Last Day of the Month - Ins, Outs and Frugal bits

How did July look in the Accounts Book?

Added to the usual income (County Council spouses pension and interest from savings) was the £55 Wayleave payment and £10 from books sold to Music Magpie.

Outgoings were the usual Direct Debits  for Council Tax, Phones and Charity and a new one of Car Breakdown Insurance after negotiating 3 months without paying any. I had set up a regular order of the cat calming plug-in pheromone stuff on Amazon - it's not cheap but has certainly stopped Polly over grooming herself.
Then there was food for me and cat and  2 new books mentioned yesterday.  There were no household bills in July but I used a bit more diesel this month - trips to the beach at Felixstowe with family added some extra miles, although still spending only half what I was spending each month before covid and price drop. The window cleaner turned up - neither of us could understand how 7 weeks goes round so quickly.
Car boot spending has been minimal - due to Sunday rain and the fact that I don't need anything so my purse is only opened if I spot something to put away for Grandchildren or something that will save me money later. There are loads of people selling and buying at Stonham Barns because the two bigger boot sales are not re-starting but much is tat and ornaments. Last Sunday I spent just £2, the boxes of matches were 50p each which I thought was a good saving but turned out to only save 25p each box and when I put them away I found there was already a box in the cupboard..........no matches needed for ages now.

Another of the Orchard Toys games for a grandchild was the other £1 spent. As usual I could have spent lots more on games and toys, but I need to be sensible about what they really need and how much cash there is to spare.

I didn't bother with a Chinese take-away last Saturday after all  so my only spending on food away from home was one pensioners fish and chips and treating the family too when Eldest was here. Even meeting blogger Rachel-in-Norfolk for a cuppa in Morrisons turned into a cheap morning because their coffee machines weren't working - so no cappuccino - just a £1 tea instead (and a 30p doughnut - tut tut!)


Frugal bits

• Lots of fresh vegetables from the garden
• Saving the cold water to use elsewhere while waiting for the hot when washing up
• Choosing dry days to do the washing
• Green beans and mange-tout peas put into freezer
• Bread-maker used for all my bread
• Always mixing milk half and half with water
• Nothing spent on gardening stuff or clothes/shoes/hair.

How will August pan out? Well, in theory I don't need to buy any more books now the library van will be round each month  and they've let people reserve books again - at last,  BUT the Furrowed Middlebrow NEW SELECTION of reprints is out on the 3rd August and I might be tempted.

The half year water bill is due - that might be a bit more than usual. Sometimes the electric bill comes right at the end of August and it looks as if one of the cooker gas cylinders will run out  during the month too and I've just emptied the last of the petrol into the mower so that will need refilling.
Other than that it should be a lowish spend month..........I hope.

Have  good weekend
Back Monday
Sue

Yesterday

Very pleased with what I got done outside yesterday  - first the biggish job of cutting down all the raspberry canes that have finished fruiting. Two big wheelbarrows full added to the bonfire heap. It's easy to see which canes need cutting down while the leaves are still on them =  all the ones that have gone yellow and starting to die off. Somewhere in the overgrown muddle that is the raspberry area are some Autumn fruiting canes - hopefully.

I came in to have a coffee after the clearing up and THUD - the postman brought me a new book - I'm so enjoying this buying  books thing - I told my sister about Mum always saying when giving me birthday or Christmas money " for goodness sake don't spend it on books" and she doesn't remember Mum ever saying anything similar to her. So it seems it's only me with guilt about spending money on things I love best.

These were the two books I bought for July. I'm reading The Splendid and the Vile - it's fascinating but I'm not going to get it finished before the mobile library brings my great ol' heap of reservations.

While I was indoors a man came from UK Power Network with information about a planned power cut in mid - August . Just for one morning when they are working on some power lines down the road - so no problem.

Back outside and I remembered I wanted to wrap some duct tape around my washing line - trying to make it last a bit longer as the outer plastic has split in several places. Then I filled some small pots with compost for pegging in some strawberry runners that have appeared from the new plants in pots on the patio. I'm thinking about abandoning the strawberry bed we made when we came here - it's just too dry where it is and too far to carry water and if I don't bother with squash and pumpkins in pots then I've enough big pots to have several filled with strawberries on the patio - within reach of the outside tap and hosepipe.

After lunch I strimmed around the edges of the raspberry bed and did some more grass cutting with the ride on mower, after that it was time for a cuppa and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Battle of the Brits tennis. So Very good to see some live sport on TV and a favourite sport too. Saw a trail for snooker starting Friday as well.
 

A good day
Back Tomorrow
Sue

(Almost) End of July Home Produced Round Up

I've been keeping a list of food from the garden this year, with great plans to weigh things for a running total to work out it's worth BUT of course I haven't weighed or counted. I know I've given away beans, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers and eaten lots of everything.


An update of what I've had from the garden so far this year..........

• Lettuces
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves as salad leaves
• Lots of Cucumbers - and even more given away
• a few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants and a few from the old bed.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• Several courgettes.
• New potatoes 
• Lots of tomatoes from greenhouse
• 2lb Redcurrants
• Several aubergines and more given away

New for July

• Beetroot
• Few mange-tout peas  - put in the freezer
• Green beans  - some put in the freezer
• 2 small Calabrese heads.
• Onions

I might as well have not bothered with squash or pumpkins in big pots - the plants grew, there are lots of flowers but Not One Single Squash on any of the 5 plants so far and the two pumpkin plants have produced one each - no bigger than a cricket ball and then the plants promptly keeled over and died. Back to putting squash in the garden next year and not growing pumpkins at all I think - I was only growing them to give away to the grandchildren anyway!

The 4 plants of  4 different brassica varieties are squeezed into too small a space so they might not do well - it seemed a good idea at the time to grow winter greens again after not doing so for a while but keeping the cabbage white butterflies off is a hard task,  I'll probably not bother next year.

I've no idea how the late sowing Runner Beans plan will go. The 1st June sowing are up the canes and flowering and the 1st July sowing are still only about 18 inches tall but as the French climbing beans are still very prolific there's no hurry. I've been trying to persuade Sis in Law that French climbing are a Much better idea than Dwarf French beans - they take up less space, don't get rain-splashed and you don't have to bend down so far to pick them. Maybe I'll pop some saved seed into the Christmas Hamper.

It's been lovely to see SiL and BiL enjoying vegetable gardening for the first time in many many years. Sil's job involves her travelling around the country, much responsibility and many hours but 4 months at home shielding BiL means that Board Meetings etc are now all online and that's given them both time to clear what was a patch of brambles and wildness into a very productive patch. Their greenhouse took her days to empty, tidy and clean but that too is now full of donated tomato plants - including a Black variety - which I didn't fancy eating at all - a bit too reminiscent of a Deadly Nightshade type thing!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Ogham Tree Alphabet 8th Lunar Month July into August

Why, I wondered, is Holly the tree representing the 8th Lunar month  when it's traditionally thought of as a tree connected with winter and  it's now mid summer?

The Book .......


explains it all...........the two brothers who fight for dominance and the Holly King taking over from now until Yule.

I cycled along the lanes to take a photo of one of the big Hollies, there are three down this road, one of which is where I can reach to cut a little each December.

Not easy to see that it is a Holly from a distance but Yes it really is...........with many berries forming.

The Holly represents the letter T as well as the number 8 in the Ogham Alphabet and planted near a house was thought to protect from storms, lightening and fire. Superstition says no witch could cross a threshold made of Holly wood.

A decoction made from Holly leaves was  once used to induce sweating and to treat coughs but the berries should never be ingested as they are a strong purgative, although they were once dried, powdered and used to stop external bleeding.

We planted two baby Hollies on the meadow, they are still less than two feet tall - very slow growing which means the trees down the road must be quite old.


(Thanks to everyone for answering the milk powder in bread makers question. I've added it without really thinking about why - especially as it's such a small amount - how can it make much difference? I shall now do some experiments)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local(2) Conclusion

How easy it is to eat local in July when there is lots of lovely produce in the garden.  It would have been much more difficult without, as it's so hard to find local vegetables for sale. Even the Hog and Hen Farm shop just a few miles from home gets most of it's stuff from a regional fruit and veg wholesaler - I happened to be there as they were unloading crates of all sorts.

The things which were needed that are not local were yeast and milk powder (why do bread-maker recipes always use milk powder?) salt, pepper,cornflour, tubes of garlic and tomato puree and coffee of course. I also 'cheated' and ate shop-bought apples (which come all the way from New-Zealand!) because of not having much fruit from the garden. My eating apples are still several weeks away from being ready to eat.

I ate hardly any meat all week so still have the local sausages in the freezer plus local flour, rape seed oil in the cupboard and the Hill Farm Garlic Mayonnaise(which is very tasty) in the fridge.

Breakfast with the local honey on toast never got tedious and sandwich or that fruit meringue for lunch was good plus finding different ways to eat Aubergines was interesting.

All in all a good few days experiment.

 I've now done this "sort-of" challenge in November and July - so perhaps I'd better do it again it  in late winter and the  middle of spring...........could be difficult.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturdays Come Round So Quickly

Seem to have spent the week cutting grass - it just keeps growing this year and there is so much of it......the footpath down the meadow, around the new trees, all around the back garden, all the small bits between the veg. beds, around the orchard, out the front and the area under the Turkey Oak. I'm just glad to own a ride on and a battery mower - imagine having to do all that with an old fashioned push machine.

Haven't had any flowers in for a couple of weeks and these are all there were this week. The Alstromeria which ought to be flowering well have hardly a bud between them.

I bought red onions, red peppers and red chili peppers to use with my tomatoes to make my Red Hot Relish. There were some Huge tomatoes all at once that needed using quickly.

And put a ton of climbing beans into the freezer

This week I'm grateful for

• Lots more puzzle pages from the local paper collected from Col's sister to keep the old brain working

• A socially distanced visit from my sister and BiL
• More butterfly spotting. I THINK this is a very faded Small Tortoiseshell, as it has blue spots on the edge but the white bits should be yellower.

Will it be yet another wet Sunday morning to make the car-boot sale a wash-out again?  I hope not.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing,  I might treat myself to a Chinese takeaway.

Back Monday
Sue

Charity Shop Visit

Early this week I needed to go to the Oxfam shop in Diss to get my favourite drinking chocolate, but was a bit early as they are delaying opening until 10 for extra cleaning, so had to wait outside - looking in the window - which proved expensive.

Because I spotted this

 

Wooden board games in a storage chest with all the bits in a drawer in the bottom.  "It's got some bits missing" the lady said. But as it was priced at £4.99 I thought I'd risk it, especially as I've got counters and dice at home - enough for snakes and ladders and ludo which will probably be the favourites to play with the grandchildren when they get a bit older. It's also got draughts and chess and some other boards marked out for games that I've never played like Nine Men's Morris.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) part 7

Many thanks for comments about butterflies yesterday. It's so easy to photograph them on the Buddleia as they feed on them for ages. Not so easy to take photos of the smaller butterflies down the meadow - they are always in a hurry and very shy!

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

 Another way of eating aubergines found on the BBC Good Food website. This was a bit of a faff for one person and as usual I didn't follow it exactly because of not having half the ingredients and using local! The ingredients below are for 4 people for a main course or 6 if served as a side dish to meat.

 Olive oil   (I used the Norfolk rape-seed oil)
3 aubergines,, sliced thinly lengthways (I used 1 medium sized home grown)

2 medium red onions, very thinly sliced (I used half a white onion home grown)

2 garlic cloves, crushed ( I used a squirt of garlic puree - not local)

5 large plum tomatoes, thinly sliced ( I used one of my large plum tomatoes)

4 lemon thyme sprigs, leaves picked ( I used common thyme as that's what I have growing)
zest ½ unwaxed lemon (Missed this out as I didn't have one)

175g soft goat's cheese, crumbled ( nope! just grated some local cheese on top after it had cooked a bit)
100g good-quality black olives, pitted and chopped ( No didn't have these either)
500g waxy potatoes ( I used one large  home grown Charlotte potato)

The full recipe is HERE but basically it's a layered gratin thing, even using a small amount made too much for one person.

Had a busy morning in the kitchen while I was doing this recipe as I also made a huge batch of the simple Aubergine/Tomato pasta sauce ( 6 portions into the freezer) and some Herby bread rolls.

I didn't photograph it after cooking as it wasn't very good looking but it tasted delicious although a tad oily even though I drained the aubergine slices on kitchen roll paper, so I was glad of a bread roll to mop up the juices. 

 The recipes are on the separate recipe page if you need them.

Counting Butterflies

There's a Butterfly count going on all round the country at the moment. The information is HERE. 
You can take part anytime between now and the 9th August.

It would be lovely to see all these (2 day-flying moths are included) but very, very unlikely

I attempted to count how many were on the Buddleia, but there were so many it was impossible.

Almost all were Peacock butterflies plus a couple of Large White and one or two Red Admirals

 But this was the most exciting spot because I didn't see any at all last year. It's a Comma.

Down the meadow I've spotted Ringlets, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper. Last year there were Painted Lady flutterbies everywhere - haven't seen one at all this year

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 6 and Aubergines

Since I wrote about how quickly the first aubergine was growing on the 23rd June, the greenhouse has produced lots of aubergines, I sent some home with Eldest Daughter. It's always better to have too many than too few, yet until maybe 10 or 12 years ago I'd never even eaten one and certainly not grown them.
We didn't really grow many to sell at the smallholding until we had the third polytunnel up, that was when Col packed up County Council full time to go self-employed in 2012.
Aubergines or Eggplants (they were originally white and smaller) or Brinjal - so many names in different parts of the world, are members of the the nightshade family Solanaceae.

 Wikiwotsit says
 The aubergine is unrecorded in England until the 16th century. An English botany book in 1597 described the madde or raging Apple:

This plant groweth in Egypt almost everywhere... bringing foorth fruite of the bignes of a great Cucumber.... We have had the same in our London gardens, where it hath borne flowers, but the winter approching before the time of ripening, it perished: notwithstanding it came to beare fruite of the bignes of a goose egge one extraordinarie temperate yeere... but never to the full ripenesse.

Because of the plant's relationship with various other nightshades, the fruit was at one time believed to be extremely poisonous. The flowers and leaves can be poisonous if consumed in large quantities due to the presence of solanine.
The eggplant has a special place in folklore. In 13th-century Italian traditional folklore, the eggplant can cause insanity. In 19th-century Egypt, insanity was said to be "more common and more violent" when the eggplant is in season in the summer.

 In the past......before I started growing them........ they were very bitter. Old recipes always say that the slices need salting and rinsing to draw out the bitterness, but that's been bred out of them, making them easier to use. 

Last year I made lots of Aubergine and Tomato Sauce for the freezer which was a good use. Later in the year I did boxes of roasted mixed vegetables including aubergines - which wasn't a good idea. Roasted chunks of aubergines frozen and re-heated are  not nice!

 Need new ideas and when I searched among all the photocopies and cuttings in my folder I found

Aubergines with Goats Cheese
For each person
One aubergine, halved lengthways
Olive oil (I used rape seed oil)
Sun Dried tomato paste (I used one of my own plum tomatoes sliced)
Fresh Basil leaves - torn
Goats cheese (or brie or cheddar)

1. Preheat grill. Brush both sides of aubergine with Olive oil and season. Place aubergines cut side up on a baking sheet and grill for 7 minutes. Turn them over and grill for 5 minutes
2. Spread the cut sides with tomato paste and arrange basil leaves on top. Slice goats/brie cheese and arrange on the aubergines. Season and grill until bubbling.
3. Serve with salad leaves and crusty bread.

I tried this a couple of weeks ago with goat cheese and then last week bought Suffolk Gold because as far as I know there are no local-ish producers of goats cheese selling it in Suffolk.

Grated it over the top and it was better than goats cheese as it melted really well

This is so quick and easy to do and  I ate it with one of my homemade herby bread rolls.

I've got one other aubergine recipe to try (if I can find it again) which is a layered aubergine and potato concoction. But for freezing for winter I'm definitely doing some batches of the tomato and aubergine pasta sauce.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local(2) Part 5

It rained here yesterday morning so no boot sale. The only rain for days and it falls on a Sunday morning! Ho Hum

The eating locally produced is ongoing and so easy with all the garden produce.When I made the Bacon and Egg Pie last week I saved a small bit of pastry and rolled thinly, just enough to do a pastry case for a mixed fruit meringue pie with odds and ends of fruit from the garden.


Some almost past-it  gooseberries, last of the redcurrants and a couple of early very sharp cooking apples, all cooked up with quite a lot of sugar. Stirred in some cornflour (sadly not local) and  egg yolks. Then used the egg whites and sugar to make meringue for the top.

It's very pink and divides into 6.I've been eating for lunch instead of a sandwich some days.





These were a surprise from the garden

Two of the 4 calabrese plants have produced a head already, much earlier than they should and very small due to dry/chilly weather I guess.

I made a little cheese sauce and fried some of my potatoes..........After peeling - as this is the damage ants have done to some of the lovely Charlotte spuds. Every year I threaten to stop bothering with potatoes as this always happens.

Then it gets to February and the East Anglian Potato Day and there I am again getting some seed potatoes as usual.

Breakfast was toast and the very local honey which I'm enjoying as a change from toast and marmalade.

I keep forgetting to welcome some new followers - Hello, thank you for pressing the follower button  hope you like reading my ramblings.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturday Round-up + One Week Eating Local (2). Part 4

Did anyone watch the programme about how the 2012 Olympic open ceremony was organised yesterday? I caught the end. There were so many bits I'd not seen at the time (or when this programme first went out in 2016). 2012 was a busy summer for us - as Colin had given up full time County Council work in March so we were growing and selling even more than usual and he took on lots of local work too. The Olympics went by in a blur, so I shan't mind watching a few bits again although I'd rather have seen what we should have been watching from Tokyo. Hope it happens next year - perhaps Covid 19 will be long forgotten by then. Boris says things might be more normal for Christmas - goodness knows if he is right or not. We can only wait and see.

Meanwhile I'm going to be shopping even less than I have been after next Friday because I find wearing a mask very claustrophobic (Wow I got the right spelling first time!). For the last 4 months I've been once a fortnight to either Asda or Morrisons and then a quick trip to the local Co-op in between. I've not been in any town centre shops and other than food shops have only been in the bank, post office, farm shop and local hardware shop. Far from encouraging me to rush out to all the other shops in Stowmarket or Diss the mask wearing will make me visit less - no help to the economy at all!

A mixed weather week but OK for getting some grass cut and weeding done.  Wednesday evening was positively chilly and when I got up Thursday morning I found the boiler running - not good for mid July and then Friday the temperature suddenly shot up to the high 70s. I haven't been far all week again, just local Co-op, Farm shop and Post Office where I sent another parcel of books off to Music Magpie. Not a lot earned but better than nothing.

The Runner bean seeds sown late on July 1st have now been planted out and  the Basil cuttings which had rooted really well in their modules have been put in bigger pots. 6 very healthy plants from that £1 pot from Morrisons and all the remaining leaves were used  fresh and or dried in the microwave.

The eating local carried on with the rest of the bacon and egg pie with home made potato salad and my own cucumber and beetroot. Still honey on toast for breakfast. Cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch with beetroot.


This week I'm grateful for

• Locally produced food
• Lots of veg. from the garden
• Time to get back to the cross stitch 

I hope you have good plans for the weekend.
If the weather is fine I shall have a socially distanced coffee with Col's sister today and the car boot sale tomorrow............ MUST get up earlier, although the forecast says rain first thing. I need to look for a rolling pin and palette knife as I'm making things with terracotta coloured air-drying clay (More hamper gifts so I won't be putting the photo up until December 26th!) and I don't want my good kitchen tools stained or spoiled.
Otherwise I'll be reading, cross stitching and probably a bit more grass cutting - the only way to keep up with it is to do some almost everyday.


Back Monday
Sue

One Week Eating Local(2) Part 3

My Mum was a Plain Cook. Meat and 2 veg was the norm but long before the age of the quiche she used to make a bacon and egg pie. I seem to remember the bacon was always a bit chewy - so she obviously didn't cook the bacon before making the pie and I'm sure there was never any onion in it.

I decided as a change from a quiche a bacon and egg pie was one thing I could make with the local produce - local flour from Essex, butter from a few miles down the road, bacon from about 10 miles away and eggs from 4 miles from home plus a tomato and onion from the garden. Loving the green beans.

One fruit growing here which I nearly forgot about were the Cherry-plums on a tree in the bottom corner boundary of the garden. These were all I could reach and the wasps had found a few but better than nothing.

Home made toast and local honey for breakfast and a BLT sandwich for lunch which I ate too quickly to take a photo - it's a rare treat.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

1 Week Eating Local (2) Part 2

Before I write about eating local - have you heard the warnings about courgettes? Both Thomson and Morgan and Fothergills seed companies have withdrawn seeds from sale as people eating the courgettes grown from some of their seeds have complained about sickness and stomach cramps. It seems cross pollination may mean some seeds are producing bitter courgettes of a slightly different type from what they should be. Mine are T & M so a bit concerning. Haven't noticed a problem yet.



If you want to look back at my one week eating local in November last year, it's HERE.

Returning to this year.

Breakfast of homemade bread toasted, with the local butter and local honey bought a couple of weeks ago (half a mile and many bee-miles!) I put it in the fridge and it's set nicely so doesn't run off the toast.

As you can see I'm not drinking local!

Lunch......... Egg (4 miles)+ Hill Farm Garlic Mayo sandwich  with my own beetroot and little tomatoes

This simple Bacon, Brie and tomato salad was delicious. The leaves are rocket and small beetroot leaves from the garden. Topped with a large sliced home grown tomato. Then Brundish Farm(10 miles) local bacon bits fried until a bit crispy, the Suffolk Brie cheese (7 miles) and home made croutons.

A salad dressing made with a little honey, rapeseed oil and cider vinegar (The Aspall factory is about 4 miles as the crow flies) with a spot of wholegrain mustard - not local sadly........... the only local I could see was Horseradish Wholegrain Mustard from Hill Farm at Halesworth.....not keen on Horseradish and I had Morrisons Wholegrain in the cupboard already . I know Colmans of Norwich do a Wholegrain Mustard but neither Morrisons or Asda stock it and I'm not sure the mustard is actually made in Norfolk anymore anyway.


Last of the raspberries - the few left are being attacked by wasps, I think there's a wasp nest somewhere down the meadow. I've tried to see where they are going but can't spot a nest anywhere.

 

My week eating local actually ended up being done in two parts and this first day was early last week before Eldest Daughter came. The day after this I had some bad effects and when I had another look at the Brie I found it was Not Good . I'd only bought it two days before but had no receipt so couldn't take it back. I shall be more careful with their cheese in future and check dates properly.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 1 = The Start

It was last November when I did the One Week of Local Eating, eating only food produced in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex as much as possible - that's nearly 8 months ago - good grief.

I decided it would be interesting to do it again with so much of my own food available and bought brie and butter from the Dairy Farm down the A140

Then from the 'Locally Produced' shelves at the Co-op. Flour from Essex, Hill Farm Garlic Mayonaisse from near Halesworth in Suffolk and  Rapeseed oil from Norfolk. Co-op usually do Hill Farm Rapeseed oil but perhaps that's not available at the moment. Bacon from Brundish (10 miles) and Sausages from Bury St Edmunds

From the garden I've got the first onions, not very big but already the tops have gone over thanks to wind and rain

Also available are aubergines, tomatoes and cucumber from the greenhouse. Courgettes, potatoes, mangetout peas, beetroot and green beans from the garden.

Not a lot of fruit left in the garden as the strawberries have finished, but there are a few raspberries left. Most gooseberries and redcurrants are in the freezer but windfall apples are just about use-able with plenty of cooking and sugar.

The cheapest local eggs are only 80p a half-dozen

Bit blurry, had to take the photo in a hurry as another car pulled up for eggs just behind me.

That's my start position

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Visiting Two Car-Boot Sales

  On my Saturday 4th post I was trying to decide about going to the first Sunday car boot sale - the small local one just 15 minutes from home - well I went but not very early because it was drizzling here at 7am when I got up. It wasn't busy at all and they'd made wide passage ways with a one-way system between the cars. It felt safer than a supermarket - especially as it was really windy so any virus would have been whipped away over the fields very quickly! Arriving after 9 it was too late for bargains - if there were any, so all I spent was 50p - guess what on ? yep, a book of course.

 

 This Sunday just gone I was a bit earlier arriving, the sun was shining and oh my goodness what a difference, it was crowded............both sellers and buyers.  It's not surprising really as all the other boot sales around haven't re-started but I think  16  weeks of quiet at home means that I've lost my car-booting mojo...........didn't really enjoy it at all. So a quick look round and home for breakfast.

This is what I found

2 Pairs of gardening gloves will be for the two Christmas hampers. Christmas books for the oldest 2 grandchildren and a couple of zip up folders...........total spend £2.50.

If I'm to go again next Sunday it will need to be much earlier and with a list of the few things I need to specifically look for, if I don't go I might spend the rest of the day wondering what I'd missed!!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Start of a New Week

It was lovely to have Eldest Daughter and Eldest Grandson staying for a few days but goodness me that 4 year old is exhausting! He never stops talking and hopping and jumping  about  from the moment he wakes until bedtime.The weather wasn't good but they still managed to get out and about with his local cousins and aunties and finally Saturday was sunny and warm for a trip to the beach at Felixstowe.

Last Tuesday I had my first charity shop visit for months and found two Action Men for Jacob's visit. I had no idea if boys still like Action Men and couldn't remember at what age - but it's something a bit different................. Soon found out 4 year olds who are mad on cars and dinosaurs aren't interested in muscly toy men wearing camouflage gear! Oh well perhaps when he's older.

It was a good thing they didn't stay over Saturday night, he would have been woken with a start as I'd just about nodded off when there was an explosion of fireworks somewhere very close - although not in our lane. Looked at the clock -a few minutes after 11pm - a tad inconsiderate I thought, not something that's a common occurrence around here thank goodness, the fireworks didn't last long and I was soon asleep again.

I've returned all my library books through the returns letter box at the nearest library building to get them back into the circulation system.  Suffolk libraries are sort-of open with an odd system of ring, say what type of books you'd like and staff will pick a selection for you and ring you to say when you can collect them - all seems a bit of a faff - and how many people are going to want someone else to pick their books for them? Hopefully when the mobile library comes later this month he'll have the books that have been requested and waiting for me since March.

Good news about swimming pools re-opening later this month, I'm looking forward to finding out how it will work at the small pool where I go  - on line booking, lane swimming and limited numbers for sure.

A very delicious addition to the food produced at home list last week - The first Green Beans - so good.

Quite a lot to do this week as I want to get organised to do a week of eating local food again, also have grass to cut, much weeding in the veg garden and strawberry runners need pegging into pots to make new plants and probably many other jobs that I can't remember at the moment..



Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Wayleave Payment

Do you know about Wayleave?

Wayleave is a payment for having power cables or poles on or over your land in exchange for allowing the power company onto your land to work on the cables or posts

We first became aware of it at the smallholding where the high voltage power cables taking electricity from Sizewell Power Station passed over a corner of the meadow. Every year we would get letters from companies asking if we would like them to apply for a wayleave payment on our behalf.  Unfortunately we never got a penny because the person who owned the smallholding back in the late 1960s when the first power station was built accepted a one off lump sum payment!
What we did get twice a year was a magazine all about what National Grid were doing, their involvement with nature conservation and how they worked in co-operation with farmers around the country. Plus every now and again the regional Wayleave Officer would ring or visit to make sure everything was OK about allowing their staff on our land.

When we got the deeds to our house up the end of the lane I discovered among the ton of papers that we were entitled to a Wayleave payment for the pole and fixings in the corner of the garden and the wires that run over the hedgerow between the garden and the field, taking electricity across the fields to a distant farm.

This cheque arrived last week.

I can hear you thinking - "that's a handy amount" except that nowadays they only pay out small  amounts like this once every 10 years! .....So £5.50 a year ..........Wonder if I'll still be around in 10 years time?

Still a nice surprise.

I'm taking a few days off while family are visiting.
Back in a while
Sue

On the Red Hill ; Where Four Lives Fell into Place

 When I wrote about the long list for the  Wainwright prize for nature writing on June 9th, I said there was one that sounded interesting............. so I bought it. 

It was 'On the Red Hill' by Mike Parker

 

On the Red Hill is the story of Rhiw Goch, ‘the Red Hill’, and its inhabitants, but also the story of a remarkable rural community and a legacy that extends far beyond bricks and mortar. It is a story that celebrates the turn of the year’s wheel, of ever-changing landscapes, and of the family found in the unlikeliest of places.

I like reading about parts of the country I know and the small town of Machynlleth is a place we often visited whenever we went to The Centre for Alternative Technology which is just a few miles from the town.

 This is a story of a house in the hills outside of Machynlleth and the two people who owned it before passing it to the author and his partner.

 In 2016 Mike Parker and his partner Peredur were witnesses at the civil partnership of their elderly friends Reg and George, the first to be held in the Welsh town of Machynlleth. A few years later when Reg and George died within weeks of each other Mike and Peredur found that Rhiw Goch had been left to them. Mike has put this book together using George's diaries and photographs and Reg's paintings and notes and the memories of people who knew them. This fascinating book is a look at how life for gay couples has changed in 60 years and how the year turns in a quiet beautiful part of North Wales.

There was one paragraph that resonated for me ...........Silence is as rare and precious a commodity as a truly dark sky, and only more so today. Almost no one, even in the countryside, is free of the hiss of traffic somewhere in their soundscape, the starkest proof of our Faustian pact with the car. I know that the irony verges on hypocrisy, for living at Rhiw Goch makes us painfully dependent on driving, but the divine absence of road noise here is the luxury I'd find hardest to give up.

That's just how I feel about this house. As the quiet country roads near the smallholding gradually got busier we (well me usually)  often wondered if there was anywhere left in Suffolk where you couldn't hear constant traffic in the distance. This house up the end of the lane is one of those rare places. That's one reason I will be sad to leave when the time comes.

I enjoyed On The Red Hill - a really good well written story.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

It's All About Basil

The common name for Basil might come from the Greek word for King -   Basileus. In some countries it was valued highly and in others thought of as evil and in some old herbals it was thought basil could turn into scorpions- Strange what people thought hundreds of years ago.

Back in early smallholding days, when I grew herbs to sell at the Suffolk Smallholders show, I often grew different sorts including Purple Ruffles and Large Leaf Lettuce basil. Basil is supposed to be a good companion plant for tomatoes so always planted out into the polytunnel beds - it did well there.

 This year my basil seeds failed to germinate - twice - so (when I eventually remembered ) I bought a pot of basil from Morrisons for £1 and took lots of cuttings, put them in water and hoped for roots.

(The pegs around the edge aren't pegging the cuttings to the jar, just there to lodge the cuttings so they don't fall right into the water.) Every few days I stood the jar in the sink and ran in some fresh water.
The leaves I took off the cuttings before putting them in water were dried in the microwave on a bit of kitchen roll, then crunched up and stored in a jar.

For ages they didn't seem to be doing anything but eventually the cuttings produced some good roots

Only one cutting failed to root and the others have now been potted up into compost to grow on and hopefully give me plenty more to use fresh and dry for winter.


Thanks to everyone for comments on Saturday.
Back Tomorrow
Sue

Nearly Normal Times? A Saturday Round Up.

A busier week  compared to the last 15, lunch at Son and Dil's, a shopping trip, a visit from the youngest two grandchildren - I also went to see Youngest Daughter and oldest Granddaughter - luckily I remembered the way to the coast after all these weeks!
Another job done was a batch of Lemon and Grapefruit Marmalade using a tin of prepared Lemon Home Cook Marmalade and a tin of grapefruit in juice. This makes a really tangy marmalade - I think it's my favourite.
Plus at last the front and side hedges are finished. I don't do the bit right at the end of the garden, it's more trees than hedge (and the extension lead won't reach that far) and I certainly can't do the huge hedge between me and the field. For one thing its just too high and for another it's where all the hedge sparrows live- it's a much thicker and denser Hawthorn hedge - than all the rest. It also doesn't have loads of brambles sticking out so I can get close enough to mow along the bottom.


 Added to the food produced list this week were the first beetroot  - small but perfectly formed.

and a couple of pound of redcurrants - these went in the freezer - waiting for apples and I'll make redcurrant and apple jelly for me and for the Christmas Hampers. I made Redcurrant and Rosemary Jelly last year so want to do something different.

 

 I also picked the first mange-tout peas which went into a stir-fry and then more to put in the freezer after a quick blanche. There won't be many to freeze but a few is better than nothing.

Now the question of the day  -Shall I go and look round the first car-boot sale tomorrow? It's the local small one rather than the Huge Needham Market boot sale which has been cancelled for the rest of the year.  I've read the website about strict arrival times for sellers and buyers and how they will have spaced the cars and put tapes up to make a one-way route for people buying - that's all fine but I have a feeling it will be crazy busy.

The updated food from home list (produced since March)

• 9 small lettuces (I now have a gap because the next sowing took ages to get going)
• Rocket and small beetroot leaves
• 6 Cucumbers - and 8 more given away
• a few asparagus spears
• lots of rhubarb
• A surprising amount of strawberries from 6 new plants.
• 3lb of gooseberries
• Lots of raspberries and 3lb put in the freezer
• Several courgettes.
• Few new potatoes 
• First tomatoes from greenhouse
• First Aubergines
• 2lb Redcurrants 
• Beetroot
• Few mange-tout peas

This week I'm grateful for

1. A visit from Eldest Daughter and Eldest Grandson has been arranged
2. More delicious raspberries
3. Rain for the garden
4. More good books

Have a good weekend - enjoy your first pub visit since March - if that's your thing!
Back Monday
Sue 

Ogham Tree Alphabet 7th Lunar Month June to July

The letter for the seventh Lunar month is D and the corresponding tree from the Ogham alphabet is the English Oak..... The mighty King of the Forest. Symbolising a door and connected to Thor and thunder.

Oak(Quercus ) The generic name is the Latin word for tree. The largest and longest lived of Britain's native trees. Oaks were often planted to mark the boundaries of Parishes.

Top left corner of the right hand page shows how the letter would be carved on a stick.

Below are  two more pages from the Ogham Sketch Book by Karen Cater all about famous oak trees of the past.

The fully grown oak I have here at home is a Turkey Oak which is a bit different but just down the road are many proper English Oaks, this beauty is closest to home and they line the lanes all around our little hamlet. Probably as old as the oldest houses and farms.

I had good intentions of  finding more information about Oaks but ran out of time. And I've failed on replying to comments this week or commenting elsewhere - sorry - it's been a busier week than the last 14.


Back Tomorrow
Sue