Sunday 30 April 2017

First new potatoes

I wish I could say these were planned but one potato plant  popped up from some left in the poly tunnel by accident. Now that the new crops are making progress the potato plant was in the way and we dug it up. Luckily there was a nice crop!
They were delicious and at least I did not have to go to the shops for another two days. As food bills are creeping up in costs,  I am trying to make use of every scrap of food before shopping again.  We have a new rule here - if we don't have some particular food item, we use an alternative that we do have, before rushing to top up the shopping!





Thursday 27 April 2017

Accordion book

I saw an idea on a craft site the other day to make a little book from a folded strip of paper. I thought I would adapt this to make a invitation to my grandson to come back for a summer visit.
I used two strips of wallpaper glued together and then folded. I put it under some books for a few days to give nice crisp format.

On the inside I used water colour paint to form a beach, sea and sky.  I blotted the light blue sky to form clouds. I found some tiny bits of bright fabric to make a bucket and a flag and a kite. My figures are just stick men doing the activities we can do together at the beach - dig, build, paddle, fly and run on the beach.  
I shall post it to him soon and hope his parents can bring him to Norfolk this summer to play!


Wednesday 26 April 2017

Spinach

I thought I would write about growing and cooking about spinach today. It is a vegetable I have only recently come to.  Growing up it was not a known veg - except in tins for Popeye! Spinach is full of iron and other good things apparently.

I have learnt to only grow half a dozen plants as that is more than enough for two of us. I sow some in March to harvest in that "hungry gap" before summer veg kicks in, and some in June to harvest  for winter veg.  We use our poly tunnel (which only has net on the lower sides so is not fully enclosed and a bit cooler than a fully covered one) but I think these would be fine in a  cold frame or a pot on a patio that can be moved to shelter to expand its season.


This packet cost £1.95 and will last two seasons. I start them off in modules and plant out when first leaves are well formed.

I use these as pick and come again plants, taking the outside leaves as needed.  These have already been picked over twice. 


This handful is more than enough as an ingredient in most dishes. I rarely cook it as just a veg - when the plants are big and prolific  (usually just before they are over) I do fill a pot just to use them up.
I checked My Supermarket today and you are paying 54p for 100 grams. Packaged supermarket spinach does not last long so having some to hand is less wasteful. I have probably picked £1.50's worth and am well on the way to covering propagation costs.

This week I have stirred a good handful into the lat stages of a chicken risotto.  I usually put in a handful of frozen peas so that was a saving from brought in food.
I also put another handful under two servings of  haddock which were then topped with breadcrumbs (left over bread crusts put through the liquidizer) and some grated cheese and some tomatoes sliced. Yum.

I need to leave the plants to make some more leaves so am planning on using some more perhaps at the weekend  for a sausage and spinach spaghetti (see Delicious magazine web site).  I have no creme fraiche in the fridge so I may have to think of an alternative like cheese sauce?  I was listening to Radio 4's Food Cupboard (Jay Raynor) the other day where they suggested not have an ingredient in a recipe is an opportunity to invent a new dish!

This is an easy crop and recommend trying it!


Sunday 23 April 2017

Weather frustration

What a weird spring!

Not rained for weeks, open ground is as hard as rock and beds under shrubs are like dust. Even the swallows are having a problem - there is no mud around to build their nests!

Lots of sunny days and the green house is bursting with ready plants but the wind is too cold! Frost a couple of mornings ago and more forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday. So no point trying to put in root veg seed yet.

Only thing left to do today - empty the winter log store and put by the fire for the chilly evenings promised next week.


Ah well - I can watch the Durrells tonight at least and admire living in a warm climate. I loved the books when I was young and the TV series made in the 1960/70s. Luckily this new series has been really well done and captures the spirit!

for some reason my cooking has taken a dive and I have lost my cake making mojo - I burnt the Victoria sponge today!

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Easter

A continuous flow of visitors over Easter, luckily with daughters in law who like to cook and take over the kitchen and washing up!  They supplied a lot of the food as well so not too much budget busting - except for a steep rise in use of electricity (not great at turning off lights!).  Luckily due to religious/cultural differences and allergies to milk there were no chocolate Easter eggs over the weekend so no weight gain here.

I was happy to supervise grand children kite flying and painting!


Once they had all gone we treated our selves to a day out and a walk in Foxley Wood to see the bluebells,  We. like a several people we met on the footpaths, had looked up the "best sights/sites" on the Internet!


Though it has continued  mostly dry (only 5 mm rain in 3 weeks) it has been a bit too cold, Veg planting is delayed and work in the garden has been snatched few hours a day. 
Really need it to warm up!



Sunday 9 April 2017

Shabby chic

Our favourite garden centre (up near Spalding) has gone all shabby chic in its dinning areas. I saw an idea some weeks ago and have adapted it.
Take old, cheap frames, left over paint, old canvas bag, some shapes from an applique site on the web, and an old AA map book.
I did not set out to cut out the words but by accident the right words appeared in the first frame and I liked it. I did deliberately choose the maps for favourite past holidays.

