Another busy week in the garden. It's mostly all maintenance now, to maximise those lovely food crops, but I've done a little more seed-sowing too. We're now picking cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes, spring onions & a few mange-tout, as well as continuing to cut lettuces. The BHO lifted his shallots at the weekend & those are outside drying in the sunshine. We've had an unintentional little free gift from our neighbours, as the annoying brambles that keep poking through the hedge & arching over one of my borders are now bearing ripe fruit, so I'm picking it daily & adding to my blackberry treasure stash in the freezer. The aubergines & jalopeno chillies will be the next to be cut, so should it be moussaka first, or a curry? Can't decide!
The pot marigolds (calendula) have put on such a fab display this summer & are still flowering their socks off. I save the seed from year to year, so they're probably a proper 'moggy' of a flower by now. I get lots of different shades of oranges & yellow, as well as plenty of double blooms. This afternoon, I've picked a pot of the petals (you only need 2 tbsp) to make marigold scones.
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| Freshly picked petals waiting to be used Marigold petals were used in the past as 'poor man's saffron', & they do give a cheery warm glow to a scone (I should know because I've just snarfed one, fresh from the oven, with a slather of butter........what a good job the aerobics DVD has made an appearance today....) I just used my basic scone recipe & added the petals at the same time as the sultanas. I'm also planning to make a batch with chives, as well as marigolds & a sprinkling of parmesan or Lincolnshire Poacher on top. |
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| Warm & ready to eat! At the beginning of this month, I started a sort of survey of our garden wildlife. I'd intended to do this for just a day or two, but this would leave out the interesting feathered visitors we occasionally see in the winter, so I decided to keep a list, add 'new' species as they appear, then post at the end of each month with a little report of what we've seen. So far, I've done a bit of minor pond dipping, had a poke around in the compost bin & been checking the flower borders daily for butterflies, bees & other buzzies. Somebody who would very much like to be outside undertaking his own wildlife study is poor old Albert Whiskers. He is turning out to be the most lovely cat, extremely funny, with very definite ideas about how he likes his household to be run. He is the most vocal cat I've ever owned. Nothing can be done without a barrage of meowing, chunters & grumbles. The escape attempts continue.......for his Big Massive Escape before we'd even driven 1 mile from the Cat Rescue, see my earlier post about his arrival. Since then, he has faked being fast asleep then walked straight out of the front door, waited till the BHO was at a critical point in some or other virtual alien-splatting pursuit, then attempted one single vast leap for the window from the floor & today, he has feigned an overwhelming interest in the ironing, with the ulterior motive of sneaking behind me & along the bedroom windowsill for exit through the window. I didn't spot any specialist cat abseiling equipment about his person, nor was he knotting together sheets, so I suspect that one could have been an expensive trip to the vet! He is absolutely DESPERATE to go out. He's had his primary injections, but has to stay in until he's had the boosters, which will be next Wednesday.
For now, he's doing his best to snooze away the hours until his big day & making a good job of it!  That's it from The People & Cats Republic today.....till next time.....which I bet will involve aubergines.......bet you're all glad I've stayed off the topic of nuclear litter trays....... Hope everyone's enjoying the sunshine. C x |
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