The end of January

So here we are in the middle of winter and it is cold, as it should be!  

Normal sort of week, just working, cleaning and shopping.  On Thursday evening I hosted our WI cake club on Zoom.  This subgroup is normally held in a back room of a pub and everyone gets to try each others cake, but in Covid times this is held on Zoom with no chance of tasting.  The theme for this month was healthy treat, two ladies made flapjack, one a fruit cake and another a banana loaf.  As I am trying to be extra healthy I did not make anything apart from a bowl of popcorn.  On Friday I met my friend and here dog and went for a walk, which was good, but we didn't go too far as she can only manage 1 hour walking due to her health, but it was good to chat with someone.

Saturday was absolutely freezing cold, it rained and sleeted all day, so apart from a quick dash to the market I stayed in all day and spent sometime watching the birds from my window.  This weekend is the Big garden Birdwatch, counting how many birds you observe in one hour and then upload to the RSPB website

 

I topped up the feeders, grabbed my binoculars and a cup of coffee and watched.  During the hour I saw loads of starlings, some long tailed tits, a blue tit, some green finches, a crow and couple of pigeons, blackbirds and two Magpies

Here is a photo taken from the RSBP webiste of some longtailed tits, they looked exactly like this from my window, but with only a phone camera I couldn't get a good photo!

 

Today started bright and sunny so headed out to the greenhouse to sow some seeds: 

Onions - Long Red Florence, Bedfordshire Champion, Isobel Rose, which I grew last year, lovely pink onions, and some from seed I saved last year, but don't know the variety.

Peppers: Sweet Banana and Corbaci, Chilli Pepper - Eureka

Leeks - Carantan 2

Aubergines- Striped Toga, tried to grow these last year, but only produced tiny fruits, trying again this year

Herbs - Greek oregano, parsley, Corriander and Chervil, all old seed, will see if they germinate

Flowers: Orlaya Grandiflora white Lace

All these seeds are now on a warm window sill in the house, until they germinate

I pricked out some flower seedlings that I had sown in the autumn - Larkspur, Veronika and Rudbekia, all into modules in the green house .

Found some more bulbs that I had forgotten to pot, so popped these into pots in the green house - dwarf daffodils and some pink tulips

I also set the potato seeds out in trays to chit, these are in the porch, the coolest part of the house.

Finished week two of Caroline Girvans Epic 2 workouts, and lost another pound, which is great.

 

New boots and potatoes

Not a singe flake of snow here, but from looking at Instagram it seems everyone else in the country had loads.  It was very cold today with a hard frost this morning, not a day for walking or allotmenting so headed into town to do some shopping.

I have only had my walking boots for around one year, thought they were fine when I got them, but soon found out they were just too small.  After about 4 miles my feet really began to hurt especially my toes, so before we walk another step I needed to get new boots.  We watched some really interesting You Tube videos last night on how to choose outdoor clothes and boots.  I checked that Go Outdoors was open, the website said for essential items only and these were essential!

 After much deliberation, walking up and down and up and down the little bridge I chose these very soft and squidgy Peter Storm boots.

Wearing them in

After watching all the videos last night, I also ordered some walking socks, a rain coat or Outer Shell jacket and a waterproof fleece jacket.  Can't wait to get all my new kit and go out for a walk..  Have a couple to local walks along the Stour and Orwell Path to do, so will spend a little time with my map and plan them out this week and hope for a dry weekend ,

While we were out we popped over to Dean's Nursery in Great Bromley to get the seed potatoes for the allotment.  We have been buying them from this nursery for a few years as they sell them by weight and you can buy as many as you need, which is great as none go to waste.

 Last year we left it too late and had to order online, so was determined to get there on time this year.  We chose Aaron Pilot - enough for one row and two rows of Maris Bard, these are both earlies.  One row of Salad potatoes - Charlottes, these always do well on our plot and are great for potato salad and having with BBQ's.  For main crop we have Sarpo Mira - great for big baking potatoes, Sentanta -  again big potatoes and blight resistant and a new one to try - Orla, the pack says good for growing organically, which we do.  I will get them out and lay them on trays to start chitting soon.   

Next job is to sort through all my seeds, see what we have over and make a plan of what is needed and then get things ordered.  Hope to do that this week as the onions, leeks, peppers, chillis and aubergines really do need sowing now

 

GOOD FRIDAY

A bright, warm and sunny start to the bank holiday weekend, makes a change!
We spent the morning at the allotment. Things are beginning to grow.  Tiny little gooseberries cover the bushes, can't wait for them to grow.
Started a new strawberry patch this year and it is looking good, lots of flowers already, won't be long until we are picking them.  I put some straw around them before they get any bigger.
The first row of peas has flowers on them, the second row are not far behind.
I picked some sprouting broccoli, the first rhubarb and radishes. Also pulled some leeks. The rhubarb will be made into a cake!
I love having breakfast there. We had toasted hot cross buns and tea - delicious!

