Three Ingredient Brownie

Good morning. This is a very quick post which I forgot to mention recently. In the Saturday Mail last week was a baking pull out of recipes by Sarah Rainey - here is info about her recent book.

Well I made the 3 ingredient Chocolate Praline Brownies and oh my goodness! I make brownies on a VERY regular basis for the tin but these are off the chart!

Here are mine.

The edges were crispy, the inside was gooey and yummy and they are now a firm favourite. I suggest you try them if you vaguely like chocolate; I'm not a huge fan but oh my lord! I didn't use plain Nutella - other hazelnut spreads are available - but instead used the vanilla and chocolate swirl make you can buy. You could turn them Easter-esque by adding a chocolate egg on top so here is the recipe. (Hope you can make the most of the photo.)

Something else which I thought I might share was my attending the postponed school eisteddfod from St David's Day on Thursday. As part of this celebration the children enter a competition - one prize is given for the best piece of Welsh writing and one for English. This ceremony takes place at the National Eisteddfod and is replicated on St David's Day by many schools. 

Here is information about the Anatomy of The Eisteddfod which you may find interesting.

I was very proud to be there to see Harry win the prize for best English story. When the three placings are announced they use false names, including the winners names, so you don't know right to the end who has won - very exciting!

Here is my boy with his crown made by a local artist in his grand cloak. He gets to keep the paper crown but we have his name engraved on the one he is wearing and give it back to the school in time for next year.

This is a lovely moment for him to take with him through life as there is great competition for this award.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Pasg HapusI I Bawb.

Happy Easter to Everybody!!

It's still March, just, but it is Easter so here are my decorations from the living room.

I always love using my Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady for seasonal 'vingnettes' and couldn't resist the April page, although we are still in March.

My little bunny tags are sooo simple to make which just involves a little template and some sheet music then cut out and stuck on!

I had to put something on the sideboard so used my lovely pre-loved dish with lots of eggs, including a couple painted by the boys when they were young.

In other news I recently took part in a one-off happymail swap thanks to Jocelyn at  

The Reading Residence, a blog I follow.

I was sent some fab stationery goodies!

Pink Basildon Bond paper, doesn't get much better than that, washi tape, who doesn't love a bit of that, lovely French inspired 6x6 craft paper and a cute notebook which I think I may use for notes in the garden.

This evening we have people in our Airbnb room for three nights so went shopping for breakfast things this morning along with the regular food shop. After unpacking, having lunch, vacuuming up, cleaning out the living room fire should we need it later, washing up, washer ready to go on and whatever else I could jam in I went outside and cut back the laurel at the front of the house.

The first photo is from a while ago but you get the idea of the size of the thing!

It really need sorting and I'm chuffed with its shape now.

Jon is now feeding the lambs twice a day and they are thriving back with the main flock; he seems to think they are almost done with the lambs coming. I see other people are just starting with theirs.

Right, have to keep remembering it isn't Saturday although it feels JUST like it; boys need their tea as will be off to Youth Club at 6pm.

I hope you enjoy the Easter weekend and look forward to see what everybody gets up to.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

No-dig Gardening, Sounds Good To Me.

Yesterday I was having a good read of the March issue of Grow Your Own magazine before it's time to move on to the April edition. I am a bit organised like that but tend to keep the previous month's one at hand to refer back to. (I AM trying to have a more relaxed attitude to my gardening but there are some things I just can't shake off!)

In the Show Us Your Plot section I was reading more about no-dig gardening. 

I've seen a bit about this recently but I'm sure a lot of people have been practicing the method for a good while - but I'm always keen to learn.

Joshua Tutt is the featured gardener and he explains why he wanted to start the no-dig method, which he and his family did in 2017, so quite new to the idea. Not wishing to teach Grandma to suck eggs, as they say, but the principal of the thing is - in Joshua's words - 

"you build up layers of organic matter and by doing so you create an undisturbed healthy soil structure that you can then begin growing in immediately."

After the fun of planting and harvesting you can leave the roots of things like lettuce to break down and add to the structure creating useful fungi to make healthy crops. When the beds are empty after the final harvests you add a mulch of garden compost about 5-10 cms thick, feeding the soil and burying weeds, and that is it for soil work until the following year.

I think I can begin this new sowing and growing process myself this year as a while ago, can't seem to find on my blog exactly when!, I took the time to use our supply of chicken manure and cover over with polythene the main veg plot in readiness for the Spring; wish I'd done the same with the smaller one but will address that next year!

