The Last of the Potatoes Harvested

We finally got round to digging up the last of the potatoes at the weekend.  The two of us spent most of Sunday tidying up the veggie patch and the surrounding area.  While Lovely Hubby started off by digging up the potatoes I gradually worked my way round the other beds weeding, pulling up spent plants and turning over the soil.

Once this had been done the bare raked soil was fed with 6X which is a nice natural fertiliser that we will use until our own compost is ready for use next year, and then topped with Green Manure seeds, a mixture of Rye and Buckwheat.

Looking good, if a little bare, in the sunshine.

We managed a total of 27lbs (around 12kgs) of potatoes from the top bed, the lower bed had been harvested just before the Trelawnyd and Llanrwst Shows .... it's taken us this long to use up the potatoes.  Looking back on the blog post I did then I have just noted we dug up 5.5kg from the first bed, so leaving them growing longer has definitely boosted the size and weight of the crop.

Once they had been drying in the sunshine for a couple of hours they were taken into the house, 20lbs of them were in perfect condition and have been stored in the cupboard under the stairs where it is cool and dark, the other 7lbs most of which are either slightly damaged or have some green patches, will be used first and are in the kitchen cupboard.

I made a very nice discovery while I was weeding the garlic bed. 

 Remember way back in the growing season when I lamented that the birds or rabbit had eaten all the greenery off the garlic and I had to pull up what I could before the lot vanished, well although since then we've had lots of rain and damp somehow the planted cloves that remained in the soil had started to sprout.  Now the pesky wildlife have once again been nibbling the tops, so they were all dug up.  I managed to plant 84 single cloves of garlic safe and snug in the net tunnel, we will see how they do over the next few months.

It's just a shame that we didn't wait until after this tidying session to go out and buy next year's garlic!!

I  had just the previous day bought two packs of three heads of garlic for planting.  So one of them has been added alongside the rescued cloves from the hillside as a comparison crop and I will try and find space for the some of  others in the polytunnel to see how it compares.  A couple of heads will be planted on the hillside with a net cloche to complete the comparison.

Hopefully we will have more garlic than we know what to do with by this time next year.  There will be no vampires on this hillside for sure!!

Sue xx

Kitchen Sink Drama

I was stood at the kitchen sink this morning staring into space while the kettle boiled for my first coffee of the day when a little drama started unfolding.

This little chap (or chapess ... my eyes aren't that good), dashed into view hobbling past the window on three legs and obviously in a hurry.  

His fur looked crumpled and there were grab marks on his little back.  I quickly checked that Ginger was still in bed ... phew he was, no fault of ours then!!

He hobbled up the hill as fast as his three good legs would carry him .....

... and disappeared past the blackbird that was tucking into a breakfast of rosy red apple.

And then WHOOSH ...... a huge bird of prey whistled past in the same direction having to shoot up in the air as his wingspan wouldn't carry him through the gap!!

Rosy went berserk barking and bouncing about desperate to be let out to chase this beautiful but very unexpected flying intruder, Mavis, Suky and Ginger all shot out of bed and I just stood there transfixed ... there's was no way I could have got a shot of that with my camera it all happened much too quickly.

After a moment a little face appeared between the shed steps ......

... you could almost hear him saying  ... "is it safe to come out now?" or maybe more like  " ...WTF was that?"

It all unfolded in a minute and was a wonderful start to my day.  A brief glimpse of the dramas that no doubt unfold over and over on our hillside, mostly unseen by us but impacting on little lives and livelihoods over and over.  I can only guess that the little mouse had been caught and then dropped and the bird ....

... it looked like a Buzzard but I can't be sure, (we have seen them here before) had dropped it after an unsuccessful pick up.  No doubt it was looking forward to a little titbit before a bigger breakfast and had tried to recapture his tiny prey.

I'm so glad I got to see all this and equally glad that we left the gap to the woodland relatively narrow, one little life saved, one startled Blackbird, and one squirrel that joined me in our ringside seats to a kitchen sink drama.

Sue xx

Kitchen Sink Drama

I was stood at the kitchen sink this morning staring into space while the kettle boiled for my first coffee of the day when a little drama started unfolding.

This little chap (or chapess ... my eyes aren't that good), dashed into view hobbling past the window on three legs and obviously in a hurry.  

His fur looked crumpled and there were grab marks on his little back.  I quickly checked that Ginger was still in bed ... phew he was, no fault of ours then!!

He hobbled up the hill as fast as his three good legs would carry him .....

... and disappeared past the blackbird that was tucking into a breakfast of rosy red apple.

