Seasons of Mist & Bloody Butternuts.......

Hello Friends,
Well, after two days of rain, I managed a couple of hours in the garden today & even found enough flowers to fill a vase.

I pruned the grapevine, brought all the agapanthus & pelargonium pots under cover & cleared away the squash vines......................which beings me to the whole subject of bloody butternut! Great to cook, lovely to eat.....sweet, filling & versatile.......but to grow? They are complete bandits. I've conducted a bit of a (not very) scientific study this summer & my conclusion is that any progress or otherwise is totally random. 

Some years ago, a lovely colleague with whom I used to work brought me a butternut squash plant. "Just plant it out", she said, "and it'll romp away, & by Autumn you'll get a couple of lovely squashes from it".  I planted it, it romped, the two fab squash were duly forthcoming. Result! Subsequent attempts to grow butternuts myself were spectacular fails. Seeds didn't germinate, or if they did deign to appear, they wibbled around for a week or two then carked it. If I got plants to the potting out stage, they'd get the sniffles within a fortnight. If (& it was a big 'if') I got one to the great Big Vine Stage, it would refuse point blank to set any fruits. This year,  I acquired a free packet of Butternut Squash 'Avalon' seeds so decided to conduct a bit of an experiment to find out just where exactly these temperamental critters do prefer to live. This is what happened:

6 seeds sown in May in unheated greenhouse. All 6 germinated. <Stands back in amazement, hair stands on end!>
All 6 seedlings made sturdy plants, which were potted on & grew brilliantly well. My butternut confidence is rising daily.......with a tiny sprinkling of  'smug'.
Now for the experiment. At planting out time, I selected a variety of different sites.
Plants 1 & 2 went on top of a full compost bin. Squash are greedy feeders & this is supposed to be a good place for them.
Plant 3 went in a veggie bed which has sun for half a day & shade for the other half.
Plant 4 went in a veggie bed in almost completely full sun.
Plant 5 went in a tractor tyre filled with a mix of soil & our home made garden compost.
Plant 6 went into the greenhouse border (unheated).

The watering & feeding regime for all the plants was identical: Daily watering throughout the dry weather & diluted tomato food or our own comfrey liquid as soon as fruits had set.............which meant that No.1 never got anything to eat because it went seriously pathetic & carked it. No.2 started going the same way so I moved it to a raised bed. It whimpered for a few more weeks, then put out a reasonable vine, before also carking it big time. No.3 did absolutely nothing. It sat there until the end of August then decided to grow. Upwards! It climbed up through the middle of the runner beans before emerging victorious at the top but steadfastly refused even to produce any flowers (even a saddo male one!) let alone any fruits. I yanked it up & composted it. No.4 had a really prime spot, but was it grateful? Yes, if putting out one weedy vine before succumbing to mildew is a recognised sign of squash gratitude. Bloody butternuts! Can you sense how I was starting to take it personally? Because I really was! Now, No. 5 was in that enticing soil & compost mix in my big recycled tractor tyre.....surely that one did OK? Well, yes, it did.......if you want one colossal vine which sprawls the length of your entire herb bed, out the other side & onto the lawn. If what you wanted was an actual butternut squash though, tough! Loads of flowers & 3 or 4 small fruits.......which took agin me, withered & fell off out of nothing other than pure unadulterated spite.........which brings me onto No.6 ....  which was clearly a triffid in a former life. It shot out vines right left & centre, over 15 feet of them, & proceeded to annexe the greenhouse. It had flowers, both male & female, which made actual procreation seem at least hopeful. It set a fruit.......which fell off. It set two more fruits........which also fell off........it set another fruit which STARTED TO GROW.............then got furry plague & exited soggily stage left. Then.....fanfare, please (Triumphal March from 'Aida' would not be inappropriate at this point), a PROPER BUTTERNUT WHICH DOESN'T FALL OFF OR DISSOLVE OR WITHER OR HATE ME..............BUT ACTUALLY GROWS!! 

