What a disappointment - but I have added a touch of Spring if you need cheering up

I got up really early this morning, as our weather forecast was for dry weather. Huh, they got that wrong.

I intended to go up the lottie early and do some rotovating just to keep any weeds down and to turn a bit of manure in.

It is tipping it down with rain, and has been all night by the look of things. So Pat won't be playing golf either.

I am glad that I covered the chicken run as it is nice and dry in there for them and it won't get churned up and they won't get splattered in mud.

As rain stopped outdoor play, I have been in the shed sorting out the onions as some of them have gone soft. That main culprit are the big stuttgart ones. I don't really understand why there are soft ones as we had a lovely sunny summer and they all went golden brown and were hard. Never mind. I have sorted them now and the remaining good onions I have put into a pair of stockings and they will go in my garden shed that is heated to keep the frost off it and they should be alright there. I did tie them up in a string like it says in the book, but I must have done something amiss. Next year they will go into the shed straight away.
I just thought that I would add a flower arrangement (not done by me I am afraid, but a photo I took when I went to a NAFAS demonstraion evening) I thought it might brighten your day up a bit. Don't forget that you can 'click' on any photo in any of my blogs to get a bigger picture and a close up view, you might want to do that with this lovely one.

I can't believe that is a week today since the chickens arrived. They seem part of the family and as if I have had them longer than that. It is a usual routine to get up at 7am now and sort out their morning meal, and it is no chore to go outside wrapped up warm against the weather.

The rain won't get me down, I shall just change what I was going to do, and now will be spending most of the day in my shed, making Christmas cards and doing some sugar craft flowers I think.

I'll catch up with you later today as there is sure to be some news I can talk about.

Thanks for looking in.

Frost and Palm Tree

It is really frosty here in Norfolk today, the grass has a white ‘icing sugar’ coating, the bird baths are frozen solid, but the fish pond is fine as I have a pump that keeps the water moving.

As usual the girls were up when I went out to see them. Thanks to the protection I put over their run, their water was not frozen, nor was the bark covered in frost, so maybe that keeps a few degrees warmer.
sun had melted some.

They were eager to see me, and even more eager to get at their warm potato peelings – our left overs for a change from roasting potatoes yesterday – they should warm them up a bit.

No eggs this morning as yet, but I am getting to know their laying pattern now, so did not expect any. The Eglu had a thick covering of ice outside to it shows how well insulated it is. I won’t have to worry too much about them in the winter weather.



Here is the picture that I promised you of the romaneco plant. Looking more like a palm tree!

I am off up the lottie a bit later to see if the plot next to me has been ploughed, and I think that I will plant that Oregon thornless blackberry and pile on lots of manure to keep it warm. I will wait until the sun has warmed the soil up a bit. I also want to pull up another romanseco stalk for the girls, and keep it in the garage until this one is entirely stripped. They ate the stalks of the spinach, but I think that these might be a tad bit tough as there is a little pile of them on the ground if you look closely.

Back this evening with later news I any.

A quick visit to the lottie and enclosure additions

After feeding the girls this morning we went up the allotment. I had wanted to stay the whole morning and potter, but unfortunately we had visitors coming so was not allowed the luxury.

We put all the garden prunings in the giant fenced off compost bin at the end of the lottie by the field and the soft stuff and chicken manure in another half way up. This is the one where we have horse manure, vegetable and other mixes and now chicken manure – I have great hopes for a really nice compost in another year’s time.

Geoff was up there pottering about with his rotorvator – doing a minor repair, so I called out to him across the allotment and stopped for a little chat on my way out.

Les had just started shovelling his pile of horse manure, and at the very far end I saw T with his dogs and heard him shouting for all his worth at one of them which was not taking the slightest bit of notice and chasing a couple of black chickens one of which flew up high into a tree to escape the spaniel. It was funny to watch, but not the least bit funny for the chickens.

We moved a beautiful red rose that had grown really big from a little cutting that I took last winter. It was in the wrong place, namely where I later put the horse manure bin, but it really hit home to me what a difference manure really does make. The other cuttings are at most 12 inches tall and were all planted at the same time, so you can guess what I shall be putting on the other roses over winter.

I was really excited to see that my new allotment neighbour has strimmed all his weeds – it looks lovely – and this afternoon or tomorrow morning he is getting the whole lot ploughed up. Brilliant huh?

I dug up a romanesco plant complete with stalk and brought it back for the girls. I had to tie it to the fence it was so tall.

As soon as they saw it, Adelaide (obviously nominated as the poison taster) checked it out took a bite then tucked in and the others followed.


This photo shows you what it looked like ‘before’ they started tucking into it at lunch time today – tomorrow I will take a picture of the ‘after’ photo – it will make you smile.

I probably have done a silly thing, because if they go up the lottie in the summer they will now know what to make a bee line for!

I have two more romanesco plants left that are just forming the sputnik type heads, and then I will do the same with those and bring them down here. You can’t get any fresher than that can you? Organic veg that has travelled just a mile.

What pampered girls.



I made a cover over a pile of compost for them to have a dust bath – but as they haven’t had a bath since they got here, I am wondering if they even know how!

I think that I will draw the line at lying in the dirt and throwing it under my arms and over my back whilst scratching behind my ears with my leg!

Adelaide and Ginger laid an egg each late morning and they were lighter than they have been at 60grams and 62 grams so I think that the fireworks must have had an effect on them.

They tucked into a breakfast of mashed potato with warm milk and bits of our leftover cheese – mixed with their layers mash. There was not a peep out of them as all three stuck their heads down, bottoms up and tucked in. You should have seen their faces, smothered with creamy potato!

I had little time to look at them as much as I usually do as I had to make a roast lunch and do all the rest of the things you do when you are expecting visitors.

They went when it was dark, so I popped out to check up on the girls and who were fluffed up in the Eglu but not asleep. I never got my goodnight chat from them, but

I did make sure that I took the opportunity to cuddle each one this morning – well a couple of times actually. They don’t seem to mind; they make a little noise when I do, and I hope that they are not saying ‘Oh for heavens sake, do you have to keep cuddling and stroking me?

Eggs - Total to date:9

KoKKo 3 (76grms)
Adelaide 3 (64grms)
Ginger 3 (62grms)

Sunshine in O.K. Corral, Clipping, and Scratching

We had another bright but really cold day and a great time to be out and about making the most of it, and the girls agreed too. I appear to have made a good choice in my positioning of the Eglu and enclosure, as the winter sun shines on their area most of the day and it is not in any shadow. In the summer the sun is higher and in the afternoon they will be in the shade.


What a difference a few days make to how the girls have settled in. No more arguing or chasing around, just peace and harmony. You wouldn’t know they were there as they did not make a sound.

They just love the warm potatoes mixed in with their mash and after the initial breakfast they go back to it all day and almost always clear the dish.

I decided to clip one wing on each bird, and Pat came with me to hold the scissors, albeit reluctantly. He had visions of mass panic I think. But I just picked each one up and talked softly to them and stroked them, gently extended a wing, got Pat to just gently hold it open whilst I quickly trimmed it. All done in a couple of minutes if that for each bird and that includes the meal worms for being a brave girl! And I let the chickens have some too!!

