, can I get round the other side? Can you come round this way? Come round this way. That's it. No, okay. This way. I'll just get this one. Like, could I just cut the other side? Would that be quite all right? It's not gonna let me. There's a good boy. Right, carry on. No, carry on, eat it. Hang on, hang on. Pippin, Pippin! Look, I got it. Put them undone, undone. Very dramatic sometimes, Pips. Very dramatic, aren't you, Pips? Oh my goodness, Pippin! My goodness, Pippin! What on earth? What is going on, young man? Right, I've got these courgettes from the allotment plot, so I'm gonna do a courgette risotto tonight. One of them is a normal shape and the other one is a little bit of a funny shape, but I think it'll be fine. They're both courgettes. So let's chop up our ingredients first. Right, so we've got the courgettes. I don't think we need them just yet. So I'm starting with a couple of shallots. I was gonna use onions, but I saw shallots and I thought they would be nicer. I saw shallots in the shop, I should say. I have not grown any shallots this year. So I just slice these up. It's gonna say slice then, slice these up. Then I've got some garlic. So we'll probably do a couple of cloves of this. Big chunk of butter. That's about 50 grams, but you don't have to be precise. I'm never precise with my cooking. I always just sort of throw in what I think. I'm not even that precise when I do baking either. I just sort of roughly measure it. Throw in our onion and garlic. So I'm gonna dice up the courgette. Right, now that that's softened, we'll add in our risotto rice. This is just the one from Marks and Spencers. Again, not measuring it, just going for it by eye. And then what we do is we just stir it in the butter until they start to go slightly see-through. So they'll come out white like rice. And then when they fry in the butter, they'll just start to turn a little bit translucent. Is that the word? Well, they just got a bit see-through. Right, cool. And now we're gonna start adding in our stock. This is just vegetable stock, but very slowly. So just a little bit at a time until it absorbs it, and then we'll put in some more. Right, so now this is almost completely done. We're gonna throw in our courgette. Here we go. The star of the risotto. Here you go, stars. I just add some seasoning. Just salt and pepper. I think I might add in some lemon juice as well. There it is, courgette risotto. You could add some cheese or some creme fraiche to that. I'm just gonna have it as is with a little bit of garlic bread on the side. Delicious. Morning, it's Tuesday. There's no rain. There's no rain at all. And you know what there is though, in place of rain? Another heat alert. We're in amber. We're in amber heat alert, and there's no rain for the next foreseeable future for the next few weeks. So not sure how I feel about this. Gonna have to just process this for a little bit. It's turning into a bit of an ongoing nightmare now. Not just for me, I know it's for everyone, but I'm just talking in relation to myself and my allotment plot. This heat is absolutely just not the one. I'm done. So it's lunchtime. We're gonna go for a little walk now. I'm gonna take you with me. Let's try not to overheat. Look at that grass. Look at that grass and the heat wave. Oh my goodness. There is the tumble dryer. One second tumble dryer. Morning guys, it's the next morning now. We just did a little walk yesterday and then I didn't do much else. I ended up, I think I went down to the allotment plot and filmed a little vlog and then I just had loads of work to do in the afternoon. So I didn't actually have anything else to show you. Popped down to M&S this morning and I bought myself some flowers, which I think is so pretty. It's these. These are called asters. Oh my gosh, Pippin, is that you? I wondered what that was. Are you going outside, are you? Pippin likes to just wander in and out now. You just brushed past my foot and you scared me. And these are asters. So I don't know if I'll be able to show you. There they are. I got the pink, the bright pink and then the white ones. I thought I'd mix them up. So I've just got them in a little vase for now. I'm going to sort them out properly later because Pippin's decided to go outside. Yes, I know Pippin, okay. I need to watch you if you're going to be out there. I brought some stuff home from the allotment plot. So I brought some plant food. It's just this one, the Miracle Grow, all purpose plant food. And I thought I would just feed my pots because I don't think I've fed my pots since for a very long time. And I think they might be suffering. So I'm going to do a little bit of a feed with my pots. And then I also brought home my mosquito bits because in my little pond here, because the fountain's not been working, I'm really worried that some mosquitoes or like biting flies have laid their kind of larvae in my little pond. And if they hatch, you know, that's my seating area out there. So there's just going to be always biting flies hovering around there. And I really don't want that. So these don't hurt anything else other than biting mosquitoes, basically, mosquito larvae. They don't affect anything else and they don't damage the water, the pH of the water. They don't do anything bad. And if a bird ate it or a hedgehog ate it, they'd be fine. If a frog ate it, it'd be fine. It's literally just the larvae of mosquitoes. And I just think it's so easy just to whack it in and take care of that problem. So I'm going to put some of those in as well. We're going to have to watch Pippin first though. All right, he's out here. He's out here. Some of this, it's a sage. Need this, another bit there. I really want to get him like a sand pit and get some like children's play sand and let him dig in it. Because I think he really