AND HERE IT IS:

 That's a hand-sewn raw silk/linen mix cushion it's sitting on, you know! So the conclusion of my non-scientific study into the preferred location of butternut squash plants is that their preferred site is anywhere except this garden, thank-you very much. I'm sure some of you have grown some great ones but if you have, (especially if you are married to my sister-in-law!), I don't want to know!
As for this pampered specimen, I cut it today & it is awaiting its fate as star ingredient in a big panful of Hairy Bikers' Lentil & Butternut Curry.

I've got this out of my system now & will not moan about bloody butternuts again. I don't want to waste my time on them again, but I bet I still sow some next year.
Love to all,
C x

October - "Winter full moon month"

Hi Friends,
Welcome October! Perhaps my favourite month. I love Autumn. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors referred to October as 'Winter full moon month', the hunters' moon being the first full moon of Autumn. I love the whole continuity thing of knowing that they would have been busy getting everything gathered in for winter, foraging, drying, storing.........just as we do on a much smaller scale, albeit with a less 'Life or death' outcome.  This has been continuing apace at The People & Cats Republic with more additions to the pantry, which must now be close to imminent collapse. Apple chutney made, & a bucket of windfalls turned into a batch of delicious brown sauce - honestly nicer on a bacon sarnie than any you can buy. 

Blackberry & apple gin also on the go. Looking forward to warming me cockles with a glass or three of this by the fire in months to come!

Although our veggie garden has almost finished producing for the season, it's surprising how much I'm still picking. More aubergines, chillies, courgettes & herbs this week, plus heaps of pears.....

.........and apples showing no signs of stopping just yet.

This may surprise non-gardening friends, but rather than October being the end of the garden season, for me it's the first month in the gardening year. There is SO much that can usefully be done in October, from planning, to improving the soil, dividing plants up to make new free ones, planting bulbs, cutting back & clearing, potting up self-sown treasures you want to keep or use for swapsies, as well as October plantings of things like garlic, broad beans & sweet peas. I've had a fab morning out in the sunshine today, assisted by our tame robin, who is Feathered Pest Control in action. He (or she) sings loudly until I've cleared an area, then swoops in & hoovers anything wriggly, slimey & edible. We have no shortage of places for wildlife to shelter in our garden, so I'm happy to start a big tidy up now. Amazing how many pests this exposes, as well as snail & slug eggs which I'd rather didn't overwinter to emerge next Spring as a  New Model Army of ravenous molluscs. Today's efforts uncovered a colossal slug who had clearly set himself up for the winter......such an impressive pad had he established for himself deep in the heart of an overgrown alchemilla that he was practically ordering in an M&S Wine & Dine to enjoy in front of his 3D hi-def TV! Needless to say, he has been dispatched to a grassy area frequented every 5 mins by our blackbird family! Another bonus this morning, was turning up 2 flowery little gems:

A rather late 'Morning Glory' which must have self-seeded from a few years ago.......lovely family of plants, just don't go googling it in public, as a friend of mine once did, perfectly innocently, to see what colour the flowers were!

Also, a tiny Primrose Vulgaris flowering already! Wild primroses grow like weeds in our garden, which suits me fine as we have such a pretty display in Spring.

So, if your plans to start growing stuff have fallen through for another year, the spring season passing into summer without you having sown a single seed & all the intentions you had to redesign your garden have fallen back yet again, I can almost guarantee it'll partly be because you didn't do anything useful in October, the first month of the gardener's year. Think on! 

Septembers's garden wildlife
In addition to all the usual suspects noted since July, we've seen:
*Sparrow hawk (we are now minus 2 sparrows)
*2 juvenile collared doves 
*Toad

*Hedgehog (regular visitor in the hope of catfood leavings & another great predator of sluggy foes)
*Flock of 14 long tailed tits chattering away in our fruit trees - such pretty birds.
*Blue tit
*Coal tit
*.......and this lad......any ideas anyone?

Food plant was our greenhouse peppers....leaves only. I suspect this may not have been the preferred choice of scoffs (though he was making impressive headway!) as internet searching for caterpillars/peppers really only threw up various hornworms & he didn't appear to match.

