Micro herbs can make every recipe look and probably taste wonderful
“Have you heard of micro herbs?” My friend Jo shook her head. She eats out far more than me so I was amazed that she hadn’t come across them. Between you and I Jo usually knows/has heard of everything that I ‘discover’ so I was thrilled. Finally I had something really valuable to share. I had my first taste of micro herbs at The Three Horseshoes on Mother’s day. A small teased ball of baby herbs was served as a garnish on the corned duck. Very pretty and dainty but I didn’t expect them to taste of anything until I sampled...
read moreDivide and conquer. Well actually wrecking to rebuild the same!
Next week two square metres of rich Fenland soil is being delivered from Madingley Mulch. Some of this will fill a couple of new raised beds that we are going to set in front of the cottage. The rest will be a tonic for a particularly stony and dry herbaceous border. I bartered decorating work for the raised bed wood about two years ago. The wood is substantial – roofing joists from years ago when wood was a very different animal than wood is today. I also acquired some oak stakes at the same time to keep everything in place. I...
read moreYou still have time to make an Easter Tree!
Some years we skip having a Christmas tree but we always have a living Easter tree, since we were introduced to them a few years ago. An Easter tree is such a vibrant symbol of new life and hope for the forthcoming year. An Easter tree can be made from anything. Wire coat hangers, twiddly twisted willow branches even a pieces of string slung across a wall. The main point is to create something where you can hang things that are special to you. In fact, until I discovered that you could have a living Easter tree – I’d spotted carved...
read moreI fell in love with tamarillos on Mothering Sunday
We haven’t been out to eat for ages so we decided to take my mum to one of her favourite restaurants – The Three Horseshoes, in Madingley. The food is very good, the service friendly and it’s a real treat to visit. Of course, on special occasions, it’s a set menu. Having rather overindulged on the delicious home made bread as we ordered, I could hardly totter away from the table. Supper is definitely not on the cards tonight. The cheese course is always superb but felling a bit full I plumped for the yoghurt panna cotta with...
read moreRecycle your shredded shrubs into deep chicken litter
Since I started keeping chickens I’ve always used gravel in the 30’ x 6’ run. Gravel provides drainage – when it rains the chicken poo is washed away. If it doesn’t rain you can turn over the gravel and, if you are energetic, worms appear. Special treats for the chickens. Six bags just cover the run. Applied four times yearly, you are looking at quite a sizable bill. At least £36 for just one a spread. If you don’t buy something to raise and aerate the ground the chickens are standing in foul mud. Diseases increase. And what...
read moreFlowers in the garden: early April
I used to write a regular post – flowers from the garden. In fact I think that I’ll resurrect it this year as I’m constantly being tempted by supermarket bunches ATM. I haven’t succumbed (hands held tightly behind my back) but I need to fill our house with our own flowers to quell this yearning. And these posts helped. The problem is that the border I created over a number of months last year is now so gorgeous that I can’t bear to pick the flowers. I stand in the drive, at the kitchen window, peep out of my bedroom window and just...
read moreFrogspawn but far less frogs in the pond
I think that my big pond cleanout in February may have rattled the frogs. Usually their annual bacchanal starts by mid March. Even though there have been a few frogs in the pond, there were loads of hopeful croaks but no frogspawn. “Perhaps they are all the same sex.” I mused. Last weekend when I was visiting TCL and S they proudly showed off their frogspawn. I was gutted. Why hadn’t I got some too? But this morning the pond had frogspawn, in different areas than usual but loads of it. I’m delighted. But instead of the forty or so...
read more1500 posts and still running strong
This is my 1500th post! A bit of a milestone for me. When Danny installed the WordPress software on my web site and said, “Over to you…” I had no idea that I’d eventually find myself here. Looking back I don’t really know what I thought I was doing. Initially it was an exercise to build up my writing skills. Being a painter and decorator at the time was fascinating, people wise, but the work was not even in the shanty towns of brain expanding territory. That’s after I’d discovered how to negotiate a high ladder and tentatively...
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