Peas

Just realised that this will be our 5th summer at our allotment. We are just getting the hang of things, sometimes it is successful and others not quite so good!
One thing we love to grow are peas! Frozen ones are fine, but nothing like ones straight from the pod at the allotment.  we usually share the first pod one or two peas each! 
I would like to try and gave a regular supply of peas all summer, so need to sow a new row every few weeks.
I sowed some seeds in guttering in the greenhouse about a month ago by last weekend the plants were about 6 cm tall and time to plant them out. The gutter is great, just dig a shallow trench hold it up and gently shake! The plants sort of slide out and just need firming in! A quick water and hey presto all done. As it is still a bit chilly I covered them with a fleece cloche.
Next step will be to put a net up for the peas to grow up.
One year I saved 5 pounds of pea pods (freezing them as I got them) to make pea pod wine. This year the pods will go on the compost heap!

25, 12th night and a couple of pounds of carrots

I can't believe that she is 25! Already!  Where did that time go? Does not seem that long ago that I spent Christmas waiting for her to arrive!

 Happy Birthday Alice!

She was quite impressed that I had found some Miffy wrapping paper.  Not sure that we wanted to eat any more cake as we had so much at Christmas, so instead I made Macaroons.  That were a bit of a faff, as I made 3 colours, but for a first attempt not too bad.  They looked like macaroons and tasted like macaroons, but each one was a different size!  I must learn to control the piping bag better.

 This is my Amaryllis bulb after one week of growing!  I was very pleased to be given this for Christmas and hope it continues to grow.

 Can it really be 5 weeks since the decorations came down from the loft?  We ate our dinner from the Reindeer plates for one last time last night and now everything is packed up and back in the loft..............until next December.....

 A quick walk to our lovely allotment this afternoon, it is looking well.  All the beds not in use are dug over and manured.

Still some brussell sprouts to pick.

The leeks are beginning to grow, I don't seem to have much luck with them, perhaps this year will be better.

But what has done well is carrots!  We have had loads and pulled up these today.  Will use them to make some parsnip and carrot soup.

 

Harvest time

The weather forecast for this weekend was warm and sunny, perfect for harvesting the potatoes.  Today turned out not to be that sunny,but it was warm and dry.  We were at the allotment early and dug up all the potatoes and laid them out to dry off.  I love digging up potatoes, you never know what is growing under the earth.  Under some where some huge ones and others just a few. Also picked a small handful of French beans, a couple of courgettes and some sunflowers.

Basil popped his head over the fence and wondered if we would like some field mushrooms that he had just picked -"lovely" I said! " We eat them on toast with Worcestershire sauce" he said.  "Lovely" I said"

Later, Godfrey, the allotment manager came along.  "I hear you make wine?"  He said, "oh yes" I replied.  "Do you want some Damsons?"   He said.  "Lovely". I said.  An hour later he turned up with a carrier bag with 5 pounds of Damsons.

I have just spent an hour chopping them up and removing the stones, a bit of a fiddly job!

Have to boil them up, then strain onto the sugar and add some yeast.  Stir daily for 3 days and then pop into a Demi-John and let it bubble away until all the sugar is turned into alcohol.  Then leave it to mature for a few months, it will probably be ready to drink this time next year.  

Must remember to give Godfrey a bottle if I want any more Damsons from him!

Later we went back to the allotment. For a moment we wondered if the potatoes would still be there or had someone taken them?  They were fine, just as we had left them.  Sorted them into bags, those to store and any damaged ones to eat first.   Well it turned out to be a good harvest - 3 bags!  Not sure that they will see us through the winter, we will see!

Picked some flowers too - chrysanthemums.

Autumn show

It's not quite Autumn here yet, but yesterday was our Horticultural Societies Autumn show.  It is quite a small show, with only and handful of entries in each class, but I enjoy all the preparation -  the growing - the making - the cooking.  
Some things have been over a year in the making such as the wine and others are very last minute like the Victoria sandwich and the flowers, which need to be made or picked early in the morning.

 I have had a plan for the week running up to the show. Firstly I had to choose and and order my photos 

Four categories here, My 4 legged friend, Trees, The seashore and A special event, my photos of the Olympics won a 2nd prize.

 Next the wine needs to be tasted, re-bottled and labelled. I entered 4 bottles, white dry, white sweet, red dry and a rose and won a 1st, 2nd and 3rd!

