Hello Friends,
People who know me (even just a little bit) know that the last place I'm ever going to be found heading towards is the gym........but I do like walking, & apart from the general fitness thing of walking, & the fact that it's always good for sorting my head out, one of the best things about it is that I see stuff. Sometimes it's cats, wildlife, amazing plant specimens in the most unusual places.....& sometimes, that best of all things - FREE STUFF!! I do enjoy a bit of foraging, but this little find didn't even require the special plastic bag or knife to come out, or risking life & limb against wasps, nettles or plummeting headlong into a ditch. No, these lovelies were simply sitting at the boundary of a villager's garden next to a blackboard chalked with the enticing message- "Free windfall cherries".
Oooooooh! Fab or what? My only problem was that they didn't look like cherries. My Nan had a cherry tree in her garden & the cherries were a much brighter red & shinier. Took some home with me, anyway, to investigate. As soon as I'd cut one open, it was obvious they were wild plums, slightly sourer than the large cultivated varieties, but not remotely jaw-clenchingly so like sloes & bullaces.
Having put aside a saucerful for baking into cinnamon & plum muffins, I cooked some into compote & froze it for topping Autumn porridge. The remaining kilo has been halved, stoned & frozen where it will wait for our apple crop, ready to be turned into spiced wild plum & apple chutmey for Christmas. So no cherries, but I'm not going to turn my nose up at 4 lbs of wild plums & will walk that way again in case there is more free bounty! Thank-you unknown person with the free fruit & friendly blackboard.
Albert Whiskers is making the most of the between-showers summer sunshine.
His 2nd best spot (when my deckchair is unavailable) is this sunny gap at the back of one of my big flower borders......it's not a great photo as the shadows were wrong, & I only have my phone camera, but AW fans will just be able to make out his supine form behind the plants. He's been trying it on a bit with food fussiness this last week. The Big Hairy Half of the Relationship (who is generally in charge of cat feeding) has countered this by only feeding him half a pouch at a time. AW is then so utterly shocked at the titchy size of his dinner that he gobbles it in one & demands the other half immediately. This little rip-off tactic seems to have nipped a season of food silliness in the bud, anyway, I'm pleased to say, as we aim to be a zero food waste household & that extends to cats.
Hope everyone is seeing at least a few rays of sunshine today.
Until next time,
C x
Hello Friends,
I don't know HOW today has disappeared so fast. And as for this year, it seems like only a couple of months have passed since I was making last year's pesto. My Mum always says that feeling that time is whizzing by faster is a sure sign of getting older. On that positive note, I think I'll go back to the pesto........
Our basil crop is fab this year. It's always one of two extremes here, either a greenhouse border edged with fragrant green lushness.......................or a tragic terracotta pot hosting a collection of stalks & reluctant leaves. So glad 2017's another good year, as we love pesto & it's so easy to make & can be pretty much adapted with whatever flavours you want to put in.
I use the quantities from Delia Smith's Summer recipe book, but although I really like the authentic one, I've used walnuts & cheddar today, instead of pine nuts & pecorino or parmesan, as they are what I had in. You need 50g fresh basil leaves to make one quantity but I usually wait until I can get a really good basket of basil & scale it up.
I save small plastic pots from buying hummous, olives, etc, for dividing up & freezing pesto. I'm not sure freezing is recommended, but it seems to work fine & still has plenty of flavour when it comes out for livening up our pasta in the middle of winter.
Albert Whiskers has been for his MOT today.......jabs, check-up, etc. He was dispatched with a small packet containing a worm tablet. Much sinking of heart........we do not have a good track record of getting tablets down cats. If I have not yet done a blog post to date on the Sorry Tale of How We Once Spent A Whole Afternoon Of Our Lives trying to get a worm tablet down our grey tabby, Willow, then I may have to subject you to this story. Even after 15 years, it will provide catharsis. Albert Whiskers is not nearly as clever as Willow, who had the mind of a criminal genius. I am still feeling fairly positive that a pill wrapped in a piece of pastrami, especially if we pretend it's come out of Steve's sandwich, will do the trick!
No thunder yet. So far, the big storms & mega-rain forecast for this afternoon have amounted to about 6 pathetic plibs of rain. Shall have to get the hose out & water the veggies after all at this rate, so boo to that.
OK, must go & get bread out of oven,
Till next time,
C x
Hello Friends,
Well, how's this for a lovely zinnia?
I could fancy putting a streak of exactly that colour in my hair. Zinnias are so cheerful. Have to hold my hand up & admit, however, that this isn't one of mine. It was a gift from my good friend Hel. And a good thing too, as I am cursed when it comes to Zinnia growing, despite really liking them.
Every year, this is what happens:
1. Mum give me a packet of zinnia seed.
2. I sow them in my greenhouse with my usual Spring optimism that this will be THE year.
3. They germinate.
4. They become strong little seedlings. (I am planning my summer containers at this point..........)
5. I go down to the greenhouse & discover an Evil Snail has eaten them ALL overnight.
This is despite the greenhouse door being closed in early Spring & regular mollusc patrols performed by Yours Truly.
This year's Evil Snail was worse than ever because it ate only the leaves....but all of them....so that I was greeted by an entire tray of perfect little sturdy upright stems with no hope whatsoever of re-sprouting. Said mollusc was later discovered tucking into a marigold for dessert & was launched into space with my throwing arm.........a better fate than ending up underneath the Bigger Hairier Half of the Relationship's Size 11s......& far better than it deserved.
So that, yet again, was the end of my patio tubs bursting with tootie-fruity coloured zinnias (except for this one!)
Veggies doing quite well. I grew climbing French beans this year, instead of my usual runners. Just fancied a change & had been getting a bit of pea & bean wilt. I chose a variety called 'Fasold' & so far they're earning their keep. I've got 2 bags blanched & in the freezer, we've eaten quite a few & they look like they're going to keep coming for a while yet.
I only popped out earlier to see if there was a small handful to add to a stir-fry & picked a colander full, then as many again. They're quite attractive plants with lilac-coloured flowers, which so far, the Naughty Sparrow Army has left alone in favour of peanuts for a change!
It's that time of year when cats seem to do a lot of swaggering around outside their house getting all territorial. Now, Albert Whiskers is without his love nuggets but this hasn't stopped him spending a large proportion of his time guarding his property. Big Grey Fluffy rarely wobbles his way up our end of the street these days & most of the local cats are too small & insignificant to bother with, but there are one or two.........a very large exotic-looking lad (maybe a Himalayan?) who lords it up & down the street despite living elsewhere, & Splodgy who has put on some size now........I'm not surprised given his skill in silently sneaking through neighbouring cat flaps & sinking his robbing gob into dinners that are not his own, So this is how Albert Whiskers has spent most of today. If he had a little high-vis jacket, he could be an actual real Security Cat.
This behaviour will continue until all Cats Who Have Annoyed Him have stopped their silly nonsense & gone home!
And now I must get wokking those green beans.
Cheers all,
C x