wants to dig. I think Minilops love digging. It's sort of like their little comfort thing. Sometimes he tries to dig the carpet, but obviously he can't do that. So I want to get him like a little sand pit. I think it'd be so cute. Would you like that? Hey. Right, so this is the Miracle Grow one, which is one that I don't normally use to be fair, but I'm going to use it today. Just basically normal plant food, isn't it? Absolutely stinks. Definitely don't want that all over my hands. I sort of forgot about how important it is to feed your pots because obviously they don't get the same kind of nutrients as plants that are in the ground get, you know, especially when it hasn't been raining and I've just been using tap water to kind of water them all. You know, maybe if it was raining, some more nutrients would go into them, but without the rain, we're a bit stuck. Oh my goodness, look at the color of that pepper. That's so exciting. Oh wow, look at that. Isn't that gorgeous? My gosh, this is going to be my first ever pepper that I've grown myself. I'm so excited. Right, let me see if I can show you. Oh yeah, look. Can you see that? Are they coming up on camera? Can you see all of those little creatures? They, they are going to turn into little bitey flies. These solar fountains, they're so cheap and it's so easy to buy and put together, but they're very precarious. As you can see, it just sort of does what it wants really. So I think I need to top this up because I think the water level is getting a little bit low. So I'm going to top it up and put in some of those little bites. Oh my God, this hose. Seriously, seriously. I'm just going to destroy it. It's obviously got a kink in it. Oh, keep un-kinking it every two seconds. Oh my goodness. Right, you're working now? Yes. Okay. I'll just sprinkle some of these in. Ooh, you know what? They smell really good. They smell very lemony. Right, hopefully that takes care of that. I see Percy and his friends have been very busy. They've eaten the entire bird feeder. They've eaten every single bit in it and it was full to the top like two days ago. There we go, all topped up. He has started bringing some friends now. So I get Percy the pigeon, but also some other really small little birds. I think they're great tits. I think, I think. I've only really seen them from a distance because they fly away if I get too close. Yeah, it's really good, this one. Oh, that's the bird. That is literally the bird that comes. I think it's a great tit. I think that one's a blue tit. Yeah, this is the one that comes into my garden now. I've got two of them. So if I do manage to get them on camera, I will do my best, but I can't make any promises. Right, let's sort out these flowers. I've got asters growing in my garden. I don't even know if they survived the heat wave or not. So I don't even know if they're going to be coming back. I just have no idea. I think we're just going to stuff all of these. Just trim them a bit. Try and stuff them all into one vase. I think it'd be nice with the two different colours. Okay, so last week I did a bit of a Q&A and I thought I would just wrap up some of the extra questions that came in by doing another sort of really mini Q&A for you. Because I know that a lot of you left more questions I did just try and film this in the other room. I think the focus on my camera is going a bit crazy at the moment because of the heat. It keeps overheating and also because of this bright sunlight. And also I've got the tumble dryer on. So everything's going against us, but I'm going to do my best to get through some of these extra questions. I'm going to try and wrap it up quite quickly and not ramble on. So one of the questions was, what's going to happen to my shed and greenhouse if I leave the allotment plot? So it's not certain yet that I'm definitely going to give up my plot. It all depends on what happens, where we go, how big the garden is, how near my allotment plot will be to my new place. I definitely love my allotment still. And there are days where I go down there and I'm just like, I could never give this up. And there are other times when I'm like, I really just want to grow at home and that's it. And just have it right outside my back door. I think there's pros and cons to both. A lot of you are saying that you gave up an allotment plot and you regretted it. And then other people are telling me that they gave theirs up, grew in their back garden and they've never looked back and they love it. So I definitely haven't completely made my mind up on that. But if I was to leave it and get a big enough garden, I don't think I would take my shed and my greenhouse with me because I think they would fall apart. I think they're very rickety, especially the shed. And I just think there's no way I'll be able to take it apart, take it to the new house, put it up again. I might as well go for new stuff. And I do have this dream of having a proper glass greenhouse one day, like a really nice one and just really spoiling myself. So we'll just have to see what happens in the future. But I wouldn't be taking my greenhouse and shed with me. I would leave it for the next plot owners as a lovely present. And hopefully somebody else will get lots of enjoyment out of it. I got quite a few questions about starting a YouTube channel. I won't go too into this one, but I thought I would just give my three sort of top tips if you are thinking about starting a YouTube channel, especially an allotmental gardening channel. I'm not an expert. I started doing this as a hobby and I've just done it so long now that I sort of, I don't know, I've got into the flow of knowing what I'm doing. And I do earn some money from it as well now, which I'm quite lucky because a lot of people don't earn anything from YouTube, but