Edible Gardening by Alys Fowler at the Yeo Valley Organic Gardens

Wow...what a day.   Thanks to Lucy at The Smallest Smallholding (and my lovely picture of Maud, Martha and Betty in front of our henhouses that won me the prize), we spent yesterday listening to a talk by my gardening hero Alys Fowler and touring the wonderful organic gardens at Yeo Valley.

Arriving at 10ish to find Alys already there bright and early to welcome us on the veranda of the lovely Tea Room, you could tell straight away this was going to be a good day.  Steaming coffee in hand thrown mugs with homemade shortbread biscuits set the scene, I took a shot of Lovely Hubby drinking in the view as well as the coffee. 

We sat down to the talk after half an hour of relaxing in the early morning sunshine and it was really good, brilliantly so, with photos from her books and her visit to Norway where she met a like minded soul who turned into a good friend, you could relax into Alys' way of talking and take on board the tips.   A few voices called out for her to name again plants that she recommended and she happily obliged, we were told to nibble at our flowers, to grow all we wanted to eat and to, on occasion throw the rule book out of the window (something I did years ago, I'm sure it landed in the compost pile and is back somewhere in my food chain).

She answered question after question and when it became apparent that there were to be lots of questions we broke again for a mug of coffee and to stretch our legs and make use of the facilities.....

... and where else would the ladies loos have pictures of Charles and Camilla watching you as you washed your hands, Charlie Dimmock peering at you from the ceiling as you sat on the loo.

Lots to read as you dried your hands, after washing them in the .....

... charming rustic earthenware bowl sinks.  Yes, I photographed the Ladies!!  A dedicated Blogger.

After another half an hour of questions and answers, we wandered briefly on the patio area to stretch our legs and get some fresh air while the lovely lunch was brought to the tables.  Roast chicken for the carnivores and Spinach and Ricotta Filo Pie for the veggies, with multi-coloured Tomato Salad and a huge bowls of Mixed Leaves, served with buttered New Potatoes and chunky slices of homemade bread.  All washed down with a glass or two of wine and carafes of water.  And then... a wonderfully creamy dessert topped with raspberry coulis and accompanied by chunky shortbread.  Absolutely gorgeous. 

Guess who we sat next to at lunch.....yes, you got it in one, with Alys next to me and Sarah (who owns the farm) opposite us next to Hubby, we chatted over gardening, foxes, hens, growing veggies, Pugs and Jack Russells we have both, Alice has Isabel the Jack Russell and Sarah has Mabel the Pug, and the amazing coincidence that Alys actually grew up in the area we now live in.  Everyone there was chatty and friendly and it was definitely the sort of place that you could go to alone and come away feeling that you had had a wonderful time.

And then after a brief talk about the reason we were there, to raise funds and awareness of Horatios Garden and the SSIT, it was time for the raffle, and guess what, the happy Gods were looking down on us (well maybe that and the fact that we bought lots of tickets to support this wonderful charity) and we won an Emma Bridgewater mug commemorating Horatio's Garden, the next ticket to be drawn was also ours but we asked for it to be drawn again. 

Then it was time for the guided tour of the organic gardens, the only certified organic ornamental gardens in the country and the story behind them.

We wandered the paths looking at planting ideas and wonderful arrangements,

We all marvelled at the ornamental scultures that are dotted around the place, from lovely copper water features...

... to the handles on the greenhouse being in the rather spectacular form of lizards.

Although the planting was the absolute antithisis of what Alys had inspired us to do, she complimented them on the beauty of the beds.

Wandering through the private gardens we came upon lots of wonderful pieces of artwork, here a metal kite flies tethered to a giant garden fork looking out forever over the Yeo River.

After the garden tour it was back to the tearoom to sample yet more coffee,. this time served with homemade sponge cake, sandwiched together with fresh strawberries and cream.  A lovely end to a lovely day.

Sorry if you would have liked more photos of our heroine Alys, but I am of the opinion that 'celebrities' are really just like us, and the ones that come across as normal and do not court 'celebrity' deserve their privacy.   Would you like a camera in your face at any and every opportunity, so she was only snapped if she happened to be in my line of fire.  She was however, for those of you who have not had the pleasure, perfectly normal and down to earth, and exactly as she comes across on the television........ and absolutely beautiful.

Thank you to everyone who made it so spectacular a day.

Sue xx

Off to see Alys

Today, thanks to Lucy at The Smallest Smallholding and her little photographic competition I'm off to see Alys Fowler, well to listen to her anyway.  A ninety minute talk followed by a two course lunch and a tour of the Organic Gardens here.

We're both really looking forward to this, a whole day to hear about gardening, see it in action and not actually to have to do anything.  We should come back fired up with good ideas and with full tummies as well.  Definitely my kind of day.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Sue xx

Home - The Living Room

This is our living room now it's all finished.  Like the sweeping photos of outside I simply stood and took a shot in each direction ..... so a circular tour of the living room. It measures approximately 12ft x 14ft so not a very big room, just right for us though, snugly in the evenings with all the cats and dogs sprawled on our knees and on the floor by the wood burner.

 The top picture is the window, curtains recycled (and fitting perfectly) from Jointers Farm, photos on the window sill of Lovely Hubby's family, my lovely Lavender cushion on our squidgy leather sofa, years old but too comfy to ever dispose of, and a gorgeously curvy candlestick picked up for pennies at the Oxfam shop in the village just before the move.

The bookcase that used to be in my lavender shop back in Cumbria, filled with our favourite books and topped with some of my collection of jugs and a wirework basket, a souvenir of a wonderful day at a Country Living Fair in Scotland, as is the heart shaped basket next to the fire, that's filled with dried poppy heads from Jointers.  Inside the cupboard my collection of Country Living and Vegetarian Living magazines.   The little green chair was destined to go to the car boot sale, but it has shown it's worth so many times and is just the right colour so we changed our minds.

Our little wood burner, it warms this room within an hour and the whole house within two, this and our free supply of wood from just outside the back door will keep us cosy all Winter.

All my fiction books, some read and loved kept to be re-read when I need to relax, and lots never read but picked up cheaply at charity shops and car boot sales, nothing cost over a pound all waiting for spare minutes when I can sit down and dip in.  The lovely wooden bowls and boxes break up the bookiness of it all and all hold happy memories.  Underneath we keep the log baskets for the fire.

A necessary evil, our big television, the smallest LH would let me get away with, but it looks pretty big in this cosy room.  Underneath it our collection of Dvds and some of the larger 'homey' and 'self sufficiency' books all housed in another ex shop fitting, bought from a friend with a shop opposite mine as she was moving out, and squeezed into my tiny shop until the move to Oxfordshire.

Our usual little display of pictures, added to over the years.  It started with the lonely kitten picture, a limited edition entitled 'Where's Mum', bought when I bought my very first home of my own after my divorce. We added the wooden carved Gecko after a lovely trip to the Christmas Continental Market in Manchester, it matches the one on my arm!!  Then the 'Chat Noir' black cat tin picture after our trip to Paris.  Next came the original advert that started this lifestyle change, snipped from the paper and framed for posterity in a little charity shop frame.   To it this with this move we've added a gorgeous photo of the Lake district taken by my brother.

One last turn and we see the Fortnum and Mason hamper we get each Christmas from Lovely Hubbys agency, a truly decadent and much appreciated pressie, with one of the bowls LH bought me for Christmas, hand turned by a man I used to do craft fairs with, gorgeously tactile and useful too.  Above it a print picked up in a sale just after our return from Paris, a wonderful reminder of many coffees and croissants eaten in street cafes each morning during our stay there.

In the centre, sitting on our new rug (bought cheaply at Dunelm Mill) sits my lovely Laura Ashley coffee table.  Bought for me by my Mum and Dad when I got my first home.  Drawers full of bits and bobs and the flap section at the back full of much loved Dvds It's corners chewed by Rosy when she was a puppy and now by Suky, another bit of furniture holding memories and one that we put our feet up each night in front of the tele or with books in our hands, steaming hot cups of coffee on the mats and usually a block of Toblerone to keep them company.

With all the sorting out done for this room, it will remain like this for the duration of our stay here, I'm not one for moving things round, redecorating for the sake of it or for wanting more stuff to replace what we have just to change a colour scheme.  If it gets grubby it will be cleaned, if things wear out or get broken they will be replaced, if I read books or watch Dvds that I don't like they will be popped into the box ready for the next car boot sale, but other than that this is how it will stay.  We can cosy it up even more for Winter with the addition of more cushions or some throws from the other rooms but it will only adapt not be redesigned.

You see our room is full of our things, full of our memories and warm and cosy. We love this room, it may only just be finished but it's been built up over time, layers of our lives, snippets of our memories and yet looks as if it has always meant to be..... now that's what I call HOME !!

