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!

 

A miscellany

Here's some photos from September and October that I wanted to post about but that didn't merit their own post

We had a Mandevilla plant 2 years ago that didn't survive the Winter so in Winter 2022, CBC decided to bring the replacement one inside for the season. It survived but looked decidedly peaky by Spring time. It took it all Summer to finally start to grow but eventually, in September, it started to flower again! We were happy to see its jolly pink flowers again!

I ended up being asked to play 2nd flute for a concert with the Highbury Players in September by a lady called Emma who I used to play with when I first joined my regular orchestra (which I've been playing with for 20 years this year!). We played Brahms' 4th symphony which is a DELIGHT to play as a flautist. It was really nice to play with Emma and actually realise how similar we are as players personality wise and how well we blended. We also had a delightful fish and chips in Drayton Park road.

I picked many blackberries from round the corner from my house in September and made lots of fruit amber!

When I went to Highbury for the aforementioned concert, I visited a charity shop I used to go to when my ex-boyfriend lived there when I was in my final year at university.  I found a beautiful Ukele in a case in their half-price sale! 

I found some excellent books for the school library too! The Piers Torday books were FANTASTIC!

My sunflowers FINALLY flowered in September!

When I went to my Dad and Stepmum's, they'd bought me some Chilli rice-crackers and Shittake crunch from their local refill room.  They'd got them in their own containers but I used the empty Cornflake bag to take them home in! It worked well!

Dad's Cobnut tree was covered in nuts and the squirrels hadn't got them so I picked lots to take home for CBC's porridge!

My orchestra was rehearsing in the Paddington area and there is an excellent Indonesian restaurant nearby called Bonda Kitchen. I ordered their Mie Goreng Mamak and it was superb!

I was still picking raspberries into October! Had an excellent harvest this year into the thousands!

Saw a jolly Red Admiral Butterfly on my trips to the Blackberry bushes.

At the end of September, CBC and I made a trip to the Chilterns to do a reccie for Duke of Edinburgh for his school. We stayed in a rather grim High Wycombe Travel Lodge (breakfast was good though!) but had a great walk and we saw the church that they used as the church in the Vicar of Dibley.

Lots of Midsomer Murders were filmed at pubs we passed.

What a strange and wibbly-wobbly (timey-wimey) house in the village!

The church was really lovely inside.

I enjoyed looking at the organ! Such fascinating instruments!

I adore it when the light hits just right and reflects on the floor!

Beautiful embroidery.

The shiniest ceramic teapot!

My gamelan group played for Indonesia Night at the Methodist central hall in London. It was a huge spectacle!

It's been fun playing gamelan regularly again!

I was given a cutting of a purple house plant from a friend's mum in August. I am happy it has thrived in our bathroom in the vacated Aloe pot! It has even flowered in the last week.

We were given Harrods goodie bags from the Indonesian embassy! The Neuhaus chocolate was delicious. I'd tried this brand in Belgium!

 What would be in your miscellany?

Clematis glory

Last October, I wrote a short post about the wonderful Clematis Tangutica that we inherited when we moved to our house.

I realised that I only shared one picture last year so this year, I thought I'd give it to the glory it deserves.

Below, you can see just how much it has grown this year and how it surrounds (and clings onto) our swing seat.

It spreads quite far.

I'll show you the flowers at various stages

Here you can see the flowers as they have turned into seedheads. If you leave them, they go grey-haired and even more fluffy with distinct seeds attached. I've been cutting and saving these for my work colleague who makes beautiful dried flower arrangements.

Above, you can see the stage before, when the fluff is spiky and growing outwards.

Before this, you can see how they lose their Chinese lanterns revealing the stamens and stigma

Here it is at peak deliciousness for the myriad bees of all kinds who are flocking here in droves. It's wide open.

The stigma or stamens are bright yellow- hadn't seen that before!

Squeezing in that gap.

Here they are at the stage where the bees are itching to get inside but can't quite get in unless they squeeze in those gaps.

And here are the totally closed petals.

Can you see the tiny yellow bud?

It's such joy to see these beauties reach their Autumn Zenith. I am grateful for Mrs Baker (previous owner) and her clever planting!

Have you come across this beautiful before?