This afternoon I took a break to just sit and watch them. I had cleaned out the Eglu again, I think that it is easier for me to do it every other day as it is so easy, and not a chore at all as it takes just a few minutes. If I left it a week it might be a bit messy and take longer. I did that and raked their run whilst they were in the enclosure, and pulled out a couple of stalks of sorrel which they had overlooked. I took out the casserole dish with the last dregs of breakfast and they all came running and making as little noise as if to say –‘Leave that we haven’t finished’. So I set it down beside the gate and sat and watched. All three of them fed together in a semicircle, something that I would never have envisaged two days ago. Ginger got rather a messy beak with potato all over it and around her ‘mouth’ area, and KoKKo very gently pecked it clean, several times. So very very gently and Ginger just stood there and let her do it. I never knew that chickens groom each other.

I sat for a while watching them and every time they heard a noise in the distance like a car door or people talking they would all stand up in unison, cock their heads and listen for a while, then they would quietly ‘mutter’ and all three heads would go down again. This happened so many times. It has been like O.K. Corral here these past couple of days as it is pheasant shooting season and there have been shoots in the fields behind us. The girls haven’t batted an eyelid at that though.


You remember I gave the girls a lesson in scratching yesterday – well it would appear that I did rather a good job. Whilst tidying up their run, I thought that I might as well rake all the wood bark off the lawn it was covering, and pile them up against the perimeter fence, and they could then wreck the lawn and I would have the bark clean to cover it up afterwards. It took me about 10 minutes to do the whole area.


When I turned around to admire my work, KoKKo had taken significantly less time to scratch the whole pile way from the fence. I stood and watched for a while and she did a little dance forward right up to the wire fencing, and a back shuffle kick that Johnny Wilkinson would be proud of if it were in reverse. The height that the wood bark flew was amazing to see. In a short space of time she spread the whole lot back over the area where I had raked.

She then went around to the gate and started digging a deep hole at the root of a rose bush that I pruned right down in case they hurt themselves on it, and then the hole became a trench right in front of the gate. The other two took her lead and before long they had tackled three lengths and the bark is now neatly spread back where it was.


If it wasn’t for the fact that I was called inside to take a phone call, I daresay that I would still be outside watching them – and frozen into a block!

I have just been out to lock them in their Eglu run and two were still out playing. It was too dark to see who the culprits were - probably Adelaide and KoKKo going on previous experience.

I think the reason for this behaviour was that yesterday I shut them in their run earlier, but as they were having so much fun I left them in the outer enclosure today and assumed that they would naturally roost. Not so, they were at this end where we have a security light that comes on at dusk and stays on all night.

I went in and said to them, ‘What are you still doing up and out?’ and they started ‘talking’ to me in reply – honestly. I just gently picked them up one at a time and they went to bed muttering under their breath at me.

Nice to end the day with a big smile.

Colour in the garden in November

Just in case you thought that I had given up all thoughts of my garden or allotment, I decided to post few photos of some of the colour this late in the year.




A few Fuschias - will they survive my girls next summer? Of course they will.



Coryopsis



A peach climbing rose with a perfume to beat any man made ones!



Rose Fairy a miniature rose that flowers prolificaly all summer long



A New Guinea Impatiens

The trick of turning blues into reds

Apologies if yesterday’s blog was a bit disjointed – blame it on tiredness. I could go back and edit it, but not tonight, I have too much to tell you about.

The past few days I think that I have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms or perhaps it is just because the clocks have gone back and the weather has got dreadful. But I really do miss the almost daily routine of going up the lottie and ‘pottering about’ as my beloved calls it. I jumped on the scales today and I have put on 5lb in weight – not much – but enough to make my clothes feel a bit tight. All that ‘pottering about’ obviously had an effect.

I was sitting in the conservatory having my breakfast (our home doesn’t have a dining room), and Pat asked if I had a headache – which I did – so I thought if it is that obvious that I look out of sorts I am going to sort it out.

It was raining, but that did not stop me going out for a walk. Today, I didn’t change into my walking boots and waterproofs, but instead went out smartly dressed. I thought that I would get back to doing my four mile walk as I am not getting the exercise that the allotment gave me.


I only had to walk a few steps before spotting this in the front garden.

The wind had blown this huge nest out of the tree – together with an egg, not even cracked.

There were no windfall apples in the crate, but it was worth a look as I passed. I headed off along the road towards Norwich, with fields on one side and houses on the other. I must have looked like a Lowry figure as I bent into the wind with leaves spinning around me and the sound of the wind in the oak trees was wonderful, you could never reproduce that with an orchestra.

Further along I was surprised to see that the little old prefab bungalows were being demolished – you don’t see things like that in a car as they were set back from the road and behind the hedge. I cut through the gap in the hedge and through the little footpath to see demolition teams doing their thing; the cul de sac covered in mud, and the sad bald squares of land where the homes had been, but still edged with shrubs. I couldn’t resist stooping to smell a prolific flowering white rose bravely defying the weather and the chaos, almost as if it was it’s swansong – one more show before it is bulldozed into oblivion. One of the demolition men shouted out, ‘Oi, oo said you could sniff that rose?’ Which made me smile – the headache was lifting! But I didn’t linger to take a photo, but the rose really deserved it.

Once through the quagmire of mud I was just a few hundred yards from the entrance to the pig farm. You wouldn’t seriously expect me to walk past the gate and not go in would you? Well I didn’t disappoint you. By this time my ankle boots were caked in mud anyway, and you don’t worry about things like that at my age.

I just got to the inner gate right up by the allotment track and turned to pull it open and saw ‘T’ trundling along the farm track on his bike. I stayed to hold the gate open and we walked and slithered up the track together – me telling him all about finally getting chickens and the arrival of my Eglu. Surprisingly he knew what they were – and knew one of the chaps involved with designing it – who happened to live in a village near us! Small world. I walked with him right to the very top of the allotments to his plot as I never miss a chance of looking at all his chickens and seeing how they are all getting on. I think he might have thought me rather eccentric going up there as he remarked that I wasn’t dressed for working. We spent a time talking chickens and I walked back along the track and spotted the other T, he was doing some alterations to his shed, and he let me have a peek in to see his tractors – old ones – so I stood for a while and talked tractors and learnt that he worked for 43 years in the poultry business. Usually I or they are busy working down our plots so just wave or call out a greeting, it was great to have time to talk. A handy man to know, I have ‘booked’ him to dismantle a shed for us in the spring.

I couldn’t leave without a tour of my plot. I am now seeing it in a different light.
The romanesco stalks topped with a crown of leaves I am now reserving for my two chickens. The perpetual spinach and sorrel they might like too.
The fruit cage completely sealed to keep the birds out – will make a lovely playground for them before the fruit comes. They can do some scratching and pecking and get rid of any bugs. I can see that I will have to get a pet carrier for their day trips.

By now it was raining so I headed back down the track slipping in the mud and slush as I went, and was glad of firmer footing on the paths.

I took the long way home and walked up into ‘town’, then took another detour up Pottles Alley near the dutch style house and past the thatched house. The rain had stopped and the sun had come out so I walked along past another of our village greens and saw that a new little shop had opened where the old book shop used to be. I poked my head through the door and explained my windswept appearance but was invited in – I did thoroughly clean my boots outside so that they were no longer caked in mud. They were thrilled to show me their lovely exclusive Italian designer clothes and tell me all about their trips to Milan and all sorts of things, and I got invited to their fashion show in a couple of weeks time in the bistro next door, and to a preview of their winter collection. The prices are very reasonable, as the designers are smaller ones that make a small collection. That’s fortunate, just in time for my birthday and Christmas present – (if you are reading this kids, a donation instead of slippers and a nightie please!)

