Saturday 29th - Clocks go Forward

 The last Saturday in March and time for the clocks to go forward by an hour overnight.  Just makes it more difficult to get up early for car boot sales!

Another of the illustrations from the Angela Harding book. Orford is over on the Suffolk coast, the strange buildings to the right were left from the 'Cold War' out on Orford Ness. Boats cross from the quay to visit the nature reserve in summer.

Orford Hares

Reading:-

After finishing ' A Time From the World' by Rowena Farre that I wrote about during the week, I read another book from my shelves - 'Apricot Sky' by  Ruby Ferguson. It's a Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean St Press reprint from a book first published in 1952. Set in Scotland in 1948 it is a lovely story of a family and their visitors and preparations for a wedding. Similar in a way to D.E.Stevenson but very witty and good descriptions of the countryside and weather. 

 They've stopped the 'suggestions to buy' page on the library website due to the changes happening in June - and not knowing what Suffolk County Council will do about anything at the changeover. I wonder if it will mean a whole new computer system - more money wasted.

Watching:-

On the 4 catch up channel I've been watching Jack Irish - a rather violent thing from Australia dating from 2016-2021 starring Guy Pearce - who I remember best from the early days of Neighbours.

Gardening:-

My three veg beds are almost completely covered by the wire-netting frames (which turn into fences later) to keep the neighbours cat off. Before I did this I removed half a bucket of cat s**t, I thought about chucking it back into their garden but of course I didn't.

Now about  a hundred sycamore seedlings have appeared under the frames so I'll need to take them off and hoe out. It's funny that there have never been so many before but now the tree has gone they've all rooted this year, almost as if they know they've got to replace the mother tree - weird.

Pepper seeds germinated eventually, they are growing slowly, should be plenty, and three aubergines. Grass cut again, garden waste bin two days late being emptied but then I pruned some dead bits off the ceanothus and half filled it again.

Socialising:-

 15 people at Keep Moving Group this week which is really good. An odd thing happened. When I was looking in the car glove box to find the book thing for the repair shop to stamp after the service and MOT, I came across a piece of paper with a printed list of exercises that we did with the organisation that started our group in 2022. I must have had it without knowing all this time as I don't remember it being given me.............and why in the glove box? Anyway I'm now going to write out a new sequence  of exercises for us to do for a bit of variety........... as soon as I get a new sharpie pen.

Over 60's group and a guy who volunteers at a workshop for adults with disabilities came and told us all about the workshop and the wooden things they make. If I still had a house with land they make bird-boxes for every type of bird you can think of and I'd have one for each - and bats!. I visited their workshop on a pre Christmas Open Day a couple of years ago.

Eating :-

I got the freezer defrosted on Monday, so that job's done for a year. I'd half forgotten about some of my own raspberries from the summer - better get them eaten - they are a bit sharp when frozen, always better fresh but there were so many last year I froze a few. Shall I mix with meringue and cream and call them a variation on Eton Mess - probably rather too many calories!

What a useful thing a quiche is to make - four days meals without having to think - tuna and sweetcorn this time served up with something different each day it doesn't matter that that it's the same thing for four days.

50/50 Granary/ White bread in the bread maker this week - my favourite.

And that's my week.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back next week - if I have something to write about?

Seeds for this year

 Eventually I got around to opening my seed packet storage tin to see what I needed for this year. I can never get up much enthusiasm for gardening when the weather is gloomy.

I have a few seeds left from last year, some might be OK - they sometimes keep well and sometimes not, even when they should. I've bought 5 new packets of seeds  and I'm growing much the same as last year. 

I'll grow two types of tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers in the greenhouse. Outside will be Runner and French Green climbing beans, courgette, butternut squash and sweetcorn for definite. I do have a packet of Kale seeds - might try them but with the problems from, pigeons, cabbage white caterpillars and next doors neighbours cat it might not be worth it. 

The leeks I grew last year all got Allium Leaf Miner ruining them, this is a pest that was unknown in this country until relatively recently. They affect late grown leeks so I might try and find some early seedlings at a carboot/nursery and then make sure to harvest early and freeze.

I'll buy  pots of growing Parsley and Basil from Aldi or Asda and propagate them, cheaper than a packet of seeds.

The five packets of seed from DT Brown came with a free packet of Carrot seeds which will be passed onto BiL. He has more room and grows a few each year. They are not worth my while growing.

So plans made for 2025 and hopefully with the big Sycamore gone it will make for better growing conditions in my small patch, more air movement and more sunlight.

Back Soon

Sue

Garden And Meals Since Returning from Holiday

 Came home from holiday on the 23rd August to a very overgrown garden -in just a week - with lots of things finished. I cleared off 8 small aubergines - the biggest about 3 inches long and the last of the runner beans. Just a few tomatoes left now but cucumbers all finished  The aubergines sliced and fried plus cooked pasta and a sauce made simply with tomato puree, boiling water and minced garlic from a jar and then all layered up with grated cheese made me two meals.

There were no more peppers to cut as I'd sliced and frozen all that were there before my holiday but a bowl of small tomatoes were brought indoors before I cleared all but one of the plants out.

Then I popped over to BiL's for some beetroot - I'd given him a packet of beetroot seeds so he could grow a few extra for me - and he gave me a sweetcorn cob (mine are a few weeks behind although I have had one now) and a cucumber as his greenhouse did far better than mine - so I'm blaming the compost.

 I used one large beet for roasting, it was peeled and cut into chunks and went in the oven with potatoes and carrots and  with one sausage made into a toad in the hole. I'd saved and frozen a rolled out  scrap of pastry left from making a quiche a few weeks ago, this was turned into sausage rolls, with another sausage and eaten with the rest of the roast veg. the next day.

Other meals have been my home made batch cooked from the freezer - Thai red fish curry, spinach and ricotta lasagne, aubergine and tomato sauce over pasta and another day I had a warm mackerel pasta salad. 

As a couple of the leeks had run to seed already although still small I thought I'd better start eating them and used two as fritters. Plenty more for later which had recovered from next-door-neighbour's cat trying to dig them up earlier.

Lurking among the courgette leaves were 6 marrows so I put 5 of them out the front with a 'help yourself note' and they soon went. One remaining came into the kitchen to make Marrow, Apricot and Ginger jam. I was going to do the jam last Thursday but forgot to put the apricots in to soak on Wednesday night, so I left them out right ready to soak overnight to use on Friday but forgot again -Duh! Finally got them soaking Friday night and the jam made on Saturday. Six jars made, this jam is a good replacement for marmalade.

Despite being covered and completely protected from birds and butterflies, I came home to find the three kale plants were just skeletons - and I'd put slug pellets inside the cage too. The slugs must have feasted on the kale before dying!

 This is the third year winter 'greens' have been a complete fail - I've learned my lesson - not trying again. At least I have more than one small butternut squash this year. They got going late so I hope we don't get early frosts and have plenty more sun. I'm watering them a lot now to try and fatten up the few small ones. Fingers crossed for fine weather for them to ripen for storage.

There are a few  this size and smaller

Just one proper sized butternut

The raspberries that were here when I moved in are doing their thing - appearing at an odd time of year - late for summer but early for Autumn. They've given me 3 bowls full to eat since I came home.

I was down to just half a loaf of bread in the freezer so the bread maker has been on a few times since returning from holiday for a 50/50 white and wholemeal, a 50/50 white and granary and an all white loaf. They are cut in half and frozen, so I'm re-stocked. Also made a Focaccia loaf which I cut into chunks before freezing.

There are lots of the big plum tomatoes in the freezer - ready skinned -  to make my Red Hot Relish sometime and that will be all I'll do this year. I'm not doing Christmas Hampers for anyone this year so no need to make other things.

I don't seem to have much to write about at the moment so have dropped down to 4 posts a week rather than 6 - so apologies if you look for me everyday!  I'll see how it goes.

Back Soon

Sue

The First Week in June

 Summer is on the book-shelf. These are the things that have come out of the box for every summer recently. The 'Summer Haze' Lilliput lane cottage and two old flowery jugs. Plus the June plate of course. 

Thank goodness for a bit more warmth this week and much less rain.

I've enjoyed watching the French Open Tennis on TV all week, some good matches and Djokovic, who I'm not a fan off, dropped out due to injury. Wonder if he will be fit for Wimbledon? That will open the tournament right up. Interesting to see the difference in the crowds watching - at Wimbledon usually all seats are pretty full up for all matches - not so much at Roland Garros.

Where did I get the details of the Globe-Watch Airplanes Live website? Thank you whoever mentioned it. I now know that one of the huge planes that goes round and round above the village every Monday and some other days is a U.S Military Boeing Strato-tanker flying out of USAF Mildenhall in West Suffolk and going across to Hungary and back. Although why it goes round and round so much before landing is a mystery! Most of the other larger heavier and lower/slower aircraft are USAF military too.  I'm very glad I don't live anywhere near a busy airport, so many holiday companies in and out all day they are quite high when they come over here so not a noise problem, most are coming or going to Birmingham or Luton.  Where we lived on the Suffolk coast we saw many more because there were also planes from London airports and Stansted.

This website is great fun until you zoom out and see just how many planes are in the air at any one time  - more than 11,000- scary stuff! 

