Bottom of the pecking order
Barbie has finally tumbled to the bottom of the pecking order. The chicken that holds this place is the one that does not fight back when pecked. Mrs Boss languished there for four years but has found new status since she has hatched out five guinea fowl keets. She has her own coterie and doesn’t need the companionship of the other hens. They, on the other hand, want to be around Mrs Boss. Perhaps they have heard the cluck that she is now the heroine of two movies on YouTube. Barbie has always been a pretty bantam. She is noticeable as...
read moreTomato harvest
I have been bewailing my fate on the comments section of our first tomato blight post . I can’t find organic remedies for tomato blight or sterilising the greenhouse (soil and general environment) or the soil in the kitchen garden. If we have a cold winter with a decent length of hard frosts, the soil in the kitchen garden should be OK as the spores are killed by prolonged frosty weather (But how long is prolonged?). Then peter m gave us the link to a great site with organic treatments for vegetables. I can’t wait to try them on...
read moreDog days
I reckon that there must be a few dogs in my ancestry as most dogs get along with me, even the difficult ones with a history of biting tradesmen. Dashit had made an impression on the inspection visit. His owner holding him firmly by the collar as he roared and growled at me. After a vociferous struggle he was closeted in a separate room. It was clear from the thumps on the door that he didn’t like it. The job looked fine, wallpapering a hunting scene in a mirrored bedroom. I wasn’t so sure about Dashit. “Dashit, might growl...
read moreCheat’s pork meatballs with tagliatelle
A few years ago, one of the Sunday papers had a weekly column “How to Cheat at Cooking”. Canny recipes created by Delia Smith. Danny and I loved trying these. They introduced us to new ingredients and showed us how to cut corners. They encouraged us to experiment and become a bit more relaxed about all our cooking. After a while we lost interest as we were striving to cook everything from scratch. Great if you are home early. If you totter in at eight, scratch cooking means that you could well be eating at ten. As we have found to...
read moreBlack Monday: Box Blight
Every now and then my sister Sara and I treat ourselves to a deluxe garden tour. I don’t know how we discovered Border Lines but found that we liked them. The tours suited us. Every now and then when we are feeling flush, we embark on another adventure. The best garden tours seem pricey but having visited three amazing gardens in one day and enjoyed an excellent lunch, the Border Lines tours seem wonderful value. The memories stay with you for years afterwards. We first started garden touring about fifteen years ago. A high points were...
read moreGilbert’s blackberry whisky recipe
If it wasn’t for the fact that he was wearing his battered panama, Jalopy and I would have not noticed Gilbert. He was wearing some sort of camouflage fatigues and carrying a bucket. Curious, we drew to a halt beside him and he swept off his hat with a magnificent bow. “I suppose you want to know what I am foraging for.” He tipped the bucket towards Jalopy’s open window. It was full of large, succulent blackberries. Actually, I was far more curious about the fatigues. “Ah!” He lowered his voice to a whisper,...
read moreBindweed
The long period of rain and a few weekends working has given the bindweed the sort of break that it needs to really romp. In fact some more remote parts of the garden it looks as if we are deliberately cultivating the weed. We have most varieties from the dinky miniature columbine to the Jack and the Beanstalk sized plants that can smother a shrub in days and have to be attacked with secateurs. I hate bindweed. The appearance of the pretty bell shaped flowers flags the need to grab a small machete and act immediately. If the bindweed goes to...
read moreIt’s awards day at Cottage Smallholder
Over the past month I’ve been delighted to receive some blogging awards. I had wondered how bloggers got awards and discovered that they are given by other bloggers. If you are lucky to receive an award you are then able to pass the award on to others. Each of the awards came at just the right moment for me. We have been going through a pretty difficult phase, just wall to wall work and stress with very little time for fun. So each of the awards was a wonderful surprise that buoyed me up enormously. Now it is time to pass these awards...
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