A bit of excitement seeing two policemen on motorbikes and a Range Rover with a big board announcing ’Police incident camera’ outside the pharmacy – we have a 20mph speed limit in the village and their prominent position meant that traffic was crawling when they saw them.

I could not resist the smell of the bakery and bought a lovely granary loaf, and chatted to the owner – everyone knows everyone in a village – and he asked about my
chickens and Eglu – in this case the Eglu has come first.

By this time I had been out two hours – and my stomach was telling me it must be getting near lunch time.
I could not resist stopping to take these photos of the Virginia creeper that covers these walls in summer and over the last few days has turned colour and moulted leaving wonderful spikes. How can you feel ‘blue’ even in the rain when you see things like this.

Going out for a walk whatever the weather is the best medicine in the world.

And all this before lunch.

Check out my Chicken Page for what I did next.

A different use for a pumpkin this weekend

Been out to play this afternoon and here is the end result.

I put a bowl inside the pumpkin upsidedown and wedged it with cellophane paper.

I laid another piece on top overlapping the edge and wedged in an oasis block sliced in half.

Then I just went wild! This is an undulating flower arrangement in a real green pumpkin that I grew myself. The foliage and sedum and rudbeckia seed heads are home grown too.


It is supposed to be interesting inasmuch as the flowers and foliage are all at different heights and angles and textures so are not uniform as they usually are. I was the only one that turned up with a real pumpkin - everyone else had posh bowls!

But I love it. It is full of the memories of all those hours chipping it out and the funny failure of my first attempt. I think it was worth it do you?


When I look at these photos in years to come I will remember getting up early in the morning doing all that cutting, chopping, roasting, mashing, and pulping of pumpkins!

The days are getting better all the time - so much good news.

bJust had a nice chat with Mrs M who is responsible for the allotments. She is happy for me to keep my chooks up the lottie, so wait until next summer! Her daughter has just bought some so Mrs M is going to find out where, and she knows where to get the food from - now there is a lovely lady. It is great living in a village!!

My new neighbour sounds like he will be good, as he works as a groundsman for a nearby council. As he is at work, that will explain why I haven't seen him yet - evenings and weekends, and we need a dry sunny weekend, but not forecast for this one, so I will have to be patient!

An advert is going into the Parish magazine advertising the vacant lotties, and also to remind all the lottie holders to keep theirs in good order and to pay their rent on time! No harm in that, is there, it is only right and proper after all? So next year should be good. Wouldn't it be wonderful it they were all being cared for and growing veggies etc.

By now you will know that I can see things through rose tinted glasses, with a romantic optimism that is not always realistic, but you never know do you? It only takes a bit of interest and enthusiasm for it to rub off onto others!

It is going to be great. So if someone out there lives in a village not far from Attleborough, Wymondham, or Watton, and wants an allotment....check out your parish magazine or the village notice boards, because it may be your village and you could have one or part of one and get to meet me! Poor soul!

A bit of useless information that I read a number of years ago.

Women use far more exclamation marks than men! I bet it was a man that wrote that! And what is wrong with it !!!!! huh? I have no hangups using them!!!

It is probably because the men can't find where they are!!

So for all of those lovely guys who call out,'Have you seen where the ! is?'

I am going to shout back and tell you

'IT IS OVER THE 1' !!!!!!!

Yes I did use more of them on purpose just to make you smile

A perfect day for working up the lottie

It has been the perfect day for being up the lottie. The sun has been shining, there has been just a light breeze and it has not been too cold. So it was just my luck that I couldn’t go up there. My only compensation is that the soil would still be soaking wet so I would not have been able to do much, but knowing me I would have found something.

My youngest son phoned up just now, and Pat said, ‘Do you want to speak to the pin cushion; she is right next to me’. So my laughing son said, ‘I take it that you have had acupuncture again at the physio then.’ What with that and other torture, I mean treatment, and the flu jab this afternoon, it is sedate tasks for me today.

Things aren’t looking too good on the pumpkin front. That one I scooped out to use as a container for my flower arranging project on Friday is looking a bit floppy. A lady who used one last year, said that hers went mouldy, so I thought that I would attempt to dry mine – logical don’t you think? So I put it in the plate warming section at the bottom of my oven for a few hours to dry it. When Pat came home from bowls last night, he said that it felt o.k. like a football, so he put it back in and closed the oven door. This morning instead of being dried, it looked a bit sort of cooked! After all that hard work getting the middle out and all the cooking as a consequence - I just don't know what to do with it now!
And talking of which, I feel a bit of a fool. I was looking up on the internet at a seed site that I use a lot, and choosing my seeds for next year. I read up about seed saving for pumpkins amongst other things (wish I had got that far in the Vegetable growing book I am reading) and it said that pumpkins and squashes cross pollinate, so if you save the seeds you will not get what you are expecting. So that was a total waste of time and effort as I had saved hundreds of them from several varieties, particularly the butternut squash ones as they were such a success. So another job I did today, was to collect all the sheets of kitchen paper on which rows of clean and saved seeds lay and threw them in the compost bin!

I have bought all the flowers for my flower arrangement - the supermarket had just had a delivery so at least I had a bit of choice for a change. I have been gathering foliage from around the garden, and have to collect some more from somewhere, so I might have to take a walk along the lanes. I did that last year, just before Christmas and an old chap shouted out at me as I was cutting some common wild ivy – not from anyone’s garden, just along a hedge. I chatted to him, and said that I was only cutting a few bits for a Christmas present and that they wouldn’t be missed as there was literally miles of the stuff. I also remarked about his allotment (which is where mine is), he hadn’t recognised me in ‘normal’ clothes, and in the end I had to ‘tear myself away’. He turned from Mr Grumpy to Mr Friendly – and there really is not a problem with pruning a bit of wild common and garden green ivy from a hedge covered with it. Especially as it gets chopped off each year when the hedges get pruned! I think that he might have thought me to be a tourist!

Oops – gone of the beaten track as usual. After getting back from town, we decided to have egg and chips – well our version and a real treat after all the ‘healthy’ food we eat. Mind you this is just as healthy really as we opened a new sack of potatoes – oh decisions, decisions as to what variety to use next. We chose a sack of the sorted medium sized Cara, washed and gently rubbed them with a plastic pot cleaner, cut them into wedges, and put them on a baking tray on the highest heat in the oven for 25 minutes. I retrieved the tomatoes from the airing cupboard floor, (the shed being too cold for them), and chose a dozen to have with the chips and a lovely big egg each. I still can’t get over the flavour of tomatoes grown outside – even though these last ones had to have a helping had to finish ripening! You should try home made potato wedges with their skins on, they really are yummy. You can brush them or just the skin edge with oil if you want them really crunchy.


Some of the tomatoes were just about to go soft, so I picked out all the good ones and decided to make a cauldron of tomato soup which is bubbling away nicely as I speak. I think that it tastes too strong, and want to dilute it, but Pat says that it has got 'guts' (a new culinary term?) and that he likes it just the way it is. I shall be having a dollop of cream in mine when I serve it. But for now it is going to be frozen. I know how a squirrel feels now with all the food storage I have been doing this year!

