Grey Grey Grey Grey Grey

The weather that is. It's all getting a bit depressing - and the satellite picture just shows more cloud on the way . . . .

Beginning to feel as though I need to stand under a sun lamp for a week.

The Winter Garden is Open for Business

A reasonable day weatherwise (for once) - the sun actually came out mid-morning and we managed to get a fair bit of work done in the garden.

With the peas and onions up - the onions 'drying' in Martin's patent drying rack (see right) - Martin dug out the good stuff from the compost heap and dug it into the liberated space, and we got it all planted up with the sprouts and cabbage we'd been hoarding in various pots. So that's the Winter Garden in hand - there's already more broccoli on the way, and the courgettes are still producing at present.

Probably planted more sprouts than we'll ever want to eat mind you!

To Eat or Not To Eat . . . That Is The Question

Finally got out into the garden today - the rain actually stopped for long enough to allow us to cut the grass (which was getting a little out of hand to put it mildly). Got a bit of weeding done as well - Martin found the following under the Yew tree - the question is whether they are edible or not . . .

Anybody got any idea? Tried to identify them, think the white gills might be a bad thing . . . So I gues the answer is 'Not To Eat' this time . . .

Crab Apple & Chilli Jelly

Had a load of crab apples out of the field next door the other day - it seemed like a good idea at the time, but then we had to decide what to do with them. After a bit of online searching fixed on a recipe for Crab Apple & Chilli Jelly, which seemed appropriate as we'd just also acquired three red chillis. A lot of sugar, and a lot of boiling later . . .

Think it set in the end - tasted sweet with an undertone of heat - got a good six jars out of it . . .

Garden Update

Vegetable garden that is. We've pulled up a lot of the main veg crop now - as you can see in this photo we're down to the onions (which we'll probably pull any day now), and the broccoli, which is cropping nicely - there are also a couple of courgette plants in there. We've got some sprouts and perpetual cabbage to plant out, and the swede to sow.

The carrot and beetroot plants seem to be doing ok in one of the raised beds as well, and we've still got courgettes sprouting all over the place. Had a fair harvest of potatoes (see below), but the peas were the real success story, we had at least three of these baskets.

Playing Catch Up

Well it's been over a week since the last blog entry - so there's some catching up to do.


We had three days in Cardiff, saw the Millennium Centre (or 'Torchwood Central' as I like to think of it) - was most disappointed that the water on the tall silver 'sculpture' was switched off.




Also went to see the Dr Who exhibition nearby - not bad exhibits on the whole, but very noisy, and there could have been more of it . . .




On our way back visited Castell Coch just outside Cardiff - very atmospheric, with beautiful interiors in the main rooms. Unfortunately the weather had turned (after a good couple of days) and it chucked it down while we were there. Not so bad for us - felt sorry for the wedding party . . .

Home Fires Burning

Well the weather has been so miserable today we decided to light the stove. It did give off a few 'fumes' to start with, but a few hours later it seems to have cleared up.

It will certainly keep the front room nice and toasty - we even managed to just about 'boil' our big Rayburn kettle on the top, although I think we need to invest in a smaller model for the stove.

Swallows Swooping

Was going to call this post 'Misty Morning', as an early start brought stunning views of a temperature inversion with the emerging sunrise as a backdrop . . .



But then the swallows made their morning appearance, all lined up on the telephone wire, and I finally got some video that almost captures them doing their thing . . .

Wikipedia lists the collective term for swallows as either 'a flight' or 'a gulp'(?!) - I think 'a swoop of swallows' is much more evocative!

And the results are in . . .

Well peanuts are the official food of choice, but only just, the fat balls ran them a very close second. The seeds were largely ignored until there were no other options, and then they managed to scatter most of these on the ground (so much for the hanging seed feeder being less messy).

Not that this went unappreciated by certain representatives of the local bird population . . . and our neighbourhood mouse also seemed quite happy with the situation!

Feed the Birds

We've just added a hanging seed feeder to the bird feeding station (did have a seed tray, but they messed that up something awful), so thought we'd see which type of food proved most popular. We've put out 185g of fat balls (i.e. 2), peanuts, and seeds, and are monitoring which goes first.

Have to say that even at this early stage it looks as though the peanuts have it - but as Martin has pointed out the seeds are a new addition, and presumably word hasn't got out on these yet - so we'll have to replicate the experiment in a few weeks for purposes of scientific validity!

Peapod Soup

Well, here's the verdict on Peapod Soup. It was actually very nice, a rather sweet soup (reminiscent of the sweetness of the new peas - not surprising I suppose) but very tasty. Thanks are due to Old Scrote for the recipe - didn't have any spring onions to hand, so just used a normal onion, but it seems to have worked anyway.

This said, not sure we'd make it again in a huge hurry. The peapods themselves have a framework of stringy bits, around a cellophane like membrane that is completely inedible. They have to be boiled 'forever' (well, not literally), before stripping off the outer 'pulp' by hand (tried using a knife or spoon to speed things up but it didn't have sufficient delicacy of touch); it was all extremely fiddly.

Maybe we didn't actually boil the pods for quite long enough, because it must have taken over an hour to strip down this lot. The 'remains' looked strangely insectish - like the shed skin of a locust or something . . .

First Fruits

Well, perhaps not exactly first fruits ... we've had potatoes, courgettes and a few peas already, but this is the first major 'harvest' as it were - and we've checked, peas do class as 'fruit'!

Going to try Peapod Soup as well, which should be interesting . . . watch this space.

Sunrise / Sunset

Up early this morning, and caught a rather dramatic, if ominous sunrise. Needless to say, the weather is now grey, damp and windy!

More likely to see the sunset mind you - the best to date has to be this one from early June.