Garden joy!

After the ravages of successive heat waves, our lawn has been looking rather desolate.  CBC noted, with displeasure, that lots of dandelions had sprung up, taking advantage so he set off on a mission to uproot them and reseed the lawn.  I saw these as tasty-looking salad leaves and set off in pursuit to gather them for salads for the next week. I am still eating them!

The pond is a lovely part of our garden. Whilst, CBC seems to spend a lot of time maintaining it, it has been a great bonus. We love the newts and even the water spider and snails!

My mum gave me a Marigold plant to put in my raised bed as a companion plant a few years ago.  For some reason, they have been rampant this year and have taken over the bed! I really should remove some or relocate (we moved some elsewhere) but the pollinators have been loving them.  This Wall Brown butterfly showed me all its best angles and we've even had the occasional Hummingbird Hawk Moth visit.

When we visited Lindisfarne in either 2020 or 2021 (the summer you were allowed), I bought some heritage tomatoes from some locals selling on the road. 

Completely forgot I saved some seeds from them and this Summer, I found and planted a couple of these mystery seeds which turned out to be this interesting, dark variety. 

This year has been a great tomato year for me!

I found a sweet potato in the cupboard which had begun to sprout.

I cut off the top with its pair of slips/sprouts, cooked and ate the rest of it and then left these in water. 

They soon started to sprout more and grow leaves.  Once they reached a certain height, I planted them in pots in the garden.

One of them hasn't grown much but the other one is loving life in this big post by the swing seat.  I keep wondering if we will get any sweet potatoes???

This mint plant below, did I mention it already, is grown from some mint that was in a Mojito cocktail on CBC's birthday in April.  I put the healthy mint sprigs in my waterbottle to flavour my water, forgot about them and then discovered them the next day, looking healthy. So into water they went and then, like the sweet potato, grew roots and then was potted!

This harvest looks small below but it's a lovely sign of some great grows this year. The herbs have been happy, we've had peppers, lots of rhubarb, self-seeded chard, tomatoes, of course, and beans, grown from saved seeds from last year's plants.

The last garden item here comes from Walton on the Naze.  There are many dog whelk shells.

I collected some along with some quartz stones as I had an idea for World Poetry Day.

I mentioned to our English reading lead that it was World poetry day, which she didn't realise. I suggested folding a poem and hiding it inside of these shells and asking the children to take part in a poetry hunt around their room to find it.  They then revealed the poem inside and it was shared with the class.

These were sitting outside in the garden for a while before they went to school, along with some very multicoloured, dried seaweed which I also brought home as sustenance for the garden! I used Liquid organic seaweed so collecting some dead seaweed and washing it several times to desalt it means it can be added to a raised bed or perhaps even liquidised.

I've been a bit sad my own apples haven't been successful but I am pleased to have collected windfall apples from the carpark down the road (and also discovered 3 more trees!) as well as local blackberries.

I stewed them along with some homegrown rhubarb and some old honey which my MiL had in her fridge and was going to chuck out!

I made all this lot for my breakfast on the train! Healthy AND free!

Made some more this weekend and collected more windfalls so more to come! If only I had room in the freezer!

xx

 

A post from the archives.. 10 cakes i do not like.

 I occasionally like to visit my own blog archive to have a peruse. Today only happened because a new post suddenly made its way into my 'popular posts's sidebar and then I went down a rabbit hole.

Here's post from 10 years ago where  showed what a complete fuss pot I am regarding cake!

Enjoy!

10 Cakes I do not like

I do like this one. Even though I didn't get to try it.

Ha, we often put things we like in blog posts but I thought I'd do the reverse.  My penpal blog-friend Katie asked me in the last but one letter, what cakes I liked and didn't like so I listed them (the dislikes outweighed the likes).  She almost unfriended me. Quote:

"....because otherwise, I'd have to seriously reconsider our friendship Young lady- what on eath is going on with your cake preferences?!  He he I feel like you need a Cakervention (like an intervention involving cake)..."