It is such a shame that we have just eaten the last of our fresh tomatoes – I ate a few more raw as I was preparing the soup, just so that I can keep that memory with me all winter. I do not intend buying salads or tomatoes from the shops this winter, I want to eat only seasonal foods so it made eating those last fresh, sweet, juicy raw tomatoes even more of a treat.

Chatting about eggs at lunchtime, I mentioned that I was so looking forward to getting my chickens and that I was being really good for a change and not rushing off impulsively to buy them, but I was finding it difficult not to do so. Pat must have been feeling sorry for me, as he said that if I was sure that I wanted them and that the ‘flu’ thing was alright, I could go ahead get them anytime. I feel that I do still need to talk to my neighbours first, just to make sure that they won’t object to me keeping them in my garden over winter. I should not think they would, as we both have fences and there is a 6ft conifer hedge all the way around – but in this climate of ‘pandemic’ speak I feel that it is only fair. If they do object then I shall keep them up the lottie over winter and just go up there every day to visit.


I have been emailing the company that I am getting my little hen house and run from, and they say that as the run is fox proof, there is no real need to lock them up every night as they go in to roost by nature. The run would have to be protected in the winter, by carpet or something on top of the run near where the hen house is to prevent draughts though. It will not be the same as looking out and seeing them running around in my garden will it? Not long now, I will find out one way or the other next week.

Off to get the flu jab now.

Hope you enjoyed today as much as I have.

The Stepford Wife is alive and well and living in Norfolk - Well almost!

Do you ever get those days when you get up early because you can’t sleep and do not quite know what to do with yourself?

Well I had one of those today. I finally gave in to it and got up at 6am, quietly shut the bedroom door, and turned off the alarm (keeping fingers crossed that I had not disturbed the sleeping ‘lord of the minor’) – no that is not misspelt, our home would fit into a manor’s sitting room!

First stop my little ‘office’ to check my mail. I just love that expectant feeling you get when you click on your inbox and you see New Mail in red letters – it’s always a nice feeling – not as good as years ago when you heard the letter box rattle and there was a handwritten letter for you – but the next best thing I guess.

I hurriedly type in the password and click to see how many messages I have. Luckily I do not get SPAM as I have managed to automatically block them out, but if a stray cheeky one gets through it goes straight into the bin without me even looking at it. I just wish the junk mail through the post that I get each day would automatically do the same!

I had a mail from Richard of Down the Lane fame – if you haven’t yet visited his website, you are probably one of the few. Click on my link after reading my drivel – for some seriously good information. I read a couple more mails and wrote a few before writing a bit of blog.

Then I did what I said I would, and went out in the rain to the garage to get in the big trug of carrots and my witch’s cauldron. It took me almost two hours to rub the mud off, top and tail them, peel them and slice them, blanch them and bag them – after all that I got 7lb of prepared carrots which went into 20 bags. It did seem a lot of hard work for a 20 meal return. But boy do they taste good, I would probably had another bag full if I hadn’t kept nibbling them.

When I updated my allotment diary later I noticed that I had cooked and frozen a lot of carrot, parsnip, and potato mash, and of course I have been forgetting all the thinnings that we have been eating and the ones I have given away. I still have a row of Fly a Way too, if the slugs do not get there first, so I haven’t done too badly for about £3 of seeds

After breakfast I started reading more of – Grow your own vegetables by Joy Larkcom. Pat laughs at me as I read it like a novel – alternating it with my murder mystery that is my bedtime reading. I am reading it from start to finish even all the introductory pages. I was tempted to skip some of those, but for some reason I didn’t. I now have read all about composting, manuring, liming, mulching, fertilising and all that side of things – with the hope that some of it might have sunk in. How much is practical or relates to me (how to build a breeze block compost bin for example) I am not sure of, but you never know do you?

I would have liked a few colour pictures dotted here and there just to brighten it up a bit, but I guess it is designed to concentrate the mind more. I stopped at the green manure charts, and decided that Chapter 4 could wait until later.

My next task was to hollow out a big green pumpkin for my flower arranging workshop on Friday. Easier said than done. Pat carried it in for me as it was too heavy and I set about it with a big carving knife stabbing through the top trying make a circle. Trying to pull the top off was the next challenge. Ten more minutes of cutting and hacking and I got a hole, a bit lopsided but it was a start. There followed an hour of removing the seeds – putting some of them to one side to save for seed sharing and the slow process of hacking it all away a bit at a time. This took a lot of patience on my part, and I soon had a huge pile of pumpkin chippings and some big chunks which I reserved for lunch.

(The next time you see this it will have flowers in it.)

It was the first time I had grown this green variety (well not surprisingly as this is only my second year!)

The first thing I noticed is that the flesh is a lot paler than the Hokkaido orange pumpkin. I used the flesh to make a cauldron of pumpkin soup, with the addition of onions, black pepper, stock and the last couple of bags of last years frozen pumpkin. I fried off the onions in some olive oil before adding the pumpkin and stock and left it to simmer whilst I cooked lunch. Roasted legs of free range chicken with a dusting of garlic salt and dried herbs, which took the same time to cook and on the same baking tray as the pumpkin chunks, with steamed French beans and carrots of course.

The roasted pumpkin turned a deeper shade of yellow and tasted wonderful and the leftover chunks were added to the soup cauldron. It was moister than the Hokkaido variety and virtually melted in the mouth, so I shall definitely grow them again next year.

The sun came out and it was difficult for me to restrain myself from going up the lottie, all that was needed was a good excuse – and the trug full of kitchen waste was just the one I needed.

Pat hadn’t been up there for a few weeks so decided to come with me so we were able to load up his car with the grass cuttings as well which was handy.

The muddy track was really soggy and slippery with all the torrential rain we have had. It was so windy almost as bad as ‘Wilma’. There was a cacophony of sound as the sheets of corrugated iron, played their individual tunes as they rattled against wood and metal posts. The clouds were whizzing by like one of those nature films which is fast forwarded over a period of time. I love it when that happens, you can tilt your head back and stare up at the sky, rocking in the wind and it makes you dizzy.

I can not stress how windy it was, it is an open field site and there is almost always a breeze even in the height of summer. The wind had blown lots of things around, and lifted the corners of the black plastic sheeting I was using as a mulch until the frosts set in. I had weighted it down with old metal pipes, a wheel barrow, and all sorts too lumber. Those barrels I got from the fish farm the other week came in handy and soon got filled up with water and used as even more weights. I filled up 6 big plastic milk bottles with water to weigh down the fleece homemade cloche covering the January King cabbages, as the wind had ripped the fleece away from the tent pegs.

Pat ‘inspected’ the site, and commented on the remains of my bonfire and told me how I should have done it and what to do next. (He thought I had made just the little pile and not noticed that I had burnt 80 or more 6-7ft branches that I used for my rows of climbing beans.

The broad beans are really romping up now, and the Japanese onions too. I might have to rig up some sort of cloche to protect the beans if we get a hard winter. Oh well, I will know not to sow them until November next year.


