Making Tracks

These interesting marks are left by a snail (or a slug) that enjoyed eating the red algae that had formed on one of our outdoor storage bins. And while reading about this I also discovered that mollusks have kidneys (as well as most other mammalian organs) - ha, who knew? well, Snail-world.com obviously!

The bargain hibiscus plant that I bought earlier in the year finally flowered - such a pretty shrub! There were 3 buds but two dropped off - possibly eaten :-( Maybe next year there will be a few more...

This was the first of this year's sweetcorn that we shared yesterday - so sweet! After the fretting that they weren't going to cob-up they're doing well - a couple of cobs on each stalk.

Shhh, the magpies don't seem to have found the sweeetcorn under the Jack-Be-Little pumpkin growth so far! But the pumpkin leaves are beginning to die back, so we're having to have a cob each tonight and probably every night..

Look! We've found a second loofah. It's not as big as the other one, but still not sure how we managed to miss it! 

There were large flocks of house martins overhead throughout the afternoon. They weren't sitting on the wires, just flitting and flying around. Amazing numbers and very impressive - clearly miles better than this photo shows, hence the fancy effects! They're preparing to head South, so maybe we'll see them in Tenerife in a few weeks time!

At one point they were joined by a kestrel. We haven't seen one on site all year, so were pleased to see its return - as long as it leaves all our friendly little robins and the wrens alone!

Today was grey but last week we had a sweltering start to the week (when this little cirrus cloud appeared), followed by torrential rain (21mm) and a huge thunderstorm that reached Newbury but just managed to miss Hungerford. I wonder if that marked the end of Summer...?

In the Mood

I cooked again yesterday! Two days in a row doesn't happen very often. I had a vegetable omelet/frittata for dinner. With chard (stems and leaves), tomatoes, onion and courgette with cheddar cheese on top - so tasty.

The frittata could have contained potatoes as we emptied the last potato bag yesterday - one Orla produced a lot of large potatoes and they are in good condition. I hope they are suitable for baking.

A couple of the carrots had sprouted extra legs and they joined the onion and some spices to make my lunch soup that I'm eating as I type.

In fact, it was so tasty that I've had to heat up a second mugful - well, it's a small mug (honest!)

We had a nice couple of hours on the plot. Jamie spent time weeding the brassicas (Brussels Sprouts and Kohl Rabi) and I weeded and deadheaded all over the place.

The plants look much happier now that they aren't competing with weeds and they have a higher net so they aren't feeling restricted. We had to get the new net on quickly as there were a lot of white butterflies trying to lay eggs everywhere!

The loofah is getting longer each time we visit, but no sign of the foliage dying back yet so we'll leave it on the vine for now. I'm a little concerned it may fall off and break - that will be very disappointing as it's the one and only!

September - Cooking and Growing

Mmmm, if you could only smell this cooking!

French bean chutney, one of our favourites! We use the same recipe each time we make it. Only once did we make it with runner beans, that were a bit old. Eurgh, we won't make that mistake again! Stringy bits in your Christmas chutney are most disappointing!

Turmeric, mustard, cornflour in vinegar

We went to the allotment earlier - it was pouring with rain, but we wanted the onions and Speedy Dwarf beans for the chutney and the other veg for the halloumi meal tonight.

I'm pleased that the peppers changed colour as intended. The red one is halfway there, but just the orange and yellow ones for tonight.

The Indigo Rose black tomatoes haven't had enough sunshine to completely turn. Their green backs have turned reddish. They're not as tasty as the red plum Aviditas tomatoes, which would be my tomato of choice next year. It's prolific and delicious!

Talking of prolific... the Disco Patty Pan have come into their own. These two were particularly beautiful! Several have grown huge so I've been taking them to work - but even my colleagues can't face any more Summer squashes! They are delicious stuffed.

Our largest sunflower is now seeding up. I may take some of the seeds for nibbling, but most we'll leave for the birds. Our cucumbers have also had their day, but Rocky performed brilliantly as always.

And soon it'll be time for the Winter squashes....

Jack Be Little

Jack of All Trades

We picked one of the Lark sweetcorn cobs yesterday. The kernels were very small and not quite ready, but we ate a lot of it raw as it was so sweet. Looking forward to them in probably a week's time...

Organ Donation Week 2016

As it's Organ Donation Week (previously known as National Transplant Week) I was thinking about what my life would be like if I hadn't been fortunate enough to have my kidney transplant in 2008.

I would have been on dialysis for 12 years. Dialysis options have improved significantly in 8 years so some of these thoughts may be unfounded. Also, at the time, I had some good friends at the hospital who made the sessions a little more bearable. And you have to make the best of whatever life throws at you.

No allotment - Eurgh! Imagine that. As a dialysis patient the idea of digging an allotment would not have entered my head! Everything we've learned, grown, seen on the plot over the last 7 years wouldn't have happened!

Blogging - I only started the blog as a record of what we were doing on the allotment. Now if I ever have to return to dialysis (fingers crossed that never happens) I might blog about it, but it would be a bit dull, with no nice photos (like this post!)
Food - the strict dialysis diet makes food rather dull and kidney failure impacts on appetite anyway. My (slightly)  increased interest in cooking has only been as a result of growing our own.