So, I thought it would be mildly amusing to share the cakes that caused such consternation!  (From what I can remember. I find decisions hard. Annoyingly, one of my boys at school has noticed this and he delights in asking what my favourite blah blah is, to which I say, "Oooh, that's a difficult question," to which he replies, "Is that because you're indecisive, Miss?".  Swine!)

In the interests of balance, I should probably post Cakes I do like on another day. Or maybe not, less entertaining than a rant.

1.  Eccles cake- my Grandpa always used to have these at his house. Uhrgh,these things are seriously rank! Horrid filling, nasty pastry, I'm not sure there's anything nice about them.
2. Coffee and walnut. Coffee is gross- period!
3.  Simnal cake- I loathe the taste of cinammon in cakes and what's more, I really don't like dried fruit. And what's with those large balls on top??? Yes, not keen on marzipan, especially generous-sized balls of it!
4. What the heck, all fruit cakes- wedding, Christmas, birthday...
4.  Carrot cake. Ok, in this case, I will tolerate it. I will eat it, but I don't really like it. That off-white icing on top is always a bit sour, the cake reminds me too much of fruit cake.
5.  Bakewell tarts- in one word- almonds and cherries combined. Shudder. Any cake with GLACE cherries in has my disapproval!
6. Danish pastries- too sickly, too sticky to eat, falls apart as you eat, weird eruptions of jammy/gooey inards....
7.  Banana bread- ahgh, the flavour- mouldy banana- just tastes like socks!!!! Banana-flavoured anything really!!!! I like my bananas yellow with a generous helping of green.You need to use brown bananas for this type of thing so it's inevitable I would not be a fan.
8. Date and walnut cake - dates are nasty!!!!! Need I say more?
9. Gingerbread - to be fair, I think I have a mild allergic reaction to anything with ginger as I get pins and needles in my tongue when I eat anything with ginger in. I like it in savoury-food if I can tolerate the pins and needles, but in sweet- no, no, no...
10.  Coconut cake- never been a fan of coconut- always disliked Bounties. I like coconut milk in savoury foods but not sweet.
I could continue (Baklava, I'm looking at you!) but I am aware how terrible I come across in this!
You can guarantee if it has spices or dried fruit in it, I would rather politely decline.  I apologise profusely if I offend you with my overt shaming of cakes I would rather not share a plate with. It is meant in jest, even if I genuinely wouldn't want to eat these.

In my research of trying to remember which cakes I don't like, I found this very helpful Wikipedia list of cakes with pictures which helped me. Have a look-there's some odd ones there!

In the words of CBC in that I am "incredibly fussy!" about cake- the good thing is, I really will only eat cake I love, thus meaning I won't waste calories on cakes I 'quite like' as I'd rather not eat them, thus it is better for my health.   Thus, I can gorge on chocolate cake whenever I wish, since I have renounced cake on so many other occasions. Hmmm, maybe not?

Over to you, what's your cake hit or miss list?  Better still, post about it and share the link!!
xx

Haha, how fussy am I?!!

Heatwave

If you are in the UK, no doubt you have been experiencing extreme heat.  Today's poem is a triolet about that. Triolets are a 8-line French form which follow a pattern where there are certain lines which repeat and those that rhyme. Can you spot what the form is from this poem.  I've written 4 poems with this form over time.

I've been using a seed-sprouter and some microherb seeds I bought in lockdown from Wilko in 2021.  Cannot believe I finally got around to using it.  It's pretty cool and the heat has meant the sprouted radish seeds have been growing super quickly. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the sprouter so that the water is not trickling down in the way it should be.  After a few days, I thought it had all gone moudly as it looked like it was covered in a fine white mould but it turned out these were the roots!  The sprouts were tasty and had a real kick to them and added a great crunch to a salad.  CBC had recently mentioned he liked bean sprouts so I decided to give this a try!

Similarly, I have been growing some peashoots from some old marrowfat peas Mum gave me.

I might try chickpeas too as I have lots of old dried ones. This looks helpful

In the garden, I've already had a lot of loganberries. After giving them a stern talking to and an ultimatum of it being the last year I was going to wait, we've had a real glut! 

