Mish-Mash Monday!

Good morning.

Monday and I find myself in from the garden after a few jobs including preparing the Airbnb room for guests arriving this evening; we had a last minute booking for Saturday night, too. 

This was the garden this morning. I just love it here beyond words!

Now this post is a bit of a mish-mash round up of the last few days I think; not sure what happened when with everything but here goes.

I don't grow many edibles but my wild flower chimney pot is coming along a treat...

I'm continuing to harvest lots of salad leaves along with kale, radishes...some bolted so have re-sown..

and the first early spuds. Still love digging for treasure when it comes to harvesting spuds!

Here we have patch to plate. Potato salad, nom nom!

In the cellar we have been doing some re-jigging so I now have a much cleaner laundry area. Jon had a few little plumbing issues to deal with first but now after we acquired the really deep sink from friends it is just fab for washing.  Awkward shaped stuff, really dirty things I don't want to have in the kitchen sink, like footy boots can be taken care of down there and I have storage space, too so I'm chuffed to bits with it.

The other end of the cellar has had a good tidy up, too with boots and shoes being brought down from the conservatory to stop if being a dumping ground. Winter coats, hats, gloves etc have been washed ready for later in the year or grown out things to go to the charity shop.

I took part in another of my Stationery Swaps recently and these were the goodies I received at the weekend! I'll have to up my game to match up to these beautiful things; pens, notebooks, stickers, cards, eeeeek!!!!!!!

I've planted out my Sweet potatoes; two types, Erato Orange and White - three of each.

Progress on the greenhouse has been halted as we haven't managed to get glass for the missing pains yet. I've put five tomato plants in the gh as they are on the side with glass in low down so hope they get the benefit of some extra warmth. The leaves are curling so of course I am panicking but I keep watering them well, no flowers yet and the texture of the leaves is a little leathery....

The poly house should be covered by next week. I'm just working on the basis that everything is growing outside due to the weather being good for the next 10 days or so and praying for good results.

I have had some growth on my two different types of courgettes I'm growing this year.

Goldena, teeny tiny I know!

and 

Tondo di Piacenza, like a golf ball!

I made a lovely salad for tea last night. All the salad leaves and herbs were ours but then I added peaches, parma ham, mozarella, carrot, boiled eggs, cucumber, tomato, pepper and red onion. I do hope that later in the year I'll be able to make this again with all our own produce apart from the ham, cheese and peaches. Have to say it was scrummy.

Right, better get on as have Harry home from school with a nasty cough and need to get up some lunch.

Looking forward, as ever, to seeing what people got up to at the weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Preserving and Project Progress.

Hi!

Airbnb phase two is coming along really well. Inside we have got the frame for the front of the chalet in place.

The window and door were put in along with membrane covering.

The doors were then taken off and they will be used on another project.

This door was originally the connecting door between Jon's tool shed and the main shed.

Alfie was a really good lad learning some new skills by helping Jon with the cladding and putting on the new windowsill. 

And here we are.

We are very pleased with how it looks on the outside - obviously it needs painting but when guests come it looks tidy from the front.

Jon will continue working on the inside at those times when we don't have any guests.

In other news my order of onions and garlic have come today.

It was my offer from GYO magazine.

And I am pleased to still be harvesting some things...

which include my only four chillis, one last Spring onion I think, lettuces (not Winter ones), the contents of the first growing bag of sweet potatoes, which I am so very pleased with, and still some tomatoes are coming.

Today I have made a jar of gherkin relish as they keep popping up, too. I'm really looking forward to my preserving this year. I look forward to us using it on burgers next summer and it looks JUST how I wanted it to!

Right, I have a cake in the oven just now for when we go visit my mum tomorrow. 

I look forward to seeing what everybody gets up to over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx




  

Foody Photos Inside and Out.

Hi!

I've tried a couple of new recipes recently as you really can get a bit bored with the same old same old sometimes.

I sat down and had a good root through my Save With Jamie book, which I love, and I've been a little inspired due to watching Celebrity Masterchef just now, too. 

I made Koftas but with turkey mince instead of lamb and also rustled up some flat breads to go with them. They went down a treat so will definitely be making them again. (Unfortunately no photo.)

I had some puff pastry in the freezer so made this with a filling of chicken, peas in my homemade mint sauce, tarragon and all put through a bechamel sauce. Mmmmm.

Then I decided on pork belly-filled ravioli which was ok in the end but I have misplaced the bracket that holds my pasta machine to the island! I had to roll by hand but it came out alright.

I've taken delivery of a kitchen gadget which I've used for tea last night - a meatball maker and I love it! Jon cooked the meatballs whilst I was watching Strictly and he said they cooked really well; the texture seemed to have been improved by the pressure of the gadget making the balls into a really good shape.

