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.