Sue xx

Chickeny decisions, problem solved and competition won!!

Pose for a picture........not bl**dy likely!!

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking over the past couple of days, we were due to get some more chickens, we originally thought of bringing our chicken numbers back up to the fifty bird mark.  Selling the eggs both at car boot sales throughout the Summer, to colleagues and to family and friends as well as keeping ourselves supplied.

Looking carefully at the figures, cost per point of lay bird, cost of food, cost of boxes means it's not THAT profitable a little business.  Factor in that having around 50 birds means the houses need cleaning on a daily basis and then there's the medication for Red Mites, virtually guaranteed with lots of birds and hot weather, the price of bedding, the time involved.....lots to think about.

"You want me to pose for a picture.......

....oh go on then!! "

The thing that swung it for me was with 50 birds you don't get to know them!

Last night one of the Hylines, the one in the picture at the top (taken only last week) keeled over and died, simple heart failure I think, she was a big girl for a layer, lovely and healthy, full feathered and cheeky, but she had never been given a name, I came in and told Lovely Hubby that she was dead and I realised although I had fed her, looked after her and cuddled her on occasion, I had never named her.  She had arrived when we already had over 35 other hens and simply fitted into the flock.  Now we are down to a few birds I am seeing them start to be more individual.  More sure of themselves and their place in the flock and I like that.

So last night we made the monumental decision that instead of buying 18 girls this year we will buy just 6.  They will be named and they will join our flock of 7 Hylines, 1 Light Sussex (Lofty) and our 4 little Lavender Pekin Bantams.

So the eggs they lay will be mainly for us with the excess being sold to purely fund their lifestyle and pay their keep.  With just 6 new layers that will bring our egg numbers up to around 3- 4 dozen a week for the first year or so, that will be plenty.

LH is ringing a local chicken supplier this morning to see if they have the point of lay birds we have decided on in stock.  I always know when I have made the right decision, it rests lightly, this does.

*** *** *** *** ***

After yesterday Blog post I took 'The Squirrel Family's' advice and Googled 'Milk & more' and I've got us a milkman. 

He delivers in this area three days a week (our milkman is called Ricky), Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  It's all SO easy you literally set up your regular order on-line, add anything extra you need right up until 9pm the night before delivery and it's all left on your doorstep on delivery days.  You pay either by Direct Debit or regular credit card payments once a month.  How easy was that!!

Thanks Squirrel Family (sorry I don't know your real name).

*** *** *** *** ***

I've WON a competition, see The Smallest Smallholding on my sidebar to see how I won.  I'm SO excited, at last some lovely good news and something to look forward to for this Friday.  The prize is tickets for two (now who should I take.......) to listen to a talk given by my gardening hero and a guided tour of the Yeo Valley Organic Gardens, oh and did I mention that there's a two course lunch as well.  NOW you can see why I'm excited.  Thanks Lucy, thanks, thanks, thanks.

Sue xx

Shopping Expedition

Well my shopping expedition went well yesterday, although I was glad to get home after an hour or so.  I've had a really bad cold for the last few days, caught off my younger son, Jason on the day of Dad's funeral, well I did teach my children to share!!  I've been trying desperately not to let it spread to others, staying indoors and generally trying to look after myself with Lemsips and lots of hot drinks and soft tissues for days, but after an hour in a supermarket yesterday with it getting busier and busier with each passing minute I was ready to head for home.

What is this national obsession with shopping and looking for things to buy, folk were complaining about the store being closed the day before and staff said they had been packed on Saturday from opening time right until the last minute with folk buying all the bread and milk in sight.  It's a very strange modern phenomenon!!

Well anyway for those that are interested in the contents of my four shopping bags this is what I bought. All the fruits and veggies above in the top picture, some to use fresh this week and others to be chopped into 'Med Veg' packs and frozen ready for our own ready meals. Milk, butter, creme fraiche, cold meats for Lovely Hubby this week, until I get back into cooking our own and freezing it sliced and ready to go, and lots of chicken and salmon that was on offer.  I also got a couple of shop 'ready meals' a couple of Balti's that were on offer, one chicken for LH and one veggie for me, sometimes you just do not have the energy for making a meal from scratch and these will be buried deep in the freezer for one such occasion.  Better for the purse than a takeaway!!

The chicken and salmon were really good buys, and to make the most of them this is what I do....

... as soon as I get home I open the packs and wrap each individual fillet in 'easy leave' (any similar thing would do but I have a big roll of this) and then place all the fillets into rigid boxes...

... and pop in the freezer.  That way whenever I need a single fillet for LH I can just take one out, or if we have guests I can thaw as many as I need.  These have worked out at just £1.20 per chicken breast and £1.25 per salmon fillet, not too high a price to pay for good quality protein to add to LH's meals.

And the daffodils......they were my treat to me, reduced to just 50p a bunch, how could I say no!!  This morning they have opened up nicely and are filling the kitchen with their delicate perfume.

And do you spot an old friend.....yes Spotty Jug....the only casualty of our move, he got broken, a nasty chunk out of his pouring lip.  With a lot of superglue he can be used for flowers, but he is officially in retirement, being molly coddled and admired but not played with!!

Well that's my second 'Joker' played, I don't think I'll be in any rush to get back to the supermarket.  I'm hoping to find a local milkman, I've seen a milk float in the area so I'm going to try and contact the company, and soon our own things will be planted and available, until then we are once again eating our way through the contents of the freezers and cupboards in our challenge to live with less.  We have resumed the £50 a week housekeeping rule and will be adding any money over to my £2012 in 2012 pot, so that's a good incentive to stick to only little purchases from local shops.

Well I'm off now to hang out my washing on my newly 'tied between two trees' washing line, to make the most of the weak sunshine and barely there breeze we have today.  It continued to rain for quite a while yesterday and we have a couple of inches of rain in some of our water butts, at last....they were bone dry when we moved in.

What food products do you divide and freeze when you buy big packs?  I'm always on the look out for other things to store this way.

Enjoy your day.

Sue xx

Bank Holiday

It's a Bank Holiday weekend, so what does it do in this country......it rains, it always does, there's no point in getting upset about it.  We have a hosepipe ban here in Berkshire and Lovely Hubby has just re-planted all my lovely Lavenders from Jointers into their new bed by the house here, so I for one am definitely NOT complaining. 

After giving them a good drink from a watering can after planting we are now letting nature take over.   Lavender likes to be neglected, ignored and generally left to it's own devices......my favourite sort of gardening.  It leaves me to get on with growing the food, which needs attention,  nurturing, watering, thinning out and looking after in general.

So today after I get back from a spot of shoppping, I'm gritting my teeth and playing a Joker, we are sorting out the greenhouse.   This picture isn't mine it's a Google pic, I Googled 'tatty old greenhouses' and this was the nearest image to mine.  I'll take before and after shots to let you see the actual state of it when we start, at the moment it's raining much too hard to go out and get a photo.

We started the day well with a delicious cooked breakfast of fresh free range eggs on toast with home produced bacon for LH and all the scraps for the lucky dogs, that way when I get to the supermarket I will have a satisfyingly full tummy and will not be seduced by offers and bargains of things we don't need.

The reason for the supermarket shop.......we need a big stock up of fresh fruits and veggies to keep us going until our own produce is available.  We feel as though we are coming out of a tunnel of fast food, junk food and food grabbed on the go, and we need to get back to our healthy eating days of last Summer, so one big shop should get us sorted.  Mostly fresh things and some frozen fruits and veggies too and I won't have to darken Mr Sainsburys door again for a long, long time.  I also have £24.41 available on my Nectar card so that will be deducted from my shopping bill - happy days.

What are you doing this rainy Bank Holiday Monday, or do you have some sunshine, I hope you do.

Sue xx

Happy Easter....or do I mean Christmas.........

Happy Easter....or do I mean Christmas.........!!

This year, in true frugal fashion we are mainly eating chocolate Santas for Easter.  What is the best bit of an Easter egg, well in my opinion it is the biting into the hollowness of it.  All year we can chomp our way through bars of chocolate, squares or triangles (yes, we're Toblerone addicts in this house), good solid chunks of chocolatey loveliness, that it has just been announced on the news IS GOOD FOR US!! 

But what comes out at Easter (and yes, as we are proving also at Christmas) lovely hollow chocolate that snaps delightfully into weird and wonderful shards of delectable goodness.

When Approved Foods announced lots of retail packs of Chocolate Santas available a couple of months ago, at a ridiculously low price I wasted no time at all in sending for a box for us.  Of course I bought lots of sensible things too.....like more chocolate and some yummy Cheese and Onion crisps.

  Must dash I think we have a couple left in the fridge........

Happy Easter, and remember it's not just about the chocolate!!

Sue xx