I was inquisitive the other day as to how the soil was looking underneath the covering and turned the soil over - which if I'd read the article a few hours earlier I wouldn't have done! I was very pleased to see that there were NO weeds. Yay! I only did one fairly small area ready for planting my 1st early spuds so will leave the rest of it as it now should be.

I would be very interested to hear of other people using this method for the first time so I can gauge how my harvests turn out in comparison to others and to my own from last year.

I have begun some sowing and have my tomatoes in the conservatory along with the first lot of sweet peas and plan on sowing some basil to keep in the kitchen. If the weather holds I would like to get the frame for my climbing peas up early - not going for the wigwams this year as found it hard to harvest the peas when the foliage was so thick inside the structure.

In other news, I have finally managed to get back within my target weight at Slimming World after struggling a bit after Christmas so very chuffed about that. But much more important than that we have had Jon's case reviewed by a specialist panel who actually know something about Sarcoidosis and they have told us that between the last two scans he had taken his lungs have really improved and they think the condition may actually peter out, which is the best news, EVER!!

Right, miserable old day outside today so going to do some baking for the tin, light the burner and keep warm, oh and some homework for my Welsh class this evening.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

This And That Really...

Hi. 

A couple of things going on these last few days. I had a box of cranberries I bought in December still in the freezer so thought it would just about make a jar of sauce to add to the cellar store room shelves. I had everything I needed luckily, apart from port so I use a glug of cooking red instead.

It just made a good far full plus a little extra to eat up.....

Outside I grabbed my secateurs and FINALLY pruned the raspberry canes and the blackcurrant bush. To be honest not all the raspberry canes are looking super healthy but we'll see what happens....

This is the blackcurrant, only have the one;

I think it looks much better now the dead parts have gone...

and it has some lovely new shoots on it, too.

The sheep have really enjoyed being out in the garden but don't get too close to the chicken enclosure!

I'm enjoying watching Gardeners' World again, normally on catch up at lunch time. Love The Don's "Jobs For The Weekend" spot toward the end of the show as it inspires me to get out and do something! I've sorted the seeds out that I hope to sow by the beginning of next week; these are tomatoes, sweet peas and some wild flowers - failed miserably with the last items last year so giving it another go to add a bit of colour to the garden. The seeds will go in the conservatory so I'm pleased the lambs are outside apart from when we feed them as there is no chance of damage to them, or the spuds that are in there chitting, now they are both quite bit; I think they should be going into our neighbour's field full time at the weekend but we'll still bottle feed them for a couple of weeks more.

I also have the rhubarb crown I acquired from my neighbour who works at the local nursery; I think I've decided on the spot where to put it and this will require some clearing, de-stoning and digging; it is close to the spot where my wild garlic grew last year. (That is a bone of contention, though, as we had some clearing done in that area and I cannot see it coming up just get but hope it survives.)The crown is only just showing above the top of the soil so is this too early to cover over to force? - never grown it before. Jon's gran used to have rhubarb growing out of her compost heap so I get the idea they are not always too fussy about where you site them! If you saw my post about Kim Stoddart you will understand that I am trying new things and being a bit rogue in the garden. 

The days here have been a bit nippy but dry which is good, for now, but the next week is forecast to be wet with the chance of sleet and light snow showers over the Easter. I do hope it is not too heavy as we have guests in the Airbnb room for three days over that weekend.

Ok, that is a nice little ramble for a Thursday morning. One more brew and then I'll get on with something.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Lambing Update and a Little Garden Prep.

Morning.

We are looking after orphan lamb number two; this one is a little younger than Baa Bach - here he is.

They are keeping each other company quite well; this was taken before the snow!

We are feeding them both and Baa Bach is a thumper only being two weeks old last Friday. She is looking after the younger one; his mum died and her mum abandoned her after her twin died so they are a proper pair of buddies now.

Still a few weeks to go before they go back into the flock as 'regular' sheep but they are enjoying being out in the garden; they have a pen in the shed for night times and pop in and out of the shed during the day when Jon is home, too.

In other news I have done something in the garden, BS, before snow that is! I have taken the top off the cold frame that was behind the Poly House as I decided to change it into another regular bed; it was storm damaged so it seemed a good time to sort it out before, hopefully, the bad weather finishes...

I took the front cover off; decided to leave the frame bit as good for leaning on when working on it!

I gave it a good digging over and weeding, not much to take out luckily, then added some fresh compost.

 

Can't wait to make some good use of it, sooooon!

Bye for now.