I took a photo of the next three plots to record the ‘before’ photos – I will take a few of the progress and give them to my new neighbour as a surprise. Pat remarked jokingly, ‘He hasn’t done much has he? You were up here working the day you took yours over!’

I expect that he will get one of the chaps up there to just go over it with a tractor and plough it all in – just the right time of year, but a bit too soggy at the moment.

The wind was so fierce that we had a job closing the shed door; it really took my breath away. Reluctantly I had to come home, I would have loved to have stayed longer but there was nothing I could do apart from cutting some dahlias and Rudbeckia seed heads.


I have to bag up the pumpkin soup now before going to bed. I mashed it and gave it a go with my hand whizzer and it is a lovely pulp. I’ll bag it up with labels reminding me that I have to add a bit more water and milk before using as soup. Hmm I can imagine eating that in the conservatory in the winter, looking out onto the snow covered little lawn (and if I am lucky 2 chooks) – a bowl of steaming pumpkin soup, with melted cheese on top and a doorstep chunk of thick granary bread – Anyone for lunch?

Oh and the reason I was a little Stepford wife for a while today. It is physio day again tomorrow - and I have that dread you get when as a child, knowing that you are going to be grounded, rush around and cram in as much as you possibly can before you are told to sit down and behave yourself. I usually spend most of the day up the lottie, on a Tuesday each week,but am trying a different tack to see if that makes any difference.

I really must bag up that pumpkin soup.

Sweet dreams.

P.S.
I have just bagged up 6lb of pumpkin soup pulp which will make about 40 servings when water and milk are added when defrosted. That was from one green pumpkin and half a dozen home grown onions - now that was achieved with very little nurturing all summer. Off to look up the name in case you are interested.

HOT GOSSIP - Yippee!

I braved the wind and rain again to go out last night for another 'Scrapbook' workshop. But you probably don't want to read about the 12 of us having a great time in a tiny village hall tucked down a remote twisty turny lane in the middle of nowhere (it probably isn't so bad in daylight, but it sure is the back of beyond on a wild October night).

Get on with it woman I hear you say!

Mrs M phoned whilst I was out last night with the news that the person who took over 3/4 acre next to me for the past two years and left it to grow prizewinning mammoth weeds, has decided to give it up! Yippee. She thought that I might have already heard the gossip on the village grapevine she said apparently. But as I am not one for gossip, I hadn't.

There are now two further 1/4 acre plots available, which can be let in reduced sizes, so I am thinking of volunteering to write up something for the village magazine to get some really interested people up there.

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands
If you're happy and you know it clap your hands
If you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it
If you're happy and you know it clap you hands!

No apologises for spontaneous outburst of joyful singing and hand clapping. I am so looking forward to meeting my new neighbour and sharing a chat over the 'garden' fence. They call our allotments 'gardens' in these here parts of the wild east.

(I wonder if he would keep an eye on my chooks when I go away, I could have even more then. Pat did say 'so long as I don't have to have anything to do with them and they don't interfere with us going away')

Hmmm - Pause for thought!

I will be able to show you the progress over the next year of both our lotties and can compare notes.

It is 6.45am and I am off to peel those carrots - I never did get around to it yesterday.

Clap clap Clap clap Clap clap Clap clap Clap clap Clap clap Clap clap

La la lala la la lala la la lala la la lala la la lala la la lala la lala

Torrential rain on a Monday causes a bit of philisophical thinking - Surprised?

I was reading a blog about 100 mile diet early this morning. A lady, living in Canada and some friends, decided to try and feed themselves on organic food from within a 100 mile radius of where they live. (They did not grow it for some reason), which reminded me of an article in the Daily Mail a few weeks ago, I was horrified to learn the distances that our basic foodstuffs travel to get to the supermarkets. I am sure that most of you reading are well away of similar news articles. Often things in the paper are exaggerated of mis-reported, I am well aware of that, but this information was actually true. Including in the list of items were things like potatoes, that are imported during our traditional growing season, ditto peas and strawberries, tomatoes – the list went on - which seems crazy.
I knew that exotic fruit and vegetables were obviously imported, but not the distance, and also vegetables out of ‘season’, but the rest was quite a shock that the average weekly shop would have travelled 10,000 miles!

The article appeared on a week when I was rather worn out from the never ending work up the lottie, as much as I love it my body was protesting. I was also feeling guilty at driving my little car the mile there and the mile back, thinking that it was not a very eco friendly thing to do. I understood that I always take a car full of stuff up there and often bring back more than I can carry.

I am usually also ‘fit to drop’ and a rather bedraggled scarecrow by the end of my toils. The thought of walking through the village looking like that without an explanation sandwich board on my front and back saying something like: JUST SPENT 2/3/4 HOURS WORKING IN POURING RAIN/SEARING HEAT/SNOW/WIND, SHIFTING PIG MANURE, DIGGING WEEDS, etc to justify my appearance filled me with horror. It wouldn’t be such a problem living in a town where you might walk right through it and not see anyone you know. But village life is different.

I am digressing a bit, but it brought to mind an incident that happened a few years ago. I used to go on four mile circular walks on the lanes outside the village every morning come rain, snow or shine. Of course you have to dress up in proper walking clothes in the winter to help protect you from the elements. These include proper walking boots, waterproof trousers and jacket on top of several layers of clothes, trousers tucked into socks as it is easier to wash mud caked socks everyday than waterproof trousers. Unbeknown to me, a ‘neighbour’ who lives farther up the lane must have observed me on these occasions.

I remember going as a visitor to a meeting in the village hall some months later to hear a Speaker that I was interested in. This ‘neighbour’ was chairing the meeting and she announced in a loud voice, ‘Doesn’t ‘lottie’ look nice for a change. What a difference ‘lottie’. (not my real name) Needless to say that I was both embarrassed and hurt, blushing down to my toe nails my sense of humour kicked in and I replied, ‘It has been said in the past, that I scrub up well’. In hindsight I think it is hilarious and something that would be perfect for a sitcom. - I still have the same hair colour, but my figure has change bit!

Living at then end of a lane without passing traffic, some people only see me when I am just going up and down to my lottie or walking the lanes. I take a different route to the village centre. But in all areas of our lives people see us in different mode don’t they? I had just forgotten about that part of life after I retired.


Anyway, back to the distance our food travels. After reading the article and finding out the true cost to grow, and transport the food, in terms of the environment – fuels for providing heat, manufacturing pesticides to spray them with, the packaging, vehicles,ship,planes and all the rest of it – completely freed me of any guilt at using my car! I would like to avoid any food that travels many miles, but realistically it is virtually impossible unless you have a small holding and have orchards and livestock.

I now appreciate my home grown food even more. Not just for it’s better taste, but when I look at my plate I think, ……that has travelled a mile, the eggs a couple of hundred yards (soon to be feet when I get my chickens after Christmas all being well). It is a nice feeling I have to admit growing your own food, despite the ‘learning curve’ and failures. I have a freezer full of vegetables to last us to next harvest. O.K. there are shortages, of peas, no Brussels this year, but someone will have grown them, not many apple windfalls, or peppers, no aubergines, or cauliflower, but I can live without most of those, or just buy some.

My biggest gap is fruit, we eat lots, apples, pears, bananas, but I think I can justify buying them, even though once the British Cox’s are not available and the apples will be flown all the way from New Zealand – but we can’t give up on everything we love can we?