On Wednesday morning I met up with Rachel-in-Norfolk at the restaurant in the garden centre not far from Diss, although most of the huge building is full of 'stuff' - nothing to do with gardening. Walking through all the 'stuff' made me feel quite sick at what a incredible consumer society we live in (and who buys all those patio seating sets for £2,000 each). It would be a good place for people watching as it was very busy in the restaurant with old people going in for huge cooked breakfasts and later queueing for carvery lunches. It's not a place to go if you are in a hurry, I think they need more staff. I had my usual cheese scone and cappuccino.

I finished the week having a haircut - a proper trim and much thinning with the thinning scissors this time, not a six all over with clippers. I want to keep it a bit longer to cover my ears as they seem to be getting bigger - thought that was just an 'old man' thing!!

Hopefully the weather will be dry this weekend for boot sales and I'm visiting some open gardens in son's village (although they are busy with other things so they won't be coming round with me). Maps of which gardens are open are available in the church which oddly, I've not done a post about for the blog, so I'll  remedy that while I'm there.

Have a good weekend

Back Soon

Sue

 

TV and Other Happenings This Week

Apologies for not replying to comments  or commenting elsewhere much this week. I've been avoiding the the lap-top in the evenings and generally cutting down on screen time - except for the TV!.

 

Imagine having a really good idea for a book, writing it and it's about to be published when you find someone else has had much the same idea and their book, with a similar title, is coming out just a few months before yours. It would be quite annoying. Last weeks issue of the Radio Times had details of lots of TV dramas featuring women detectives including the one that came second in print.

The second book was The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (better known for writing the Death in Paradise TV series) and the one that beat him to the publishers was of course Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.

But Robert got one over on Richard because The Marlow Murder Club has beat The Thursday Murder Club to the screen as The Thursday Murder Club film has been delayed. I watched the two episodes of Marlow on UKTV Play channel this week and thought them very good. Haven't read the books and probably won't. Some crime stories I find are better on TV than in a book - like Vera and JK Rowling's Strike series.

Son and DiL finally got news from their insurance company that their car has been written off - as they thought - pity that it took more than 2 weeks to decide - of course the  money they are getting off the insurance is nowhere near enough for a new-to-them car so good thing I have no mortgage and have savings to lend! That's what Mum's are for I guess. If Colin was alive he probably would have repaired their car but I can't help in that way so help out in the only way I can. They are borrowing my car again this weekend to go and look at something to buy. Thankfully the cracked windscreen was replaced yesterday so is OK for them to drive and for the car's annual service and MOT next week.

I begun to prepare for seed sowing by checking that my little window-sill electric propagator was still working and after finding it was fine, I filled up the seed trays and brought them in to warm up. Today I'll put in seeds of two sorts of tomatoes, aubergines and red peppers. Cucumbers will be sown later.

Back to Six Nations Rugby on TV this weekend and I'm still watching my way through the umpteen episodes of Bones on the Channel 4 catch up.

I shall be back Monday after a hopefully mostly dry weekend - if it is it will be the first for ages.

Sue

Looking in the Seed Tin

 Investigating what seeds are  needed for growing this year is not as much fun as it once was. My tin used to be full of packets as we grew almost everything, now I don't need so much.

I'll be growing much the same as last year........ tomatoes, cucumber, sweet peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse. French climbing and runner beans plus beetroot, courgettes, leeks, sweetcorn and butternut squash in the garden. 

There's no point growing onions here and as the purple sprouting broccoli has been completely decimated by pigeons it seems little point in trying to grow any over wintering 'greens'. I spent ages protecting the plants all summer and they still looked sad and fell over and unless I have a tall walk in netting cage for winter, I'm never going to have any success here. It's going to be much cheaper to buy rather than grow and I can have more variety that way too.

So all I need to buy are  more beetroot, pepper, tomato, sweetcorn and squash seeds and that's about it. Although if I see early leek seedlings at the pet and garden shop in Diss like I found last year I'll get them and just grow later ones from seed.

I'll buy  parsley and basil plants from the supermarket later. Splitting the parsley seedlings and growing them outside and in the greenhouse and propagating basil cuttings in water to make several plants for the greenhouse.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Mary, Mary?

Mary Mary  Susan, Susan, quite contrary what does will  your garden grow?  

Doesn't scan so well for sure!

Three garden company seed catalogues all arrived on the same day - just two days after Christmas

I've not yet had time to investigate the tin that stores my seeds but will soon. No doubt I'll be growing much the same as 2023.

This is the proper version of the nursery rhyme that I've altered for that first line,  known by many as

Mary, Mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row

Did you know that the oldest version of the Nursery Rhyme was first published in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book of 1744. I didn't until I looked on wiki!

Mistress Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And so my garden grows

I also didn't know that Steve Roud, whose book 'The English Year' about the history of English customs, traditions and folklore, that I have on my shelves, has also catalogued many old songs to make the Roud Folksong Index. This covers about 25,000 songs in English collected from oral traditions around the world.

This nursery rhyme might be about Mary Tudor or Mary Queen of Scots but the truth is lost in history.

Back Tomorrow

Sue 

The 2023 Growing Season.................

.....and plans for 2024.

As vegetable production slows down it's time to think about what did well, what I don't really have room for and how to arrange things better for next year.

In the greenhouse.........

 I had cucumbers, starting with three plants and ending up with one. They produced plenty - enough to eat through the summer, make the sweet cucumber pickle and some to give away.

Tomato plants, 7 in total - 3 producing large plum tomatoes, 1 with huge beefsteak toms (although they were all the same packet of seeds) and 3 giving me hundreds (might be an exaggeration but it felt like it!) of the small grape sized fruit.

Aubergines gave me enough to make a couple of batches of aubergine and tomato pasta sauce for the freezer and I've already written about the peppers and how some got nibbled, but I put loads of sliced green peppers and a few red  into the freezer ready for stir-fries and ate plenty fresh.

I ended up with just two rows of beetroot across a bed because of filling up the rest of that space with leeks, the seedlings I bought for early leeks are still good and I'm eating my way through them those I grew myself from seed are looking very poor because of being over run by the courgettes which spread out for several feet and did really well this year.

These might be the last few courgettes I'll have, brought in last week when still very small as the days aren't warm enough and too much damp in the mornings for them to get a decent size now.

They may be small, but enough for another courgette crumble, another courgette pesto pasta and one to add into a salad.

The French Climbing beans and runner beans both had quite short producing seasons and the onions stopped growing at golf ball size after the shoots all collapsed - I think next door neighbours cat laid on them. I had just one butternut squash because of not really having room for 3 plants.

I sowed far too many sweetcorn seeds and planted them way too close together but they've been delicious. They are something I would never buy as they need eating straight after picking.

I hope when I take the enviromesh insect protection off the purple broccoli plants they'll produce something for winter. They might not as there are 8 plants in a space that would have been better suited to 3! 

As I said to my friends when they visited " I still think I have 5 acres!"

.............. and what about next year?

Definitely NO onions, I said this last year and forgot when it came round to spring. I'll try for more beetroot and leeks again definitely and must give both lots of beans more space, a bigger circle so they'll do better. I always used to start bean seed in pots in the greenhouse and then plant out and at the same time push some seed into the ground on the other side of the canes but didn't have room to do that this year.

Sweetcorn is a definite but not so many as this year.

 Two or three courgettes plants again, planted so they can trail out over the edge of the beds.

 I need to decide about winter greens, but not until spring when I know how the broccoli has done .

I'd like more than one butternut squash and perhaps I could put a couple of plants in the flower beds.

I expect it will be much the same things in the greenhouse - tomatoes - large and small plum. cucumbers, aubergines and peppers - but I'll grow the orange block peppers as well as the red pointed variety.

The first seed catalogues have arrived so it will soon be time to look in my seed tin and see what I need for next year.

And I need to wash the big pots that I use in the greenhouse - not my favourite job.

Sorry I didn't get around to replying to comments yesterday but I did manage to remember to check for spam comments and there were lots of proper comments in there going back weeks - I need a label stuck on the lap top to remind me to check more often! but I'll probably still forget.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

My Sunday Fruit 'Ration' *

Many thanks for comments over the last couple of days - apologies for not replying - I had to do a bit of Nanna duty.

 On Sunday I checked for more figs and yes, two more were ready and then a small splash of orange caught my eye high up above the fence between me and next door neighbour so I went for a closer look and yes,

 it was a passion fruit on the climber. I mentioned this passion flower plant a week or so ago when the first lovely flower appeared and now there's a fruit - just one - I'm not tempted to get a step ladder out to reach it even if it is edible.

But a much  more edible find was a few raspberries right on the tips of the canes that were here when I moved in. I still can't work out exactly what variety they are as some fruited back in early summer and the canes are all squashed together in a muddle in the narrow border.

* I also had an apple as part of my three-a-day portions of fruit, which seemed a bit boring after figs and late raspberries!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Figs and Peppers

 The first two figs were ready last week, the others are still green.

It's a treat to have them so soon after bringing the 18'' tall fig  here in a pot  when I moved in in May 2021. It's now more than 6 feet tall with lots of side branches and about a dozen more figs - hopefully they will grow and ripen.

I've got a problem with the Peppers in the greenhouse - something - and I'm not sure what, is making holes in them and turning them rotten from the point upwards. Yet there doesn't seem to be anything inside when I look. I cut most of the the remaining green peppers and froze before anymore are damaged. There's just one plant that still seems OK. When I first noticed some of the leaves being eaten  thought it was birds getting in and biting bits, should have investigated more thoroughly. 

Last year a lovely mix of red, orange and green peppers went into the freezer and lasted me through to May so it's a disappointment.