it seems to like me. And brands want to work with me as well, which is amazing. So top three tips. Gosh, I hope you can hear me over the tumble dryer. Number one would be, if you're just starting out, make your videos quite concise. Stick to maybe 10 minutes. I think when people don't know you yet on YouTube and you haven't built that kind of audience up, short and snappy is easier for people to kind of watch the whole of your video and lock in. If you do like a 30 minute video, it's difficult for people to get through the whole thing when they don't know who you are, unless your content is really, really amazing or your garden is like incredible and you're filming it in such a beautiful way. It's more like a TV show. But I think for a lot of us, it's just literally a camera and we're just walking around chatting. Keep it short so that people can just snappily kind of watch one or two or three of your videos and get to know you quite quickly. Second tip would be to be consistent. It doesn't really matter how often you post. If it's once a week, just make sure that it is once a week at the same time. People will come to look for your video and wait for your video. And if you miss too many in a row, they might not come back again. So just be consistent, whether that's once a week, twice a week, three times a week. Yes, it's hard work. Yes, it's really hard work. And so many of you message and say that you start making videos and then you kind of run out of time. So make it easy for yourself. Maybe just do one a week, do what you can manage. But the truth is, yes, it's a lot of work. I spent hours and hours making this content, editing it, putting it up, responding to comments. It takes hours. It's a full-time job pretty much. And then number three, I would say for business specifically for allotment and gardening channels, show more than you talk. And I know that I don't do this because I've done this for ages and I've built up an audience and I ramble like I am right now. But I have the privilege that I have an audience that people actually are kind of like want to hear from me. I think when I started out, I was showing more than I was speaking. So show more of what you're doing on your allotment. And if you're talking, show something while you're talking. Don't just do what I'm doing right now. Especially with gardens and allotments, people want to see the jobs you're doing. They want to see the garden. They want to see the plants. So show more than you say. That's a good one. Show more than you say. Those are my three biggest tips, but it's a lot of work and you will be sort of subject to negativity online and stuff. So do be careful what you wish for and make sure that you're prepared for everything that comes with it without sounding too dramatic. A few more questions about Pippin. So Pippin is my house bunny. Yes, he lives in the house. He has a cage up at the moment, but that's because we have house viewings and I need to lock him away somewhere. But before that, he just roamed free and he roams free in the house every single day. He's a house bunny. Yes, I do feed him some veg and herbs from the garden, whatever I managed to grow. But he eats a lot and I have to make sure that I, so I do have to top it up from the supermarket, but he does eat some things from the garden and I do have herbs outside that I do feed him. A few people asking why he's alone because I know that bunnies really like to live in pairs. So when I bought him from the breeder, she had like a group of rabbits and Pippin didn't get on with any of the other rabbits and he was fighting them a lot. So she had to separate him from all of the other rabbits. So I couldn't buy him as a pair. I think I would consider getting another rabbit for Pippin and bonding them together. He is neutered. So it's very well that it could be possible now. And it is something I'm actively thinking about for the future. So it may very well be that Pippin gets a girlfriend at some point. He gets a lot of attention, I promise you. He gets a lot of hugs and strokes and attention from me. So he seems quite happy and content. A question about the books that I buy. I do buy my books from a bookshop. I don't tend to buy secondhand books. I think part of me kind of wants to support the authors and I know that they get like money when you buy a book, like when it's new, as opposed to being secondhand. Also books are my kind of treat. They're what I treat myself with and buying a brand new book, especially a hardcover just makes me feel happy. So that's where I like to spend my money. When I'm done with them, I either, if I love them, they go up on the bookshelf and I'll read them again at some point, or I'll keep them for maybe like my children to read when they're older. Sometimes I give them to friends and family and ones that I don't particularly enjoy go in a box and they go down to the Red Cross at the end of the road and I leave them outside on a Friday and they take them in and sell them as secondhand books. And that's what I do with all of my books. And then the last thing I wanted to address was I had quite a few comments about my shed at the allotment and when I'm gonna clear it out. Firstly, I will be clearing my shed out for the autumn time. It's got stuff in it at the moment. I do use it. I just don't go into it to use it, but it's got stuff that I'm storing in there that I need, but I'm still using it. I will be clearing it out in the autumn time because I like to give it a bit of a autumn clean. Anyway, hope that answered some more of your questions. If you still have more, leave them in the comments and I will write you a response. So I don't have to keep rambling on, but hopefully that summed up a few more of your questions. That was terrifying. Are you a rabbit or a lion?