Madam Butterfly

On the last possible day I managed to do this year's Big Butterfly Count - it wasn't so big, but the sun shone enough to encourage a few species to join me in this pretty corner of the site.

This is what I saw during my 15 minute slot:

• 2 Peacocks
• 1 Small Tortoiseshell
• 3 Small Whites
• 1 Meadow Brown

OK, so not a huge count, but at least they were quite interesting butterflies. That buddleia bush helped as the peacocks in particular were still enjoying the nectar when I left. I tried to get the evidence but only had my little Canon camera on me and it wouldn't behave much of the time.

You may be thinking 'that's not a great photo' but a lot of the photos looked like this...

Some bad ones were the butterfly's fault and not just the camera focusing on the wrong area...

Tut! Just open your wings, stay still and pose for me!

That's better!

And the last one is the Meadow Brown, which was a struggle to but still a little easier than the whites - but we've all seen plenty of whites haven't we?!

I also did a bit of seed collecting: mostly poppy, Californian poppy and nigella.

I'll probably sow them in a communal part of the allotment site next year - I'm sure our plot has self-seeded plenty of these without any help from me.
Here's today's harvest. Salads are on the menu for at least part of this week - home-made coleslaw, yum!

Of the various butterfly songs I could have chosen I opted for Malcolm McLaren's Madam Butterfly as I like it.

Summers End

It's been decidedly autumnal all week and the grey skies and chill wind were getting quite depressing, but after a little rain the sun came out for long periods today and everything was better again!

Aah, blue skies and runner beans - look at those lovely contrasting colours, perfect! And we've got runner beans and Kestrel spuds for dinner - no courgettes today!

Courgettes have still been the basis of most meals though but we have noticed some have started going a bit brown down the core, even though there doesn't seem to be any damage on the outside. I'm blaming the weather, of course. But the taste, without the brown bits, was still good in my spanish omelette with chard and spring onion last night.

The giant beetroot is joining cheese in sandwiches. Boltardy are good as they don't seem to go woody even when huge - they just take longer to cook. We do ours in the oven wrapped in foil but this one needed more than an hour and a half (better to use big ones chopped up and roasted)!

The Aviditas tomato trusses are really long this year and we're sure the tomatoes are bigger than last year. 

Only a couple of tomatoes have started turning red so far. Not sure if any will be ready for our Horticultural Show in a couple weeks. I've cut back a lot of leaves to attempt to get more light to help ripen the fruits.

The Lark sweetcorn has developed its male seedheads but no female tassles yet. The Glass Gem are just growing taller with no sign of any flowers as yet.
So, Summer's End by the Foo Fighters is the song title but I know there's more summer to come so it's not really that depressing!

Tighten Up

It was a drenching day yesterday and today has been showery and windy. We only visited the plot to pick some veg and water in the greenhouse. I'm pleased to see that the sunflowers are managing to stay upright now they're attached to the frame I grew them under.

The four at the front are meant to be shorter than that though. They're Big Smile and are nearly as tall as the Russian Giant at the back - they're rather swamping the Asters and Eschscholzia which are in that bed too. It's a shame as they're very pretty - I need to sow them closer to the edge of the bed if I grow them next year.

Sadly four of the purple dwarf bean plants have now snapped off completely while in full flower due to the windy weather, such a shame! The beans are just appearing now so we've added extra ties in an attempt to keep them from moving too far from their sticks. The plants are taller than we thought they'd be and probably could have been grown up canes.

More security has also been added to the cucumbers and squashes on Plot46a. We've got various supports for the plants to grow upwards...

And then the idea is that they'll spread across the wires and partially mesh-covered roof to provide us with a ceiling of hanging squashes - won't that be fun, if it works!

A couple of tiny Tromboncini are on their way but these are close to the earth so they won't be hanging far... I could (should) remove them to encourage the plant to grow fruits higher up, but I can't bear to do it!

And talking of tiny, here's our first redcurrant tomato - full size. Sweet and tasty, but you really need more than one at a time :-)

The excellent title song is provided by the Black Keys.

Two Way

This post is mostly about courgettes. Because I'm on leave at the moment I don't have work-mates to pass the surplus on to. Not surprisingly we haven't found a plotholder to take them off our hands either so here's a post to show how at least 3 of the rather larger specimens have avoided the compost bin.

The first is basically a stuffed courgette - a delicious one.

Cut a wedge out of the courgette and add spring onions, pepper and olive oil. Cook for 30mins on 180, covered in foil.

Then add extra mature cheddar cheese and chopped mixed nuts (plus a few tomatoes) - cover for a further 15mins, then remove the cover for a final 20mins.
Voila! Delicious (I never claimed it was a healthy option!)

The next method is soup and, as you can see, has a few additional ingredients - all freshly picked from the plot. I'm not sure you can actually taste the courgette, but at least it's used!

Fry the florence fennel and chopped (peeled & de-seeded) courgette in a frying pan on a high heat. The onion and fennel stalks are gently fried in the saucepan with the lid on.

Add chopped carrot to the onion pan along with the browned fennel and courgette. Add 800ml of vegetable stock and some curry powder.
Boil, then simmer for 20mins and then blitz.

Mmm, so delicious. The fennel is a subtle flavour behind the curry.
KT Tunstall with James Bay provide the song.

Shelter From The Storm

Wow - this weather!

That 10 minute shower followed a sunny half hour and produced over 7mm of rain - Thank goodness for the greenhouse!

It saved us watering the Chinese Natsuki (chinese leaf) that Jamie sowed a couple of days ago. It will also help 'puddle in' the second lot of leeks that we planted out in the space where we cleared the broad beans.

Not so good is the fact that I still haven't cleared the crazy amount of chickweed seedlings that have run riot over Plot 46a. At least it's easy to spot the beetroot seedlings among them but it's more difficult to differentiate between the weed and the swede seedlings.

The mini munch cucumber will appreciate all the water and we'll hopefully start harvesting them by next week. 

In the meantime..guess what we're having for dinner...

The trug contains Desiree spuds - Jamie's favourite for mashing. And we decided to have some of the rhubarb which has had an unexpected new lease of life. Here's a bit of Bob Dylan to sing-a-long to.

Backdoor Man

One of the main topics of conversation over the last couple of weeks has been how the runner beans aren't setting. We figure the windy weather hasn't helped as there are less pollinators about, but there is another issue...

A lot of the bees and wasps take the nectar from the back of the flowers, rather than through the front door for pollinating - this animation is a bit more obvious (but the red flowers make for a more dramatic top photo).

Another obvious topic of conversation is the weather which over the last week has been decidedly changeable which is most unfortunate as I'm off for the week and we've only had one hot day.

But this kind of weather helps things grow and we've been picking potatoes, fennel, carrots, cabbage, beans, courgettes, courgettes, courgettes!

These yellow courgettes have been the most prolific. The stripey Goldmine ones are good too but unfortunately half the plant got snapped off - I think it got too big and couldn't support itself. Even that hasn't stopped it producing though!

These are our Tigerella tomatoes - rather pretty, but this is the only truss so far.

The purple dwarf beans also fell foul of the wind and two plants snapped off, but the others are looking pretty and healthy and are just beginning to set. We've secured them and also our sunflowers to supports as more wind and heavy rain is expected.

A lot of us have found our onions have succumbed to rot - even these that are sold as resistant. I've pulled some of the largest ones so they can dry off for the Horticultural Show on 19th August, but I'm not expecting any prizes. Perhaps this little cyclops could have been included as a funniest veg, but we've eaten him :-D

The Doors provide the title track - referring to the bees antics (I know it's spurious, it's hard work finding suitable song titles along with songs I like!)

Song for a Friend

I had such a lovely day with my friends yesterday - a day in Oxford and in particular the Botanic Garden.

The oldest botanic garden in Britain - founded in 1621!

It has 7 glass houses with different climates from the fernery to the arid cacti house. I particularly liked the insectovores house.

The laid out gardens and these amazing meadows are so beautiful!

And the walled border, which was planted up 10 years ago - wow!

The sun shone for much of the day, after a grey wet start which would have upset our open-top bus ride!

My lovely buddies - good luck in Switzerland Sarah!

 Thank goodness for the sunshine as it makes for much more colourful photos!

So, we had a great day with lunch at The Vaults and later a cream tea in the oldest coffee house in Britain, The Grand Hotel. 

Such a beautiful city

It was a fab send-off for Sarah who's moving to Switzerland. Today's title song is for her by her favourite, Roddy Frame.