Saturday 28 November 2015

Using wood ash in garden

Now that the days/evenings are growing colder the wood burner is churning out more ash. I have been adding this to the compost heap occasionally as recommended by the RHS.  We have about one tray of ash a week as we get quite a good clean burn in the new wood burner we had installed over the summer.

ashes


When mixed with other components in the compost heap, the resulting alkaline compost can be used as a mulch around most ornamental plants and vegetables unless, like raspberries, rhododendrons and roses, they require an acidic soil.

As we have had the occasional good weather days we decided to clear the ash from the bonfire site as well that had built up over the last year.  We had been careful not to put anything "contaminated" on it - just woody cuttings and pesky dandelion roots etc.  Using a home built sieve we filled two wheelbarrow loads which has gone on some of the veg garden.

Wood ash can be spread directly on soil in the vegetable garden in late winter at a rate of 50-70g per sq m (1.7-2.4oz per sq yd);  Helps prevent club root in brassicas.

I saw on another site that
Wood ash is also useful for pest control. The salt in the wood ash will kill bothersome pests like snailsslugsand some kinds of soft bodied invertebrates. Hurrah - perhaps those slugs will leave my nero kale alone now.

I confess we did all of our wood ash using  out of common sense, past reading of gardening books (very past, ours are very old and one is by Percy Thrower)   and ingrained experience and only looked up the internet advice later! Why? Because we have been leaving our BT Hub switched off most of the day to save electricity we kept forgetting to look it up in the evenings when we allow ourselves to be connected up.  Who needs Google any way?

With regard to the use of electric, we increased our SMART meter budget by £5 a week to allow for darker evenings and the power needed for the oil boiler. With our frugal ways firmly in hand we have not had to use up that extra totally in November, running at 3% below our budget on the 27th of the month.


Friday 27 November 2015

Boat recovery

Marking the end of the year now with one of those things you have to do before winter sets in. As it has been mild we had not panicked too much about leaving our dingy in the boatyard on the Broads so choose the one bright day late last week to go and fetch it home. Work to be done on it and we are not sure we had chosen the right location so may take it elsewhere next year.

Great sunny dry weather and no problems at first. Then I looked across the marina to see "NO EXIT. BARRIER RAISED" on the river exit, I rushed over to the river side and the bridge where a nice fisherman said the Environment Agency had taken the boom down the day before. Phew. Set off calmly across to the opposite slip way where the nice man took £5 for use of the yard (much cheaper than our boatyard who want £150!) and gave us loads of advice as we had not recovered a boat since 1977.

As you can see all went well. Mostly due to the water level being so high we did not have to go down the slip way slope very far.

We left the swans in peace just as the rain clouds spat very cold wet at us.

Set off to try to get home by dark but the lights on the trailer failed and later we took a wrong turn which wasted 30 mins. Luckily we have a big drive area and we just left it all and went in for hot tea in front of the fire. All sorted next day and everything stored for the winter. Another end of year job done.

Monday 23 November 2015

Celeriac

Not been blogging much in the last few days as we have been decorating. What a disaster. Having got the plaster repaired and painted white we brought some "cheap" emulsion at that well known DIY store. The coverage was patchy and the colour dull and nothing like the display. We waited for it to dry thoroughly in the hope of it looking better.  So disappointed, instead of finishing the room we will have to repaint it and buy some decent paint.  Oh well.

We grew one row of celeriac this year as my husband likes this (but not keen on celery?).  It is a very slow grower and has just about matured now. We mix it with mashed potatoes to top shepherds pie but our favourite is rosti. Makes a nice lunch with egg or as an alternative with fish.
Image result for potato and celeriac rosti

(picture from web)
It is 50/50 grated potato and grated celeriac, beaten egg, seasoned, with some dried sage. The various cooking web sites suggest a variety of  spices and additions which I might try.  Lightly fried in good oil  they are delicious!
Growing them was quite easy. RHS say "Celeriac is a moisture-loving plant that needs fertile, organic rich, moisture retentive soil and prefers full sun. Keep the soil constantly moist – it should never be allowed to dry out. Water before the onset of drought; mulching helps, too. Keep the ground weed free."  
 I think we needed to get more water and get more mulch into the soil a bit more as our ground dries out and that causes flowering. You start them in early March in seed trays and plant out once temperatures are consistently above 15C. Not much other work is needed.
Well worth the room.

