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.

 

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!

Frogs

We have a small wildlife pond in the garden. A few frogs live in it, once I saw a newt!
On Monday we noticed some frog spawn and then loads more on Tuesday. Spotted 4 frogs

This is the earliest they have spawned since records began (my own records!!!) last year when March was absolutely freezing and spring was very late it didn't happen until 18th April around 4 weeks later than normal.
Funny - our weather!

An excellent weekend

Oh no he didn't!  Oh yes he did!  Panto time!

 And I nearly didn't make it. On Friday evening as I drove to the end of my road I noticed that there was an enormous traffic jam (we don't get many as we live in the countryside) but realised that I was not going to get to Colchester the normal way. Took a detour through some lanes and hit the traffic jam from the opposite direction, so took the "long cut".  This took me about 20 minutes longer than I expected and arrived at the theatre with a 5 minutes to spare!  I found out after that a lorry had overturned on the A12, closing the road, this means that traffic diverts through the country lanes near us, but there was another accident on this route and it seems the whole of North Essex was at a standstill.
I joined the others from the WIGS (WI girls) at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester for a fabulous production of Sleeping Beauty.  What fun it was!  lots of singing, dancing, silly jokes, being squirted with water and an ice cream tub in the interval.

Saturday was a lovely bright and sunny day, popped to the market to stock up on fruit and veg and came home to get out in the garden.
 Picked up this lovely pot of daffodils for just £1.

I let the chickens into the greenhouse and they had a lovely time dust bathing - rolling around in the dry earth working it into their feathers.  They then stand up and have a good shake and cover me in dust!  They must have loved it as Sunday they laid two eggs.  Have been having one or none most days.  I don't think that Marjorie is laying though, I have had words with her.

 Time to start sowing some seeds. I love sweetpeas and try and grow lots on the allotment.  I am starting them off in the cold greenhouse now, in pots.  Sowed some mixed winter salad leaves in a big pot.  In theory you should be able to grow lettuce all year round and not have to buy those expensive bags from the supermarket, but I have yet to achieve this.  Perhaps that should have been my resolution this year  - to grow all my own lettuce!
Leek seeds in the greenhouse, onions and lavender in the airing cupboard - just got to wait and see now.....................  I will let you know if anything grows.

 Just one week after Alice's birthday it was Jared's turn.  His birthday was on Friday, but he had had exams this week and decided to stay at Uni and have  a party with all his friends.  He came home of Saturday and of course I made him a cake  - chocolate sponge (made with eggs from the girls) filled with cream (found half a pot in the freezer) blackcurrent jelly ( a Christmas present from a friend) topped with buttercream (left over from Alice's cake) and decorated with half a packet of chocolate buttons (left over from the gingerbread house).
Yes I am on a mission to use up all the bits and pieces in the cupboards and freezer.  Just shopping for things as I need them - I wonder how long I can go before I need to do a "big shop"?

Sunday was spent cleaning the house, doing my household accounts, a bit of crochet and finished by watching the darts final and Sherlock  -excellent weekend!

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!

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

May Scavenger hunt

Well May has flown by and time to post my scavenger hunt pictures.  Decided to try and get them all from my visit to The Chelsea Flower Show, didn't quite get them all, but here we go...................


Train track LINES on the journey to London

We took the bus from Liverpool Street to Chelsea and went along Fleet Street EC4

Along the route we saw this CONSTRUCTION site.  It always amazes me that there is anywhere left to develop in the centre of London

The bus went along Whitehall and this is the SKYLINE that we saw - The Palace of Westminster and The Elizabeth Tower which houses Big Ben

This Chelsea Pensioner is SOMETHING PATRIOTIC he was happy to have his photo taken by the visitors to the show.

This is the MAP of the showground, we needed it to find our way around, it is a very big event.

Loved this DOOR which was part of one of the trade stands selling stone arches, probably to make your garden look like it has been there for years

i am not sure what these AQUA coloured flowers are called but they looked amazing in the Great Pavillion

WASHING hung out to dry - just wanted to show off my new tea towels from Next!

Everytime I dig on my allotment I find BROKEN glass.  I collect it in this bucket, luckily we haven't been cut by any.  I have no idea why there is so much.

Can you guess what this KEY opens?

The George Cross FLAG fluttering outside our local florist.

Well that is it for this month, off to look a the list for June.  I love seeing what people from other countries have come up with and also photos of familiar places locally.  Take a look at the others Here