Being Boring

I wasn’t going to write a post as very little has happened, but we’re waiting for a plumber to fix a leak so I need something to do (I’ve taken a day’s leave as we’ll have to clear up the soggy bedroom carpet later 😖).

The photo above shows some lovely shiny tomatoes going into the oven with garlic, thyme, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And here’s the resultant dish of roasted toms. Sweet and tasty with a bit of fresh basil. They’ve also been a nice addition to cold salad lunches.

Our harvests are tiny so it’s been great to receive tomatoes and cucumbers from my sister.

We had a very pleasant couple of hours on the plot yesterday after some welcome rain. Jamie fed the plants and I collected three barrow-loads of manure - we had a HAHA delivery to site in the morning. It nearly killed me, I haven’t moved much over the last 6 months! And the weather is still humid but not over 30° like we suffered last week.

We think these snails were hiding in the leek flowers to avoid a further shower. We haven’t seen them doing this before but it looks cosy.

And this is something self-seeded, rather pretty isn’t it? We thought it was going to be a tiny sunflower, maybe it is..

So, as you can see, apart from finding my biggest ever elephant hawk moth caterpillar not much has happened over the last two weeks other than work.

So, rather like this post, the song is boring by the Pet Shop Boys. But at least the leak is fixed!

Close to Me

I’m so glad I left the globe artichoke flower on the plant when I was too slow to pick it. What a beauty, especially up close - go on, zoom in on it. The petals remind me of sea anemone tentacles. And this bee was enjoying them too - look at all that pollen!

I was getting up close and personal a lot today (no, I’m not mad, I’m still social distancing and not intending to return to pre-COVID-19 life for a few months yet). But I remembered to have the macro camera with me.

As usual, the camera focuses on anything but the intended subject for four out of five shots! And never when this harlequin ladybird was in the best position! But the Gigantes bean flower buds are quite photogenic too.

I gave up trying to get the miniature rose buds in macro focus, which is a shame as they’re so pretty. We bought this tiny plant (it's only about 30cm tall) a couple of year’s ago for £1 and it looks after itself pretty much in its small pot. The other one we bought has rooted through the pot into the ground so has grown substantially larger - we'll deal with that when we deal with the greenhouse.

This gladioli has also been left to fend for itself and is clearly satisfied with the weather we’ve had - such beautiful colours, but I’m sure I planted more than one bulb!!

We had a lovely couple of hours on the plot yesterday. Jamie put our new bench together - our old one slowly collapsed under us one lunchtime last week; must be that lockdown weight gain 😀 And we left the site with a tiny harvest of runner beans and a courgette, from our plot, plus the excellent looking Tromboncino kindly donated by Liz.

And those runner beans joined tomatoes and cucumber from my sister for a lovely fresh lunch.

The Cure provide the great song title and now it’s back to work for a full week. I think the weather’s going to be decent, so I’ll hopefully get a visit to the plot most lunchtimes - really, it’s so necessary to escape the screen when working from home full-time.

A Stitch in Time

I finished sewing Plot 7 (pun intended).

I found it very satisfying. I haven’t done any embroidery for decades so I needed to look up how to do new stitches every step of the way. Thank goodness for My sister’s book of stitches and Pinterest!

I like the little bees in the pic above and the blue hoops definitely make it look like an allotment :-) I had to un-pick and re-sow a few parts - the sunflowers looked rather like deep-sea divers for a while, so I re-did them.

I would have liked a frog in the pond, but that was beyond my beginner skills so I just beaded it for a water feature. And the bench is definitely a major feature of our plot which is missing!

So, that’s my Covid embroidery project complete. It doesn’t look anything like the embroidery that inspired me, but it does look a bit like Plot 7, with a bit of creative licence.

Here’s the quick creation from start to finish.

The song title is by Smashing Pumpkins.

Red Alert

Day 70 indoors and Jamie & I have reverted to our former selves and spent yesterday playing video games - Landstalker, if anyone remembers that blast from the past! We'd rather be outside nowadays but will stick with the shielding plan, even if this ridiculous government doesn't understand its own vague advice "ooh, little bit of politics".

Today we have more gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. We really have had beautiful Spring weather, but I know our fellow gardeners are crying out for some rain. We had a tiny shower yesterday, but it was cleared away swiftly by the strong winds we've been experiencing in the last week. 

I've been playing with my 'microscope camera'. The images aren't as good as I'd hoped (not exactly microscopic!), but the spikey just-emerging tomato flowers are pretty amazing.

We now have two pepper plants in the kitchen windowsill too. Jamie is still hoping to visit the plot at some point, to plant them out. And he's said he'll sow some of my Gigantes beans too. Another fellow plotholder, Kate, very kindly offered to plant up our allotment now that Neal has dug it. It's a tempting offer, but it'll be good if Jamie gets up there so we've said no, for now.

A bit droopy on arrival. They're happy now

Both our allotment sites are fully leased now, with our biggest waiting lists we've had since the beginning. It's really good to show there's a strong need for communal growing spaces in Hungerford - I wish I was there to meet some of our newcomers, but at least I've seen some great photos of their activity, on social media.