And then WHOOSH ...... a huge bird of prey whistled past in the same direction having to shoot up in the air as his wingspan wouldn't carry him through the gap!!

Rosy went berserk barking and bouncing about desperate to be let out to chase this beautiful but very unexpected flying intruder, Mavis, Suky and Ginger all shot out of bed and I just stood there transfixed ... there's was no way I could have got a shot of that with my camera it all happened much too quickly.

After a moment a little face appeared between the shed steps ......

... you could almost hear him saying  ... "is it safe to come out now?" or maybe more like  " ...WTF was that?"

It all unfolded in a minute and was a wonderful start to my day.  A brief glimpse of the dramas that no doubt unfold over and over on our hillside, mostly unseen by us but impacting on little lives and livelihoods over and over.  I can only guess that the little mouse had been caught and then dropped and the bird ....

... it looked like a Buzzard but I can't be sure, (we have seen them here before) had dropped it after an unsuccessful pick up.  No doubt it was looking forward to a little titbit before a bigger breakfast and had tried to recapture his tiny prey.

I'm so glad I got to see all this and equally glad that we left the gap to the woodland relatively narrow, one little life saved, one startled Blackbird, and one squirrel that joined me in our ringside seats to a kitchen sink drama.

Sue xx

Quince and Apple Jelly

Quinces, something I've never tasted before although I've read lots about them and seen so many different images of them.  Some look more like pears, these were from an ornamental Quince bush that lives outside my neighbour Mary's conservatory and look a bit more like apples .... with belly buttons!!

As soon as she gave these to me I had to spring into action and make some Quince and Apple Jelly.  There were slightly too unripe really and I think leaving them to ripen in the house might have been for the best and made their delicious flavour even more pronounced.

Mary had had to harvest them early because there is a real squirrel problem here at the moment they are everywhere and in great numbers and they are taking so much fruit whether it be ripe or not.  We lost the whole of our Plum crop to them sadly while we were waiting for the plums to turn from green.  The squirrels had no such desire to wait for a change of colour and ran off with most of them before they had even started to ripen.

I used the same weight again in apples from our tree and stewed them together, giving the Quinces a ten minute head start as they were so much harder than the apples.  It worked a treat and after a thirty minute simmer together the contents of the jam pan were left to drip through the jelly bag overnight.

I had got a total of 1.2 litres of juice by the next morning so I added just under 900g of jam sugar to the juice,  once the sugar had dissolved I let it come to a rolling boil and stay there until it reached jam setting temperature on the thermometer.  Then it was quickly spooned into the jars, lids on, inverted briefly and then stood on a cooling rack and left to cool.

I got three 1lb jam jars for the store cupboard, and a bowlful for testing purposes ;-)

I did in fact have enough for a small jar but I hadn't sterilised any of my little jars so rather than have a half empty jam jar I always prefer to put the excess in a bowl that will live in the fridge until it's all eaten up, this won't last long ... it's delicious.

And as soon as it was cool enough I just had to hold it up to the sunshine streaming through the living room window.  Just look at that glorious colour, it's like Summer in a jar .... which is exactly what you want from your preserves when you open them in the depth of Winter.

This can be eaten as jam in the usual way on toast, crackers or scones, or it would be absolutely wonderful served with cheese or cold meats (if you eat meat).  I'm checking the flavours of all my jams and preserves this year for their ability to do this, so much better to have something in the cupboard that can be dual, or even multi purpose, and therefore much more useful in the larder.

Sue xx

Spoons and Pumpkins

I reached up to get a wooden spoon earlier on ... I've been busy making more preserves today, and the colour of one of my spoons really caught my eye.  You can tell what I used it for last, yes it was the Bramble and Apple Jelly.  I wonder what other colours I can get my spoons just by using them  ;-)

In other news .... I came home the other day to find this card left by the Parcelforce  delivery man ....

My parcel was 'left by the pumpkins'.

Yes it was .... it's nice to know he knows his vegetables :-)

Sue xx

Did You Notice ......

Did you spot them on yesterday's post ?

These two little cheeky chappies that we decided to pop on top of our gate posts.

Cheeky, smirking little piggies that will give a clue to our neighbours as to what will be appearing on the landscape in the next year or so.  Just cheap as chips concrete garden ornaments from the local garden centre ....

...  spray painted black by Lovely Hubby.

First one coat of paint ...

... and then another a day or so later.

They now sit proudly welcoming everyone to our house.

I'll take another photo once the tarmac is down, the black of the driveway should make them look even better.