Kezz and the chokestalk

Here's a throwback to the end of August.  Ah, look how  thriving my raised bed looked.

Do you see that tall plant behind me?

Well, yes, there is a beanstalk behind me....around 8 of them in a wigwam formation but also, towering above those is a Jerusalem Artichoke plant. My mum gave me a left over Tuber from some she was given and I planted it in the bed. It has grown and grown and has achieved lofty heights- it continued beyond where it is in this picture to double my height!

In the picture, I am holding a round courgette. I bought some seeds from Lidl and whilst only one of my plants survived, I've had a fair few big fruits out of it, even though not as many as last year.

I'm quite sad that a lot of the Summer plants are coming to an end- there have been successes and failures...it's been an odd year weather-wise so I'm grateful to have had anything.

I'm really rather fond of the playsuit I am wearing in the picture.  Secondhand of course...came from Depop which is a second hand sales app. Curiously, it has an almost identical pattern to a Clara dress...but in black with a different shape and it being a playsuit.

I've had a lovely weekend.  Friday night was a bit annoying as CBC went out for drinks and nibbles to a work colleague's house  (which he'd mentioned he was going to) but didn't get home to midnight but didn't let me know till about 11pm that he was actually alive...so I ate rather late.

We awoke early on Saturday morning and CBC went out to hunt for petrol which we needed for to go over to my Dad's.  He's not used the car virtually at all for about 3-4 weeks as he's been getting the train to work (not because of the petrol issues but because he wanted to start off the year with good habits for work and had to stay at home for reasons last weekend).

He managed to get some eventually and came back with McDonald's breakfast.

We then drove to Kent in horrendous traffic, made worse by the A13 being closed and there being queues on the A127 for a petrol station and ended up so late we had to head straight to Ashford rather than driving to my Dad's. We met at MacArthur glen where I accompanied my sister and stepmum to look round the shops (I was good...resisted unbelievably good Cath Kidston sale shop...ended up buying a pair of black boots in Clarks after my feet ended up well and truly soaked) in the pouring rain. CBC, meanwhile, headed off to the Curiosity brewery to meet my Dad and my sister's boyfriend The three of them were bought a brewery experience for Christmas 2019 but for obvious reasons, hadn't been able to make use of this.

After an hour and a half, we met them at the brewery restaurant for dinner.  It was excellent!  I had prawns for starter and hake for mains.  We then drove back to my Dad's house where we sat and chatted and did Jay's Pub quiz (2 of them) on YouTube which is brilliant.  We also ate a platter of chocolate, crisps and popcorn courtesy of my sister.  Reluctantly, we headed to bed, it was SO nice to stay late at my Dad's house for the first time in 2 years.

This morning, we drove to a nearby garden centre where they have an excellent cafe for breakfast. It really was delicious.  After a brief look round the centre, resulting in the purchase of a new water butt to replace our one which has a split in it, we headed home. Luckily the traffic was much more clement, as was the weather!

Back home, we both started off by doing garden chores.

I hope you are well.

xx

 

Nasturtium envy

For the past 2 years, I have had great Nasturtium envy.  Friends with gardens have had great successes. Vix and and Ann have had astoundingly prolific Nasturtiums these past 2 years.  

Ann very kindly sent me a pack of seeds last year when I bemoaned not being able to obtain any.  I grew some in a shallow tray last year but they didn't get huge though they were fairly pleasing.

This year, I decided to plant them in the pot with my Fig tree as I had visions of them trailing beautifully down the side of the large pot.  Sadly, my first attempts all seemed to either get decimated by caterpillars or chilled by the frost and they died off.  

I planted some more but the same happened again.  In the meantime, everyone else's made a take over bid for the world.  

I tried planting some in the hanging baskets at school- they started to bloom and grow quite large, nurtured by my year 4 girls.  Then it was the Summer holiday and they weren't watered for 6 weeks.  Despite rain, I returned to dead Nasturtiums.

Another fail.

A few weeks ago, CBC said, "Have you noticed the Nasturtiums growing out of the drain/grid?"

Lo and behold, there were some growing in the drain.

Fast forward a few weeks and here they are.  They are not massive, but they are still alive and had their first flower last week (not in the picture!).  I'll take what I can get!