I've done a bit of cooking, I used up some celery sticks to make cream of celery soup on Saturday. I used this recipe, using milk and flour instead of cream.

I fried the finely chopped onion and celery in oak-smoked oil. It's amazing, just like Campbell's condensed soup - it needs scooping out of the jug! Even Jamie likes it - he never normally likes my home-made soup :-)

We're still eating a lot of rhubarb. We actually have brown sugar to bake it and the syrup is delicious. We've discovered that chocolate icecream goes particularly well with rhubarb.

The title is highlighting the fact that this government think we can 'stay alert' to a virus, rather than stay home to protect ourselves and others - Basement Jaxx provide the great song.

Life Goes On

62 days inside, sounds like a prison sentence! But it's not, and look... some photos of our plots.
Jane wanted me to see some of the flowers and there's Neal standing beside our enormous rhubarb on Plot 8!

There are just a few California poppies showing at the moment, but I'm sure the whole place will be covered in poppies and nigella quite soon. At least it'll look pretty, amongst the weeds.

I'm pleased to see the red flower re-emerge, it's in a pot and happily looks after itself each year - I can't remember what it's called - and in the front are snap dragons which are re-growing from last year so they'll make a nice colourful display. Will I get to see them in person? Not sure about that. I've started receiving daily texts from the NHS Coronavirus Service (seems to be a new service that started last Thursday). This was the most important bit for me - 'shield at home until 30 June'.

Actually, I count myself lucky. I'm glad that I'm not being advised to return to work. I sympathise with those who will need to return so soon - very daunting. Especially when the problem for social distancing is yet to be resolved in many workplaces and for people using public transport. I think people should wear face masks outside like in so many other countries - at least that would help reduce some spread. My cousin Jen made me this colourful one for when I finally get out - pretty huh?

Last week I was very busy with work, but Friday came round super-quick. I was enjoying salad lunches with more home-roasted peppers (my new obsession), baby leaf spinach and black olives. There's a bit of Quorn 'ham' in that plateful too.

I had an omelette last night with the spinach, peppers and tomatoes - I refrained from adding cheese, otherwise I won't get through the front door after lockdown!

And I made some pea soup last week - with tinned peas.

I don't think we've ever bought tinned peas before. It was tasty and so easy to make with just half an onion, a bit of garlic and half a stock cube as additional ingredients!

It's been a bit chilly this week - we even had a frost one morning when I looked out early; it's why we usually aim to wait till June before planting things out - we've been caught out by it before.

I've been joined in my window by a Lizzano tomato plant that was delivered by Dobies this week. We're hoping that the peppers will arrive soon and Jamie could make a visit to the allotment to pop them in the ground.

We'd normally grow them in tall pots and the peppers would be in the greenhouse, but not this year. We'll see how they do - we know the Lizzano doesn't mind being outside. Thanks to Neal's very welcome help we have Plot 7 is cleared for Jamie to plant them in. Look, he's even given us lovely neat edges!

And we're still getting deliveries from the plot, though this will be the last of the carrots and leeks which have gone to seed.

The song is provided by Gym Class Heroes - a very pleasing video.

Beautiful Ones

Our first poppy of the year has flowered - so intricate in close-up, but they also look good from a distance. We're expecting to have a mass of these quite soon as they are one of plants that has self-seeded rather madly.

And look who we saw in the pond at the weekend - a lovely little frog! I wonder if it's one of our tadpoles from last year.

And then, yesterday, we saw this big fella in there - the monster from the deep!!

We achieved quite a lot last weekend with two visits to the plot. We potted on all the begonias, grown from mini-plugs - thank goodness they're out of the flat at last! I planted out my mangetout, from their drainpipe - their roots had formed a thick mat so I could just slide the whole row out in one go.

We sowed some seeds... some in pots and others in the raised bed. The radish are up just 4 days later. I've had to net them because a big crow stomps round our plot and has pulled some other seedlings out.

We planted the last of our potatoes in bags - Dido, Estima, Foremost and Erika. We did a lot of weeding so Plot8 and Plot3 are looking a bit better.

The self-seeded nigella is everywhere, but so pretty that I'm leaving it to flower and will remove the plants before they spread another load of seeds.

The raspberry, which has done nothing for two years, actually has flowers on it this year. It's in a pot and the bees love it at the moment. It seems that heeding the instructions and severely cutting it back each year wasn't what it wanted after all.

Some things just seem to do better when left to their own devices. Look at this lovely Iris bud.

We have some (currently) healthy-looking broad beans - these are the over-Wintered plants which were severely snow-damaged, but it looks like we should get a couple of meals, if the blackfly steer clear for a bit longer...

I'm happy to say that last week one of my posts got a mention in the Thompson & Morgan Vegetarian Week 'Plot to Plate' post - the other recipes definitely provide some inspiration when we finally start harvesting...

We've had no rain to speak of, though it's been forecast, so we've been watering plenty and the warm days are encouraging plenty of growth - it's all looking rather beautiful, in some spots, hence the title, by Suede!