Last week, the Heatwave was very strange. My school closed for 2 days so I had to work from home for 2 days. The third day, my classes were not in as their rooms have no aircon and it was stifling in their rooms. It was all very weird and I felt like I was back at the start of the 2020 Lockdown feeling like the world was about to end and not sure what to do. The third day was especially hard, even though I had plenty of work and training to do. It was so, so warm in my house, I can't imagine what it was like in a higher flat with no garden or ventilation. My Internet was pretty terrible too although after stropping at Vodafone, a booster was finally sent. Friday night, CBC and I went for a swim at 6pm in our local pool which was lovely, if a bit crowded. I walked the 1.5miles home via the Chinese and spent most of the evening in the garden as the house was so unbearable. Yesterday, we went over to mum which was nice though her house was so humid as she keeps all the doors and windows shut because of the cats. 

Today, I had an all day rehearsal with Orchestra of the City for our Mahler 7 concert on Friday if anyone is in Holborn area! 

Back to school tomorrow! 

Xx

Free Basil

I've often seen posts on Instagram and the internet about regrowing Basil from supermarket plants. I've never quite understood how it works but a little while back, I bought a pack of basil stalks in a plastic packet (not a plant) which were reduced to 30p (I didn't want it to be chucked out and felt sorry for them.). 

I carefully picked off the big leaves to use over the course of a week with pasta. I did notice, however, that the stalks had some tiny, tiny sort of buds or leafage so I decided to put the stalks, denuded of their main leaves, into water.

Nothing much happened for 2 weeks but the stalks didn't die.  I noticed the leaves started to grow a tiny bit. Finally, roots started to develop over the next 2 weeks. I was amazed! I kept them in the water for the next few weeks until last week, I planted them into pots and they've sprouted more branches and leaves

I am very excited to have essentially regrown these from nothing! Free Basil plants.

On a similar note, my Trandescantia plant which Lara gave me as a cutting from hers had a branch accidentally knocked off. I also put that into water and then saw that new leaves were sprouting from the Earth so I decided to lop off the other branch and then let the new branches grow so it wasn't so leggy.  These both started sprouting roots pretty quickly and then they sprouted several new leaves in the meantime.

These have now been repotted as two new plants in old pots. Two free plants!

On the subject of other natural freebies, we started getting Three Cornered Leek growing in our garden about 3 years ago, presumably dropped by birds. I know it is invasive, I know you are not supposed to plant it anywhere but I have been really pleased by it- it's free and tasty! It tastes like a cross between Spring onions and chives. It was already growing in January this year so I have been eating loads of it since then. I also decided to freeze some. I chopped and froze lots of it into an ice-cube tray so I can continue eating it when it stops growing. 

One other nature freebie. I made a big batch of Nettle and Cleaver soup today (gathered in the church graveyard) and also used an absolute glut of Three Cornered leek in it too!  I love Spring nature freebies!!!

Have you ever put cleavers in a jug of water in the fridge? The water, once you take the cleavers out, tastes like Cucumber water and has good properties!

I'm looking forward to gathering Wild Garlic in Northumberland. I was very happy that the Wild Garlic in my garden has spread into the grass this year too- Hurrah!

 

The week and weekend that was

 The weeks are hurtling by but at the time, they feel like they are going very slowly...

 Had a lovely surprise on the way home from school as I saw a girl who was in my favourite ever class at school. She was a really lovely, musical girl! We were both delighted to see each other, had a quick catch up. Funnily enough, I'd only been thinking of her a couple of days before so it was an odd coincidence. She is now 20 and doing an architecture degree.  Similarly, funnily enough, she said she'd found her recorder the other day and played through, In the Hall of the Mountain King which I had arranged for 2 recorders, especially for her and a friend! When I got home, CBC was still at school helping out with Zombie night. I had a lovely Friday night watching Victoria on ITVX and typing up a poem. He came back around 9pm and we cooked a pizza and ate that.

Saturday morning, annoyingly awake early but then ended up helping CBC get to his Gardening course by making him coffee in a flask at 7.30am (absolutely determined to help him save money!)  and providing him with snacks.   