Had a terrible fright over weekend. Best friends from Hampshire are touring in New Zealand at present, when the news came on about the helicopter crash at Fox,s Glacier, our hearts stopped.  Thankfully their some emailed to say they were off hiking in some mountains to the north of there. Felt very sorry for the families of the people involved. 

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Not too much damage from storm Barney

Hi
It was fierce here overnight but no real damage.  Two fence posts which were rotten at the base fell over and we spent morning replacing these with posts we had already and some scrap wood. Just need a couple of new lengths of fence rail.

Thank goodness we invested in the post basher. It makes light work of the post repairs especially if the ground is soft.


The inca berries in the veg garden took a bashing. Picked up enough ripe ones for a basin full. We have just tried Inca berry crumble - not bad!


Take care.

Monday 16 November 2015

Ultimate shoe recycling

Hi
I have been tidying my pictures on the computer ready to "save" to a safe external drive and found this picture taken in Teignmouth in 2008.




The old work shoes from the blacksmith's shed this was next to were no doubt added to by shoes found on the beach. The tree root was a fascinating aged twisted stump.

I would share with you my recycling of an 1980s green suit to a new "Mary Berry style" jacket but the tailoring on the pattern has me completely foxed.  I am blogging to avoid any more brain ache and having to go back outside to tend the end of summer bonfire.


Sunday 15 November 2015

Bored with TV so taken to chickens

There is something about autumn TV that "does my head in" as the kids say.  There are a few good things like the Pottery programme on BBC2 but all that reality/celebrity stuff is so uck...  and the husband is addicted to it!  So I have taken to improving my drawing and embroidery skills in the corner by the fire and try not to make too many scathing remarks.

I saw this advert for garden ornament chickens in one of the broad sheet papers and used the outline to make a little chicken picture. I have been practising most of my standard stitches and trying a bit of whipping too.  I found a new (to me) stitch on the internet called coral stitch - but at the time the connection kept going off so have not been able to follow the instructions and master it yet. The fabric is just some old curtain lining and the thread was from a stash brought ages ago for a £1 for five hanks. I am going to look for some brighter colours for my next project as they were mostly green and brown.

I have nearly finished this - what else can I do as that Jungle thing starts soon ?.......

Did you see Ben Fogle visiting people living wild in the UK?  First programme in Devon was pretty mild, the couple were just frugal and self sufficient in veg etc.  I hate these dark evenings of Autumn and the TV! If I was not being frugal with the heating I would probably wander off to another part of the house until the spring.

Thank goodness Simon Reeve is going to do a series on Ireland from next Sunday - should be marvellous and as we have visited a lot of southern Ireland in the past we shall enjoy that one at least together!


Saturday 14 November 2015

Things changing in our kitchen and a rant warning.

We have had some bright but windy weather, just look at the lovely colour in our birch tree against the blue sky.
Then, like everyone else wet weather blows in and I retreat to kitchen and sewing and more decorating!
In the kitchen the chills I threaded up are drying nicely and make a bright splash against the pale paint.
I can't quite bring myself to join the current "I quit sugar" campaign. Tried in the past but its not gone well, but after a discussion we agreed to try another round of cutting down. Cut back a bit on sugar in the custard and sponges for example. And for tea and coffee we have replace a teaspoon in the sugar jar with a half teaspoon measure from the cooking implements drawer.
Seems to be working this time and there has been no cheating with an extra swipe of the spoon!

Well I did warn you, now for the RANT, Why do institutions you buy services from treat you like idiots, cheats or criminals when you have the gall to ask for the service you paid for to be correctly delivered or billed???  Our phone line crackled and the internet kept going on and off (hence lack of blogs lately) but the man on the phone said his network checks said there was nothing wrong with our line. Somewhat testily my husband suggested as it happened when it rained or was windy and those conditions did not happen inside our house they had better send an engineer. That request was followed by emails and 3 texts saying if it was our equipment that was wrong we would have to pay £120 for the engineer and they were sure we were wrong. Immediately we felt at fault and double, tripled checked everything on all the computers in the house and borrowing a phone and plugging that in. Still crackled.