Lou.x

Kim Stoddart - Doing It Her Way, and Yours..

Continuing on from talking about reading copies of Country Smallholder magazine I have been reading written articles, and some online, by Kim Stoddart; I've been aware of her work for sometime as she is based here in wonderful Wales.

As part of my quest to include more interesting posts on my blog, Kim has kindly agreed to let me include one of her online posts here. Should you not know Kim she is an advocate of a bit of guerrilla gardening, as I like to describe it, and I love it! I have trouble sometimes deciding if I should go a bit rogue when sowing and growing and Kim gives you the confidence to do just that. She encourages you to be a bit of a maverick, go with the flow, try something different and even throw away the rule book at times to just do it YOUR way.

Kim has really made me think that I don't have to follow the crowd and be more open to her ideas, and those of others too, who go about things in a different way. (She also blogs about lots of other interesting and important things including her autistic son who benefits from a life outdoors.)

So down to blog business. Kim has provided me with a great post for this time of the year, about growing on from supermarket veg! I really hope you enjoy this guest post, learn more about Kim and her really interesting way of going about her gardening and perhaps be inspired to try something new for yourself. Here we go, my first guest post - over to you Kim.

THE BEST GARDENING CHEATS - SUPERMARKET VEG

I'm all for growing pretty much everything from seed, or taking cuttings wherever i can but sometimes I'll slip a cheeky cheat or two into the gardening mix. Now is actually a great time to undertake some growing adventures with leftover materials from your weekly food shop.

Of course conventional advice often dictates that this produce cannot and should not really be used, ever. The mere suggestion to some might well illicit some self-assured headshaking and a rather sharp intake of breath, but don’t listen because I’m here to tell you it can be done and it’s actually a really rather …fun thing to do.

There’s a huge amount of room for experimentation here and because there’s such a direct link with the food you buy, it’s a great way of getting children and big kids everywhere interested in a spot of grow your own.

Here are just a few of the easiest ideas for this time of year:

Herb pots

Some herbs can be rather fiddly to grow from seed (such as parsley) and shop-bought herb pots can be easily grown on once you have harvested some of their leaves. You’ll have to be relatively quick and rescue the plants from their painfully confided quarters. Do so by very gently dividing the root ball into several small clumps and plant them out into a spacious helping of potting compost. In return you’ll get many plants for a minimum amount of effort.

Spuds and garlic

Come spring it’s common to find a few potatoes that have started sprouting in a dark corner somewhere and which will have turned spongy and not especially edible as a result. If you have a few like this why not plant them out?  Just be aware that organic produce is preferable as it’s less likely to have been sprayed with growth inhibitors (which are used to provide a maximum shelf life).

Likewise with garlic, which is so easy to grow. Just select the plumpest looking cloves and tubers to plant out.

Sprouting shoots

You don’t need to buy small (often expensive) packets of special sprouting seeds – just work with what you happen to have in your food cupboard. Dried chick peas, lentils, sunflower seeds, fenugreek and mung beans are among those that you can use to create delicious sprouting shoots at any time of the year.

Simply soak the peas and beans overnight in water and then keep them in a spouting box or jam jar. Rinse them daily till they start to shoot. They are delicious in salad and highly nutritious.

Otherwise, have some fun experimenting

Once you’ve tried this you’ll never look at your shopping basket the same way again.

I’ve just covered some of the easiest options when in fact there is a whole world of growing on potential at your disposal. A stroll around any ethnic food shop will have your head whirling with exciting possibilities and enable you to bag yourself interesting varieties of seed or propagation material which otherwise may have been hard to obtain.

Just remember fresh is always best and you want to avoid using anything in brine, that’s been frozen or heat treated in any way. Ditto any hybrids (F1) produce. Otherwise go for the plump and ripest-looking produce and see where it takes you...

Kim is a columnist for a range of gardening publications including Grow Your Own and Country Smallholding magazines. She also writes for the Guardian and runs a range of grow your own and smallholding courses from her smallholding in gorgeous Ceredigion, West Wales. Visit www.greenrocketcourses.com

So I hope you have enjoyed my first guest post.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Soooo Upset At People.

Today I found that some lowlife has stolen the tin from our egg house at the front door.

Not only have they taken that but also a bag of garlic, a jar of lemon curd and half a dozen eggs. In total I have lost £3.50 worth of homegrown, or made, produce.

I am disappointed as did not expect that where we live.

I intend to put a sign outside saying please knock on the door if you wish to buy eggs etc.

So upset.

