THE LAST WEEK OF JULY IN MY LONDON GARDEN / A Q&A, ALLOTMENT WATERING AND HOME MADE PIZZA

I still recall the first time I saw you. I was so nervous to talk. Happened so fast. Went from so lonely to falling asleep in your arms. Look at that lovely sunlight on my face. Hello guys, welcome to my... another train. Hello guys, my name is Emma. Welcome to my Sunday Diaries, where I just vlog all about my little life here in London. If you're enjoying my vlogs, please do subscribe. As so many of you have recently, I feel like I've had a real influx of subscribers, which has been so great. Did I just call you subscribers? Subscribers. I think I might actually put this up just because that sun is beautiful on my face, but I think the camera's not quite picking it up. Okay, that might work a bit better for the lighting. This is a new shirt, by the way. I picked it up from M&S the other day and it's 100% linen. It was quite expensive, but do you know what I did? I went up a size. So I'm normally a size 10. I went to a 12 and it just feels a little bit too big. I wanted it to be oversized, but I'm actually wearing it as a shirt and it just feels a little bit too big. So the M&S sizing at the moment is a little bit all over the place. Normally a 10 is ever so slightly too small for me. So I thought, right, this time go for the 12. Just feels like it's swamping me. But it's very cool. I mean, it's linen, so it's just lovely to wear. Thought I would start the vlog now. It's seven o'clock at night. I've already had dinner. I'm actually eating one of these, which is one of those little ice cream bites that M&S do. Is that Percy? I really want you to see Percy the pigeon who comes to my garden, but he didn't come in last week's vlog. I have fed him now, so he might turn up. Yeah, this is one of their little ice cream bites that they do. This is the birthday cake one. So I've never tried this one before. I might as well try it for you now. Very sweet. It's got like the cake around it and then ice cream in the middle. So it's very refreshing, but it's very, very sweet. I did think it would be, to be fair. Anyway, I'm starting the vlog tonight. I feel like I'm about to like baptize you. I'm really sorry. My shirt is so white because tomorrow morning I'm getting my hair done and I didn't want my hair to suddenly change. But yeah, I'm getting it done tomorrow. So hopefully you'll see me with some nice new hair because these grays have been coming through. Look, seriously, I'm getting so much gray hair at the moment, which is fine. Like I'm okay with it, but I don't like the way they come through when they're all wiry and they kind of just go up like this and just do whatever they want. But when I put some sort of highlights in, it disguises it and you can't see them sort of sticking up like a crazy lady anymore. So I quite like just to cover them over if I can, but that's what I'm doing tomorrow. I'm getting the grays taken out of my hair basically. It's been threatening to rain all day. Like it's looked like it's on the verge of raining and then it just hasn't all day, which is a shame because I think we're on like week four of no rain, which is not great for the allotment or the gardens. So many of you have messaged me as well and said that you are struggling with the lack of rain and that your allotments in particular are feeling very much like a chore. I'm feeling the same guys. I'm feeling the same. It's so difficult because when you go down there, it's too hot and humid to do any gardening and all you're doing is basically watering everything, just trying desperately to keep it alive. So I'm on the same page as you. It is a bit of a struggle this year. This next heat wave will break because I think we're going into like the fifth heat wave of the year, which is just, I mean, you couldn't make it up, could you? As soon as this one breaks, I think we're going to get rain. We've got to get rain. Rain has got to come back. Like this is unheard of. So anyway, I wanted to show you these two books I picked up. Do you remember we went to Waterstones last week in last Sunday's vlog and I couldn't find any books. I mean, I was in that store for about 45 minutes. Couldn't find a single book. Went in there the other day, found loads of books that I wanted. These are the two that I picked up the other day. So this is another Claire Keegan. I'm obsessed with the Claire Keegan books. They're very short guys. Just to let you know, if you ever buy one, they're like the shortest books in the world. They're short stories and they are so fantastic. This is not new. I think this has been out for a while, but I've never seen it before. So late in the day. And her books are just magical. I know they're so, so short, but they really stick with me. And I watched, what did I watch the other day? On Netflix, is it called small, small things like these or something? It's got that guy from it who's in Peaky Blinders. Is he in Peaky Blinders? I think he is. It's on Netflix and it's a Claire Keegan adaptation. And it was really, really good. I mean, it was pretty much like seeing the story come to life. It was beautifully done. So if you haven't seen that yet on Netflix, go and watch it because it's just, it's a little bit moody and a little bit kind of, but it just is so like the book. And then I also saw this one, Fellow Creatures by Emma Lothar. And this one looked really, really interesting. It's about a girl who's accepted into London's most elite drama school. And it feels like her chance at life is far away from her drab hometown. She meets Victoria, a dazzling, wealthy, beautiful girl. The two become inseparable. And then I think it's about when Victoria's privilege begins to single her out from her peers, their friendship kind of spirals into jealousy. It looks like a really good, gritty read. And I'm really excited to get into this one. Also, the cover is so beautiful, isn't it? So these are the two that I picked up the other day. I didn't, oh, it says actually, it says Ripley meets Saltburn. So if you've ever seen Ripley and Saltburn, Ripley meets Saltburn, there we go. That should be an interesting mashup. The mashup no one asked for, but we've got it. I didn't like yesteryear. I finished yesteryear and I have to say it didn't get any better. I sort of liked it a little bit in the middle. But then everyone kept saying, oh, the ending so good. It's such a good twist at the end. I didn't like the ending. Anyway, I'm probably going to read the whole of this book now out here. And then I will take this one with me to the hairdressers tomorrow. And I'll also take you along to the hairdressers as well. I don't think I'm going to film anything in there because I'm going to get all embarrassed. Is that you, Percy? I keep hearing like a fluttering of wings and thinking it's Percy. It's not Percy. And then we will pop to the allotment on the way home to give everything a water and then come back home and do some cooking. I will see you probably tomorrow. And I'm just going to sit out here now and do some reading. Hello again, guys. I did it. I got my hair done and she put my parting in the wrong place. And because I'm so nice and I don't want to say anything, I didn't say anything. So now it's kind of flopping like this. But I do like it. I like the colour and I like the cut. It's just my parting's in the wrong bleeding place, isn't it? It's all right. I'll correct it at home and try and fix it. I wish I had the courage just to say something there and then, but I'm just not that kind of person. She was so happy when she found it. She was like, there's your parting. It's slightly off, isn't it? I found it. And I was just like, yes, well done. Honestly, nearly 40 and I still can't correct people. Couldn't film in the hairdressers. I don't know how people do it. Honestly, I was so embarrassed. I did manage to get a couple of shots. I don't know how good they'll be, but I don't know how people manage to hold the camera up and film themselves getting their hair done. It's just the most cringe thing ever. Just popped to the allotment on my way home to see if everything survived. There's butterflies desperately trying to get in here. I don't know why. There's nowhere to go in here. My sunflowers are definitely enjoying the sunshine though. They're doing fantastic this year. It's just a shame that they're all facing that way because the sun comes from that side. They're all just facing away from me, which is a bit of a shame. Oh my goodness. It's not enough. It's not enough. No matter how much I try and water this allotment with my watering can, it's not enough. Things are wilting. Pumpkins are wilting. The courgettes are struggling. Even the sunflowers are wilting a little bit. This just feels like one big losing battle, one big kind of stress and headache to be honest. I did hear the birds about, so I'm just going to go and get them some mealworms. I don't know where they are at the moment. There's a lot of fledglings around and new baby robins where they're starting to get their red breast. There's quite a few of those around. They don't seem very happy with me. They click at me all the time, so I'm just going to keep feeding them in the hope that we make friends. He's literally sitting above me. I didn't even see him. There's big old bushes in the way. We can't see you properly Einstein, but there he is. First time in ages he's been down. Hello. First time he's come down in ages and I could barely capture him because this blooming bush has become overgrown again. So I don't even know if I've got that on camera properly, but as I was feeding, he was right above me, just sitting in the tree branch right above me, just watching. So they haven't forgotten. They haven't forgotten me. Oh, that's nice to know. All right, let's take a tomato for the road. Hopefully I didn't do that watering in complete vain. Hopefully something will benefit from that. Let's head home. And now, London life. There's building work going on. Fantastic. Anyway, I've had quite a stressful week so far, so I really just want to spend a little bit of time out here pottering around. I think I might deadhead a few things in the pots and try and look after them. Those daisies came back to life. These really suffered in the heat wave, but I cut the plant right back and then I've been watering it like crazy. And I think I'm going to have to do a They've started to grow back and I just love them spilling out this pot like this. They're so gorgeous. Nice to know that some things can come back after this heat wave. And one of my dahlias has flowered as well. This is the first dahlia to flower. Look at this. How utterly gorgeous is this? This is like one of the most beautiful dahlias I've ever seen as well. This is all thanks to the fact that we haven't had any rain, so it's had no slug and snail damage. This is nothing to do, nothing to do with the eggshells I put around because I do not believe that they work. It's all to do with the heat wave, but so thrilled to see a dahlia this year. Oh my goodness. Right. That building work is just literally doing my head in. So we're going to come in. I'm going to start the dinner. I bought something for my kids today. I'm not actually going to have this. I'm going to give it to my kids as an experiment. It is a pizza based mix from M&S. So you actually make pizza dough and it looks really easy. Will it be easy? We're going to find out. So it's just basically this, which I'm assuming has, yeah, it's already got the yeast in it. So it's flour and yeast. So we just add olive oil and water. I tell you what, if we weren't moving house, I would buy a pizza oven. One of those pizza things that go in the garden, pizza ovens, because I love homemade pizza. So then a little bit of olive oil. So then just assuming this is just like the, like when we make bread. So we're just adding some lukewarm water. Okay. That's about come together. So then we knead it for 10, 15 minutes. I think that's about right because it's nice and smooth and it's gone elastic and it kind of just feels like it's right. So we're going to prove that for an hour. So just pop it into a bowl, cover it because the weather's so hot and humid. I think I can just leave it there. It should be fine. In the meantime, we will get Pippin his dinner because he's sitting there staring at me, just waiting for it. It's 15 minutes early Pippin. Yeah. Yes. It's coming Pippin. It's coming right. So he's just got like a little selection of herbs. It's got some dill, some parsley, flat leaf parsley and then some curly parsley for some different textures. I've hidden a couple of blueberries and now my goodness Pippin. Look at this. Look at this. Right. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Can we back in? Back in. What do you think this is for? It's coming Pippin. Just wait just one second. Pippin. Pips. Pippin. Come on. Come on. Come on. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. There we go. Dinner. Come on then. Yeah. There he is. There you are. Silly boy. Right. Let's see how we're doing. It's been an hour and five minutes. Look at that. That is definitely, definitely risen. So what we have to do now is we take our dough. Half at a time. I think I should be using semolina, but I didn't buy any of that. I didn't really think to get that. So then I've got some of this Italian passata. Now, where are you going Pippin? Has he just gone outside? Fluffball. Where are you going? Right. Then I've got some mozzarella, which I'm going to slice up quite thinly. Put some mozzarella on it. That's looking pretty good to me. So let's whack this one in the oven. It takes 15 minutes and then I'll do the other one after. See how this goes. Good luck pizza. Let's see. Oh, okay. It's okay. It's a little bit sad. I don't know why it looks a bit sad. No, it does actually look really good. I think maybe the passata that I put on, passata, passata. I think it's a little bit runny, but I think it's fine. And then what I was going to do, let's put a little bit of basil on. There we go. What do we think of that homemade pizza for dinner? Gorgeous. It worked really well. Yeah. I'm super, super happy. And the crust is amazing. It smells gorgeous. Yeah. Happy with that. Oh, lucky, lucky kids, right? I'm going to dish up their dinner and then I'm going to catch you again tomorrow. Good morning guys. This is something I really wanted to address in this vlog and I wasn't sure when I was going to get round to it, but now is the time because I had an influx of comments about this. A lot of people very, very interested in my tap situation. So, so the hose actually came with this, which, why does the building work always start up a second that I go outside? It's like they know. I can't actually take this off now. Wait, am I tightening it? Oh, I'm tightening it. Hang on. How can I be like this? I don't know. I know it's annoying. Twisting it the wrong way. I know it's annoying. I've seen the Reddit comments. I've got a Reddit forum now on me. People getting so annoyed by me. I know. It annoys me too. Right. Where's that thing gone? It came with this, which was in here like this. Okay. But this doesn't fit on my tap. It doesn't connect to my tap. So I've had to take this out, discard it, and then just put this directly on to there. I've had a lot of comments. One of them, um, hi Emma, just a quick note of reference to your, your hose pipe fixtures with the piece that clips onto your tap. If you look inside this joint, you might notice a length of plastic with a small ball mounted on the end. I can't see a ball in there. I can't see a ball. So that one I can't, I can't. A lot of comments coming in saying that if the hose pipe has a kink in it or is bent like that, the water won't go through. Yes, that's exactly the problem. I need to get a freestanding reel so that I can keep it straight all the time. Um, some comments about the hose pipe ban. There isn't one where I am, so I can still use my hose. A lot of you saying to get an expandable hose. I did have one of those. That's the one that exploded when I left it outside. Um, and it got ice in it, iced over, and then I turned it on like an idiot and it just exploded. And the actual end of the hose just kind of exploded. I thought there was more on how to put this hose on, but basically there isn't any other way other than to twist it on. The only way of putting the hose on is literally just to do that and then twist, just twist it on. That's all I can do is twist that on. It doesn't come with anything else that fits. So I twist it on super tight. Oh God, that's, that's what happens. So, all right, stop, stop, stop. Oh, I can't believe I did that. Oh my God. I can't believe I did that again. Oh, brilliant. Well, that shut the Reddit forum up, hasn't it? I give them all something to chat about on a Sunday night now. It doesn't, it doesn't fit. It doesn't fit. I thought I had more comments, um, on people telling me to twist it a different way or something, but, um, it just doesn't fit the tap. Okay. So that's hopefully that summed everything up, um, explained the situation. Okay. Oh, Percy's here. He's up in my tree somewhere. I've just accidentally scared him. He brought his mate and I thought his mate was him and then he flew away, but look how much bird feed he's gone through. Oh my goodness. This is definitely pigeon work because a little bird wouldn't have all that. I do see little birds at it too, but it's mainly Percy. Right. For the last bit, this vlog, I'm going to do a little bit of a Q and A. So if you're not interested in the Q and A, because I did promise that I would do it. Um, but if you're not interested, thank you so much for watching this week. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll see you at the allotment plot tomorrow. If you do want to hear the Q and A, I'm about to do it. So I did ask for your questions. Um, I've got literally so many, so I'm going to try and get through as many as I can before I bore myself. Um, because I hate talking about myself, but I appreciate that I'm here online and you guys want to know more about me. So a question that came up quite a lot, what did you do before YouTube and is YouTube my full-time job? Um, I got so, I got this, I got asked this so many times. So right now, currently YouTube and social media and Emma's Allotment Diaries in general is my main source of income. It is my full-time job. It is what I do. Never, I never intended it to be my full-time job. I didn't start Emma's Allotment Diaries thinking that I would be earning good money from it and actually doing it for a career. But here we are, six years after my first video, um, I make money through YouTube. So through the ad revenue, um, I make a bit of money every month, not that much. YouTube doesn't pay that well. Um, but I do make a little bit of money from the ads. Um, then I had the brand deals, which so many of you hate, but it's not just on YouTube. I also have brand deals on Instagram and TikTok as well. I also earn a bit of revenue from TikTok though, not too much again, and it's very fluctuating. So one month I might make a good amount. And then the next month I make like literally zero. I also sell my planner. I write for some gardening magazines. I work for, um, some online gardening websites where I do SEO kind of articles and stuff. So I kind of have a wide range of ways that I make money. The reason why I really enjoy making money this way and being self-employed, um, is because I can fit everything around my family, family life. I get to spend more time at home. My husband has a full-time corporate job, so he's probably out the door at maybe quarter to seven in the morning. Sometimes it doesn't come back till eight, nine o'clock at night. We have two children. Um, and so it's always been the case that I've had to take jobs that fit