So these are a few of the things I've been doing. I've been busy as you can see. You are probably unable to detect similar levels of industry in Albert Whiskers who has mostly been engaged in charming visitors, trying to fetch 'Dreamies' out of the cupboard using the powers of telekenesis & testing beds........

........Hmmmm, not exactly been caning it, has he?
Till next time,
C x

Albert Whiskers: End of Summer Report

Hello Friends,
Hope everyone is so far remaining lergy-free. As soon as school term starts in September, it seems to unleash the first wave of germs intent on lergifying the lot of us one way or another. French onion soup recipe at the ready here for first signs of the sniffles!

Albert Whiskers has now been with us since June. Several people have asked how he is getting on. The Verdict:

Albert Whiskers' End of Summer Report

Attitude to other cats  E : Tendency to confront outlanders regardless of size, seniority or odds on a positive personal outcome. Needs to learn that cats peacefully traversing the garden on their way home are not staging a hostile takeover bid & do not therefore require a major anti-terrorist response.

Attitude to humans B+ : Generally very good, but dropped marks for nipping at the Big Hairy One's feet, ankles & elbows if breakfast is late appearing. Loves strokes & fuss. Full charm offensive used on visitors, neighbours & the vet, who was unable to listen to his heartbeat properly because he was purring so loudly!

Communal living C+ : As an ex-street cat, Albert Whiskers is doing pretty well, but needs to learn that his gung-ho behaviour affects everyone in the house. Furry Alarm Clock Services at 5a.m are NOT required, neither is a 3-seater sofa provided for his sole personal use -  the clue is in the available amount of seats. Room for improvement around the whole area of respect for people's property. There is no need to begin every morning by killing the doormat & people's knitting should not be fished out of its basket & batted around the conservatory regardless how boring it is waiting for dinner time. A very promising start, considering his street-cat background, but Albert Whiskers needs to work on keeping unhelpful claws & teeth to himself.

Food Matters C- : In fact, nothing matters to Albert Whiskers more than food. After an excellent '100% plate clearance' start, he is now failing to engage fully with the 'Love Food, Hate Waste' campaign in operation at the 'People & Cats Republic'. A dominant trend has emerged which is to gobble all the jelly or gravy, then refuse to eat the meat because it is dry. Appealing to his better nature to 'Think of all the poor cats in Greece' has been met with contempt, & it is with regret that he has been placed in 'Special Measures' for food. Early signs are quite hopeful. Albert Whiskers needs to learn that the only food thrown away here is the very occasional orange which has morphed into blue fur overnight, NOT perfectly good cat food because someone has chosen to eat all the jelly on purpose to make it dry.

Ornithological studies B : Not all that interested to date, thankfully. Prefers ready meals.

Personal hygiene A : Excellent. Grooms regularly & thoroughly. No insalubrious habits. Likes his white fur to look pristine. Keep up the good work, Albert Whiskers!

Communication skills A+ : Communicates very clearly, both verbally & non-verbally, employing a swift head-butt to the back of the knee for emphasis. Would be a highly suitable candidate for Meowing A-Level & beyond.

Entertainment value A+++++++ : Both a highly entertaining addition to the household, as well as an impressively cheap date, as he genuinely prefers a piece of scrap wiggly string to bought cat toys.

Common sense E : Picking fights with bigger cats, trying to sit on people's feet when they are in the process of going downstairs & throwing himself down full length on the kitchen floor in the direct path of people carrying cauldrons of boiling jam are just 3 indications that Albert Whiskers was at the back of the litter when the common sense gene was being passed on. Being told to 'Oy, shift it, Matey' is very often for his own welfare, not part of a shady underground movement intent on denying sustenance to cats or confirmation of Daily Heil view on 'Health & Safety Gone Mad'.

Overall comment: Despite a disadvantaged background, Albert Whiskers has settled in extremely well. A couple of areas still require work - getting out of Special Measures' on cat food should be seen as a key personal goal for the coming weeks.

Exhilerated by the tensions of a recently watched Scandi-crime drama.

Engaging with a lively household debate on regional devolution for the UK.

Visibly gripped by a recent episode of Dr Who.

Getting thoroughly into the carnival atmosphere of 'Last Night of the Proms'.

So.......for everyone who has asked us, THAT is how Albert Whiskers has been getting on in his new home!
Till next time....which will be a round-up of successes (yay!!) & failures (boo!!) in the veggie garden this year and thoughts on whether Grow your Own is any more economical than buying it all in & saving ourselves the effort.
Wishing you all a great weekend,
C xx

Up to my armpits in worm compost. Nice!!

Hello Friends,
Made the mistake of watching a snippet of lunchtime news today. Oh my days.....another Windsor baby & all the sycophancy & non-news nonsense that entails. Just need the toadying Nicholas Witchell to turn up outside Kensington Palace........give it 10 seconds......& yes, there he is! Then it's off to Oxford where the Windsors weren't, due to morning sickness, but let's go to Oxford anyway & deliver some more nonsense from there! I nearly choked on a grape when someone else was asked how the new Windsor might tackle being younger sibling to an heir to the throne. One suggestion was that he or she would probably choose to be 'patron of different charities'. Well, big wow & yippee doo! Glad I coughed up the licence fee for that cutting edge piece of insight, I can tell you! Here at the 'People & Cats Republic of Hagstones' we ill-wish no-one for the circumstances of their birth (excepting certain members of the current government, of course) but can the BBC not just make a news announcement about the pregnancy then leave it until there is any actual further real news? So my thoughts today are with all the pregnant women who have had to get up & go into work today despite horrible morning sickness, with those women who were too poorly being sick to make it to work but still had to struggle to get a GP's appointment this week, because they stand virtually zero chance of a home visit, & most of all, why the British public allows itself to be infantilised by this intrusive, sycophantic minutiae. It makes us a laughing stock, this obsession with a feudal system way past its sell-by date. Aaaaagh!! Makes me want to take off in a converted mobile library with the Big Hairy One & Albert Whiskers.

Well, after that (& I honestly only watched about 2 mins), I needed to throw myself into something productive & soul-cleansing, so pitched into sorting out the wormery. Yes, it's full-on glamour 24/7 here! I admit to being a bit of a compost obsessive. We have 4 of the big dalek compost bins, but I also like to use a worm composter because it provides a pretty constant supply (except in the depths of winter) of free liquid plant food, as well as easy to access trays of worm compost which is high quality & great for top-dressing precious plants & shrubs. There are various money-saving methods of building a wormery, but I use the Can o' Worms unit, which I bought from Wiggly Wigglers over a decade ago. I paid around £80 for it then, but have found it's required very little in the way of expenditure since then because free alternatives can be found for quite a few of the recommended maintenance supplies. Our worm composter consists of 3 stacking trays which fit onto a drainage base with a tap for draining off free plant food (often called 'worm tea!). The idea is that you fill the bottom one with kitchen vegetable scraps & the worms start chomping those. When you've filled the first layer, you add the next tier, then the third & by the time you have filled that one, chances are that the worms will have scoffed their way upwards & the bottom tray will contain lovely rich compost for you to scoop out & use.

This is the compost I removed today, from the bottom layer, destined for a climbing hydrangea that looks in need of a bit of TLC.

This is the next layer up. The worms are making great inroads into this, but you can see that there are still scraps to be eaten before it's ready to use......

......and this is the top layer. There's already a big 'advance party' of  Wigglers getting busy in this layer. So, having removed the compost from the bottom layer, that tray fits on top & becomes the 
new top layer, to which I add more kitchen scraps every 2 or 3 days. The idea is to keep tempting the worms upwards so if I know I'm going to start off a new layer, I collect a decent amount of scraps for this purpose. 

You can see they've got all sorts of goodies here: egg-box, a slightly furry slice of marrow, carrot peelings, a teabag, flour bags (a particular favourite!), runner bean trimmings, potato peelings, etc. They also eat cardboard (avoid the laminated type as you end up with stringy plastic film in the compost), small amounts of coffee grounds & newspaper and joy of joys, BANK STATEMENTS! Yes, whoever thought there was an ethical use for those? Just put them through the shredder, layer them into the trays & watch them become food for worms. A certain sense of karma about that, I always think.

