2007 May | The Cottage Smallholder

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Self Publishing

If you love books you may have considered writing one yourself. Perhaps you have written a book and have had it rejected. If the latter is the case you are one of many disheartened writers and are probably wondering what you should do next. Did you know that eminent writers such as Rudyard Kipling, Lord Byron, Virginia Wolf, D H Lawrence, Robbie Burns, Beatrix Potter and many others were self published authors? Recently Danny came into contact with George M Talbot, author of Dark Glass Pt 1. D thought it a great read and says: "Dark Glass Pt 1...

Great Uncle Frank's tip for broad beans: don't throw away the tops of this delicate vegetable

Postedin Vegetables, Vegetarian | 8 comments

My great grandparents took their chances in the California gold rush. It didn't work out and they saw their four children die of scarlet fever. They returned to England and had four more children. Three girls and a boy. Those four children would have been extra special. Boys were best in those days as they carried on the family name. My Great Uncle Frank was the one and only boy. He contracted consumption (tuberculosis). His mother was told that he wouldn't live beyond 21. She didn't tell him. At twenty and 10 months he announced that he...

Guest spot: In praise of the Aga by Chris Nelms

Postedin Kitchen equipment | 29 comments

Chris and Louise live in Wiltshire and are proud possessors of an Aga. We don't have one, sadly, and are extremely envious. An Aga tends to be the hub of most happy houses that we visit. Our long term plans are to install one. When Chris wrote to me and described making friends with his Aga, I knew that it would be of interest. Danny, a romantic, has dubbed it a love story. Guest spot: In praise of the Aga by Chris Nelms Louise and I were fortunate to inherit a nearly new four-oven oil-burning Aga when we bought this house. We had no...

Logs

Postedin Discoveries | 0 comments

A few years ago I was looking for a decent source of logs for the winter and someone pointed me in the direction of Tuddenham woods and John Grundy, the exceptional man who owns and manages them. He has owned the woods for quite some time. It's a beautiful place and a sanctuary for the horses that he has rescued over the years. He sells the logs to pay for their maintenance. At the end of a long drive you will come to a clearing with a number of small barns and sheds, stables and paddocks in a rackety sort of order. Most buildings are clearly...

Easy rack of lamb baked in a tasty sweet savoury sauce recipe

Postedin Lamb | 9 comments

Fred's racks of lamb are always chubby, tender and a real treat. Yesterday I drove back from Essex to find Danny creating a new sauce for a chunky rack. We like to make our sauces in the same pan as the roasting meat. If we get the ingredients right it's a lazy way to make a sauce and sometimes the sauce also tenderises the meat. This sauce has soul. It was a treat at the end of a long day. Combined with spinach and creamed potatoes (champ) it was superb. If you prefer a thick sauce, a little corn flour or potato flour could be added while the...

The Bower

Postedin General care | 4 comments

Last year I decided to work on our main herbaceous border. I planted it when I first came to the cottage many years ago. It is quite a big border, roughly 12 feet deep (4 metres) x 33 feet long (11 metres). It started off as 5 x 33 feet and gradually increased in depth for the first five years. I didn't have a master plan as I knew so little about gardening at the time. I just bunged in stuff that I liked. Every year I planned to do something about it but never had the time. So I made a start. The border is south facing with sun until mid...

Blogs worth visiting: Writing at the Kitchen Table

Postedin Reviews, Savoury Tarts and Quiches | 9 comments

We've had rather a gruelling time recently. Just wall to wall work plus projects, blog and garden. It's very easy to get things out of proportion. I found myself driving down to Essex, gripping the steering wheel and fretting about not getting all my seeds in on time. So I earmarked Sunday to catch up. Not with a frenzy of seed planting but a lazy long morning in bed with the Min Pins and the laptop. I find that catching up on relaxing is often the best answer for stress. Somehow, miraculously, everything falls into place. So what if we are...

Adapting your watering system

Postedin Watering | 2 comments

My Bee Mentor, Mike, is a dinger. When I mentioned the automatic watering system that we have here, he finally agreed to come for lunch. Mike and his wife, Brenda, examined my system and asked hundreds of questions. They rang me a week later. They had not ordered the components online. They had actually driven to the Garden Systems store, talked to the people there and bought the perfect system for their garden. I now know that if you want to water your garden efficiently and well, you need to think about your garden's needs and also talk to...