Vegetables Only small amounts were advised - a bit tricky when you're a vegetarian, but my appetite was so small anyway. Fresh vegetables are too high in potassium so kidney patients have to over-over-cook them. For example, potatoes had to be double-boiled and the boiled-out nutrients washed down the sink.

Buglife - we've always enjoyed nature but having the allotment and the energy to work on it has provided the close access to interesting creatures that was missing from our lives since we moved to the flat without a garden.

Social life - we wouldn't have met and made friends with our lovely fellow plotholders. The allotment has opened up this side of our life in Hungerford. We'd probably still be more into computers and gaming. Of course, there's nothing with that, but real world is good too.

Sleeping - All the hours we spend on the plot would probably be spent sleeping. Dialysis cleans the blood but the tiredness remains.

Time off - I always treated dialsysis sessions (4 hours at the hospital every other day) like a job - but a job with no annual leave and no extended Christmas or Bank Holidays. And no sick days.

Holidays away - we first visited Tenerife while I was on haemodialysis, so it's definitely possible, but I certainly don't think we'd be having an annual holiday. It's more involved to arrange dialysis sessions away, locations are restricted and it's more expensive for insurance

Lethargy I'm certain that I wouldn't be learning spanish and wouldn't have taken on my new job. The inspiration to do new things isn't there when you're waiting for your next dialysis session, waiting for a hospital appointment, waiting for the call..

These are a few of my reasons why I see organ donation as 'a gift of life'. I wouldn't be dead without a new kidney but my life would be significantly limited.
Please have the conversation with your loved ones.

THANKYOU TO ALL THE DONORS AND DONOR FAMILIES 
AND THE NHS DOCTORS AND NURSES

Bank Holiday Tuesday

I'm not sure why we get an extra day off for the August Bank Holiday, but I'm glad we do! It was a beautiful sunny and hot day so Jamie and I had a barbecue on the plot.

We had a nice plate of heart-shaped cucumber, mayonnaise-y carrots and pickled garlic-tomatoes while we waited for our Quorn burgers and onions to cook on the little bbq. The garlic is still rather strong - not to be eaten at lunchtimes at work!
The tomatoes were all Orange Paruche. Very tasty but split too quickly to be used in anything where you want to keep them whole, or for cooking with where they fall apart.

I'm still managing to pass on plenty of courgettes and cucumbers at work so they aren't going to waste and we cooked one of the patty pans on the barbecue - it was quite tasty, but better cooked as part of a meal at home to be honest - like we had last night; baked and stuffed with a Bhuna curry, yum!

The Speedy dwarf beans (sown on 2nd July) are just getting big enough to harvest. We hope to make some chutney with the first crop at the weekend. They have timed really well this year as the runner beans have just about had their day (and we've had enough of them).

I Spy Through the Rain

This is looking through the slats of the stable down to our plot at the bottom of the site - it was a rainy/misty/warm day so we spent quite a bit of time in the greenhouse or in the site stable. All I did was a bit of weeding, picking and taking photos anyway, so it didn't matter that it was rainy - at least it wasn't cold.

I put the camera on a long stick - it looks better from ground level!

The rainbow chard stems are the brightest thing on our plot at the moment - almost glowing in the misty light!

The pumpkins on Plot 3 are amazing... Two plants and at least 7 large pumpkins. The foliage is beginning to die back as you can see.

This was that plant 8 weeks ago - isn't nature amazing?!

A little way to go yet...

We've had some really hot days with sultry nights and yesterday we got the storm. I didn't see any lightning but heard thunder rumbling around. The sun and rain are encouraging everything to grow but our sunflowers are shorter than previous years.

Sunflower peeping through

We've been to the plot to harvest and water each evening. This is our one loofah that's formed - it's about 30cm long. The plant is now producing quite a few flowers, but there won't be time to make any more loofahs at this stage.

The peppers are colouring up now; 2 peppers per plant is rather weak. I hope they taste good, we'll wait till they get their full colour before they get eaten - maybe stuffed peppers, mmm.

We've been alternating between courgette-based meals and runner bean & potato meals over the last couple of weeks. The runner beans are beginning to get a bit stringy on the edges now. The potato has been grey-purple because we've been using the Salad Blues- still tasty, but not very pretty! We should have emptied them out of the potato bag earlier then we could have had them as boiled salad potatoes.

All that (apart from the cucumber and raspberries!) went into a lovely roasted vegetable and halloumi meal.
That was the first of the patty pan summer squashes. We think it has a bit more flavour than the courgettes. They were really slow to get going, but look like they're going to swamp us soon! The courgettes I take to work keep disappearing from the kitchen, so they won't go to waste.

The tomatoes we're mostly eating are Aviditas, I think they're more tasty than the Orange Paruche, which split as soon as they're picked. The Indigo Rose are still on their way to ripening... I've tied them up in an attempt to get the green ones and green parts to see more light..

Our sweetcorn has finally formed some cobs. They aren't very big, but hopefully they're still going to fill out. Looking at previous years (aren't blogs handy?) we normally start harvesting it in September, sometimes late September, so we seem to be pretty much on track.

The Jack-Be-Little plants are producing loads of pumpkins and clambering all over the sweetcorn, the trellis, the courgettes.... And the Speedy dwarf beans which are just forming, so we'll have them to replace the runners in our diet.

A mackerel sky