The liquid plant food is easily accessible from a tap in the base. It needs draining off every so often & can be kept in a container for a week or two until you need it. A little goes a long way as the recommended dilution rate is 1:10, so that's a lot of watering cans. If you forget to drain it off, particularly if there's been a lot of rain, you risk rather a lot of wiggly drownings, I'm afraid :-(

We don't buy anything to add to our wormery. We used to buy a product called 'worm treat' but didn't really notice any different in their performance. We occasionally bought a bag of lime mix for use if the wormery got too acidic (when it can start attracting little flies) but have found that adding crushed eggshell seems to have a similar effect. We don't buy anything as 'worm bedding'. We did use the coir brick that came with the original kit, but have subsequently used shredded paper or a bit of extra newspaper if we've needed to add more warmth. For moisture mats, which fit on top of the highest tray so prevent the contents drying out, we just use tough cardboard circles cut from old boxes or packaging. That's all they need. So, from everyday waste, we end up with an ongoing supply of free useful stuff for the garden. The original kit did include a starter batch of the red composting worms, but I've never bought any additional supplies. If the population drops a bit low (in an extremely cold winter, for example), I just replenish them with new ones from our ordinary compost bins. I like to think it boosts the wiggly gene pool a bit too! The only thing I would add is that you do need to be non-squeamish about handling them. If you are even slightly phobic about worms or still have nightmares about some vile lad at school who used to stuff them down the back of your jumper, then this would definitely not be your best choice of project. I'm fine with them.......it's the sight of an 'eight-leg' that sends me screaming in the other direction!

Forgot to add August's additional garden wildlife in my last post. Only a few different species from July: Blue-tit, great-tit, red admiral butterfly, juvenile robin, large bluey-green dragon-fly. 

Hope this wasn't too 'wormy' for anyone, & that you're all out enjoying this beautiful late summer sunshine.

C x 

Grapes & wrath

Hello Friends,
Well, a nice thing to start off with, as I've started harvesting our grapes this week. People are always surprised when I say that I grow grapes here in the East Midlands, especially as our greenhouse is unheated. Actually, it isn't all that difficult. I think the proper way to do it is to plant the vine just outside, then cut a hole in a lower pane of greenhouse glass to train the vine inside so it is protected from frost, but the roots have free access to the soil & rain. I'd like to say I do it this Clever Trousers way, but my grape vine - a 'Black Hamburg', which I received as a 'new greenhouse' present in 2003 is in a pot. OK, it's a large pot....60cm diameter & 50cm tall. I planted it in ordinary multi-purpose compost mixed with out home-made garden compost & it hasn't been re-potted since then. Every year, it receives a top-dressing of garden compost in autumn & a layer of worm compost in spring. Apart from that, it just gets a dose of tomato feed or home-made comfrey liquid whenever I feed the greenhouse veg during summer. I'm sure there are whole tomes written about growing grapevines. I do take off any really silly little bunches to let the bigger ones thrive, & I occasionally snip off a few grapes if the bunch looks overcrowded, but only if I can be bothered. On the whole, the vine looks after itself, & withstood winter temperatures of minus 16 a couple of years ago. 

The grapes are not always as big as the supermarket ones which have been grown in hot countries, but they are sweet & juicy and it's really satisfying to be able to go out there & pick a bunch you've grown yourself.

So if you have access to an unheated greenhouse & haven't tried grapes, give them a go! It doesn't have to be expensive to buy a vine - I've even seen them on sale outside Aldi, with the bedding plants! One thing I haven't tried is making wine from them. None of them make it that far as I'm too fond of eating them!

