10 Years Ago

 I have lots of posts in drafts half finished and haven't had time to complete and write properly so in the meantime here is a re-posting from the beginning of my old blog, when we were living on the smallholding. Him Outside is Colin of course and this was a just a few days after he had the second stent done in Papworth Hospital. He'd hardly had a day off work in his life but suddenly had serious heart problems in the summer of 2013, went in hospital for one stent and then a few weeks later had the second. He was very well again for 18 months until the beginnings of the Non Hodgkin Lymphoma blood cancer reared it's ugly head.

 18 September 2013

What a lovely day

It's been a really beautiful day here. If every Autumn day was like this it would make winter seem much shorter.

I took a wheelbarrow out to the field to start the harvesting of pumpkins and squash to put out for sale. These small pumpkins are bright orange already and much smaller than I wanted. There are some bigger which are still green.  There are also a few plants of some that are slightly different- not quite round, and paler orange ( the one on the right) I don't know what they are as they don't fit any of the descriptions on the packets of seeds I planted.
Some of the butternut squash are HUGE, much bigger than I wanted for selling. I spent ages last year, going through the catalogues and trying to find a variety that wouldn't get that big and with the dry weather we have had I'm surprised at their size. I have no idea how much squash cost in the shops so put these out at £1 each - because I sell everything at multiples of 50p to make accounting easier - and they soon all went.

 

 It's a really good time for seasonal eating with both the end of the summer and now autumn produce available. Today from our garden we could have tomatoes, sweet pointy peppers, green and red block shaped peppers, chilli peppers, cucumber, white cabbage, red cabbage, chard,  lettuce, radish, courgettes, butternut squash, pumpkin, potatoes, parsnip, sweetcorn, leeks, onions, beetroot, runner beans, pears, autumn raspberries, apples, figs, greengages, plums and the herbs of course - parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme ! and oregano and chives too.

Him Outside has been resting and as I had nothing that desperately needed doing I thought I would have a lazy-ish afternoon too. So when I fished a heap of our local newspaper - The East Anglian Daily Times, out of the campsite paper bin I sat down and had a good read. It's interesting to see what local news we miss by not having a  paper.

Making a cuppa this afternoon, I glanced up to see a weasel trying to carry something through the orchard. I realised after a second look that it was a pigeon. He was really struggling with it. Who knew weasels could catch pigeons?

I miss my smallholding life

Back Soon

Sue

Halloween Pumpkins

First of all - thank you to everyone for comments about the church visit.

Then apologies, I know it's  a couple of days early for a Halloween post  but  I don't post on Sundays and tomorrow is my end of the month frugal bits post but  I've added my Halloween things to the seasonal display shelf for a few days. Bats, pumpkin  lights and the ceramic pumpkin.

For a few years.... when I was around 10 years old .....we had a piano. Someone gave me a beginners teach yourself piano book and I learned to play a little tune called Halloween Pumpkins. It started "Halloween Pumpkins are blinking, their candle lights are twinkling..............." can't remember any more!. Even though I could play the tune it wasn't because I'd learned to read music. Try as I might my brain wouldn't compute between the page and the notes on the piano so it was just learned off by heart with the names of the notes stuck on the keys. 

No idea what happened to the piano.

Last time I had a hair cut Kirsty, my hairdresser, who lives just up the road  told me that children around the village are keen on Halloween Trick or Treating so I'd better be prepared.

The origin of trick-or-treat is thought to be related to the Christian practice of Soul-Caking which was held on All Soul's Day on November 2nd. It's written about in the C17 but thought to be much older. Soul caking involved children going around the village asking for cakes in return for praying for the souls of departed loved ones. Soul-Caking often took place after the All Souls Day carnival or parade so the participants would be wearing costumes.

 I've bought a bag of sweets to hand out and carved my very small bargain Aldi 59p pumpkin for outside the front door and will fix up my Halloween banner which came from a car-boot sale years ago. (Probably got it to give to Eldest Granddaughter but they moved to almost the end of a close so no one would see it outside now).

 There's the boot-sale buys of the  witches hat to put on when I open the door and the witches broom to shoo away the children!! I kept looking for a witches mask at boot sales but no luck. Some would say I don't need one!

I'm ready!

 Back Tomorrow

Sue

Cycle Tour

Yesterday morning  was a good time for a bike ride as it wasn't windy or wet or cold so with camera in the bike basket out I went to do the 6 mile loop around all the village.

Every journey on foot, bike or car starts with going down the lane to the road!

 

A mile from home - flat brown fields as far as the eye can see

 

Very small colourful crab apples -

 

Each bit of the village has it's own postbox, I'd already passed two before getting to this one. Years ago every part of the village also had it's own pub, now there are none. (One day I'll bike round and take photos of all the old pubs).

 

This little dead-end road leads to the Railway Museum - the proper way to get there unless you walk across the fields like I did the other day.

The village War Memorial, with last year's wreaths

 

 

Another reminder of the old Mid Suffolk Light Railway, this area was once sidings.

Now there are carriages that have been made into holiday lets

 

The gate is new and I don't think the sign and lamp are original to this railway either.

 

Someone had pumpkins out for sale

 

Here's the main part of the village - once a council house estate. I expect most are now privately owned.

Once again here's the disused telephone box that I showed on the blog at the beginning of lockdown, when I first got back on my bike. Lovely stained glass. Inside is a map of the cycle route around the village.

A HUGE yew tree on  the  edge of the cemetery

 

The "new" cemetery - up the road from the church

 

The trees by the church almost hide it from the road

The very small Dove Brook running along the edge of the churchyard

 

This used to be a post office and shop. Run by the oldest postmistress in the country until she had to give up sometime in the 80's or 90's It was famous and featured in a book of English Cottage Interiors.

Sadly there is no post office or shop in the village now

 

And the post-box still in use in the wall of the house. Is the step so that children can reach?

Autumn colour

 

Pushing my bike up the hill on the way home

 

This Holly tree is still covered in berries, more than I've ever seen in any year since we moved here

 

I'd hoped to see a sugar-beet harvester to photograph but they weren't working anywhere around although there's still plenty of fields to be harvested. Here's one big heap waiting for  trucks to collect it for the sugar-beet factory in Bury St Edmunds or Cantley in Norfolk

 

The little green sticker points the way for the loop I've just rode around and the brown signs are for a longer cycle route around Mid and North Suffolk

 

Nearly home - that's my house in the middle distance

 

 A very picture heavy post! Hope you enjoyed a little look at the bit of Suffolk where I live.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

 

Butternut Squash

Up until about 10 years ago I'd never grown butternut squash. Then we stopped growing Brassicas out on our field at the smallholding because of the increase in pigeons and other pests, leaving us with space for something else. Pumpkins and Butternut Squash were the best solution, they didn't need much care after planting and extended the vegetable selling season.

 I found a photo from the old blog from May 2014. The Squash and Pumpkins, planted out on the field. Each one has a little 'wall' of soil pulled round them to protect against the wind twizzling them out of the ground.


 Since we moved here I've grown a few plants each year with varying success, last year after good germination the plants didn't do well at all - the didn't seem to like being in the same bed as courgettes, and I think I ended up with about 7 small squash. To make the most of them I roasted several with lots of other homegrown chopped vegetables and stacked meal sized boxes in the freezer - I've still got a few boxes left.
I'd almost forgotten there was one squash left sitting in a basket on the kitchen widow sill until I moved the basket the other day......best use it quickly.

That last squash was strangely shaped but actually that makes more useful flesh than the usual shape.

I chopped it all and added to a pan with chopped onion, a couple of chopped leeks from the garden, a few small potatoes peeled and chopped and an apple. Softened everything in a little rapeseed oil

Added curry powder, a tablespoonful of flour and stirred the mix up 'til the flour and curry powder were cooked then added a splash of vinegar, a spoonful of sugar and boiling water. Cooked that all for a while covered adding boiling water and stirring often. Finally chucked in the last three frozen spinach balls I found in their pack  tucked  in the corner of a freezer draw.

 Once the spinach had defrosted and I'd stirred it all in I ended up with 5 portions of curry, one to eat and 4 for the freezer.

Not many days later I was going through the seed catalogues deciding what I needed this year and found a  variety of squash called Tahiti Melon  - HUGE fruits with a long neck and small seed cavity.

Even if I only get a few it will be enough for loads of roast and tons of curry!

I do love trying things I've not grown before - all part of the optimism of gardening.


Thank you for comments yesterday and Monday, welcome to some new followers, hope you like reading my ramblings about a quiet  Suffolk life.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Last Day of October..............

...............Financial Ins and Outs..................and pumpkin pictures.

All Hallows Eve or Halloween as we say nowadays, a night of pumpkins and ghosts, witches and spooks. It's Samhain if you follow the Old Ways and The Night of the Dead - the most unpredictable night of the year - so if you are out and about with children trick or treating - take care!

This time last year I wrote about the year we grew giant  pumpkins at the smallholding. 

This photo that shows how big they were.....Col sitting on the biggest of all the giants.

This is the photo I put on the blog last year with all five giant pumpkins, taken the year before Colin was diagnosed with Lymphoma. It was much easier growing normal sized ones, they didn't need shifting with tractor and trailer!

A load of normal sized pumpkins from several years before the photo above when we still had a grey Fergie tractor and  older trailer

 Anyway............back to this year and October whizzed by as all months seem to do nowadays. There was some pretty grotty weather on several days, but luckily the weekend when Eldest Daughter and Jacob were staying was perfect for getting out and about.
I got a few outside jobs done including cleaning the greenhouse glass, inside and outside. Weeding the asparagus bed, cutting back the  holly hocks and Alstromeria in the Cutting garden (and at last after three tries the Alstromeria (Peruvian lilies) have taken hold and spread). Unfortunately they are all the same colour - pink - unlike the patch I grew for selling at the smallholding which were mixed oranges and shades of red. I've never seen similar plants for sale since then.

In October there was the usual income....... County Council Spouses pension, bits of interest on savings, repayments from family  plus £10 for books sent to Ziffit

The expenses during the month included

• All the usual things - food for me and the cat, diesel for the car, phones and charity direct debits
• Chimney sweep £60 - and he put the new fire bricks inside the wood burner for me.
• I went slightly mad and bought clothes (new and secondhand) and boots. The boots were from Hotter and were a special offer reduced by a few pounds......and how annoying is it that on the day after I ordered them another email popped up with a "extra 10% off on top of the previous reduced price - this weekend only"! Now I've got one pair of boots and one pair of shoes for winter it should make them last longer.......is that how it works?
• Bought some new even lower energy candle bulbs for my living room lights after one went pop.
• Treated the family to lunch out - my favourite thing to do when we are all together.
• Son's Birthday present
• A sheepskin cover for my bike seat
• New jars and lids for more hamper presents
• My regular once-a-month-pick-up-prescription-on -the-same-day-as-the-pensioners-fish-and- chip-cheap-lunch treat for £3.50
• Septic tank emptying - £99 this year.
• Paying for the labour for gate fixing.(Gate pictures to follow)

Still Clearing Out...................
Lots of old plastic clothes hangers into the bin
Old pair of slip on sandals into bin
Emptied out some various bottles of spray things that were in the greenhouse, left here by Mrs F and put bottles into recycling.
Craft bits to charity shop
Odd children's books and few toys ditto
Some reference books that I've not needed to charity shop


Frugal things?
Hardly any boot sales due to wet weather!
Last of the tomatoes and final cucumber during the first week of October
Using breadmaker for bread and malt loaf
Made a hanger for my "fishing float" using cheap jute string
Mixing milk with water.
A few  pears from the garden
Cheap apples from boot sale.
Gift of a book from publishers


At one time there was a blog thing of No-Spend November which I've tried but something always happens to put the kibosh on it so this November I'll not bother.
There are no regular bills due but I'd better get 500 litres of heating oil and there are Christmas things to organise. I try to spread the buying through the year but November and December are the spendiest months.

Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday - there were so many on what I thought was a dull post about LPG!
Replying here

• As Colin was in and out of hospital when we moved here, it was left up to me to choose and organise the cooker. When I found one that fitted in exactly - so saving me having to think about a  cupboard of some sort to fill the space. I decided to ignore the cost and get the double oven range! I didn't regret it!
• The cooker stands in what was once the fireplace in the old part of the house. Although the wood beam isn't the original as that was lower and the previous owners cut it out and put a new beam above. The old beam is now the mantel shelf  in the living room.
• The LPG cylinders last longer than they used to  because of having the bread maker and my lack of enthusiasm for cooking much for myself. I think I use  3 a year now.
• I've been changing over cylinders for years, although not shifting the 45kg ones that we had everywhere before here!
• The grill is the top right door and bottom left is a drawer. I don't use the grill much because I hate washing it up as it's so large.
• I do try and reply to comments but some days just don't have time and that's the same reason for not leaving comments on every blog I read which would be just as difficult - actually impossible as it would leave no time for writing my blog! 
• The hob has four normal burners - 1 large, 2 medium and 1 small  plus a double wok burner. Which is really good for stirfries.
• The Nan's Kitchen sign was a lovely Mothers Day present from Son and DiL last year

Back Tomorrow
Sue

 

All Hallows Eve and Samhain

The Eve of All Saints Day or Halloween as it's more usually called is now associated with pumpkins, and dressing up but it is a day that has for centuries been shrouded in mysteries and superstition.
The Night of the Dead - the most unpredictable night of the year - when festivals from many cultures collide.

On Hallowe'en the old ghosts come

About us- and they speak to some

(Anon)

The traditional beliefs of  Halloween are connected with rituals performed for Samhain, the Celtic festival celebrated in Ireland and Scotland. Samhain was one of the four Celtic festivals known as quarter days. The meaning of the word in old Irish is 'summers end'. Celts considered sundown as the start of a day, which is why although Samhain is November 1st, it would have been celebrated at sundown on the 31st. It was their new year and fires would have been lit on the hilltops to drive out the evil of  the last year and welcome in the new. Later festivities would have been influenced by the Christian feasts of All Saints on the 1st and All Souls on November 2nd, when the dead are remembered in prayers.

For on Hallowmas Eve the Nighthag shall ride,

And all her nine-fold sweeping by her side 

(Waverley by Sir Walter Scott published in 1814) 

 In the past it was a night for staying by the fire, out of harms way, and telling fortunes.

Fortune telling was done by throwing a hazelnut into the fire and seeing how it burned, or by peeling an apple and looking for the shape of the peel. These were ways of foretelling a birth or death in the family, the success of a marriage or the initials of a future husband.

In some parts of the country the 31st of October was known  as Mischief Night when mummers  would blacken their faces and knock on doors asking for cash. So although we think the trick or treat idea for Halloween came here from the USA, along with pumpkins, during the last 25 years, it's not completely  new............... before pumpkins,  faces would have been carved from swedes, turnips or mangle wurzels.

Years ago at the smallholding pumpkins were always one of the ways we made a bit of money through the  month of October when most other crops had finished. I searched the old blog and found the picture from 2014 - the year when we were given some seeds for giant pumpkins. We sold all these and also £75 worth of normal sized pumpkins. It was always hard work planting the small pumpkin plants out on the field in the late spring but a very useful income in late Autumn, as it is for many bigger farmers.

 

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Halloween Mantel-shelf

5 sparkly bats from the packaging place a couple of weeks ago and a ceramic pumpkin from a charity shop several years ago are the additions to the mantle- piece for Halloween.

If you are somewhere that celebrates it in rather more exuberant style - stay safe. And if you are trying to avoid all the hassles, keep the lights off and pretend there's no one at home!
We were expecting trick or treat-ers in Ipswich last year and never saw a soul, but there are two little girls next door but one to us in the lane so perhaps they might be round (actually T would hate me saying little as she's 11 now!)

Back Tomorrow
Sue