Lou.xx

Living That Dream

Jon came up to me with other morning, gave me a hug and asked me if I was happy with our life. I said I WAS! 

Simple things can make you realise you are in the right place doing the right thing. For us this week, as I previously told you, it has been looking after an orphan lamb.

It's really important to be able to help neighbours in tricky times, but when you get the added bonus of learning something at the same time it's great! Both the boys have taken it in turns to go out early with Jon and help with the lambing to see nature up close, and not always the best part of it at times. This is something we SO wanted for them when we moved here. We may have some sheep of our own in the future but in the meantime we are very happy to help out when we can and know that Jon, and the boys, will know what to do for ourselves, should the time arise.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Sowing For Success.

This post is an attempt to write something a little more meaningful, rather than my usual show and tell of what is going on at our little homestead.  

I have a number of copies of Country Smallholding magazine donated to me by friends. I really do love reading them, even though lots of subjects are alien to me but lots of things are very useful, like advice about seed sowing...

The time people choose to start seed sowing can vary greatly. If you have a poly tunnel, propagator, heat mat etc. you can often  start things a lot earlier than those who are without these items. Some people like to get things in super early, and lots of them, to make sure they get a good harvest. Others have to wait because of lack of space, like myself with my Poly House being out of action. 

Charles Dowding wrote an article saying, amongst other things, that rather than starting seeds off early it is sometimes better to start a bit later. He says "the amount of suitable sowings in late summer is considerable, while their timing becomes more important with each week that passes". However he advises that May sowings benefit from some delays. Many gardeners like to start sowing in March time, and before. Charles says that late sowing in June of warmth-loving crops means cucumbers and courgettes have time to catch up as the weather gradually gets warmer and the days get longer. 

A good point he makes that I am going to take on board is to sow beetroot in June - he says the 10th - for a November harvest and also to store. He points out that larger routes are not often woody but are firm and less juicy and will store well until early Spring should you wish.

He mentioned some little gems of information; 
- May is too late to sow aubergines but the perfect month for planting them
- June is too late for sowing leeks but is is the best time to plant them
- July 1 is the latest month to sow cucumber to give the best harvest over a long period.
- up to early July is best to sow swede as they suffer less disease.

Still being relatively new, and as enthusiastic as ever, I am always looking for the optimum time to sow seeds to get the best results; maybe these hints and tips will help me this year.
I would appreciate any comments on this post because I am always open to help.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

The Snow Came On Thursday at Teatime.

We had snow!

This arrived on Thursday at around teatime. It continued overnight with a little more on Friday but not much.

Now, Saturday, the temp has gone up to 2 degrees when before we were at about -9! It is melting but we have big drifts left because of the ferocious winds so they will take a day or two to go.

13 miles down the road in Aber you would not have thought two places could be so different weather wise. In the shops today the shelves were empty of lots of things because deliveries could not get through.

In other news Jon has been helping our elderly sheep-farming neighbour with lambing and brought a little visitor into the house....

It was one of twins and the mother had left it to fend for itself and got separated from the main flock. We are bottle feeding it for a couple of days in the house and then we will keep it in the shed and let it go outside before it is returned to the flock.The boys think it is very cute but totally understand that she is not a pet.

It is much better now....

and will be spending the night in the conservatory.

I love that Jon is able to get involved by helping our neighbour during lambing and that we helped prevent this little one from perishing; part of us living our dream here in Wales.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Hapus Dydd Gwyl Dewi, and Happy Snowday

Yes, Happy St David's Day.

Of course we have Welsh cakes for snacks today but no daffodils to bring in I'm afraid.

Today the boys are off school as for safety Ceredigion Council have closed the schools until Monday. They are delighted of course but this means the St David's Day Eisteddfod has been cancelled. The weather is brutal today, so very cold and windy; we had a good couple of inches on Tuesday and a few flurries since. I think this will mean hot chocolate, including at breakfast for the boys,

then we had leftover soup for lunch.

The boys started on some homework with having extra time over the next couple of days and there was the hot chocolate again!

Jon went to work this morning but I hoped he would be home around lunchtime when our snow is forecast, although it is now 1pm and there is no sign as yet of him or the snow!

I've put out fresh water for the chooks and will check again if it has frozen over and add some extra bedding.

Fresh bread is proving to last us through the next couple of days, just short of milk, but we'll probably manage to get out.

I hope everybody is keeping safe and warm, with us it is just the cold at the moment.

Oh, in other news, Harry has received confirmation of his first choice school place for September. Yay!!!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx