Leaves, shoots and keyboards

I try to get to the office allotment about once a week. Even though it's only round the back of the building, it's not easy to prize myself away from the tyranny of Outlook (emails, meetings, more meetings). But today I did sneak away for a soul-enhancing half hour, returning to my desk with mud on my jeans, an armful of assorted leaves, and some almost fresh air in my lungs; the ever-busy Westway looms over our vegetables like an industrial crag, so the health benefits are dubious, but the mental boost is vast.
But what always amazes me in these dank, dark midwinter days, is that things are still growing. Early Broad beans are now over 6in tall, newly sown early peas are just emerging. The chard continues to produce leaves (we've had almost 8 months' cropping - it has to be the best return on any seed packet); late stir fry and salad mixes are flourishing, some gone very prettily to seed - have you ever noticed how rocket flowers are so delicately veined? And I remain hopeful that the very late-sown carrots will produce something worth eating. But I'd like to award my Crop of the month medal to winter purslane, a heart-shaped, lush-looking spinach-tasting leaf.