Book Ends

So we’re just about done with 2021. Rather a similar year to 2020 due to the pandemic but thank goodness for the allotment and the ability to work from home. I’ve been reading a lot of books and have enjoyed a few days off work every few weeks to keep me sane. Here’s my book list and a couple of memories from each month.

January

We had some snow. Not enough to make a snowman, but nice to crunch through and enjoy the whiteness. Looking back it seems that we had a very cold start to the year.

	This was an easy read. A quite gripping thriller, but I wasn't keen on the writing style so it was one of my least favourite books of the year.
	The three separate stories set in 1930s Berlin were moving and thought-provoking. The plight of the characters still pops into my head on occasion.
	This was one of my favourite books of the year. So sad but beautifully written. It was a quick read, partly because it was quite short, but also because I didn't want to stop reading.

February

My first Covid vaccination gave a bit of hope that things may be improving with regard to the pandemic. Unfortunately that hasn’t quite panned out. Vaccinations were definitely the topic of conversation when we bumped into people on the allotment or during Zoom calls.

Another very cold month, down to -6.8° I’m so glad we didn’t give up on these broad beans which amazingly recovered and produced some lovely harvests!

Aah, I loved this book. I should have been reading it in Tenerife with the sea providing the soundtrack. It had been on my reading list for about a year, I don't know why I kept putting it off!

March

Signs of life in the polytunnel - mangetout are usually the first seeds that we sow.

Jamie and I started clearing the Wildlife Plot for HAHA. Sadly having to clear the pond and convert it to a bog garden.

I do love a Thomas Hardy novel. I've seen the Tess film more than once but never read the book. I'm glad I did as I'd clearly forgotten some vital aspects. Aah, so beautiful.

April

Second Covid jab came round earlier than expected and another trip out to Newbury Race course for it.

And there’s the broad beans looking happier now the weather warmed up a bit, though it was very wet. You can see the flowers are appearing and the potatoes have been planted.

This story reminded me of a BBC Sunday night television programme and I’m sure that is what it’s destined to become. I’m not inclined to read another, although I like Richard Osman, I wasn’t keen on the writing. Maybe I should give him a chance as this was his first book…maybe.

May

Our best ever find on the allotment. Probably only Victorian and probably a boy, (not a girl as I put in my original blogpost) it was interesting and I’d still like to know more about it.

Reading took a bit of a back seat at the busiest time for the allotment year. I did start reading a book but I didn’t finish till July (and it wasn’t actually that long!). The Wildlife Plot began to take shape and we hoped that the seedlings starting to appear were sown by us!

And my much-talked-about squash tunnel was ready and waiting for the plants.

June

I was fascinated to find the stunning Great spotted woodpecker feathers. It would appear to have been killed by one of the birds of prey on site.

The geum looking so bright and beautiful. I must remember to split the plants early next year.

July

Jamie and I spent a lot of time watching the bull finches raise their young. They really enjoyed the seed heads on an overgrown plot near our Plot3 so we could just sit and watch in the sunshine. Aah, days to remember in these dark months.

The wildflowers we sowed produced plenty of flowers and insects were certainly drawn to the plot. We expect a lot of self-seeding for next year.

	This is the epic tale that took me so long to read. It was beautifully written (translated) and once I got to know the characters I came to love the book.
	I think this was a free download. I quite liked the characters and locations but overall I found it quite uninspiring and rather a predictable read.
	This has been on my reading list for a long time. I was put off by the mention of the ‘Marsh Girl’ but I’m so glad I got over it and read this. Such a beautiful story and characters.

August

Aah, August and we had some really beautiful hot days but we also had some torrential rain!

But, it helped everything grow so a plotholder can’t complain too much. I was reading a long book, which I finished in September.

September

The squash tunnel in all its glory, with the longest Tromboncino measuring 134.5cm! The wet weather early in the season caused some blossom end rot, but still the tunnel was covered in greenery

This is the long tale that I started reading in June. It’s length being the reason I put off reading it. It was lovely though. Set in Japan and Korea it introduced me to a location and history that I don’t know well. I loved it, particularly the second half.

October

The tunnel provided plenty of Winter squash for storage and one of the pumpkin plants went into mass production; Enough for carving, soup and I even made a pumpkin pie for Halloween.

	This was a gripping thriller and made me want to read more of this genre. A real page turner but even that didn’t make it a 5-star read for me.
	I quite enjoyed this. I liked the main character but the story was a bit too ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ for my liking. I liked the parts set in War-torn Paris.

November

Just one of my many colourful squash-based meals. The Honeyboat and Festival squashes are the tastiest so they’ll definitely be growing on next year’s tunnel. November also brought my third Covid jab along with some very cold weather.

	This was interesting and dramatic in the way it was written but I'm glad it was only a short book, the lead character was just too troubled to take much more.
	Having ventured into a thriller earlier in the year, I was pleased to see this appear on offer. I really enjoyed the story and characters. In fact I couldn’t put it down. I want to read another by Alice Feeney.
	The book that follows a 5-star read is always going to struggle. This was interesting and I liked the rural Japanese setting but it was a bit disappointing at the end with too many loose ends for my taste.

December

Finally finished work so we’ve been able to enjoy our celebrations at home since Christmas Eve. The weather is mild, wet and windy so I’m not sorry to be stuck indoors!

Eating, drinking and trying to finish the book I started at the end of November…

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with my views or have any ideas for my 2022 reading list? I like using Goodreads for my book choices and in order to record what I’ve read.

And the final song of the year is by the lovely Simon and Garfunkel. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas time

Two days of leave, then a final two days of work before I stop for Christmas - hooray!

As  usual, we’re going to have a quiet Christmas and, as last year, it sadly doesn’t include any gatherings or proper get-togethers. But we live in hope for next year if people can be a bit careful and consider the implications of 90,000+ COVID cases every day - the figure is astounding isn’t it?! At least the government is leading by example <ahem>. Anyway, moving on…this is my Christmas post!

Do you like my wine cork reindeers? Finally I found something to do with those corks I can’t help but save! We only visited the cold allotment last weekend to gather some suitable sticks for their legs, tail  and antlers. 

Our Christmas tree is up and is colourful and full as we like it, with decorations made or collected over the last 33 Christmases and a few from even before we were together, including this little Santa.

This blog is the only diary I keep. I’ve been looking back over the last few Christmases. I’m looking forward to visiting Christmas markets, light shows and lovely Oxford again. In the meantime, we have good films to watch, plenty of food to eat and lots of Christmas cheer to be enjoyed. 

Whatever your plans, stay safe and enjoy your time. The song is provided by the great Smashing Pumpkins.

Sunrise, Sunset

When I opened the curtains on Thursday morning and spotted the moon, I had to dash for my big camera to get a photo and I was pleased to see it was in focus because 10 minutes later the moon was hidden by mist as the Sun arrived.

The HVFB weather vane is on top of the old firestation opposite (now a hairdressers). To be honest, that was the most exciting thing that happened all week. The weather has been cold, though not very frosty and now it's windy and raining as Storm Barra is on its way.

We had a couple of hours on a cold plot on Sunday afternoon, the rain mostly avoided us but we did get to see this nice rainbow. This is a kestrel, but the photo is mostly showing the beautiful clouds. When I see a sky like that I always wish I could paint (or had my good camera with me!)

We did a little bit of clearing but the before and after shots didn't look much different on a typical December allotment plot!

And then it started to go dark, so the Sun provided some photo opportunities. It was more impressive in real life, obviously!

A couple of hours later we took a wander up the High Street to see the Christmas lights.

The blue tree is particularly beautiful and the little trees attached to all the shops are always lovely to see, though the traffic was too busy to show the High Street off in all its glory - perhaps we'll do a late-night visit when the road is empty.

The canal has to be the most photographed part of Hungerford and The Rose of Hungerford often has a starring role. When we drove past earlier there was quite a crowd gathering to have a canal trip with Santa 😊

So apart from that, I have barely moved from the living room in the past week, except to do some cooking...

I made these bean balls with gigantes and runner beans. The smoked paprika tomato sauce was very tasty and the green spinach noodles were a colourful addition. This is the bean balls cooking - I mashed them together with fried shallots and a bit of bell pepper, they were very tasty although not very photogenic.

I'm working my way through a packet of chestnuts and a Festival squash at the moment, so had a ricey-tomatoey meal last night.

And for lunch I've just had cold roasted squash, with chestnuts and a bought salad with lambs lettuce and beetroot slivers.

Sweet and delcious, but now I have to do some more work. I've just seen that a meeting has been cancelled - that's always a bonus! Aah, and a song title from Fiddler on the Roof - haven't seen that beautiful film for years.. maybe it'll be on at Christmas 😏

Arwen’s Song

We enjoyed a bit of snowfall yesterday. Nothing like the weather that Storm Arwen brought to the north of the country, but we don’t usually get much snow so I always think of it as a treat. A little slow-mo video.

We had a freezing night and this morning we awoke to a frozen dusting of snow on rooftops and a beautiful dramatic sky. You can (just about) see the crescent moon in the photo too.

I’m having a long weekend so we went to the allotment this morning to pick a couple of carrots and see how the site looked. Ok, so neither the carrots nor snow are that impressive, but it was nice crunching through the icy grass.

We were glad to have protected the broad beans at the weekend. They looked a bit limp through the tunnel, but not too bad.

Something had left interesting tracks on a plank. I can’t work out what made them. Brrr, chilly little feet!

We didn’t stay outside for long and came home to make a leek & potato soup, using a Jamie Oliver recipe. It only needed two smallish Kestrel potatoes. We really need to dig up the last plant, but not today!

We bought leeks as ours aren’t big enough yet and the soup has celery in it too. The carrot added a bit of colour. We blitzed it rather than leaving it chunky and it has a nice texture and flavour. 

Last night I ate my last spaghetti squash. It’s a shame I only got two fruits this year, but I’ll try again in 2022.

Roasted for 45 minutes then toasting after adding a cheese, nut and paprika topping. It really is a tasty squash variety.

We missed out on the Christmas lights switch-on and preparations for the Hungerford Extravaganza which we’ll also skip this year. We’ll stick to the plan to hopefully avoid Covid-19 including the new Omicron variant which has recently surfaced. We both took antibody tests today, mostly out of interest to compare our results rather than anything else.

I hope the storm didn’t cause you too many problems and this beautiful song from The Lord of the Rings is the only reminder of the first named storm of this season.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

November has blurred past me along with much of this year. Too much work and not enough play! I shouldn't complain, I like my job and I'm still working from home full-time - things could be so much worse!

 

Last week I was living off a Crown Prince squash. The beetroot noodles and peppers made a very pretty meal but I have to admit that I was rather disappointed with the pan-fried squash. It didn't have much flavour and certainly wasn't as sweet as I was expecting.

I added cayenne pepper and cumin to flavour the soup which I made with half the squash, which I roasted. Subsequent meals included more additional flavourings like this layered bake.

A tasty home-grown dish of beetroot, celeriac and squash flavoured with plenty of thyme, sage, garlic and topped off with cheese. It was meant to cater for me for 2 meals but was so tasty I scoffed the lot in one meal 😏

It was pretty cold at the weekend but we were pleased to see a bit of sunshine on Sunday. We put a small greenhouse up in the polytunnel. It's hoped that this will keep a few degrees higher so that we can start seeds a little earlier next year. So far it has shown to be 1.5° warmer than outside the little greenhouse, so that's a good start.

We had to cut the pipes down slightly so that it fit but it'll be good in the spring and there's still room for us to sit in the polytunnel 😊

We were extremely pleased to see that our Purple Sprouting Brocolli has already started producing; we weren't expecting it till February. There was only enough for one but I enjoyed it steamed with a seitan schnitzel that evening. We only have the one plant - all the others didn't make it beyond seedlings - so I hope we can keep harvesting to encourage more florets. 

Here are our shallots, growing in the raised bed. Some garlic have just sprouted too.

And here are the leeks and broad beans. Both should be fine through the Winter, they can survive low temperatures and we know from last year that broad beans can be frosted down to the ground and still perk up again.

We left the plot wih a few of our small carrots, some of Neal's chard and a Honey Boat squash (definitely the most tasty squash this year). Added to the last of our shallots and pre-soaked and cooked Borlotti beans I made my staple meal - with chopped tomatoes, smoked paprika and lots of garlic. This lot did serve me for two days and it really is my favourite kind of 'cooking' - all shoved in a pot in the oven for 40minutes and eaten with bread - yum.

So there's been quite a lot of cooking for me over the last couple of weeks - Jamie refuses to eat anything that looks like this 😀 so he's on veggie burgers for the days I cook for myself. And at lunchtime this week I have some scrumptious fennel and home-grown celeriac soup - based on the basic River Cottage recipe, it's the best! I hope next year that I'll have home-grown fennel to use.

So that's what I've been up to for the last two weekends - not much and not much planned for the next few, but I have my antibody test to do later. Whatever the result, I don't think I'll be venturing out too far for a while yet - well, the weather has gone too cold for me now anyway 😉
Jamie bought me this Tweetie-Pie mug, hence the song title by Middle of the Road - I know, I know, but I was struggling to find an appropriate song 😂