Inside and Outside

 Another Happy at Home In Suffolk week (well, mostly at home but I did have a trip out on Friday).

I've seen numerous Red Admirals but this is first Comma of the year, spotted on the dark purple Buddleia 

I ate the first and second lot of the climbing French beans this week, they don't seem to be producing many flowers so not sure how many beans I'll get. Wish I knew the reason for few flowers - I'll blame the weather.

First picking

The second picking of beans yesterday gave me enough for two meals - so that's already more than I had last year in the heat.

 And then there was one...........one single pear on the small pear tree after the other fell off in Monday's windy weather - and it wasn't even That windy.

The raspberries have finished, they've done well, with some to eat everyday from the first day of July to the 18th but the wasps have moved in now to damage the last few.

Below are my finds from last weeks Sunday boot sale. 2 birthday cards, 4 animals to add to the zoo collection, a Virago Modern Classic by Nina Bawden which sounded interesting and Hungry Hippos which is a game our children had years ago. Total spend £5.

I got the bigger gherkins all pickled and made a batch of cheese straws and outside started digging a space for the sink-pond to go into.

Had a day out and then another week had gone. The forecast for the weekend is a bit iffy so I'm not sure there will be any boot sale visiting but I must get the next batch of cucumbers pickled.

Hope your weekend plans go well.

I'll be back Monday

Sue

Re-Wilding?

 Down the side of the bungalow is a path that I don't use much as I go in and out of the front door.

It has a path of one slab wide or two in places and shingle on old, torn, weed suppressant  on each side. When I had the cement base done for the greenhouse two years ago I got a quote to sort the path out but it was over £2,000 so I didn't bother. 

Originally each shingle bit was full of annoying weeds, which I kept pulling out but this year lots of useful 'weeds' have appeared including Valerian and that Buddleia which wasn't there two years ago but is now 12 feet tall and also a big clump of Lemon Balm. 

In line with the latest trend I'm calling it my re-wilding area!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

In A Pickle

I only make a few different chutneys now, just my favourites - like the sweet onion 'marmalade' chutney and my red hot or not so red hot tomato/pepper. But after buying and enjoying a jar of cornichons for Christmas last year and finding and growing  the tray of gherkin plants, I now have a jar of pickled gherkins. ........and even though vinegary things weren't my favourite I now also have 4½ jars of  Sweet Cucumber Pickle. 

All because  4 small cucumbers appeared all at once when I already had 1½ in the fridge. So  I found a recipe and had all the ingredients in the house. 

The recipe - Oxburgh's Sweet Cucumber Pickle, came from the National Trust book of Jams, Preserves and Edible Gifts and used the 4 small cucumbers plus onion, celery, salt, cider vinegar, mustard seeds, soft brown sugar with a little turmeric and ground cloves.

There's enough sugar to make it sweet and sour which is good, I've eaten the half jar already and I'm thinking of making more but leaving the cucumber in bigger pieces. 

Another lot of gherkins have appeared on my plants so I need to sort them out today. And now I can see I should have left the first lot I picked to get much bigger.....like this

 Although I found I'd run out of jars and decent lids so needed to stop at the floristry supplies/party stuff/cake decorating/ packaging supplies shop on my way home from Stowmarket....very handy having this shop so close. It's easy to spend Way too much there - I was very good and only bought jars, lids and a jar of the local honey that they sell. The lady who owns this place was just back from her weeks of being a line judge at Wimbledon. She does a talk about it at WI's etc - very interesting to hear how it all works.

Back Tomorrow

Sue