Just right to cheer up the brick wall in our shabby (not very chic, yet) conservatory area!




Saturday 8 April 2017

Update

I hate been a terrible blogger lately. So first, welcome to new followers! I am just keeping up with reading and posting a few short blogs at present due to the endless sunny dry days here and the continuous gardening. It is prime time for sowing and preparing fruit and veg - so if we want to eat for rest of year it has been hours and hours of work.

My husband has been playing with seep hoses to cut time in watering later in the summer. he has set up the polytunnel with lots of lines which should serve right through the tomato crop later in the summer.


He has used spare lengths to water some seed beds out in the veg bed. It means reconnecting hose ends up but we at least do not have to actually stand there for ages watering all summer.
It is incredibly dry here already and we have had to stop weeding. The top surface dries to a crust and you can't dig it. You end up snapping tops of weeds leaving the roots to regrow.  Instead we have endless hours of setting up bird protection on brassicas. Canes, net, string, wire ground hoops to hold it down. Now we have to wait for a windy spell to see if we have made it strong enough.
The water bottles rattle in even a gentle breeze and do seem to put off some birds. The nearest net is a plastic mesh meant for pond covering and in this configuration makes a whistling, howling, sound in a direct breeze which is off putting to me at least!

For the fruit we thought we would try these "fruit cage ball connectors for every size cane". Totally useless in our opinion unless there is some trick that is not obvious (no instructions came with the things!).
They only work with 10 to 12 mm canes and anything less than 8mm just fell out.. We really need 15mm strong canes due to the open nature and we needed some height too. Also bamboo canes are not uniform so you end up chopping up canes to find the right lengths and diameters to go in the connecting holes. After 20 canes we found a hacksaw gave a clean cut as long as the second person kept up steady pressure and pulled gently away as the cut went through. We ended up reinforcing uprights with an extra cane, tied on with string, and will probably put in supporting diagonals as well.

Bit more work to do on fruit cages (blackcurrants, blueberries and Tay berries) as we want to get ahead on this task. Last year we were busy as the fruit ripened and lost out to the birds.  Raspberries and gooseberries will have to take their chances and I will throw something loose over the strawberries outside as they ripen.

I am trying out a new bird scary thing.
Not scary at all?
Inspired by "tin art" on Pin interest. A bean can (washed), with wings etc made from those woven plastic straps that come round parcels. The tin was slit with a knife and the straps fastened with an ordinary stapler inside. The eyes come in a pack of 20 for £1 from The Works and have been stuck on with UHU glue.  The eyes are a bit too big, they sort of overlap, so we will have to see if they survive rain and wind (when we get some).   I have some more cans and straps and may paint them in bright colours.

 OK - back to work. Want to put in some peas but need to out fox the mice!  But |I will pause to admire this wonderful Spiraea and the wallflowers on the way.



Wednesday 5 April 2017

First swallow

When pointed out one swooping next door to husband he responded "Don't get excited; one swallow doth  not a summer make". I was able to answer - "That's OK them , I saw two yesterday!"

Image result for swallow bird

By coincidence I picked up a second hand copy of Swallows and Amazon's yesterday in the charity shop -  I am just missing the Big Six now. Loved these books since I was 10!



Monday 3 April 2017

Thief

Caught you at it !
Not sure if it took advantage of a high wind knocking the feeder down or used it rather fat body to pull it down - but it got half a container's worth!

Gosh - that lawn needs cutting - still waiting on the bits for the lawnmower!

First taste of asparagus

First two spears!
Fried with a little smoked bacon in olive oil and butter and served with salad for lunch - Lovely.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Two steps backwards and one step forward

One of those weeks.

Backwards
Broke the mobile phone. Husband spent two afternoons sourcing a very cheap simple phone, then a SIM card and then all the faff of making it all work. I suffer from sort of deep seated fear when the thing goes pear shape and run away. Brain just freezes and I panic. I think I need a 7 to 10  year old to help. Visiting grand daughters tomorrow so hope they can help us out!

Backwards
Broke the lawn mower. Husband spent another two afternoons sourcing spark plug and tool, Then he went to start mower to try to put it away and it went fine!  Dare not stop it and ran quickly over the worst bits before the next cough and stutter and stop.

Forwards
I have waited two years + to improve our washing line. Its been strung from short pole and fence in the house shadow among the bushes and threatening to garotte people on the way to the cabin.  I found an old metal pole in a corner over the winter and painted it with black hammerlite.  Then, after doing some work elsewhere, my husband had a bit of cement left over and ballast so put it up in the lawn alongside the path. Can't wait to re-string it and get the washing out in the full sunshine!  Somewhere in the old boat stuff is a spare pulley we can use.


Good tip.  We often have about a quarter or third of a cement bag left over and in the past have wasted this as it has to be stored dry and goes off after a few months. The other day we found an a large plastic container with lid  (ex-bird food) and slide the spare cement in. It was dry, safe and was not going to make noxious dust in the shed! Also it was there ready for the next small job.

A wonder if we can get through next week without feeling we are going backwards in life?