Have been working on the handicraft entries over the year, this knitted fair isle jumper for a child won 3rd prize.

I am quite proud of this appliqued and quilted tea cosy, especially as it came 1st!

The worst thing in the whole show is a dressed doll.  So old fashioned and really not my thing at all.  I found a really complicated pattern with a very difficult lace pattern, knitted on thin needles and 4 ply wool, but it only got 2nd prize.  I was a little disappointed.  I have no idea what to do with this now, who on earth would want it?  I won't be entering this again.

Gave the pot plants a wash and brush up.  Wiped over the pot and cleaned the leaves - made all the difference my lovely Aloe Vera won 1st prize.

 We grow lots of raspberries on the allotment and I made some jam earlier in the summer, this also won 1st prize.  Last week I made some very red beetroot chutney - 2nd prize.

No luck with the rest of my cooking. Alice beat me with her Victoria Sandwich, she was very happy to get the 1st, but neither of us got anything for the banana cake and both our savoury biscuits were "a bit dry"!!!

A basket of veg, all picked from the allotement.  1st prize for some Cavalo de Nero kale, carrots, beetroot, peas, lettuce, spring onions, courgettes, cucumber and tomatoes - Wow!  Of course can't take all the credit for this one, Mr HH does the hard work  -all the digging, composting and watering!

 There are two types of flowers that can be entered, one is called decorative, which is proper flower arranging with bought flowers which I cannot do and the other is homegrown flowers which I can do.  These are my ten stems of garden flowers (no prize!)

 

and a vase of annuals - came 2nd with these, mainly marigolds and cosmos.

Here I am with my Anniversary Class entry.  This one has 4 items, a vase of homegrown flowers (more sunflowers) a pot plant, handicraft (knitted socks) and a cake (cupcakes)

Phew!  I did enjoy that!  Time to start thinking about planting some bulbs for the spring show!

 

Phew! What a scorcher!

Phew! It's been hot this week, but I am not moaning!  After 10 months of cold, cloud and rain we should all be happy.  At the Horticultural meeting the other night the chairman said we could do with some rain - huh?  not yet thank you!!

This week I have been:

Baking hot!

Working in the baking hot heat!

Visiting the allotment and admiring these beautiful Sweet peas.  The seeds were from Sarah Raven and they are doing very well.

 They smell lovely too!   I have three jugs full of them.

I have picked pounds of strawberries 

And made this very retro flan.  The base is shop bought (oh horrors!) mash up a load of strawberries ( the not so good ones) in some sugar and lay over the base, then place some strawberries (the good ones) decoratively on the top.  Cover with a Greens quick gel, from a packet (more oh horrors!)  leave to get a soggy bottom and enjoy!  It's Mr HH's favourite!!!

Also made some Rhubarb and Strawberry cordial, delicious with some fizzy water.

Picked lots of veg - peas, french beans and the first courgettes

We opened the window and let some air in.  Lost the key some months ago, and we were sure it would turn up during the "great kitchen make-over", but it hasn't and this week I have been trying to work in this heat with it shut. That's it I announced, I am going to call a man in to replace the lock.  Mr HH disappeared into the garage this morning and I heard lots of grinding sounds.  You would never guess, but he had made a new key out of an old one and proudly opened the window and shut the window and opened the window and shut the window.............
He has added locksmith to his list of skills!  


But best of all...

We had a home grown dinner - potatoes, peas, carrots, french beans and kale- so proud!

Tonights harvest

Popped to the allotment this evening, it was very quiet and peaceful there.  Someone over the way was having a bonfire and I could hear it crackling.  Bees were buzzing on the raspberries.  I didn't stay long just picked a few things and had a wander around.  Noticed that there is a pumpkin growing about the size of a golf ball at the moment and the courgettes will be ready soon.
This is what I picked

Strawberries, raspberries, sweetpeas, broccoli, french beans, dill and two pea pods!

Happy Sunday

Had a happy weekend ending this evening with a visit to the allotment and picked these flowers
 
Chives, ladies mantle and the white ones are either campion or comfrey I am not sure.  They do look pretty in this jug on my new table cloth.

This morning had a lovely skype chat with my 7 month old nephew, my sister and Alice who is staying with them for a couple of weeks.  She is travelling her way home from Russia via China and Hong Kong.  Only 18 days until she is home can't wait to see her - it's been almost 6 months. 
This was followed by a phone call from my Mum, good to catch up with her too.

Then popped into Ipswich for a bit of retail therapy!  Wanted to get some summer tops - I am ever hopeful!  Well the sun has shone today and I could even say that this afternoon was quite warm