around family life and this just really fits around it. So massively, massively appreciate all of your support that you give me when you watch my videos, when you enjoy my videos, when you click on the links for brands or advertisement, when you follow me over on Instagram as well and stuff, like I, and when you buy my planner, like it all helps. And I really, really appreciate it. And I love making this content. I love that so many people are enjoying my content and not just for gardening, but also, you know, just like for relaxation and just to like enjoy watching something. I love being that person for you. Um, before YouTube, I did loads of stuff. Um, I had my children when I was 23. I was 23 when I had Alice and I was 25 when I had Tom. Um, so I was quite young. I've just done jobs in between. I've worked in nurseries. I've worked as a teaching assistant. I worked in a shop for a little bit. Um, I was a gardener with my friend, would go around and do, you know, mowing the lawn and stuff like that. Um, I've done loads and loads of jobs, but nothing, nothing as serious as this. This I would say is more like a career, if you can call it a career. And before YouTube, it was just little jobs wherever I could take them and whatever could fit around family life. That's the way I like it. Lots of questions about Pippin. Lots of questions about you Pipps, who's literally sleeping in front of me right now. Um, why did I choose a rabbit as a pet? Uh, mainly because I really want a dog. I really want a dog. I've always wanted a dog. My husband wants a dog, but we're not in a situation, we're not in a position where we could have a dog. We don't have, I don't have the time. Um, I don't have the patience. I don't have the mental capacity to take on something like a dog. It needs a lot of work, walking, energy, training, money, all the rest of it. I can't give a dog a good home right now. One day I will, not today. I quite like cats, um, but I don't love cats enough to have a cat. I know I've got loads of the allotment that come and see me and that's lovely. That'll do. Um, and I saw another influencer online had a pet rabbit and, um, I saw that it was a house bunny and she was just letting it roam free in her house. And I thought that's exactly the kind of pet that I want. Something that's kind of like a cat, like a dog, um, but is actually not. Pippin needs a lot of animal. Um, I'm really, really fortunate in that all of the vets around me really cater for rabbits. I think rabbits must be so popular in this area. So I've got a vet that I can go to for Pippin and she's absolutely fantastic with him. He needs a lot of work. He needs a lot of attention, but in the daytime he tends to sleep and then he comes alive sort of around sunrise and then sunset is when he's the busiest. Um, which is exactly when I've got time for him. So he's just the perfect pet. It's just lovely. He's just a joy to be around. It's so lovely because he's a prey animal. Um, and I'm a predator, I'm a predator because he's a prey animal. When he just comes in and flops on the floor and falls asleep in front of me, it just feels like such a privilege, um, to see an animal like that. Just so trusting of me. I just love it. It calms me down. He sets the vibe in the house. I just think rabbits are just lovely, lovely creatures, but they, they're definitely not cage animals and I would never put him in a hutch or a cage for an extended period of time. He loves roaming free and having all the space he needs to hop and, you know, jump about and everything. So he's a house bunny. How do I balance allotment life with family life? Just something that I've just managed to do over the years. I think it's just trial and error. Um, so I tend to go to the allotment in the morning when my kids are at school and I do all of my filming and I actually work on the allotment plot. And then I come home and I do all the editing and all the admin side of it in the afternoon. And then my kids come home from school and then I'm just completely present with them and I'm making dinners and cleaning and doing all the other stuff. So I think because YouTube's my full-time job, I actually find it, I don't find it that difficult. I slot it in like a job. Um, I work nine to three and sometimes longer depending on when I need to. But yeah, it is a balancing action. When they were younger, it was a bit harder because they needed more of my time. But yeah, I think with my allotment, it's just something I really enjoy. It's part of my life. I think when something becomes part of your life, like reading, I love reading. How do I find the time to read? I just do. It's important to me. So I just find that time. Um, I think it's just prioritising, making sure that I prioritise the things that are important to me. My allotment's important to me. This YouTube channel's important to me. My kids are important to me. Reading's important to me. So these are the things that I prioritise in my life. Maybe the house is a mess most of the time because I don't prioritise that. Hey ho! Something's got to give every now and then. Do your kids or Dave ever get involved with gardening or your allotment plot? Very occasionally I will get help from Dave because there will be jobs that I just can't do. Like I can't take heavy bags of compost down. He helped put up the greenhouse and the shed, things like that. Most of the time it is mainly just me. My kids used to love the allotment and they used to come down a lot when they were younger. Now they're older, they're teenagers, they're not massively interested in it. Sometimes my son comes down with me and he waters stuff. They're both interested in it because I am and they ask me how it's going and they want to see pictures of it and see Einstein the Robin and stuff. So they are kind of interested in it but I don't think they're, they're not like, they don't come down all the time and actually garden. Now they used to when they were younger and I'm hoping that I've instilled enough of my passion onto them that when they get older they will naturally be drawn to gardening and be interested in it. That would be really nice. But if they're not, they're not. You know, it's up to them. Another one, how old is Pippin? Pippin is four years old. When are you going to buy a new fork? Very good question, very good question. I think I'm going to invest in some new tools this summer, this autumn time. I always say that. The thing is, is when I get down there I don't feel like I need them. I feel like I'm just coping fine with what I've got so why would I spend money when I don't need to? But I think maybe this will be the year I invest in some new stuff. It depends what house we get as well and if I'm going to keep the allotment plot. I know it's a really touchy subject on this channel. So many of you love my allotment. I love my allotment too but you know what I love more? Growing my own vegetables. Having a space for wildlife and if that means that I can't do it at the allotment and I have a garden big enough to create an allotment at the back of my garden and I can attract the birds, I can have a wildlife pond, I can grow my own vegetables, I don't have the worry of vandals, I don't have an allotment committee telling me what I can and can't do, I don't have any restrictions on me because it's my back garden. That sounds great. That sounds great to me. I know people love the allotment. I love the allotment as well but if I find a space that serves me better than the allotment and I can still do all the things that I really enjoy about allotment life in a back garden that is big enough then that is what I will do and I think I've really just made peace with that. I just really like the allotment. I just really like these vlogs and I really like the community I've built and I hate the idea that I would lose this community because I move away from my allotment plot. I will never move away from growing my own veg. I'll never move away from attracting wildlife and being me and building things myself and doing it all from scratch you know. I'll never move away from that so I'm hoping that that shines through in my videos and that you'll still watch and if not then there's loads of other people out there now doing allotment vlogs. It's not definite yet because I don't know where we're moving but we'll just have to see what happens. How long do you spend each week working on your allotment plot? Probably I go down three or four times a week for a couple of hours at a time and that includes me having to film everything and then do the jobs as well. I've actually become quite good at filming while I'm doing the allotment. When I first started it used to take me ages and ages setting up the camera and stuff and actually vlogging and I would do more video content than I would actual allotment work. As it's gone on I've got used, I've sort of got used to the balance and now I can, I've got all these pots around my allotment so if you ever see pots on the ground it's because they're left there on purpose so I can quickly put the camera on the pot and film something and I've just found all these little techniques to make it easier. Probably three or four times a week for a couple of hours at a time but you have to remember that I am filming as well. Sometimes it's longer than a couple of hours if I've got a lot to film or a lot of other stuff to do but three or four times a week at least. I think that's covered all of the questions that you guys have asked but if there's any that I've missed leave them below and maybe I'll do another mini Q&A next week or if there's a question that you suddenly thought of that you're dying for me to answer leave it in the comments. I will answer your question in the comment and then maybe do another Q&A. Anyway, gonna leave the vlog there this week. I hope you enjoyed watching and I will see you again in my next one. See you next time guys, bye!