Neighbours

Two roosters on neighbouring allotment plots under a flat overcast sky: a Brown Leghorn with orange-red hackles and a glossy green-black tail in a faded blue cotton chore jacket, and a White Polish rooster with white plumage and a large round white crest in a green quilted gilet, each standing beside an enormous striped green marrow on his own side of a low row of bamboo canes, a green garden shed, a wheelbarrow and runner bean poles behind

Two Marrows, No Comment

Two plots, one path, a marrow apiece. Neither has said a word about the other's since August, which is how the allotment keeps the peace and how both marrows came to be this size.

28 September 2026