(Trumpet sound) Last Post!!

Hello.

This will probably be my last post, see what I did there? before we go away.

There isn't a lot of sowing going on at the moment;  I don't want to leave lots of things for our very kind neighbours to look after than necessary. However there is some growing going on therefore this is a bit of an update prior to us going away to see where we will be up to at the end of this month.

At the front of the house the sweet peas I planted have just come into flower which is lovely for when people stop to buy the eggs. 

I was thinking it was a shame that the small bed in front of the Poly House was looking a bit empty but didn't have room for much to go in it so from this.....

 to this, looking quite healthy.














I planted some carrots in a container, can't remember when, and decided to take them up the other day to have them for tea.

I was chuffed that we could eat both our carrots and our own cabbage.

I mentioned the other day to Tracey that I was "baking for the tin" and thought I would share the recipes I used,and use a lot. Jon loves a cut-and-come-again fruit cake I bake; it comes from this Baking bible which has a tonne of useful recipes in.

Here is the cake recipe. I switch it up a little depending if I have everything it asks for on the shelf.(If you enlarge it you should be able to see it better!)

The method goes as follows;

The second thing I baked were these.

What makes these yummy, even though they don't quite look the same as the photo, is the cinnamon and sugar sprinkle you put on the top just before they go in the oven.

Here are the two finished articles.

In the Poly House I have some rather quirky shaped tomatoes growing.

Nothing has turned red yet, hope there will be a transformation on our return. To be honest I am rather nervous about being away. I have great neighbours who are going to water and look after things for me. However it means I cannot pick and weigh stuff, so keeping an eye on the harvests as it is too much to ask them to do this. I have told them to take whatever they want from the garden whilst we are away and they are going to sell the eggs for us, too, taking what they need from there, too. I just can't bear the thought of things going to waste, over ripening and spoiling etc but there really is nothing I can do about it. Rant over!

Here is my sweetcorn and carrot bed. There should be cobs when we get back as no sign of anything as yet;  the carrots are coming on well, though.

 

This is a tyre hosting the squash at the bottom and climbing beans up the tripod. No beans off this as sown later than the climbing peas so hopefully harvest will occur some time after we come home.

Finally from the garden I have Swiss chard in the dehydrator. I tried some with my lunch the other day and admit I didn't like it. Sooo, taking a leaf out of Tracey's book I decided to dry it to keep for putting in stews etc. as a seasoning of sorts.

We have wonderful weather forecast for the next week so look forward to seeing how it turns out today or tomorrow.

Ok, I am off to get some jobs done outside. As I said I don't think I'll do another post before we go as will be a LITTLE bit busy!

Take care and I look forward to a loooong read of what everybody has been up to whilst we are away - I am excited just thinking about all you will be sowing, growing and harvesting in the coming weeks.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx