Saturday 16th

 Halfway through May.

I'm an idiot.......... you'd think I'd been growing stuff long enough to know not to plant things out before late May so why did I put the 2 courgette plants out in the garden in early May? Without covering them.

Monday morning there were two very frost damaged plants sadly drooping and turning black. It was cloudy Sunday night and I wasn't expecting temps to drop so low..........but they obviously did. Thank goodness there are plenty of courgette plants for sale at car-boots. On Monday night and the rest of the week I made sure to put fleece over the tomato, cucumber and other mini plants and seedlings in the greenhouse, the forecast was for more chilly nights. Two new courgette plants will be coddled in the greenhouse until 'all danger of frost is past'. Daytimes this week have been cold too with a N.E wind, not very nice after the warm weather. 

The gumpf with all the information about the new Recycling system starting in June arrived in the post this week. A more detailed look at what can go in which bins and a calendar so we know which week is which bin. 

At the moment I have a basket in the under-the-sink cupboard for all the dry recycling which can just be tipped straight into the bin, but now paper and card need separating from cans and plastics so either I stand outside sorting or I find somewhere in the kitchen for the different things.

I know this is a government initiative but I can't help thinking that some people won't be able to manage to sort or remember the correct days and will worry about the dire warnings that bins won't be emptied due to  putting 'the wrong thing in the bins'  and more stuff will end up in the general rubbish bin and landfill than there is at the moment.

I've had a week of  restocking the freezer with batch made meals after realising that there were just 5 boxes of Quorn korma curry and 3 boxes of pizza topping left- don't like getting that low on choice.

 I started with 8 boxes of salmon, brocolli,sweetcorn and pasta bakes while the bread machine made two more pizza bases but before finishing  off the pasta bakes I had to turn a bag of bits of crusts into dried breadcrumbs for the cheese/crumb topping.

(Note to self - if you keep adding bits of crust to a bag in the freezer you do actually need to dry them and turn them into crumbs before the morning you want to use them)

Next up was two nut loaves using the recipe on the recipe page and I remembered to use the jar of cranberry sauce that was still in the fridge - after being unopened at Christmas.

I squashed the mix down in the tins a bit more and gave it a bit longer in the oven than last time so it all held together rather than falling apart. I cut into 8 chunky  pieces as they turned out to be not very deep for slices.

Finally several servings of Bolognese sauce using Quorn mince, cans of tomatoes, onion and a red pepper will be made today or tomorrow. 

There's nothing in my diary for anything happening to visit this weekend except for a small craft/plant fair in the village. 

Have a good weekend - I shall be back Monday.

What is/was/will be on TV?

 I was looking to see where on TV I can watch the French Open Tennis which starts next week and discovered that Jack Draper is out through injury and so is Carlos Alcaraz. So no big Sinner/Alcaraz final then. 

It's on  TNT Sports and £30.99 for the month again. Last year I decided to afford it by not going to the big Suffolk Show or the 1940s weekend at the Middy Railway. I'm undecided this year - £30.99 for a month goes against the grain..............but I do love tennis.

 Although no Suffolk Show for me this year either - it's just too big, exhausting and expensive (£33 pre paid for concessions or £40 on the day - £48 for other adults - Good Grief!! ). Much as I enjoyed going and watching the show jumping and everything else  a few years ago.

But I think I will go to the Middy Heritage Railway 1940s thing over late May Bank Hol weekend as I want to see the new extra quarter mile of track which takes the railway to within one field of where I used to live.

After watching several sessions of the 17 days of the World Snooker Championships on TV which finished on the early May Bank Holiday Monday I discovered the Seniors Snooker Championship was on from last Wednesday to last Sunday. Good to see 24 of  the 'oldies' - actually they only need be over 40 - so still young. Then they were plugging a snooker tournament called the 900 which started on Pluto TV on Tuesday. It has a very different format to proper snooker, had to google it to see how it works- not a fan.

In between all the sport I've been watching episodes of Bull. This has just appeared on the 5 catch-up channel arriving from the US and starring Michael Weatherly who was in NCIS when I watched that back in 2022. This is the precis if you haven't seen it..........

 Dr Jason Bull, a psychologist and a trial science expert, heads a consulting firm that helps its clients choose the right jurors and aids them in deciding the best argument that can win the case.

Makes a change from police/special agent things. Looks as if it had six series from 2017 to 2022, so it's taken a while to get to watch for free here. What I like about US dramas is that they make so many in a series - here we're lucky to have six! 

Then of course there is the World Cup Football which starts on the 11th June and finishes 19th July - I'm not much of an international football fan so when it overlaps with Wimbledon (29th June to 12th July) The tennis will come first. 

We seem to have crept around to the Eurovison Song Contest this year (tomorrow night) and I'd not even heard what the UK entry was. So I looked on line..............Oh Good Grief! What a weird one.

 Lots of Countries are boycotting the Eurovison this year after Isreal were allowed to enter. 

So much for trying not to let politics into what was meant to be a song contest .........now it's just a weird music/fancy dress show!

I shall probably half  watch.

Maybe I watch too much TV, but it's good company in a very quiet home alone.

Going back a couple of days - thank you to everyone for comments on the post about SS Nevasa. It was good to hear from other people who'd heard of these Educational Cruises. Not common knowledge!

Roots

 It took a while but the basil cuttings finally produced some roots.

I've put them into compost in pots in the greenhouse now - 7 had roots good enough - hopefully they'll get going to make decent plants. Fingers crossed.

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