In the Gloaming

Two very cold afternoons on the allotment this weekend. We’ve actually started to do a bit of clearing. I say ‘we’, it was mostly Jamie working while I took photos of the impressive clouds, but I did a bit.

We were having such a pleasant time, even though it was really cold. We chatted with several plotholders who we haven’t seen in months. We’re sad to be losing a few plotholders this year who we’ve really enjoyed getting to know over the last few years; I really hope we can have some socials in the not-too-distant future so that we can meet up again.

On Saturday we saw a sparrow hawk flying along the hedgerow with, what appeared to be, a bloody pigeon in its talons. We aren’t positive on the id, but both noticed the greyness of its back and wings. We also saw the bullfinches (heard the call first) and long-tailed tits. I should have done my RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch then, rather than yesterday…. Here’s my tally, (which wasn’t worth sitting still and freezing for!):

1 wren

2 blue tits

2 magpies

2 robins (nice to see they’ve paired up)

1 great tit

2 wood pigeons

Once I’d finished with that Ivan gave me some roots of Rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium) to plant up in the HAHA Wildlife plot. I cleared an area of the plantain (Plantago lanceolata) which is good for some wildlife (apparently) but rather boring to look at - we need a plot which generates interest and wildlife as well as curtailing the spread of marestail (which it seems to be doing).

Back on Plot7 many of the leeks don’t look too healthy although they look happier than the broad bean plants, but we’ve seen them recover before so fingers crossed. I’m pleased that we planted the leeks deeper last year, so once pulled there’s a good amount of leek for eating.

We pulled a couple of carrots and five of the best leeks on Saturday and had some with cheesy pasta. And yesterday morning I made chunky soup with leek, carrot and honeyboat squash (note to self: raw honeyboat squash can be easily peeled with a potato peeler). I added rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and veggie stock as flavouring.

I made soup with roasted honeyboat squash last weekend and used rose harissa to flavour. It has a really good spicy flavour and two big teaspoons didn’t add too much heat - I couldn’t taste the rose petals, but I’m glad it lasts for months in the fridge.

I’m getting through my squash supply now and last week I had a stuffed festival squash with ‘Brazilian Smokey beans’. I must say that the beans weren’t as flavoursome as when I make Smokey beans with my home-dried ones.

Last night I wanted to use the purple sprouting broccoli that I picked so I used a packet of Merchant Gourmet grains and rice with a couple of slices of ‘fake bacon’ which needed eating. The PSB was the best part of the meal 😊

Our spuds are now chitting in the hallway: Nicola, Sarpo Mira, Desiree (just one) and I couldn’t resist buying three Salad blues as the colour looks so good.

The post title is derived from speaking to Min’s sister as we were saying goodbye to Min in the gloaming (twilight - I’d never heard the word before). The Sun is arriving earlier and is still reasonably light at 5:00pm - a welcome sign of things to come.

Song provided by Trentemøller.

First

Three weeks into January already? How did that happen? January always felt like the longest month of the year. Not in 2022 it seems. To be honest, not much has happened. Weather has been mostly wet and when it’s not wet it’s freezing. I forced myself outside one sunny morning and walked up the High Street. The swan family are looking good and hassling people for food.

They’re so big when they walk up to you out of the water! They spend a lot of time preening to look as beautiful as their parents one day. There are seven cygnets in this family.

We’ve visited the allotment most weekends but it’s been too chilly to hang round and too wet to do much, even if we were so inclined. We actually had an excellent snow shower one work-day afternoon; lovely huge flakes and it quickly settled, but 10minutes later it had all disappeared! I’m still working from home and hope I can continue to do so, at least until after my fourth jab which is due in February.

I made a tasty spicy soup, with a Festival squash which had been stored in the polytunnel over Winter. Unfortunately a lot of the pumpkins went mouldy so we put them outside and they’re being eaten by wildlife now. I think I’ll set up a wildlife camera to see who’s enjoying them.

Ivan gave us a couple of yacons that he harvested last year and had stored in his polytunnel. Fellow plotholder, Min, started growing them and shared some growing tubers. The bushy plants have small yellow flowers. It’s an interesting sweet tasting crunchy fruit and it’s very juicy. We have one more saved in the fridge.

I made a Smokey bean stew, with dried Borlotti and runner beans. Two tasty evening meals and enough for a lunch with these blue corn tortilla chips that were included in a hamper we received for Christmas from my nephews.

I’ve literally only left the flat about eight times this year, with two outings to Swindon last week (one for a blood test and one for a clinic appointment 😄) That’s enough excitement for one week so now I have a couple of days off work. We visited the freezing plot yesterday afternoon. Unsurprisingly no-one else was there. We saw three grey squirrels frolicking in the trees and were joined by a very friendly robin near the wildlife plot. We saw a female bullfinch there last week - I must remember to take my big camera, rather than just my phone.

As I walked back to our plot to get the monocular to look at some other birds, I noticed a movement in the hedgerow. Look at this little bank vole! 

He was so unconcerned by me that I’m worried that he may not be long for this world ☹️ So cute and lovely to see. 

I never did get the monocular. It was so cold after watching the vole, for about 20 minutes, that we went home. Look at that sky and the weather says that today is going to be more cloudy!

My first post of the year with an appropriate song by Cold War Kids.