Said engineer spent 3 hours up a wobbly telephone pole down the road in the teeth of a force 6 gale trying to find a fault his equipment said was 7 metres from the house.  Then we get a text saying everything was fixed but we would have to wait 3 days for phone and broadband to get back up to speed. No apology for making us feel at fault and not being believed or the inconvenience of receiving for a bad product for good money paid in advance each month.

And don't get me started on billing departments!


Wednesday 11 November 2015

End of potato shortage

Having run out of potatoes on Friday and not particularly bothered about going out shopping specially, we ate rice and pasta from the store cupboard until today.  While we were in the local butchers/veg shop I offered to buy pies for lunch as a treat but my husband refused as they were expensive - so we took the sack of potatoes home and extracted two lovely big ones as baked potatoes for lunch.  Nice to see my frugal attitude is rubbing off.



On the subject of what you can do without, we also ran out of Shreddies, again no special shopping trip was made and we had porridge.  I was thinking about this in terms of what we have seen of peoples' shopping on Waste and Shopping saving programmes (and my observations in supermarkets) that currently people expect to have loads of choice but a constant supply of everything in the house. The word “treat” has been devalued by this.  Sometimes when we run out of things I have been known to remark “We won’t starve and die without it” and when we do have something different or special it is just what the dictionary says an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.

The last two days have been dry if windy. And the garden is still surprisingly quite dry allowing some weeding to be done and grass to be cut yet again.  While we were out today I noticed how wonderfully green and lush the fields are where spring wheat was sown only a few weeks ago.  We also noticed some freshly blooming poppies in a verge!

Monday 9 November 2015

Wonderful sunrise

Woke early to a turquoise and pink sunrise.

Followed by high winds! At least the washing dried by 2 o'clock.

Spent the day inside mostly trying to progress the emulsion of the main bedroom. I do wish people would not use the modern strong pigmented emulsion on 1930s plaster!  Its a b......r for covering up with a couple of washes of white paint ready for a lighter colour.  Mind you, the amount of cracks and poor previous repairs when new windows were put in has resulted in more poly-filler than wall in some places.  At least the paper came off with a mere breath and under that bit it was white. Thank goodness.

Raided freezer for some lamb patties and mixed veg to have with rice today as I did not want to spend time outside. I picked loads of Inca berries yesterday when the rain cleared for a bit and have found that these make a rather nice fruit layer under a simple sponge served with custurd. We have so much fruit ripening on the Inca berry bushes outside and in the poly tunnel that we have not had to buy any fruit to make puds for weeks. When I am not baking they are nice chopped and warmed when you are making semolina or mixed with Banana Angels Delight!

Hope weather improves to give us some dry days as the conservatory is leaking a needs a quick repair.

Sunday 8 November 2015

Frugal purse

No, not wise shopping this time!
My purse, which I think was my mother's and must have been 15 years old gave up the ghost.
It was too big and heavy anyway and was made for someone with dozens of cards - not someone with a bus pass and a library card!

At first I thought I could re use the metal clasp which I had cut off, but  research and trial said it was going to be complex. So I went to my scrap box and found some upholstery material, some silky plain material and a second hand short nylon zip and two large poppers.
After a long think I managed to fold this into a wallet shape and stictch across to make a "silk purse" area with a zip and flap!
When I put my meagre petty cash and cards in the length was all wrong. So this morning I simple machined across and reduced it by 2 inches.  The joys of a new machine that does overlock stitch and adjusts well to thick material!  I should have designed a space in the flap to slide in the cards. I may do this later by hand.

Now have a happy purse that should last till Xmas and I will put desire for a leather one on my Xmas list if the family ask!

Lots of others in blogger land are watching sensible sport this weekend. My husband and I have been on the edge of our seats watching the nail biting motorcycling in Valencia where a British Rider became the first winner of a title, albeit in one of the smaller size bike classes, since Barry Sheen. Those were the days (sigh).