Now, I've finally got round to processing, almost, all of my garlic which I took up when we came back from our holidays. It has taken ages for it to dry out as the soil was so very wet but it looks great and I am so very pleased with it. I have it in the basket I bought in Menorca hanging in the kitchen as most things I read say it should not be kept in the dark incase it sprouts so that is why I didn't put it in the cellar store room.

I have on order a small amount of garlic but need to get some more.

Yesterday I had a bit of a tidy up in the Poly House. It looks a bit better...

but there are a few jobs to do yet.

I also need to clean out the planters etc before I store them away for the winter.

My next door neighbour works at our local plant nursery and he brought me these two thyme plants. They are now in the herb sink and I was very grateful for them as mine had not grown well this year.

In the Poly House these are the broccoli raab and Spring cabbage; I intend to get them outside quite soon before they get too leggy and spoil.

Also yesterday I took up the last of my Maris Piper spuds, as I was worried the blight may get to them, and left them to dry until today.

I brought them inside this afternoon along with something else!

I have some in the kitchen to eat at tea tonight and the rest I have stored in the cellar. Don't want the precious few to spoil. I am very pleased, though, that I have these, the Christmas spuds and also the sweet ones.

Oh this really is turning into a ramble, sorry. I just remembered the mum of a friend of Alfie's, who spent the day with us yesterday, gave me a huge courgette she grew on her allotment. I am chuffed to bits as I wanted to make some of the courgette and apple chutney as I did last year but only had the apples. I've put some of the many cooking apples I was given in the cellar, ones that are not bruised, on a flat box as most of them have been put to the compost heap or the chickens. That is a job for next week I'm looking really forward to.

Right I think I should stop now or there will be no end to this!

Bye for now.

Lou.

September - How Did That Happen?!

September is here!

I love September; it is the start of my favourite time of the year. The nights are drawing in; already it is pitch dark by 9pm and changing daily. I love Autumn because of the colours due to the changing of the season. I am sooo looking forward to lighting the Rayburn next month but in the meantime chilly nights will have us sitting away from the TV room and being snuggly in the living room with the wood burner. (We do watch TV in the darker months but sometimes we just like 'being'; listening to music, reading and me probably planning the garden for the months ahead!

Therefore I have been taking photos to show how things have progressed thus far and maybe a little show and tell of things that have gone on since we began harvesting from our little plot and beds, things I have preserved and made etc.

I made 5 jars of damson jam and some fruit leathers with gifted damsons; we gifted and sold some, too.
I have pickled 2 jars of beetroot, one given away as a gift along with some jam.  (I plan on making more.)
2 lots of stewed apple for the freezer with giften cookers along with crumbles, some sold and gifted.
2 good sized jars of pickled gherkins.
2 jars of refrigerator pickles which I luuuurve!

A little update, I was gifted some cooking apples yesterday and now I can make some chutney to keep in stock. Not sure what kind yet but very pleased to have received the apples.

Thanks to the wonder of the Welsh countryside I have foraged about 3lbs of blackberries. These have been used with yoghurt for my Slimming World diet, instead of buying mixed berries, for crumbles with the free apples and some are for making blackberry vodka for Christmas.

Now here are a few photos from the garden, using the new camera of course! Here is the Poly House looking a little different to recent times.

The tomatoes are still flowering and there are still quite a lot to pick, too.

Also in there are the chillis...

and also the sweet potatos.

The cucumbers and gherkins are coming to the final flowering I think.

Now for outside. THESE are my Christmas spuds and the variety is Duke of York. I can't believe how well they are already doing; as you can see the ones I have put in a tyre are doing well, too.

The sweetcorn is getting nearer the stage of harvesting but has a way to go yet as the tops of the cobs are not all dried yet.

It seemed we'd had the last of the courgettes but this plant has had a welcome spurt and looking great.

Now, this post also covers Phase Two of our Airbnb project. Jon has been working on it since last weekend after a friend visited bringing with him some building materials we needed.

He started by getting the stud wall up between the bathroom and bedroom...

positioning the basin and toilet...

and setting the shower tray in place.

Jon bought a shed load of windows from various places and this one was perfect for the bathroom; didn't need to be frosted as too high for anybody to see in. He made a brilliant job of the frame so is confident he can make the rest of the frames for all of the windows.

The boys were giving a hand yesterday as he was getting the plaster board up and the flooring down.

  
 

More progress reports soon.

Ok, that's it for today. I have been writing this post after getting home very wet due to watching Alfie in his first football tournament. He is goaly and did really, really well even though their team was knocked out of the group.

Look forward to seeing what everybody has been up to over the weekend.

Bye for now, Lou.xx