Fairground

I love this section of canal in Hungerford - we cross the canal here on the back route to Tescos or to the train station. We’ve had a few trips out but I’m sorry to say the allotment hasn’t been visited for at least 3 weeks. I have my excuses ready … the weather has either been too wet or too cold and I’ve had 2 colds already this month. But none of those excuses stopped us going to the huge fireworks display in Abingdon.

It was amazing but the organisers got a lot of abuse because the massive bonfire (apparently) detracted from the show and then the poor souls wandering across dark fields trying to find where they’d parked (us included) caused more outrage on Social media, but not so much as the people who were stuck in traffic for 3hours and missed the fireworks completely 😖 They were the loudest fireworks we’d ever experienced and the display was in a 270° arc - really incredible!

Jamie was so tired at one point and needed a sit down - the only nearby seat was in the ghost train. Haha, it wasn’t that scary but getting back out of the little truck was more difficult than collapsing into it! Luckily we did have our allotment chairs in the back of the car so I retrieved them for the rest of the evening. The food stalls and fairground were a lot of fun too, but we didn’t go on any other rides!

We also had a trip out on what must have been the coldest day this year - to Longleat’s Festival of Light. We went on the boat safari and saw the sea lions but the other mammals (apart from humans) were hiding in their heated shelters - who could blame them?! 

And what a racket when the keeper threw fish to them! Amazing animals.

The only other animals we saw were the cute red pandas and the fabulous bats in the Bat Cave. Our friend, Linda, wouldn’t like it, as the bats swoop past your head at speed and they’re quite big, not like our little native ones. It was rather exciting and nice and warm but they were impossible to photograph. 

The light festival was good and the Christmas and food stalls were lovely along with the huge singing Christmas tree.

And last weekend we tracked down our favourite street food vendor ‘Vegan Street Diner’ so attended the Andover Christmas lights switch-on and also went to the Hungerford light switch-on event. Our lights are prettier but Andover’s event was more entertaining.

So we’re feeling very Christmassy now… with December almost here. The beautiful song title is brought to you by Simply Red - enjoy!

Jammin

I've been jam-making this morning! It doesn’t happen often.

It’s made with one of our Fig Leaf gourds (aka Shark’s Fin melon, aka Black Seed squash, aka Alcayota), a spaghetti squash. Funny to put a whole big squash in the oven, but that’s the start of the process and makes breaking through the skin slightly easier.

 I mostly followed this recipe but didn’t add walnuts and zested a whole orange as well as adding a slice. It seems to be extremely sweet with half as much sugar as pulp (I got ~500g from this squash).

It’s meant to be good with cheese which I need to put to the test… And a fig leaf gourd isn’t just for jam - this one was a good substitute for our lack of pumpkins!

I like the glowing reptile-type skin. I had a bad throat so Halloween was a bit of a subdued celebration plus we had to eat all the treats because no-one came to call 😊

We went to Newbury Racecourse the next day for the fireworks - it was fabulous! Though the 9km of walking was more than we would have liked, especially Jamie.

The fireworks will continue for at least another week. We enjoyed watching some from our doorstep last night and have a bonfire event later this week which we’re looking forward to.

We’ve even had a little visit to the plot to pick some leeks - the hedge, full of sloes and hawthorn berries in that low sunshine was so beautiful. The nasturtiums have re-flowered and the cosmos, verbena and nicotiana are all still in flower.

That was the plan for the leeks - a delicious cheesy leek pasta with veggie lardons. Unfortunately the leeks came from Tescos - this is how our leeks look….

That is the damage caused by the allium leaf miner. And this is its pupa. This pest has only been in the country since 2002 but it seems to be particularly busy this year from what I’ve read.

All those leeks need to be pulled (not composted on site) and the onions and garlic planted next to them may succumb too - though leeks tend to be the prime target apparently. I shall have to keep a close eye on this patch. So annoying - leeks are such a useful veg to grow.

Oh well, just another pest to be aware of…

We joined a HAHA versus Hungerford Twinning Association skittles evening on Friday which was a lot of fun. It was the first re-match since Covid and HAHA retained the cup. Yay!

The title song is of course provided by the late great Bob Marley - ah, what a song - singalong now 😊