Showing posts with label Rhubarb.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhubarb.. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 March 2023

Yippee - First Saturday in March

 Why Yippee? because the car-boot season starts today. Early morning weekend walks with a purpose again. 
Although when I said the same thing this time last year it rained! And I was thwarted. 
But if car boot sales are rained off  I know about 2 jumble sales today that could be visited instead.

In Suffolk this week........................

  • This popped up somewhere on-line in Big Letters.                                                       Morrisons announces major change for customers everywhere.
    "Wonder what that could be" I thought, - are they closing stores? Opening more? That would be a major change. When I read on I found out what the "major change" was. Can you guess? Answer at bottom of the page.
  • Season 19 of NCIS on TV here at last. It started last Monday at the same time as a new series of Unforgotten - which I watched on ITV catch up later, I shall enjoy the last few appearances of  Mark Harmon.
  • Managed to get son and Brother in Law here at the same time to shift my chest freezer from garage at front of house to the new store room at back of house - 100% better.
  • Swimming and exercise group were both good.
  • Ken Bruce has finished on Radio 2 - very sad. Vernon Kay taking over the programme- Oh dear. BBC want all their Radio 2 listeners to be under 45! They'll lose me then.
  • Some lovely sunshine here on Thursday, quite warm through glass- to make everyone think spring was on the way- as long as you didn't go outside.
  • Very excited to find I am now an "Influencer "!  Just hope the people who buy the Norman Thelwell book after my post, enjoy reading it.
  • Why do I only spot Deer in a field when I'm driving and can't stop for a photo.
  • The rhubarb plant that was here when I moved in died off last year and the one I brought here and shoved in the only place I could find for it at the time is looking so sad. Aldi had some plants in quite big pots. I bought two. I'm determined to have rhubarb!
  • The mysterious appearance of a patch of crocuses and miniature tulips has surprised me. Pity they are tucked away behind the greenhouse. Were they there last year - that is the question.

  • 2nd March 2023

 After a bit of searching old blogs I found they were, photographed on 12th March last year when I was  surprised to see them for the first time.


12th March 2022




I'll be back Monday with the Great Value Range Experiment.
Yes, I'm joining in with all the bloggers who post pictures of shopping and meals!! (But only for a few weeks.)

Have a lovely weekend - stay warm - 4℃ forecast for the boot sale!
Sue


The major change at Morrisons?.......their bananas are no longer going to be in a plastic bag but instead will just have a paper band around them. Good news obviously warranting   LARGE BOLD LETTERING!?


Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Car Boot Shopping List

Nothing better than a good list......... I've been meaning to write one for ideas to look for at boot sales all month and finally wrote the one below just so the metal dustbin could be immediately ticked!  it is perfect for making a rhubarb forcer.

Ideally I would have loved one like this .......but these Victorian reproductions cost around £60

Image of 50cm Terracotta Rhubarb Forcer / Clay Cloche

My dustbin, which I found at the boot-sale last week, was £3..........a much better price I reckon!
 
 

 
 I'll get Brother-in Law to remove the bottom. Then next year I'll have my favourite long pink stems nice and early. I'm not pulling any this year as it's the clump I dug and potted and moved here with me last year. I'll let it get well established and feed it up this year.
A clump of rhubarb was the only edible thing growing here when I moved in but it was a sad looking clump and died off over winter. Maybe I ought to add another pot of rhubarb to my shopping list then I can force them in alternate years. I'm sure it can be squeezed in somewhere.

 So this is my list of what to look out for.............

 Birthday cards that have granddaughter/grandson and an age

 Interesting looking books

 Herb plants - cheap sage and parsley 

Few plants for the plant stand (lost two over winter) + clay saucers after the crash

Metal Dustbin ✔

 Duplo for middle grandson 

Lego for oldest Grandson 

Barbie sized dolls clothes

Possible Christmas gifts 

Raffle prize for WI

Cheap New Funnel

  Christmas Crackers 

Anything cheap that I would usually buy (The house clearance people often have things like half boxes of foil, parchment or similar which they'll sell for pence and random things like those tins of fruit I found last week and washing soda)

Did I find anything else from the list on Saturday? 
Back Tomorrow with photo.
Sue



Saturday, 27 March 2021

Saturday 27th

It's the last Saturday in March and completion on the bungalow  purchase isn't going to happen next week after all. My solicitor has been offered a "tentative" date of 7th April. This is pushing things toward the last day I can be here on the 12th - 😟. I've contacted the removal company with this "tentative" date and they only have the 8th available  until the following week...... yikes......It's been "tentatively" booked. The hold up now is caused by the equity release company's (who are lenders to the bungalow owners) solicitors having to look through all the legal searches of the place they are buying in Kent.

So what have I been doing to fill yet another week pretending to be on holiday? 
Brother in Law brought my bike round for me once the weather was fine, hadn't cycled for 3 weeks so did the smallest loop for practice which is about 2½ miles. Then a bigger loop of 4½ miles which involved some up-hill bits and walks, just as I got about halfway it started to rain - which wasn't in the weather forecast - soaked me through! Glad the holiday let has effective heating and radiators to dry things. I've bought a cycle helmet as the roads are busier around here......been cycling for 55 years and have never bothered before ...but age is creeping up! I've only ever fell off a few times as far as I can remember. Once braking on a downhill black ice morning - nasty, once when out with family cycling and one of them touched my back wheel and once - unexplained - while just stopping and getting off!
 
On Thursday, seeings as there is loads of time to kill, I did a wander round Lidl in Stowmarket - I'd not been there for ages as it's not my favourite shop, before doing the same around the usual Asda - filled most of the morning!  
It's quite good to be able to walk to  a small shop from the holiday let although their fruit and veg is abysmal and their other things expensive - but I've been treating myself to a copy of the Radio Times each week. There's quite a lot of reading in it as well as all the TV schedules. Once I'm settled it will be a plan to take out a subscription to get it cheaper. That makes 3 treats to enjoy in my new smaller and cheaper home.............A regular bunch of flowers, a Radio Times and book purchasing without guilt! I'll probably share some of the house sale profits with the children too! 
 
Another benefit of walking in a village is spotting things out for sale at peoples gates - like this rhubarb at 50p a bundle.
 It was only after getting back with it I realised I don't have custard powder to make a Rhubarb fool or an oven dish and flour etc to make a crumble (In boxes somewhere in store!) I'll see what an egg custard is like without cornflour or vanilla!

There's a Silver Birch tree here, just over back fence by the road. I've been watching it slowly coming into leaf and there's often a couple of Blue Tits or a Robin sitting in it. I'm still thinking about some Silver Birch out the front of the bungalow even though my cousin said "don't do it!" due to the mess they make with their pollen and catkins later in the year.........Lovely bark set against the grey sky yesterday morning.


This week I've been grateful for
  • Getting out on my bike
  • Seeing the two nearest grandchildren
  • Being warm and comfortable while waiting for my new home
Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday
Sue
 

Monday, 8 March 2021

First and Last Rhubarb

 Just a quick post scheduled today............

After taking the topless and bottomless old rusty dustbin to the tip, there was then nothing to force the rhubarb this year so I wasn't expecting to eat any before moving . But it looked nice and pink so I pulled a few bits and made a Lazy Fool in a Jug. ...Twice......Delicious.


A small clump of rhubarb is sitting in a bucket at BiL's house ready to plant out at the new bungalow as soon as possible. I don't want to be without the first-crop-of-the-year treat.

Today is my last full day here, lots of last minute stuff to pack and load into the car. Tomorrow the removal men come to take everything to storage and on Wednesday I hand over the keys. I'll be back after settling into the holiday let - provided I can get the internet to connect!

 Back ASAP
Sue



Monday, 25 May 2020

A Lazy Fool (in a Jug!)

Such a lovely crop of rhubarb this year. I've made some crumbles but this has become my favourite way to eat it.

I cooked up the rhubarb - without sugar - and stored it in a tub in the fridge.
In a jug put a level desert spoon  of  custard powder and 1 heaped Tablespoon of milk powder and a little sugar, stir in water up to the ¼ pint mark and shove in microwave for a minute, take out and stir and repeat for 30 seconds at a time until it's thick and hot. Spoon in as much cold cooked rhubarb as you like and add a dollop of squirty low-fat cream on top. (Squirty cream vanishes so it can't possibly have many calories!)
Eat it straight out of the jug as there's no one else here to do the washing up.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

First Harvest

Best thing about having a garden and growing things to eat?

It's harvesting the first of the year.


Delicious pink forced rhubarb.............I made a crumble.

(Writing this has made me a remember a long ago friend who wouldn't cover rhubarb to force it because it was "unnatural"!)

Many thanks for comments yesterday. Blogger was playing up when I tried to reply to some comments. Internet connection kept disconnecting too. If I vanish that will be why.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturday, 3 February 2018

February Days in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017...........

............A Very Long Post

I thought it would be interesting to look back via the blog to see what we were doing in early February over the last few years.................. it turned into a very long blog post!

Looking all the way back to 2014 on the smallholding, working hard and no inkling of what lay ahead.



Tuesday, 4 February 2014


A good productive day

You know how some days you can be busy without seeming to achieve much, well today I was busy and I can actually see what I've done.

The day started with my usual walk around the field to let out the chickens from their 3 different sheds, check they are all still upright and collect the eggs. Then a basket of washing was hung out good and early with sunshine and a drying wind forecast.
Next job was to get two loaves of bread started and rising in front of the Rayburn.
After a cuppa, I pricked out the next batch of seedlings comprising of a few of each of three types of tomato and a few peppers. Then the small seed trays were refilled with seed compost and some more tomatoes sown and popped into the windowsill propagator.
Then I got a shout to go over and help put the plastic over the small poly-tunnel at our neighbours. Him outside has now finished the job, the boat has been wheeled inside and our neighbour is very pleased.
I had a tidy up in the shed and then a tidy up indoors.
The postman  brought me some books that I'd ordered using my Christmas money. "5 acres and a dream" and "Skeoch - our new life on a Scottish Hill farm". Both look like a good read and both are by people who write blogs.
The bread was baked and turned out well.
The washing dried.
I covered two lots of rhubarb with bottomless dustbins to get them going.
Leeks done for fritters to go with bacon chops for dinner.

But the best job of all, which will make such a difference, is that after 4 dry days with drying wind Him Outside managed to get the middle sized chicken shed moved away from the sea of mud onto fresh grass - AT LAST!

So many weeks of rain had turned more than half of their run into  a sticky mud mess.
 The shed is on 2 wide metal skids, with a chain attached, they can be moved with the tractor.
A while later after moving water butt, feed bin, straw bin, drinkers, electric fence and the connection to mains electric for the lighting, the chickens are in seventh heaven on fresh grass.

So a good productive day.Our neighbour is happy with her boat shelter, the chickens are happy on fresh grass, Him Outside is happy to have done both those things and I'm happy with two new books, dry washing, fresh bread, seedlings growing and seeds sown.

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 Fast Forward a year to 2015, still working hard at the smallholding


Sunday, 8 February 2015

Letting light in

We have a Love Hate relationship with the Leylandii hedge between campsite and garden. On the one hand we are grateful to the people who planted it because it keeps the prevailing wind off the house and give us and campers privacy. On the other hand if it's not attacked with hedge-cutter and loppers at least every other year it cuts so much light from the house and poly-tunnels.
It had spread sideways and upwards in the last 2 years and really needed cutting and although Col managed to do the sides of the  hedge with the borrowed lightweight hedge cutter, the top would have been difficult because since the hardly-a-heart-attack he was told not to work  with his arms raised above shoulder level.
So yesterday our future son in law came up and together they worked their way along. Standing on the trailer on the campsite side all the branches went into the trailer. On the house side they used some scaffolding, so we will be picking up the bits to burn during the week.
Under the horse chestnut tree the primroses are fighting their way through the dead leaves


In other parts of the garden things are much slower - no sign of rhubarb yet and only a few daffodil shoots in the bed of daffs that we grow to sell. We got a bit of tidying done in the long flower bed this  morning and tulips look as if they have come through and then been damaged by frost. Our other morning job was cutting back the Autumn raspberry canes. Col has loosened the soil in one of the beds in the middle poly-tunnel and has emptied - by gravity- a tank of water onto it. Then we will barrow in some compost ready for planting the earliest of the early potatoes.

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In February 2016 we were waiting to move into Ipswich because Colin had been diagnosed with one of the most aggressive types of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and had just started treatment.


 Tuesday, 2 February 2016

 


Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

It's a fact - people having chemotherapy usually have hair loss.
In preparation, last week I cut Col's hair with the number 2 comb and yesterday went all over again with no comb. Just in time, as he found he could grab hold of bits and pull them out.
To keep him company he then cut my hair with the 4 comb - not quite as short but short enough!

Looking at the colour of the hair on the floor you would think we had  been shearing a badger!
Our youngest daughter had ovarian cancer when she was 18. She lost most of her hair and wore a scarf for the duration. When her hair came back it was darker, thicker and curlier than it had been before. If Col's hair comes back thicker and darker he will be well pleased!

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 Onto 2017
This time we were waiting to move to here to the cottage, Col had had a year of treatment and had his own stem cells back and we thought things were on the up




February 2017

There May Be (Faint) Signs of Movement

We've received paperwork and signed it, deposit money has gone into solicitors client account........things may be happening at last on the buying front. I'll still not hold my breath!

On the selling front we had a couple round to see the bungalow Saturday morning, they didn't say much so don't know what they thought.The agents phoned to say the couple were not sure. Shan't hold my breath there either. We are being pestered by other agents all wanting to sell our bungalow. One company have knocked on the door 3 times and sent a letter, why they think they could do better than the company we are with I have no idea. We might drop the price a bit which will move it back to the top on Rightmove, but not until we've moved out and then the agents can show people round an empty house. I've gone off the idea of letting as we know  things need doing here and we could end up paying out several £1000 before we get anything back.

The weekend was a weekend of viewing sport on TV with the start of the Six Nations Rugby and  Davis Cup Tennis, all good viewing. The GB team got through to the next round of Davis Cup because of the young Canadian player swiping his tennis ball away in disgust and hitting the chair umpire right in the eye therefore getting his team disqualified. Ouch! It was 2 rubbers each so they were playing the deciding match although Kyle Edmunds was two sets up at the time so might have won anyway. Good to see so many GB men doing well and not having to rely on Andy Murray. I think there is Snooker on all week before Rugby again next weekend. While waiting to move we have turned into couch potatoes!

The first Saturday Car-boot sale of the season at Needham Market was a bit of a flop - plenty of boots there but I think half were the same ones who were at Portman Road last Sunday.............tat! all I spent was £2 on a huge bag of kitchen paper rolls which was a saving. Although I use a dishcloth for wiping and rags for cleaning we do use kitchen roll as tissues and a few other odd jobs.


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 And here we are in early February 2018, Everything changes but Nothing changes

 I'm still hanging out washing on windy days, and have just covered the rhubarb here with an old dustbin.
No huge Leyllandii hedge to cut thank goodness, just lots of privet and hawthorn. Future son-in-law is still future son-in-law but also proud Dad of Florence
 I've not sown any seeds yet, don't need to rush now we only grow for us.
Colin's hair came back after the chemo in 2016 but just as grey as before and we are still cutting hair at home and his is just starting to grow again after the December chemo.
The people who viewed the bungalow that day eventually went on to buy it - thank goodness and we eventually moved in here on March 1st. On the 2nd we found Col's treatment hadn't worked and he started on a trial drug in preparation for donor stem cell grafting.
Now he's had donor stem cells and we have fingers crossed they will work so that he just needs several months to recover.
The Six Nations Rugby tournament starts today, Kyle Edmunds is still doing well in tennis and the first Saturday car-boot of the season is TODAY!

Thank you for comments yesterday and hello and welcome to a new follower.

If anyone knows why there is a line down the middle, which isn't on the draft I'd love to know!

Back Monday
Sue