I then hung up washing and went out into the garden to do some watering and pick around 12 runner beans. I am so amazed by how prolific these plants have been. I spent £1 on two plants from a bungalow down the road and I have already been rewarded with over 250 runnerbeans from those two plants, some of which are in the freezer.  I then made tea and then came back to do all the washing up, hung up washing, sorted other washing.

It's funny how inspiration for a poem comes. I was thinking on Friday night that there hadn't been a prompt word this week from The Toy so I hadn't written one, only ended up tweaking my last week's one. and couldn't seem to think of ANY subject to write a poem about.   I was sitting in bed and ended up thinking about a theme for a Children's concert based on Time. Ended up starting to write a poem in the shower (well, say words out loud in the shower) and then I suddenly had a poem 20 minutes later.  Even CBC liked it later when I told him it (and he gets ennui from my poems!)

I went into the shower and packed my bag for my concert and started finally eating breakfast around 11.15am and suddenly realised I needed to leave so shoved the rest of my Branflakes in the fridge and dashed off to the station.  The timing was perfect as CBC arrived at a station to pick me up at the same time and we drove to the town for our concert.

We parked the car at the concert venue and then walked into town and had a yummy brunch/lunch. We had a quick look at the High Street but I didn't buy anything (although wished I'd picked up the Ikea Hol I saw in one charity shop! CBC's cycling clothes have expanded beyond their current accommodation and this would be perfect for either those or our bedding!)

We then walked to the woods for a quick walk and back to the venue for our rehearsal.

The rehearsal went fairly well.  We rehearsed Brahms and Sibelius and then the other two flutes came to rehearse Ives' The Unanswered Question.   This is a BRILLIANT piece of modern music.  I've included an extract from a London Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert below. (listen from 19:00 if it isn't already at that point when you click on it).  I first heard this piece at an LSO teachers creative day and then it was used in this lockdown concert for Children which I shared with my pupils and they all loved it. Really well worth a listen. It's such an interesting piece!  Click and listen to it as you scroll my post.

There are three things to listen out for:  the trumpet who asks the question. The flutes who try to answer and get increasingly frustrated as they try to solve it and then the strings who are the silence of the druids who know, see and hear nothing.

 I asked for this orchestra to perform this concert as I thought it was such a beautiful piece and we are a quartet of four flutes so it was perfect for us. I had to conduct the flutes from my flute as we play at our own tempo.

The rehearsal went well but I was very nervous about conducting.  I was also a bit anxious as there had been a sort of falling out with 2 members of my quartet which was really hard as I feel a bit piggy in the middle.    I'm not sure how we are going to solve this one.

In the break, CBC, Lara and I walked into town to get some dinner. Lara and I bought M&S sandwiches and CBC went to get a hot meal.  Lara and I had a bit of a talk about a couple of things and walked back.

Slight panic as CBC had all my black clothes locked in his car and I couldn't find him until 10 minutes before the concert. Our lead viola also had a fall and ended up with a based bleeding nose and two black eyes!

The Ives went really well.  The Sibelius and the Brahms also fairly well.

Sunday morning, it was very hard to wake up but I managed to drag myself out of bed and get to church for 9.15am.   It was lovely to play flute with Sue on piano as we've not coincided on the worship team for a while!

The service was lovely.   We had a talk about the vision for the next stage at church and we were asked to pray about it and share if there were any words of knowledge or encouragement. I'm not very good at speaking up in these situations as I am never sure of what I'm saying. However, as we were praying, all of a sudden, I got this clear sentence in my mind, "A Chink of Light".  Hmm, what a strange phrase, I thought. And then as I thought that, I saw it, a tiny hole in the church and then the light streaming through hitting the walks and then the light spreading out and growing.  I said it out loud, feeling very nervous. I don't usually say anything at these points but felt I should this time.  It felt encouraging.

After church, I headed home just in time to see CBC who was about to go cycling (although didn't go for an hour!)- I rescued my day old Branflakes from the fridge which tasted nasty but I didn't want to waste. I made some toast for CBC and I and then I hung out more washing. 

I headed upstairs to put away yesterday's washing and then went to get started on my 'Operation Christmas Child' shoebox.  I always like doing this! All of a sudden, I heard the sound of rain and went frantically outside to rescue the now sodden washing and brought it in.