Sue xx

Tarmac and Sweet Potatoes

We're almost there, yes the end of all this building work is finally in sight.

I'm in Manchester today spending the day with Mum, and while I'm away the workman are laying the tarmac on all the hardcore that is now leveled .... and looking slightly better than it was a week or so ago.  It's a huge area and it's costing us a small fortune to do, but hopefully once done that will be it.

First thing this morning just after they had arrived I walked the dogs around the paddock, their first constitutional of the day, by the time we got back a three foot strip of hot tarmac covered the ground between the paddock and the roadway by the polytunnel, the nice guys lifted Rosy and Suky over the steaming hot black stuff while I carried Mavis, I was fine I had my wellies on  :-)

Now the dogs are indoors and I am about to set off, by the time I come back in a few hours I should be greeted with a completely different looking area ..... hopefully!!

The garage now has it's concrete floor, and work is just about to start to paint the interior of the workshop in brilliant white to maximise the light in there.  

Once funds allow, the outside of the workshop will be clad in wood to help the whole structure blend better into the land it sits on, for now it will have to stay as it is.  The whole thing has taken just over six months, and I never want to live through this sort of thing again.  

I'd rather move house!!

To soothe my frazzled nerves I've been tucking into good old simple foods, like this wonderful bowl of mashed Sweet Potato, with two chopped spring onions mixed in and stirred through with slightly more butter than you would think necessary.  Topped with a few tomatoes straight off the plants in the polytunnel it made for a deliciously comforting, and very filling quick tea last night.

Sue xx

You've Got To Love a Carrot ......

You've got to love a carrot ..... that can sit up all by himself :-)

The beauty of homegrown vegetables is that you never know what you are going to pull up or snip off next.  All this little chap needs is some googly eyes and he'd be a perfect little pet .....

... or he would have been if I hadn't eaten him with his other little tasty friends for tea the other day.

Sue xx

Lets All Play Fair

Blogland is such a wonderful place when everything runs smoothly.  Bloggers blog, we read each other's posts, followers, commenters, lurkers and all those lovely people that skip in and skip out of our daily posts bring with them opinions, ideas and sometimes just plain simple encouragement when encouragement is most needed.

BUT, and yes that is a great big BUT, it has a dark side.  Every day for the past month I have had to spend five minutes skimming through tons of Spam, deleting it and clearing things away before getting down to the business of writing a post.  I could leave it to build up and have a mammoth all in one go deleting session, but every now and then in amongst all the negative dross, comments asking my readers to link back to sites where their computers would be at risk, links to sites where they would be offered viagra and other things that if they actually wanted they could find for themselves from much more legitimate places, there is a delightful comment from a new reader that I simply won't let be lost somewhere out there in cyberspace.

And there is an even darker side, there is bullying, it goes on ....  nasty people leaving comments anonymously thinking they are safe to do so, thinking that hiding behind the magic word 'Anonymous' means they can't be traced, can't be brought to task and can't be outed.  NOTHING you delete from your computer is EVER truly deleted.  If complaints are brought and legal action taken you CAN and you WILL be found.

And then there is the darkest side of all .... false accusations of bullying with no proof, just insidious hints that lead back to a person that is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, save that of standing up for their own opinions, rights and families.  Now THAT is the darkest side of all.  Innocent commenters and readers are drawn into the libel, because make no mistake that is what it is, and malicious rumours spread, making this once joyous interesting place a darker more menacing one.

Ella Woodward on her Deliciously Ella blog post today has hit the nail on the head, talking about the negative side of social media.  It has made many bloggers take a break in the last few months, some are reappearing now after a well deserved break, but others are gone for good, fed up with the negative comments and hurtful remarks.  In this country it seems so many like to help a person climb a ladder of success only to immediately join in with those  who want nothing more than to topple them right back down again.

We have a level of power as Bloggers, we can delete comments that we feel are hurtful or negative, we can block some individuals from reading our blogs, we can alter our settings to stop spam or anonymous comments appearing unannounced at the bottom of our posts.  If all that is not enough we can choose to go private or to simply stop when the going gets too tough.

I usually try to nip things in the bud if some nasty anonymous comment appears by answering back with a jokey remark.  I hold my hands up to occasionally deleting a comment that has total negative connotations, but extremely rarely.  I feel that people should have a voice, but I have always lived by the saying that 'if you have nothing nice to say you should say nothing at all', it has stood me in good stead and will hopefully continue to do so.

Like Suky the Pug at the top of this post, only if you can look someone fully and truthfully in the eyes and tell it as it is ... should you tell it at all.