So as the torrential rain beats down incessantly and I can't get out and do what I want to do, I shall be donning my old coat - on top of my designer clothes - and trudging 10 yards to my garage for more of those orange things. So think of me, slaving over a kitchen sink in pink marigold gloves that will probably clash dreadfully with the carrots and give me a headache - but it will take my mind off thinking of anything other than this lovely Victorian carrot man. It will be a shame to slice him up and freeze him but it will make my chore more interesting!

Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine this week or you'll not know what turns up in this blog - neither do I come to think of it!

I keep seeing orange!

It was a cold day on Saturday here in Norfolk, and the ground was soaking wet from all the rain, but as the sky turned a lovely shade of blue and the sun started to shine, I just knew that I had to go up the lottie.

Just an hour to pull out those annual weeds around the parsnips and carrots and leeks, then back home to cook lunch and do other more urgent things the rest of the afternoon.

There was not a soul up the site, even the chickens on the top plot were quiet. But I wrapped up warm, donned my West Ham hat (mercifully without a bobble, and which I wear back to front for obvious reasons), strapped on my knee protectors, filled up the wheel barrow with everything I might need, and headed off into the wind.

Once I was down on my hands and knees with my trowel it was not so bad. I knelt on some of the black plastic beside the row of parsnips – big mistake. My knees made an indent and water drained off from elsewhere on the sheeting and created pools, which my knee pads soon soaked up! Won’t do that again - and added to the learning curve list! I tramped back to the shed and after a rummage around I uncovered my old kneeling pad – so back to basics again.

I had asked Pat to phone me after an hour as I have a habit of getting carried away and not knowing the time as I do not wear a watch.

It was hard work weeding the two 30 foot rows of parsnips and then the big space in between the rows which once had onions planted there.

It was whilst I was doing it that I contemplated making grass paths down this 'all veggie' section to create definable beds. When looking at other peoples’ websites I am envious of their lovely plots with raised beds and proper paths, but alas, finances and not being able to make them myself prevent that and size of site of course.

The men up the allotment prefer just to have a long plot that they plough up and rotovate every year. "Raised beds you can’t rotovate or plough" came with that knowing look again when they saw my three inherited ones. – I can see their point, it is easier trundling along on a tractor and then with a big beastie of a rotovator which digs all the weeds in etc.

After making the grass paths down the flower end of my lottie and seeing the results – definable spaces that seem psychologically more manageable for me, as I can look at a bed knowing that I can manage to plant or weed it in one go. But faced with a huge area, I find it a bit daunting and sometimes overwhelming, but it is more fiddly.

So what is easier do you think, mowing lawned paths or leaving a 3ft path that needs rotovating to keep the weeds down? Please leave your comments on this.

I was jolted out of thinking about this conundrum by the phone vibrating in my pocket – I could not believe it when he told me that an hour had passed already, and I still had three more rows to do! I managed to get an extension of an hour, so booked another ‘wake up’ call and went back to work.

Of course it is not only the digging out of the weeds by hand that took the time, but the many trips emptying the big plastic trug which I would just about lift and like an 18th century washer woman balanced it on my hip as I walked lopsidely to its final resting ground.

The carrot row I started on first were the Fly-A-Way variety. I have been rather disappointed with these, I have to say. Their germination rate was not as good as the Keratene seeds that I had which were left over from last year, and also they had not grown so well. I was also puzzled to see that some of them were almost papery with hollowed out middles!

Next came the Keratene row. These were huge in comparison, which was surprising, as both rows were planted on the same day, with rows of onions on either side and between them. They were more overgrown with annual weeds, and I found quite a number of the brightest and biggest slugs that I have every come across. They were the colour of the carrots and totally orange, not just around their ‘skirts’. I didn’t have my camera with me otherwise I would have taken photos. At first I thought that they were orange pieces of stone or worn bricks, and I cringed when I made the discovery that they were in fact HUGE slugs. As I came to them I picked them up and hurled them over the fence as far as I could into the middle of the acre of weeds next to my plot. (In hindsite I should have thrown them over my left shoulder and made a wish, after first accidentally spilling some salt onto them - hey, it might have worked, you don't know if you don't try it!) Only joking by the way, I couldn't waste the salt - I need it for the Caterpillar Cafe.

Further along the row I was flabbergasted to see a slug, with the barefaced cheek to be eating the top of a carrot! I never knew that slugs ate carrots. It was at that point that I decided that this back-breaking and aching weeding was a waste of time, so I turned my attention to digging up all that row of carrots and leaving the weeds.

A further phone call surprised me yet again that another hour had passed so I packed up and headed off home with a big trug of carrots filling the little boot of my car, which I now have to wash, peel, slice, and blanch to freeze. The alternative was to leave them at the mercy of the slugs and I didn’t spend hours on my hands and knees all summer to let those thugs eat them!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THESE – NORMAL OR NOT?

In this picture you can see on the left the Keratene carrots. These are the smallest and average size some of them are quite a bit bigger. They are on a sheet of kitchen paper so that you can gauge the size. On the right are the biggest of the Fly-a-Way carrots.

Now these carrots do not look like the ones in the supermarket or in the pictures in the seed catalogue of smooth uniform carrots.


Question

So my question is, are they ‘normal’. They have grooves in them, but those do not go deeply as a rule, but they need peeling because of them. They have been grown in an open ‘field’ without being watered, just left to nature, but we do have flint in our soil which can cause distortion. Have I left the Keratene in too long do you think? They are the most strongest tasting of keratin carrots that I have ever come across, you just can’t beat the flavour and if you have a juicer – then wow – they are fantastic. The Fly-A-Way carrots on the other hand still have the same grooves but the crop have mainly been so small the ones in the photo are the bigger ones. The harvest from them has been very poor.

Can you tell me if I am doing something wrong or if this is usual?

I spent the afternoon roasting pumpkins – Hokkaido – and I mashed 6lbs of them and frozen them in containers. The rest, a further 9lbs I have bagged up to use in stews, curries, mixed mash potato ‘cakes’, soups, cakes, or just defrosted and warmed through to have as an accompanying vegetable.

We used just three pumpkins, washed them cut them up and removed the seeds, and cut them into chunks, (with skin still on) and roasted them with a touch of olive oil until they just started to caramelise, so that when they are thawed it gives me the opportunity to roast them for a few minutes for a browner colour or to use them as they are.


I am still doing lots of research on chickens and am keeping up to date with what DEFRA have to say on the subject. Seems o.k. so far. I think that with a couple of chickens, kept away from wild fowl (or parrots) are not considered a risk, and the worst scenario would be that they would have to live in a shed – as a last resort, so I think that I shall bite the bullet and get some – after Christmas, as they won’t be laying over winter I do not think.

Recipe: Red Snapper - Please laugh with me not at me when you read this!

I am having one of those days!

I took photos with my digital camera of all the stages for the following recipe. From the assembled ingredients to the finished cooked fish in my old green salmon fish dish you can see in a previous recipe BLOG.

Each time I turned the camera off it came up with a message but I did not have my reading specs to hand and it usually says something at that stage. We were just about to eat the meal when Pat said, 'Don't you think you should find your glasses and read the message?' 'O.K.' I said reluctantly, as by this time I was fed up with impersonating David Bailey and wanted to just get on and eat it.