Ponytail plant

This is a post I started writing about a year and a half ago (In fact, I can tell you, by looking at the automatic date draft, it was the 13th March 2019, so actually it was 2 years ago!)  and as I was going through my drafts to delete some now obselete unfinished posts, I saw this one and decided to write it anyway, even though it is out of date.

This is a ponytail plant.

I went to my Mum's house recently and noticed this.

And it reminded me of when it first came to our house when I was an early teenager.

It was a small plant in a pot- but it had a comparatively large bulbous base with a wavy hairstyle which sat on the shelf in our bathroom- that was a very small ledge.

It liked life there and grew over time and its hair grew into ringlets!

I always liked that plant- so funky-looking.

When I saw it again at Mum's bungalow, I realised I hadn't seen it for about 15 years or so. It had grown.  It had graduated into this large white pot and had grown rotund with the years!

My affection for it remained.

Funnily enough, Mum was talking to me about it last week and she said its hair had grown so long that it has now trailed onto the floor and she needs a taller plant stand!

That plant has continued to grow well. I do wonder how old any of your house plants might be?

My Aloe-vera is my oldest one. It's about 6 years old though I had the one that was about 10 years old before that which it grew from- CBC left it to die in the garden in our first house together.  It has had lots of babies which live around our house and in a few others!

Living Room Lounge Update

 Hello there!

In January, I shared a post of our living room with our new coffee table which we bought second hand at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre.  It really completed the space in our living room.  However, our phone and our internet router just sat on the floor behind the sofa and it was a temptation (for me!) to dump things behind there.  CBC said he wished we had some sort of narrow shelf to go behind the sofa to make the phone neater and make it easier to access. He also wished we had a more retro phone as our cordless one was being really unpredictable and dying after 10minutes of talking.

2 weeks ago, on the first Saturday of half term, CBC wanted to go and get some lunch somewhere.  We were driving aimlessly, not sure where to go, so I suggested we go to Battlesbridge to a lovely place called Frazer's Tearoom (there's a B&B above there in case anyone ever fancies a trip to Essex!) to have some lunch and perhaps we could find a vintage repurposed phone there.

The lunch was delicious and then we headed into Battlesbridge to look around.  In case you don't know, Battlesbridge is a big Antiques centre.  There's an old Mill with 6 floors of antiques sellers and some other units spread out over the village. It's really worth a day out there.

Whilst I was looking at a lovely vintage clothing store called Polly's Place-  I went in and she had some amazing pieces at really reasonable prices as well as some retro-looking modern pieces- brilliantly, I actually found a pair of Cath Kidston trousers I already own but that are too small for me and I've been searching online on eBay for the next size to replace them- I ended up getting them and a matching jacket as well as a lovely 50's shirt.

When I met CBC, he told me he'd found a SHELF to go behind the sofa.  We didn't manage to find a retro phone we liked then but actually, in Northumberland, at the Corbridge Antiques centre, we found the perfect one (which we bought!) .  CBC also bought a pair of Scrabble tile wooden coasters with our initials.  When we first got back to the car, CBC looked at the shelf (it is handmade, repurposed from pallets I think) and fretted about it.... but actually, when it was in place, it was perfect!!!

Here's the area which has been updated since the last post with a plant, the new Emma Bell painting I featured in the Bloggers Art Gallery (but wasn't up on the wall yet), the new shelf, the new phone and coasters, a plant from the kitchen and my first edition Angela Brazil book.  Oh, and some cushion rearrangement.

What do you think?

I can't tell you what a pain it was to get this picture up on the wall- It took us hours and CBC was going to kill the wall plugs in the end!

Here's the shelf- I couldn't believe it fitted the gap behind the sofa exactly!

And here's the retro phone in position. It's really nice to have a proper phone although it takes an age to dial a number!

The coasters work well as well.  I put a cup of tea on the C when chatting to my mum on the phone earlier.

I also put the hand-crocheted Ombre blanket my mum made for me on the back of the sofa.

Two other updates to the living room are the Monstera plant (found in Lidl!) and the handmade stool which CBC bought from Re in Corbridge in Northumberland last week.

What do you think?