Hi Friends,
Well, even waking up with tonsils like razor blades (I surely cannot be lergyfied again?!), has not stopped me getting out into this fabulous Spring sunshine today. I've been round the whole garden with the wheelbarrow & 'grabber' collecting up detritus that had blown in, stray brassica collars, cane toppers, plant ties, etc, & generally having a damn good tidy-up. It reminded me a bit of being sent to litter-pick as a punishment for forgetting my PE kit at school. Actually, I always saw that as a result, as I much preferred picking up litter to the utter time-waste of pretending to play netball! It didn't do to try this too often though, or one could find oneself NOT on litter-picking, but instead, having to wear some hideous BO-impregnated PE outfit from the 'spare kit' box <shudders>.....
After a good tidy-up this morning, I got down to one of my favourite Spring jobs - Looking for FREE PLANTS!! As someone who used to spend really quite eye-watering amounts of money in garden centres across the East Midlands, these are now my favourite kind! And here is today's haul:
Theyr'e not all here, as I've already transplanted some, but in total, my free plant hunt yielded these self-seeded lovelies: 1 buddleja, 6 aquilegias, 1 alchemilla mollis, 4 primroses, 3 clumps of forget-me-nots, 2 mauve poppies (well, I think they will be mauve, but that's the beauty of the free plant hunt, they could be anything, including a new colour), 2 golden feverfew, 5 foxgloves, 2 tellima, 1 lemon balm & an oregano. Not bad for Round 1. There will be more as I continue to clear the rest of my big flower beds over the next couple of weeks.
I also have another 'treasure' this Spring. I have never been able to grow any hellebores except the native stinking kind (Hellebore foetida). While I quite like its lime green flowers among other early Spring colour, I get a bit of a grump on when I visit gardens for Snowdrop Walks & see all the other lovely hellebore varieties. In 2010, I tried for a final time. I bought a hellebore from the market stall of a local nurseryman. My thinking was that if it's been gown & raised here in the locality, it will do fine in my soil. Yeah, right! Here was the result of my clever thinking.....
2010 - Didn't flower, but the grower said it wouldn't the 1st year, so that was ok.
2011 - 3 leaves.
2012 - 2 leaves
2013 - 2 leaves
2014 - 2 leaves
Are you getting the picture?
2015 - Nothing!
2016 - 2 leaves
2017 - Oooooooooh! Look!!
Finally my patience (for 'patience', read lots of sweary moaning!) has been rewarded with 3 lovely dark red blooms. My photo doesn't really do them justice, but you get the idea.
So that was today.......lots of planty freebies & at last, a non-stinking hellebore to enjoy.
Hope you're all enjoying at least a bit of this sunshine.
Till next time,
C x
Hello Friends,
I've been meaning to share the link to this recipe for the longest time, but seed-sowing time just seems to have taken over and I'm spending lots of time in the greenhouse & not much on the laptop.
I promised one or two people the details of this recipe, so here goes.
I love making these.....& eating them. They are really tasty & filling in a home baked bread roll & I like a dollop of my pineapple chutney & an enormous salad with mine. It's a Delia recipe - I first came across it in her vegetarian cook book which my parents bought for the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship before he fell off the veggie waggon & started walking around town with his nose pressed to butchers' shop windows, dreaming of humoungous rib-eyes.
The recipe appears on her website here . These burgers are really easy to make. You just need to remember to put the dried chickpeas in water the day before, so they can soak overnight. Then you start by bringing them to the boil & simmering until tender, before draining them. They don't take as long as you think, maybe about 40-45 mins or so.
In the meantime, you can be getting the rest of the ingredients together. The onions, garlic, green pepper & spices are cooked together & smell fab, as the spices are first toasted a little in a non-stick pan to bring out the flavour.
When everything's ready, pretty much all that needs doing is plopping it all into a food processor with the remaining ingredients such as lemon zest, 3 tbsp yoghurt & a bit of seasoning , then blending it together. You want a consistency that will form into burgers, but to leave a bit of texture in the chickpeas.....no need to blend the living daylights out of it.
Then it's simply sleeves up time, & forming the spicy mixture into 8 burgers. I just do them with my hands as I don't own any sort of la-di-dah burger press. Next 2 plates....one with a beaten egg on it & one with some wholemeal flour, & you just dunk each burger first in the egg, then in the flour to coat........
......
at which point they look like this. I pack them into containers at this stage & freeze them. They freeze really well, but as they cook best from frozen, remember to freeze them so that they're not touching. I just fry them in a little oil when they go a lovely golden colour & smell yum. Sorry I haven't got a pretty picture of one sitting in a hand-shaped bun artistically garnished with rocket & red onion rings - that was my intention but we had scoffed them before I remembered!
This is the book we have, but I think the chickpea burgers may feature in others of Delia's books too. They hit all the buttons for me....easy, nutritious, tasty & cheap! Could eat one now......shame it's an 800 calorie day today.........Booooooo! How DO people doing the 5:2 Diet manage on 500? I would be so hungry I'd be dipping into Albert Whisker's biscuits, I'm sure!
Anyway, that's it. Recipe shared!
Cheers,
C x
Hello Friends,
Hope you're all enjoying the first signs of Spring. I know I am. I'm so behind with my blog, but have some recipes & seasonal gardening and the usual stuff to share, so I must get cracking!
First I want to share a photo of Albert Whiskers (which is highly relevant to today's topic!)
Now being observant sort of people, you'll notice that he's not exactly leaping around doing star jumps. Now take a look at this........a little article from the Guardian last month introducing the concept of...........
........Fitness tracker devices for pets!! Thankfully this seems something aimed primarily at dog owners, & I guess (not being a dog owner or someone who knows anything about dogs) that this could be useful for older or overweight animals? But having read it, I couldn't erase from my mind the thought of such a fitness tracking device being applied to the sturdy supine neck of Albert Whiskers.
I think a typical day's read-out would look something like this:
*Frenetic clawing of bedroom door to gain immediate access (20 mins)
*Engaging in miscellaneous acts of anti-social behaviour in order to try & secure an earlier or extra meal (2 hours)
*Eating (5 mins)
*Essential outside ablutions:
Normal weather conditions (8 mins)
Rain (2 mins.......crafty wee in the bark chips)
Snow (zero mins......cork!)
*Sitting on our seed potatoes in a manner likely to cause damage to the chitting process (30 mins)
*Snoozing (20+ hours)
........that last photo being one of my favourite of his 'Summer Action Shots'.
So while I think the marketers of pet fitness trackers may find a little possible potential with dog owners, as a cat owner.......more specifically as a co-owner of Albert Whiskers, I know exactly what a leak of valuable cashola such a purchase would be!
Now to be fair, he HAS been getting a bit more exercise in the last 2 or 3 days. This has absolutely nothing to do with getting a 6-pack for the summer or improving his BMI, and EVERYTHING to do with the fact that a new cat has appeared on our street. Since he famously vanquished Tabby White-Paws a couple of years ago, the only local cat of a size likely to bother Albert Whiskers is the infamous Big Grey Fluffy. BGF has been busy recently guarding his new street lamp, but hasn't encroached on AW's end of the street for the purposes of Trouble. NewCat is BIG - He's probably about the size of our lovely old Siegfried - & Albert Whiskers is putting a lot of time & effort into surveillance. NewCat looks like a Siamese in colour, but is the wrong shape......he has the big chunky body of a male Moggy, but there are definitely some pedigree genes there too. So far NewCat has remained on the opposite side of the street. I suspect when he decides to cross onto Albert Whiskers' side, it could mean war......especially if he makes free with Albert's wall......that's poll position on our street for blagging strokes & fuss from passing neighbours and definitely not for interlopers of indeterminate origin.
Let's see if we can get through this without fight injuries........<sighs>.........
I will soon be longing for him to return to his 20+ hours a day of lazing about!
Cheers for now,
Cathy x