Guess what the message said – No Card in Camera!

So the photos attached are just a couple of quick ones before we ate it. Sorry about presentation there was parsley garnishing the fish in cooking dish in the first photos!

You will see from my Thursday 13th October BLOG, we bought quite a bit of fish from the farm in a neighbouring village, hence quite a few fishy recipes appearing here, but there will be other recipes as we go through the winter using my home grown veggies and store of chicken and anything else that takes my fancy.

I am not one to plan what I eat, although my husband asks me every day, I just say ‘Whatever you fancy’ so he gets fish or chicken out of the freezer and if he forgets I do a vegetarian.

Then unless I get inspiration for a slow cooking dish, I just rustle something up about half an hour before we want to eat.

Here is today’s offering.

The tomatoes were ripe so I used the last of those that had been sunbathing in the conservatory (more in drawers in the shed to check on!).

Baked Red Snapper

Ingredients

2 fillets of Red Snapper or (4 or if you are doing it for more people)
*Juice of a lemon
*A few Glugs of Olive oil – say 2 tablespoons
*1 chopped or thinly sliced clove of garlic – mine was a juicy thick one
*1 tsp dried Oregano (I was not going out in torrential rain for fresh, but use 2 fresh.)
Tomatoes – nice and ripe, slice, chop or quarter – whichever looks pretty to you
S & P to taste, but I never use salt. Fish swim in it all day don’t they?

Method

Wash the fish and pat dry and give them a couple of twists of freshly ground pepper.

Put everything marked with a * into a bowl and mix well. In an appropriate sized baking dish or tin (shallow sided, not casserole dish) pour in the liquid reserving a spoonful for each fillet. Lay fillets flesh down in juice whilst you cut up the tomatoes. Turn them over and coat them well with the juice and leave flesh side up. Arrange the tomatoes around and coat in juice too. Put a couple of slices on each fillet and spoon over reserved juice.


My snapper took 15 minutes to cook on 200c in a fan oven. Conventional oven to need to preheat and check the equivalent temperature.

To go with it I washed and dried one of my small butternut squashes. Cut off the stalk, cut it into quarters lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, drizzled a little virgin olive oil over it and baked it on a metal baking sheet for 10 minutes before the snapper went in, (so for a total of 25 minutes) for a lovely caramelly, soft, buttery, flavour. I did not remove the skin and you would never have known it - as it just melted in your mouth.

We mopped up the gorgeous juices with a chunk of granary bread from the Bakery.

Notes

I love garlic but I only used one clove as an enhancement to the lemon juice, you don't want to overpower the flavour of the Snapper. The flavours of lemon, garlic, oregano, and tomatoes worked really well. I should think that you could use a tin of tomatoes instead in the winter, but I will use my roasted tomatoes. I would also serve this with potatoes, and steamed veggies - mange tout, green beans, carrots, that would look attractive on a plate wouldn't it?

P.S.

I labelled my courgettes, squash and pumpkins using old washed lolly sticks, with a permanent marker pen. The tops of the sticks grew tiny toadstools – honestly – and the marker pen writing ended up illegible.

The butternut squash plants got mixed up with the courgettes and shared the same bed. I was cutting them as tiny courgettes all summer, until one we had a week of rain and they got bigger and resembled butternuts. But having only bought butternut squash from the supermarket that were peanut colour I was a bit confused and thought that these must be courgettes as they were green, so carried on using them like that, leaving about 10 near the end of the season to get a bit bigger as I was swamped with courgettes and not many people wanted them as freebies ad they didn’t eat them.


I cut them at the end of the season, and put the on the window ledge in the conservatory and they are going supermarket butternut colour now.


I really am a beginner and this years learning curve is HUGE!!

Physiotherapy confined me to barracks but a few dozen apples a day........

The after effects of my trip to the physio meant that I had to take it easy this afternoon. Which is usually difficult, but not on this occasion!

After making lunch and having a rest, I got itchy feet and needed a distraction so decided to enlist Pat’s help to sort out the bag of windfall apples we were given a week ago.

I peeled and he cut out the bad bits and cut them into chunks. Sitting here typing this I am imaging the reader thinking ‘Why on earth is she going to all that trouble? Why bother, why nor just throw them in the bin?’

Quite honestly I do not have a sensible answer to that. It comes from not bearing to waste good food – must be in my genes. To make something out of ‘free food’ that would otherwise have gone to waste is very satisfying. Usually I would have walked the back lanes and gone blackberry picking and added them to the apples, but I could not manage to do that this year.

On tasting the apples I found that they were dessert ones, so added some raisins and gently cooked them in a pan with the lid on tight so they just steamed. The raisins absorbed all the apple juice and the result was a light fluffy apple mixture, just right for apple strudels, pies, or crumbles. We could not resist having some just warm with hot custard, for tea though, and you’ve guessed it, the rest is destined for the freezer.

I had to give in and have a lie down for an hour this afternoon, but once up I typed up the blog, and also searched for and found a template for seed packets. I was really thrilled with this as I am drying some of my seeds and intend giving them as little presents. Probably popping them in with the Christmas cards.

I make my own cards too; although not cost effective given the time and effort and materials used, compared with the cheap boxes readily available in the shops, but I get a lot of pleasure from it making a card with a particular person in mind, and knowing that however it turns out, it will be original, and the recipient will not be getting another the same. Often at Christmas we get several cards identical, I expect you do too, and there is nothing wrong with that at all, I just like to imagine the surprise when my card is opened.

Ditto cards for every occasion.

This is one that I made for friends - the couple were American and French, and I themed it to suit the interests of the bride. It is a copy of a Victorian picture, which I pasted onto lovely card that had a silver shimmer to it and was the exact colour of the shading on picture background. I framed the picture with very old lace, highlighted it and the couple with silver here and there to accentuate it. The picture I had made into a 3D decoupage by printing it out four or five times and layering it. I then wrote the messages in both French and English on paper inside which I had cut the edges to look like lace and tinted them with silver too, finishing off by tying it together with silver thread. It took me hours, but I probably got more pleasure out of doing it than the bride and groom did receiving it - and again, it is original. If you click on the card you might just be able to see the detail.

So when I have finished most of my allotment work and I am trapped indoors with the weather, I shall be making my Christmas Cards, and seed packets. And after Christmas I will be saving all my cards to cut up and change and transform them with other embellishments into totally different ones.

Having run out of things to say – for a change- I want to end this blog today, by thanking everyone who has been logging on to have a look.

I am exceedingly surprised and delighted as it was just really done for me and a few friends and family to see what I had been up to, and I never dreamt for one minute that I might get a ‘following’. I am tickled pink that so many of you enjoy the ramblings of an ordinary middle aged lady, in the Norfolk countryside, learning how to grow vegetables.

Thanks too for all the complimentary feed back.

From Scarecrow to Paltrow

So here I am again, to continue where I left off on Tuesday – gosh was that only yesterday, I seem to pack so much into each day that I sometimes can’t believe it!

I arrived home and had just enough time to metamorphose from scarecrow to Paltrow before Pat came home. O.K. perhaps the Gwenyth Paltrow bit is a hyperbole, but viewed in the mirror without my contact lenses in, I can easily see myself as a supermodel or scarecrow!

I had just started to prepare lunch, and as always got a bit carried away – that will go on my epitaph but not for at least 45 years or more God willing.

My intention was to do salmon with a simple ratatouille with some of the vegetables I have picked over the past couple of days. But of course, as you are probably getting to realise I am easily sidetracked.

From my last lottie BLOG you will see that I had completely forgotten about the 30lb of green tomatoes that were languishing in a chest of drawers in the garden shed.

It was with great trepidation that I went out there. I hesitantly opened the bottom drawer, withdrew the sheet of newspaper to reveal…… another arc of my learning curve. Yes there were lots of lovely red tomatoes mixed with the green…that is the good news. The bad news was that I left them on the vine – well you always see these adverts in the supermarket and the paper about the tomatoes being so much better left on the vine don’t you, and I never read anywhere about not doing so. DON’T DO IT! What I did not realise was that the vines go mouldy, must be the moisture in them or something, but they were like furry triffids. The tomatoes were fine though. I picked all of them off the vine, replaced the paper and put back the green ones. I did the same with the next two drawers and came away with a huge washing up bowl heaped to the top with ripe tomatoes.

SO, I thought that whilst I was doing lunch for just the two of us, it would be just as easy and more economical as the oven was on, to do a bit more and freeze it. I ended up using a large amount of the tomatoes, the leeks from yesterday, a few big onions, all the peppers I picked, 4of the cucumbers – deseeded, one of the small pale green pumpkins you can see in an earlier blog, half a butternut squash (we had the other half the day before) a jar of roasted peppers from Lidl (£1.89) because I wanted to add a bit more colour, I think that was it I put it all in my giant plastic bowl with some glugs of virgin olive oil just to give it a shine, mixed it all up with my (clean) hands; I just love the feel of that bit, and poured it all into two big baking trays. You can see the results in the photos. If you click on the photos to enlarge the picture, you can see that in the baking tin the ratatouille is cooked so that everything is just tender. This is so that when frozen, then later thawed I have the option of microwaving it to eat as a side vegetable, I can throw in some curry powder or herbs and make an almost instant curry or mediterranean dish, I can lay fish on top and roast it for 10 - 15 minutes and it will have that lovely caramally roasted look, turn it into a soup, or add it to a stew or casserole - the list of things to do with this is endless, so I won't go on about it your imagination will do the rest.


In this photo of my fish dish, I used more tomatoes, and some small diced up chunks of butternut squash, lots of dried basil (my fresh has run out) and some freshly ground pepper and some olive oil. A feast for two in one dish - less washing up! This photo is the 'before' one, we were ravenous by the time it was cooked so didn't stop to take a photo, but trust me, we ate the lot!

This is the 9lbs of ratatouille to freeze for winter use.

Doesn’t it look lovely and pretty?

I love colourful food. Don't you?

This year up the lottie has been worth every minute, when you sit down on a wet and miserable day and get to eat summer food.

Recipe: Quick Pepper Pesto Salmon

Ingredients

Salmon steaks or fillets.

Pepper Pesto – any make.

Sliced yellow or orange peppers (optional)


Method

You can cook this in the oven, under the grill or in a frying pan.

Spread each piece of fish with pesto sauce on both sides to taste – like spreading a slice of bread.

If you have time, leave to marinade for half an hour before cooking for a stronger flavour.

To grill: Place fish in a metal dish, arrange the peppers around making sure they are coated with the pesto.

Cook on medium heat turning once.

To fry: As above but place everything in a frying pan and cook on medium heat.

Oven: In a baking tin with peppers on top of the fish. 180c fan, 350f, Gas 5, 200c Takes about 10 – 15 minutes depending on thickness of fish.

To Serve: Place on a warm plate, arrange sliced peppers on top if using, pour over juices.


Notes:

Serve with salad, wholemeal bread, rice, or pasta. Works well with tuna steaks.

Tuna only takes a couple of minutes to cook in a frying pan. do not over cook it or it makes it dry. Tuna is delicious cooked 'medium rare'.

Recipe: Salmon on a bed of runner beans

4 salmon fillets or 4 salmon steaks (about 8oz or 225 grms each)

2 medium onions (thinly sliced) – red are nice for the colour, but any will do (optional)

8 streaky rashers of bacon – (or slice up back bacon)

A big handful of pine nuts – I love them so use a big handful (optional)

1 or 2 lemons quartered

1 clove of garlic

2 big handfuls of sliced runner beans (about 1½ lb or 700 grms)

Vegetable or Olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper – just lightly, don’t overdo it ( I don’t add salt to anything it is more healthy but you can add a sprinkling once it is cooked if you feel you need it. But try it first)

Method

Warm up the oven on a high setting first. Gas 7, Fan 200c, 425f or 220c

You need a suitable roasting tin that will take all the ingredients comfortably.

Start by spreading the runner beans and onions (if using) on the bottom and then sprinkle the garlic and pepper on top, coat the beans lightly with oil and toss those all together with your hands.

Snuggle the fish pieces into the runner beans, then sprinkle on the pine nuts, tuck the lemon pieces prettily around, and finish off by drizzling a little more oil over the top.

Protect the fish pieces with a bit of kitchen foil for the first five minutes then remove it.

Check after a total of 15 minutes cooking to see if it’s all cooked. (Don’t over cook the fish).

Serve on warm plates.

That’s it, you don’t need anything else.


Notes:

Variations on the theme: Add fresh tomatoes and omit the lemon. Add thinly sliced peppers. Just experiment. I do. It also works with frozen runner beans, and cod. Oily fish I found were too strong so don’t try it with those.

I just throw it all in the tin measuring by the handful, you don’t have to be strict with the weights. My recipes are based on what I have to hand so you can be quite versatile and substitute similar things to experiment – but they have to cook in 15 – 20 minutes

Great fun making balls

Last night I went to a nearby village for a workshop on making Christmas Tree decorations. I had a great time, and everyone was very friendly. It was put on by the NAFAS Flower Club that I belong too. Each month we see a professional demonstrator doing flower arrangements and it is great. This month we did something different.

Silly me forgot all about it as I mentioned in yesterday’s BLOG, so unusually for me, did not do any preparation work.

For the project we need to cover a dry foam ball with tissue paper before the workshop.


To make the balls we needed material, braid, ribbons, anything to decorate the ball with, plus of course glue, pins, scissors etc.

I had hurried looked though my junk box of bits and pieces I saved for card making and luckily found a piece of red material, some bits of ribbon (but not enough as it turned out) and little glass bits.

Those who did the proper preparation bought all sorts of materials, tassels, beads, sequins, and ribbons.

If any of you want to know how to make them – just get in touch with me via the comments box, with your email address, and I will type up how we made them, and scan a template in for the material. They were great fun to do and look very professional.


I bought five more balls so that I can make all different ones. I have a blind penfriend and thought that it would make a nice present – using different textures, like velvet, silk, and maybe different beads; at least it would be original. I might even spray it with perfume or try drops of aromatherapy oil.


This is the one I did out of odds and ends but I haven't finished it yet. I will add a tassle and some more glass bits.


The photos do not do the balls justice actually, as they really look good and sparkle in the light. My camera flash has blotted out the rich gold textured strips, the thick braid ribbon that is covered in little gold and pearl beads, the red and gold glass diamonds have a mirror type effect too. Not bad for a first effort I thought. Will look better finished.