Bad news on the food front. We have finished our crop of potatoes. We will have to buy some through this winter and plan to grow twice as many in the Spring. We should have gone out in the rain on Friday or Saturday to get some but simply could not be bothered so meals have been rice and pasta based until my new purse gets an outing to the local farm shop!  £5.50 for a 25kg bag.

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Are sausages really a cheap and easy meal?

Cooking from scratch all the time can be wearing, especially if you have a bad back (again) so when my husband said do something quick and easy tonight dear I thought Ah Ah time for sausage and mash.

I hate cheap sausages so I had 6 lovely Norfolk Sizzlers from the butchers and thought 5 would be enough for dinner, (2 for me and 3 for hubby) as they are very meaty (no fat or gristle in these).  It was lovely but the butchers bill was on the table as I ate and realised each sausage had cost 41p. Total over £2 and was not really a big  meal.  Everything else on the plate was home grown - potatoes, red onions, runner beans, carrots. Omelettes would have been much cheaper!

I was looking in my notebook and really it is not a cheap meal! At £2.05 for the meat and I am not sure it was that cheap either.

In comparison my notebook shows two more economic meal plans.

Shin of  Beef at £7.95 per kilogram, purchased 908kg for £7.22
Day 1 - slow cooker. a stew where I added a large onion and 6 garlic, 500gms of tomatoes (chopped fresh ones) some home-made passata, bits of celery, carrots, and spices like paprika, bay lead, rosemary, cinnamon stick. later a few dried lentils and peas added.
Day 2 - 4 ladles of left over stew reheated with dumplings.
Day 3 - 4 ladles of stew reheated with some green peppers and leftover from lunch bits of tomatoes and eaten with steamed cabbage and leeks.
Day 4 - bottom of stew scrapped into pie dish, mushrooms added and a suet crust.

Everything added to the meat was fromt he garden or store cupboard and we had BIG meals.
The meat element was £1.80 per day.

I see  in my note book some months ago I purchased a shoulder of lamb should at £7.32 (£7 per kg).
Roast
Lamb in tomato sauce
Lamb rissoles
Stew.

Not long ago Jamie Oliver was preaching having a big lump of meat and making it go far - I think that is why I was recording in the first place to make sure it really was a good strategy.

Think sausages may have to go on the luxury list!

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Mis-shaped veg

Having watched Hugh FW's War on Waste programme (BBC 1 Monday) I can see Morrisons would not want my sweet peppers!
Huge final pile from the 3 plants I cleared today from the poly tunnel to give more room to some Christmas potatoes and probably only one would meet a "cosmetic" standard.
I felt very sorry for the Norfolk farmers who could not make a profit from the parsnips grown for a supermarket - they were beauties and it was criminal to waste them! Wonky veg does not worry me as long as it tastes OK and lasts a week at least in a fridge.



Monday 2 November 2015

The power of Tagettes?


Firstly, welcome to followers! I was just getting into updating my links to your sites finding my way through blogger system when my husband called to say the last episode of our S4C welsh language police detective series was starting. So abandoned the efforts of technical competence. Y Gwyll (Hinterland) with Richard Harrington is very dark and complex (described in the reviews as "a bit Swedish") but it is set in a building in Aberystwyth I used to work in!  Makes me smile every time !  Look out for it when it gets repeated on English channels!
Image result for tagetes tenuifolia


Anyway back to Tagettes!

Last year we suffered many insect bits. There were lots of areas of long grass and weeds as we were converting the field from stables and paddock and we had made a great effort to clear every thing away over the winter.  We looked up plants that would repel insects ( www.naturallivingideas.com ) and decided to plant lavender, petunia, french marigolds and tagettes.  Tagettes were everywhere in veg beds, borders, in the poly tunnel and greenhouse.  Must have worked because all summer long as we had no bites.

Last couple of weeks I have gradually pulling up the tagettes as they got woody and died back. Then the weather turned warmer and for the last two days in the muggy late afternoons we have been bitten to death!  Bring on the frosts - perhaps that will deal with the pesky pests!