Last day
“Hello. This is John. I’ll talk to you later” John Coe isn’t keen on ansaphones. I dialled his number and his wife Maureen answered. “John isn’t coming today. His knees have given up. But he’ll be with you next week for sure.” “Only if he’s feeling 100% better. Meanwhile we’ll mow and hoe so he doesn’t come back to a jungle.” I had a sense that this might be the beginning of the end. On Sunday we beavered away. Danny mowed the lawns whilst I hoed the kitchen garden. John is so quick and efficient. He has worked for...
read moreFlowers from the garden: July 2009
With all the palaver of sick laptops and not being well lately, I missed flowers from the garden for June. So I’ve jumped in early this July. Things are turning around quickly in the herbaceous borders now. The rain has tempted more flowers to open and shine but most of the June roses and lupins have taken their final bow. I oiled my secateurs before I stepped out this morning and dead headed for half an hour. I picked this little posy of frothy cottage flowers when I had finished. As always, they lit up the kitchen in a way that bought...
read moreJoanna’s food: Lemony courgette salad recipe review
I harvested our first courgette of the year this morning. We have several courgette plants growing in large pots and a few scattered at the corners of borders in the kitchen garden. I’m not very keen on courgettes per se but have discovered that they are great added to a slow cooked spaghetti sauce or the filling for a Cottage or Shepherd’s pie. So this year we are growing them in earnest. They can be blanched/cooked and frozen for use during the winter months. Courgettes are quite pricey so we’re longing for a glut. I have been planning...
read moreFinally I’m back with a slinky shiny silver beast
Danny has bought me a new notebook. 50 birthday presents rolled into one. My new friend is slim, silver and finally rearing to go. Most of today was spent creating restore disks and updating windows Vista. Finally we are up and running and shaking off the dew that Microsoft probably sprinkles when a new user has just completed the set up. I can now read the weather forecast online. Essential for those working out doors. And review the changes that D has made to the website. And check my emails without asking, “Could I borrow your laptop...
read moreMixed soft fruit vodka liqueur recipe. Harlequin grog.
Tiny hands clapped with glee when we surveyed our potential black, red and white currant harvest back in the spring. The gooseberries looked promising too. “We can make loads of schnapps and finally our own red currant jelly. This year I’ll make some gooseberry sauce for Christmas and some gooseberry vodka with the dessert gooseberries.” “The gooseberry vodka didn’t last long. When you made it last year.” “I only had a couple of shot glasses. This year I’m going to hide it away.” The sawfly must have been...
read moreHarvesting garlic without the Delphic Oracle
The new laptop was sent to Cardiff by mistake. It should have arrived today. At least it will have toured some of the UK before we receive it on Monday and it enters a life with little rest. Meanwhile I have harvested our garlic. I bought three succulent heads from The Garlic Farm (Isle of Wight). The company was showing at Hampton Court last summer. I dried the heads in our airy greenhouse and planted the cloves in our sunniest spot in late September. Apparently the winter frosts encourage better growth. I need to keep a gardening diary...
read moreNew life and hazards
Today I was creeping gingerly up a roof to paint a gable. I looked up and spotted a collared dove sitting on a slim nest of twigs. If she was comfortable at this height why not me? I sat on the ridge and surveyed the view. A duck hatched out eleven ducklings yesterday and the brood were having fun on the pond. The moorhen’s chicks are growing fast. Unlike the ducklings they are kept well away in the reeds so seeing them is rare. But she still has three. After school three young lads (about ten years old) appeared by the pond with a fishing...
read moreUpdates
I love this time of year. I watched a pair of butterflies canoodling for ten minutes this afternoon. Settling on the grass and then opening their wings for each other. If I had wings that beautiful, I think that I’d have opened mine too. They fluttered about the garden in between the wing displays, beautiful and intimate creatures on a mission. Meanwhile I had been getting acquainted with giant spiders. The higher you climb on a ladder propped against a house, the bigger the spiders you meet. At the apex of the barge boards I met a giant. It...
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