Sue xx

Stuff = Money

I've been sorting out all this week,  mostly going through my wardrobe and drawers trying on and checking ALL my clothes.  

After doing Project 333 for the last couple of years, although a bit on and off and not always sticking rigidly to the rules, I knew I could get by on so much less than I currently had in there.  And having lots of choice doesn't make things easier, it makes things more time consuming rummaging through things, getting them out and putting them back while you are choosing what to wear.  

So following the Konmari method of looking at things and seeing what brought me 'joy' ( ... sounds daft but it actually works) I went through everything I owned and put the things that didn't meet the criteria into the large washing basket and the big blue box at the front on this photo.

We took these and lots of other unwanted bits and pieces to the last local car boot of the season at Rowen .....

... and came home with empty boxes and a little pile of money.

A total of £125.20 in fact.

Lovely Hubby being the lovely hubby that he is, suggested I used it to buy myself some new clothes, but I really didn't want and certainly didn't need anything else to add back into my now tidy and organised wardrobe.

So his next suggestion was "Why don't we add it lock, stock and barrel to the Sealed Pot to give us more cash for next year's Challenge".  I agreed immediately ... what a brilliant idea.

We have no way of knowing how much is in there, and we won't find out until 31st December, which is our designated opening date this year, but as you can see it weighs almost 4 kilos  :-)

This is our fourth year of having a Sealed Pot, another brilliant idea that I got via Blogland, this time through SFT and her blog Life After Mortgage, which is currently dormant :-(

So we have less stuff, more money, more room in the cupboards and the satisfaction of having donated all the unsold goodies to a charity shop.  Not a bad weekend!!

Sue xx

The Polytunnel in September

The polytunnel in September is still a lush, if a much cooler place.

The sunny days give everything a much needed boost of warmth, and the crops in there are protected enough from the cold nights for them not to be checked in any way.  As you can see I have had to resort to some sticky fly traps.  As much as I hate using these (what a horrible way for anything to die) I was absolutely overrun with tiny black flies that simply refused to leave, although opening all the doors meant the flying ants departed within minutes!!

There are newly transplanted Lettuces in the first bed as you step in the doors, interspersed with a late crop of Radishes.  The large leaves at the top of the picture are a couple of very late tomato plants, hopefully  I have time to get a good crop of green tomatoes, enough for a couple of jars of green tomato chutney, one of my favourites.  

(Recipe in the 'Recipes I Use Regularly' page at the top of the blog.)

There are a few plants on the workbench and the breadbin of carrots is still feeding me while I work, you've got to have something to nibble on after an hour of weeding   :-)

Under the bench at this end are my Kale and Spinach plants, still giving me a harvest two or three times a week, but gradually slowing their pace a little.

The main cucumber plants, well two of them anyway, are still going strong, with a couple of fruits each left to harvest.  I might give Bread and Butter Pickle a go next week, I've never made it before.

  In front of the large French Marigolds is the one Spinach plant I have in this bed.

Under the bench further along there are the most recently planted Radishes, in amongst the slowest growing Leeks in the world!!

At the far end of the middle bed is my Fennel plant and a good crop of carrots, with a couple of Courgette plants beyond them, oh and a row of Spring Onions.

In the old Radish bed there are now some Cabbages, ready to overwinter in this slightly protected atmosphere.

Across the way I have my rogue Turnip, one Turnip seed was in amongst the Beetroots, how it got there I don't know ... for a while I thought I had an albino Beetroot  ;-)

Hidden behind it's foliage is the pot containing the Sweet Potatoes, it's a bottomless pot to give the potatoes lots of room to spread their roots in the soil of the raised bed.  It will be interesting to dig this up at the end of the month and see if there are actually any potatoes there!!

Looking back along that side there are the tomato plants and in front of them the Basil and the Peppers.  It's too cold now for any peppers to develop but I'm leaving the healthy looking plants in situ for a while to see their progress.

To the left there are more Tomato plants and a flush of French Marigolds.

This is the back of the Cucumber plants and growing through their support is a small run of Borage plants.  I got these in late to try and get some seeds for next year, so I can transplant some Borage to the outdoor beds in Spring.   Bees love Borage, reason enough apart from the gorgeous blue flowers to grow it.

This bed has yet more carrots, half a bed of Kohl Rabi and a late flush of tomato plants near the door.

And that's it ...... a September guided tour of the polytunnel.  Did I hear a thud as my brother Graham fell off his chair in boredom ..... yep, I think I did  ;-)

Sue xx