Soon after, I went to have a look at the apple tree in the carpark down the road.  I didn't even pick any apples from the tree as there were 24 very good windfall apples just on the ground and they were huge and ripe. I don't understand why no one picks the apples or windfalls so I am glad I discovered these!

When I got back, I put on Ever After on my laptop (one of the best Cinderella Story ever, almost as lovely as The Slipper and the Rose) and set to work peeling and chopping the 24 apples.  Although I had to cut some manky bits, some of the apples were so huge that I got lots of flesh out of them. I combined them with frozen homegrown blackcurrants and some honey and then boiled them up to make some lovely stewed fruit jars for my breakfast for the week.  

I then set to work making a lentil and vegetable stew- enough for 3 meals for the two of us- red lentils, stock, onion, garlic, kale, carrots, sweet potato, French beans, tomato passata, bay leaves, herbs, paprika,tumeric.

After both were cooked, we ate both, the former with some of the croutons I made in August (still taste totally fresh!) .  They were delicious and meant that we have food for a few days!

One week left till Half Term.

Cottage industry

This year, CBC has reduced his working timetable to 4 days a week and stepped down from HoD. He's doing two gardening/horticulture  courses on his extra day.  This means we have a reduced income.  I'm trying to be extra careful with making sure we use up things and be better prepared in terms of food etc. I've been trying to also make more healthier choices. We usually eat a lot of vegetables but I need to increase my uptake of fruit.

Anyway, here's a few things I've processed recently.

The above are cobnuts from my Dad's garden.  I may have mentioned that their beautiful cob-nut trees were heavily pruned when we were there. I tried to rescue some of the hundreds of immature nuts. I left them to dry out in a plastic mushroom crate in an old clock box and they seemed to have dried. On Saturday, I shelled about 200 of them. I gave a box to my sister to take back for my Dad. I put the rest in a box to keep as a snack for my breakfasts on the way to school. 

 

Over the past few months, when our loaves of bread have gone too hard, I've been sawing up the bread into chunks and putting in the oven with olive oil and herbs to make croutons which we've used for soups and salads and just a snack.

Last Sunday, I picked some nettles from the edge of the field near church and made a batch of  it for our lunch and a couple of dinners where I had rehearsals. It was delicious.   I added a box of croutons to it.

I was running low on washing powder and no chance to get to the eco shop to refill so when I went to my Godmother, I went and picked up a large bag of conkers from the pavement outside the vicarage and made 2 litres of laundry liquid from it.  Conkers/Buckeyes contain saponins and you can use Nancy Birtwhistle's recipe to make almost completely free washing laundry liquid. 

I made 2 litres of it!

I may have mentioned that there is an apple tree down the road in the carpark which has many windfalls which no one picks up or picks. So I have been going for a walk to go and fetch them. Often, half is bruised and uneatable but it was worth getting them for any content!

At the end of my Light Music weekend, there was some food and other things left over including about 10 carrots and some amazing Chicken stock. I made a big batch of soup from it and homegrown beans, tomatoes,  courgettes and onionscapes plus a box of reduced yellow split peas I'd bought ages ago. Delicious and it catered for us for 2 evenings in addition to the first evening's dinner. Even better, the jam jars I transported the stock home in from camp are now my regular receptacles for taking soup to school so it won't leak in my bag!

I've been enjoying lots of homegrown harvest

Do you spot the Nasturtium seeds? Well, these come from the Nasturtiums that I planted from the seeds I foraged in Madeira. I'm putting them in vinegar to make Poor man's capers as taught to me by Vintage Vix!

Do you spot those leaves down the bottom?  They are Aztec broccoli, given to me as mini plants by my mum. They are growing in my raised bed!

It's been a bumper year for Blackberries!

With some apples from my Dad's I made 5 boxes of stewed apples and blackberries in honey.

In addition, using more of Dad's apples and all the windfalls, I have made about 12 boxes of fruit amber using blackberries, apples and a little homegrown Rhubarb!

It's very satisfying to make my own!

xx