Then there was a bit of luck at Sunday's boot sale as there was a market stall there that that hasn't been there often and he had some bowls of fruit/veg for £1 each including  odd shaped red peppers. They are now sliced  and frozen to add to all my green ones.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Lurkin' Gherkins and...........

These prickly beasts were hiding under the equally prickly stems and leaves, so two more jars of pickled gherkins have been added to the 5 in the cupboard plus one jar has already been eaten and another given away. I'm amazed at how well these half-dozen plants have done.

And a mystery Passion Flower. A mass of leaves appeared climbing on the fence and I'm not really sure if it starts from the ground on my side of the fence or if it's climbed over from next door. Everything in the narrow border soil here is hidden by my  butterfly proof protection for the Purple Broccoli. The leaves and buds told me it was a Passion Flower and eventually a flower appeared.........beautiful.

This isn't something I've grown anywhere else so know nothing about them although I guess it's not the type - and we don't have the right climate anyway- to have fruit. 

There was one growing up a fence post at the smallholding when we moved in but the post (there wasn't a fence to go with the post!) was right where the path needed to be so it was removed soon afterwards.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Vegetable Garden Second Week of July

 On Wednesday and Thursday of last week I got a good bit of gardening done including planting out 9 (probably 3 too many) Purple Broccoli plants that arrived in very good condition from Marshalls Seed Company. I've fenced them with the netting frames BiL made for me and covered them with enviromesh. Last year they failed because of the exceptional heat and the critters that somehow got in - whitefly and cabbage white butterflies - despite covering them as best I could. If there is another fail this year perhaps that will be the last time of trying to grow winter 'greens' here in my limited space.

See the Buddleia against the fence? I cut it back to 4 feet tall last Autumn now its about 12 feet tall.

The Flamingo tree behind the heating oil tank was only 6 feet tall when I moved here - it's also shot up this year.

Courgette plants have gone crazy as have the cucumbers in the greenhouse but I don't mind as the opposite of glut is famine and I know which I'd rather have. I put the excess in a box out the front with a "Help Yourself" sign and they soon went. Marrow on the left of photo (AKA overlarge courgette) was used for jam. 

This is Crumble - next door neighbours cat - ten feet up in my flowering cherry tree. She is being mobbed and teased by two blue-tits and shouted at by a blackbird. Lovely cat- apart from the occasional cat poo in my vegetable beds - not so often now though as they are too full and mainly fenced round....foiled!

Nothing nested in that new, cheap car-boot birdbox - it was late going up and I think the hole is too big - may have to get BiL to get it down again and sort it - although I hardly dare ask as it was quite a feat for him to get it up so high in the first place.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Better Than Nothing

 5oz of gherkins/cornichons*  and 10 oz of gooseberries isn't anywhere near self sufficiency but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

The gherkins were from the tray of 6 small plants that I bought at a boot sale in the spring even though I really didn't have room for them  They were planted in a big tub with a plant climbing frame thing for them. I have a slight memory of trying to grow some from seed a few years ago and having a fail although I can't find any mention on the blog, but these have grown quite well - probably not as well as they would have done in the ground.

I searched the recipe books for how to pickle these few gherkins and found three different recipes. One involved putting the gherkins to soak in salty water for 3 days so that's how I started but only left them for a day and a half.

Then on searching google I came across a very young Jonathon Wallace who has been writing a blog and website called "Self-Sufficient in Suburbia" for years. A video from 12 years ago.

So I used his recipe to finish them off.

I've made 1 small jar full. There might be more to use later.

*Also found this description of the difference between gherkins and cornichons. Now I know!?

Q. Are cornichons the same as gherkins?

A. Cornichons are dilled gherkins, not sweet gherkins. If a recipe calls for cornichons, it is referring to the dilled variety of gherkins. If a recipe calls for cornichons and you don't have any, substitute small slivers of dill pickles. Remember all cornichons are gherkins, not all gherkins are cornichons.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Raspberries

 This was the first bowl of Raspberries from here at the bungalow - a few  from the couple of  canes that were against the fence here when I came and a few more from the new raspberry bed I planted up less than 2 years ago in Autumn 2021.

Since then I've had 5 more bigger bowls full and  I've been very pleasantly surprised to have so many   after how poor the canes looked during last summers really hot weather.

The canes in the half of the bed  furthest from the fence and magnolia tree are looking 100% better than those closer and I need to make sure to give them a lot more water whenever I can to keep them going.

In the book Food In England by Dorothy Hartley I found this which is part of Thomas Tussers 500 Points for Good Husbandry  written way back in the middle of the C16.

"Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot,

With strawberry roots, of the best to be got:

Such growing abroad, among thorns in the wood,

Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good.

The barberry, raspberry, and gooseberry too,

Look now to be planted, as other things do:

The gooseberry, raspberry and roses all three,

With strawberries under them, trimly agree.

Were strawberries really once grown under raspberry canes? Seems odd if they were, as strawberries need more sun than raspberries which do best when the weather isn't too hot. They do really well in Scotland and are bred there, with many of the names are of the varieties starting with "Glen" (Scottish Valley) ...Glen Moy, Glen Ample and Glen Prosen are three that I know.

Back in the Knodishall smallholding days we grew a huge fruit cage full of raspberries all in three long rows, they sold really well of course and it was one of the everyday summer jobs for me to pick and put out for sale.

Picture from nearly 10 years ago of the smallholding fruit cage with long rows of canes and redcurrants in the foreground

 

At the end of the growing season it was also my job to cut out all the canes that had finished fruiting and weave the new canes in between the wires that held them upright. It was a job that I enjoyed even though it took a while to do because once the old were cut out it all looked so tidy and right ready for the next year.

It won't take me so long to cut out the canes here in my less-than-4 metres-long bed!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

  

My Quiet Week in Suffolk

The sun has shone and I have books to read and tennis on TV and I did  the Wordle in less than 6 goes all week and in just two tries on Wednesday - a good fluke!

So I'm one of the lucky people with nothing to moan about! 

My Quiet Life in Suffolk this week has involved the Keep Moving Group, swimming and a trip to Morrisons in Ipswich after a very quick stop at  the  Wednesday boot sale (where I bought nothing). At Morrisons I bought a new pair of shorts having abandoned 3 very old pairs last week - all three were really too big and two were chucked due to falling to bits and one pair still OK have gone into the charity shop bag. Too old for shorts I may be but I shall keep wearing them!

Below are the small courgettes that were my 3rd  harvest from the garden, the first small harvest  was a cucumber from the greenhouse and the second was a handful of raspberries from the canes that were here when I came. I cut all the courgettes that were there to encourage more to grow. 

These are all from 2 plants, the third is really slow growing and one I put in a pot in the greenhouse because of being short of space outside is even further behind which is odd. If all 4 plants were to really get going there will be far too many courgettes. But I want to leave one or two to get to marrow size so I can do the Marrow and Apricot Jam (This link is so I know where to find the recipe in July!)

This weekend there's some repair work to do on a piece of trellis that's against the fence which has a yellow climbing rose on it. I hadn't really thought about how the trellis was fixed but, like so many things here, it wasn't really fixed at all. I noticed it had collapsed almost on top of the climbing beans after we had a sudden mini storm on Thursday afternoon and in the rain I went out to try and prop it up - getting nicely scratched in the process! I managed a temporary fix but it needs something more permanent  and I reckon putting a couple of screws into the fence panel and wiring the trellis to the screws should do it - if there is some wire left from what I used for keeping the raspberry canes upright, if not it will be tied with my ever faithful baler twine.

Not sure what else is happening this weekend although I'd like to go to a farmers market so I can get another 'artisan' cheese to try. And I might raid Brother-in-Law's strawberry patch again!

Have a lovely weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

I shall be back Monday

Sue

I Must Stop Finding Nice Greetings Cards + The Job List.

 I'm sure there are now more than enough cards in the card box for this years birthdays. But when I spot someone is selling nice greetings cards for pence it's difficult to resist looking through what they have.

These were the most recent find - all from one person who originally, when I asked "How Much", said "they might be £1 each....... depending! "  I said if they were going to be £1 each I would be putting them back! So he sold me all 5 for £1 instead - very odd.

The owl one unfolds to make a 3D card and has a £3.95 label on the back - bargain.

At the same boot sale I got a couple of things for Middle Grandson as I'm going to be looking after him on Mondays now and again during the rest of the school term.

I think he probably has something similar already as he is the most fanatical and knowledgeable 3 year old dinosaur fan I have ever known, but they will be new for here. £2.50 for these 2 things.

There were several garden jobs that needed doing this week, - at the beginning of the week I wrote a list to spur me on

Raise the net frame that's over the beetroot

Take the net frame off the early leeks

Sow more beetroot seeds

Prick out  the second lot of leek plants

Plant out squash plants

Sow the sweetcorn

Plant out the Climbing French bean plants

Cut back the perennial geranium over hanging the front path

Give a really good watering to all the new things I've planted in the last month

Weeding

Weeding the patio

and more weeding

Lots got done..........except the weeding!

I keep hearing about the lovely weather in the west of the country - here in the east we've had sun but lots of cloud rolling in from the north and bringing with it a chilly north and north east wind. It's so Not Fair!....stamps feet!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

So Many Things Happening

 It's always a dilemma when so many things are happening in different villages and towns around all on the same day.

What to choose?

A Village Garage Sale Event a few villages away from me?

A Once a Month Farmers Market in the other direction where I could find some more cheeses to try?

The first of the years once-a-month car-boot sale further away

National Mills Weekend (windmill and watermills open day)

The regular Saturday car-boot sale?

Weird and Wonderful Wood at Haughley Park?

(Maybe not that last one - I tried to go on the Saturday  last year and the queues of cars to get in stretched for nearly 2 miles down the road! I went on the Sunday early instead but even though it's been voted one of the best events in Suffolk I'll not go again this year - perhaps next year)

I'll let you know in a post next week which one or two I decide to go to - unless it rains all weekend and I don't go anywhere!

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

But looking back at this week...........................I called in quickly to the midweek boot sale on my way to shopping and bought a tree I didn't need! But when I saw  a man had loads of pots of good sized Rowans for £5 each I just couldn't resist. It's been squashed  into the side border - just hope it survives and grows as it will help hide the house that's behind me. Then I came home a different way so I could visit a small nursery that specialises in perennial plants and is only open in late spring and summer. I was looking for a Bergenia or Elephants Ears and hadn't seen one anywhere else. Luckily he had just a couple left out the back - he said no one wants them anymore so he's no longer propagating and selling them. I want it to spread and fill a gap in the front border - at least the last two days of rain showers have watered both things in........yesterday was really nasty down here in Suffolk.

Our Keep Moving Group is still going well - all 12 or 13 of us are feeling the benefit. We put up posters to try and find a few more people but it hasn't worked so far. Two weeks ago we had a visitation from the man organising a more recently started group in Debenham, plus a physio from the NHS and a lady from the District Council - all came to see how we are getting on running it ourselves (after being organised by Community Interest Groups previously). The MSDC lady and the Physio thought we were doing fine but the man from Debenham mildly criticised all we did and made several "suggestions!". He invited us to go to Debenham to see how they did things (better than us of course!). I suggested that one morning in June we all descend on their group en-masse just to find out. That could be fun.

Who else does the New York Times Daily Wordle? I was late to the party so had only played 69 games when it was on # 691 on Thursday. There are even websites where you can cheat or get hints - disgusting! I'm on 99%  - only 1 fail - without cheating- but there are some strange words appearing. I love the way that if it takes all 6 guesses to get the word it flashes up with PHEW! as that's exactly how I feel.

My tomato and aubergine plants are mostly now potted up into their big pots in the greenhouse and I'm still puzzling over where to put the other two courgette plants, the three squash and the six gherkin plants............seem to have forgotten I don't have a smallholding or a six vegetable beds anymore!

And finally tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest and if you didn't know then you must have been asleep all week! It's being held here rather than Ukraine for obvious sad reasons. We won't be coming second like we did last year and the music and costumes are weird but so many people love it and anything that gets people from different countries together enjoying themselves must be a good thing. 

This week I've been grateful for......

• Watching my garden grow
• So many good books
• The Keep Moving Group working well
• The lovely comments on my Thursday post and knowing my blog is the first one some people read every day - thank you. 

Have a good weekend. 

I'll be back Monday

Sue

Growing Well

 I had a fright one morning in the week before last - looked in the greenhouse and all my babies were looking a bit limp - of course it was a night when they'd not been covered with fleece and the temperature must have dropped lower than the forecast. Thank goodness a while later they were all standing up straight again....phew!

These photos were taken on Saturday - Before the Coronation I worked in the greenhouse for an hour filling up some of the big pots ready for all these to go into later.

There are too many peppers and  too many aubergines here...........

and too many tomatoes too!

and just one cucumber............so far. There are two more babies on the living room windowsill although I only need one because the plan is to sow another cucumber seed in June for a later crop.

Also on the living-room window sill are some teeny squash seedlings - a second sowing after the first three didn't germinate - thought I was going to have to buy new seeds but they seem to be OK.

The raspberry bed is looking more hopeful, considering how sad they looked through the heat of last summer when there was no sign of any new canes appearing. Brother in Law hammered in two metal posts - from his neighbour's old gazebo- early last year and now I've put string along the top and two rows of wires below and fixed a new piece of netting right over the top. The netting cost me over £20 and I wondered aloud if I would get the value back in raspberries but as Lesley (who sold me it ) said -"well without it you won't get any!" - Very True

One more thing looking good is the plant stand. The pots have been standing on the patio all winter after the trellis collapsed but now they are back and the whole thing is tied to the post. There is someone at the car-boot sale who sells succulents so I may be tempted to buy two small ones for the top two shelves and I lost a lovely pink flowered Saxifrage over winter so could replace that.

 You can see the difference in temperatures this spring compared to last if you look at THIS PHOTO of the Plant Stand taken at much the same time last year.

And my 3 Minarette Apple trees are in flower. I know it looks weedy around them but the plants there are mainly Phacelia which are a green manure - self seeded from last year - and after they've flowered for the bees I'll hoe them up and leave them on the soil as a mulch.

Fingers crossed for an edible harvest later.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Seeds to Sow in 2023

 Looked in my seed tin and found left from last year...........

Plenty of Chard

Very few Tomato -Super Mama

Enough Butternut Squash  -Hunter

A dozen or so Sweetcorn  - Moonshine

Plenty of Leek - Neptune

Very few Red Sweet "Pointy" Peppers

2 or 3 Sweet orange block pepper - Kubista

Very Few Aubergine - Genie

2 or 3 Cucumber- Louisa 

3 or 4 Courgette - Tuscany

Climbing French bean seeds saved from 2019 and 2020} Decided it was time to start afresh

Few Runner bean seed saved from who knows when     } with both sorts of beans in 2023

I perused the seed catalogues......... I love reading all the different descriptions and finding out about new varieties each year.

Seed prices have gone up a lot since covid and vary from one company to another as do the number of seed in a packet. I straight away abandoned Thompson & Morgan as they didn't have much choice (perhaps this wasn't their full catalogue) .The D.T Brown catalogue had everything I wanted but many of their packets were 50p+ more than those in the Marshalls catalogue. Kings didn't have any of the tomatoes I wanted but their prices were significantly less than both the others.

I decided that even if I had to pay postage on two different orders it would still be cheaper to get most things from Kings and just the tomatoes from Browns.

To add to what I have left I'm going to be buying .............

Super Mama and Sun Grape tomatoes.

Incredible Sweetcorn

Thor and Kubista Peppers

Aubergine Genie

Cucumber Pepinex

Courgette Defender

Cobra Climbing French Beans

Benchmaster Runner Beans

Beetroot Moneta - they will come from Browns too as they are  a Monogerm variety so I should be easier to spread out when sowing. Kings don't have any Monogerm.

I'm not bothering with things that are easy and cheap to buy - carrots and onions. Or lettuces which need regular sowing and I don't eat enough for when they all grow at once.

That's probably all I'll have room for in the greenhouse and 3 vegetable beds although I might find some Kale plants later in the year and attempt to keep them free of critters - which was a total fail this year.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Saturday 27th

My Week..............

While over in the west of the country they have had rain and cooler weather, here it was hot and humid nearly all week. I need to get on with some clearing outside but it's been too hot - especially in the greenhouse. Even on Thursday when thunderstorms were forecast and there was a 90% chance of rain for several hours, what  we had here wasn't even enough to run off the roof! In Bury St Edmunds which is only about 20 miles away, they had a months worth of rain in a few hours.

Took me half the week to recover from having the nearly 6 year old  Eldest Granddaughter to stay overnight last weekend! Lovely to spend time with her, as now she's at school I don't get to visit so often but she has a lot more energy than I have!

I got a good batch of Red Relish made during the week. I labelled it Not-So-Hot relish because when I went to Asda for chilli peppers they only had some of the milder sort and I couldn't be bothered to go anywhere else. I used 4lb of the huge tomatoes, 2 large red pointy peppers, 1lb red onions and 3 small mild chillies + White sugar and 1 pint red wine vinegar. I'm planning another similar sized batch but I'll make sure to get proper hot chillies for that. Also made 3 pastry flan cases for the freezer ready for quiches.

From the garden this week I've been eating the corn cobs - they are just so good. I've got some butternut squash ready to harvest but the are very small - tennis ball size - there are some slightly larger that I hope will ripen before too long. I was hoping for runner beans but no flowers appeared until the plants were 3 foot tall and then not a single flower has set - that's something that's never happened before. Brother-in Law said he's had two meals from his but it looks as if that will be it. Must be the heat I guess.

Then there was the lovely load of library books which made for a good week all in all, until on Friday morning there was no hot water. I took the front cover off  the boiler and the low pressure light was flashing - Oh Bother! I could see a drip of water too from somewhere in the bottom corner so left a message with my friendly heating engineer and he called in on his way by and quickly fixed it.

After watching all of the Luther series' on the catch up channel last winter and deciding to replace Kevin Costner with Idris Elba as my new favourite actor (sorry Kevin!) and after getting the weekly email from the cinema in Stowmarket,  I'm debating if I should go to watch I.E.'s new film..... 'The Beast' - The story of a lion stalking a "recently widowed ordinary father " and his two teenage daughters who are on a visit to a South African game reserve.............. or maybe not!

Instead, as I've not been to a car boot sale for weeks, that's what I shall be doing this weekend plus there is the regular Flower Festival at Crowfield church, which obviously hasn't been held since 2019. Although I like the flowers I'm really going for the large second-hand book stall they always have!

Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend whatever you have planned.

Back Next Week

Sue