That's the grapes.....now for the WRATH!! Yesterday, being a Very Useful Engine, I texted the Big Hairy half of the relationship to warn him that if he came straight down the garden when he got home from work to be sure to avoid the enormous heap of cat poo left on our lawn. To make absolutely sure he didn't have a horrible evening cleaning a disgusting mess off his shiny size 11s, I even mentioned it again when he phoned me about something, & made sure he knew it was right next to the stepping stone path where it would be very easy to walk in. That's how I am, you see. Thoughtful. To say this was 'stealth poo' would be a misnomer. Nothing 'stealth' about this. This was a feline with a grudge, completely blatant......a positive Silbury Hill of poo. How I wish now with hindsight that I'd cleared it up. I didn't feel too lively yesterday though, & cleaning up cat poo did not feature anywhere on my list of preferred tasks.......which is how I found myself a few hours later standing in the greenhouse thinking that the neighbours' dog kennel was smelling particularly ripe, when I thought .......'NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!'........but yes, I had. And if there's anything worse than treading in poo, it's not realising you have trodden in poo so that you spread it around & have more of the bloody stuff to clear up! So instead of my lovely afternoon of gardening today, that's what I've had to do! Even with a Jeyes fluid solution at 3 times its usual strength, I still had to wear gardening gloves, then wash them, & I still can't guarantee I won't throw them in the bin tomorrow. I don't have OCD. I have CCWSS. ("Can't cope with sh*tty shoes" disorder). My shoes have been disinfected 4 times despite only one shoe being affected. They have been quarantined down the shed until I decide they are allowed in. I can tell you that if it had been dog poo, I would have thown them in the bin, as happened some years ago with a pair of new trainers. Really, straight in the bin! I bought them when I mistakenly thought I might enjoy taking up badminton. As soon as the aforementioned dog-based cotamination occurred, I took them off, threw them in the nearest bin & drove home in my socks. That marked the end of badminton for me.....not just that I'd have to buy new trainers, but that none of my badminton opponents happened to share my view that 10 mins of jumping around followed by 50 mins sitting on the sidelines with a diet coke & a Bounty bar was a worthwhile use of an hour's court booking fee!
So what a waste of an afternoon! I was so utterly mad. Still don't know who the culprit was. I'd like to think it was more likely to be Ginger, Tabby White-Paws, BGF, the Tabster, 'Ungry Blackie or any of the other neighbourhood mogs, but I have to say that Albert Whiskers did have a particularly smug look about him yesterday morning, so he is definitely not yet in the clear......

.....and now I must go & do something for dinner which involves aubergines. Tomorrow will have to be another picking & cooking day, I think.
Hope everyone's having a good week,
C x

Garden envy & a challenge accomplished!

Hello Friends,
Hope you are all coming to the end of August with body & soul together. I've had a serious case of 'Garden Envy' this week, as we've been on a couple of trips out & seen some beautiful late colour in the borders, something which is sadly lacking at home. I still have some things flowering: Japanese anemone, Geranium 'Rozeanne', penstemens, verbena bonariensis, cosmos, calendula, etc, but our garden looks at its best in May & June, when all my cottage garden favourites are flowering, & it's a slow decline from there until Autumn......sort of shabby-chic....without any of the 'chic'.

Easton Walled Gardens (near Grantham, Lincs) had some beautiful hot colours on display, like this sunflower, & the dahlias (I'm not usually a huge fan) were looking great too.

We also had a fantastic day up at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, & it was a similar story. Fab colourful beds which made me feel so envious now that my own borders are all but over. I used to have some eye-popping achilleas & echinaceas but they have sadly been lost to the Mollusc Army.




I mean, just look at this! I'm assuming it's some sort of fancypants sunflower, & I shall be tracking it down to have a go at growing some for next year. Could you ever be miserable while looking at such a bloom? Luckily the big hairy half of the relationship had his camera, so took lots of pictures to inspire me. 

The high summer borders at RHS Harlow Carr are simply packed with plants, many of which are repeated several times, so it looks very casual, as though it 'just happened'.

Well, I decided I'd really like more late summer flowering plants in my own borders, so this week, I've come up with a plan. I'm going to walk around the garden & spike every bare boring patch with a yoghurt pot on top of a skewer. Then I'll remember where I need a zing of colour. I'm hoping I can start this by dividing up what I have & growing from seed, so as to avoid a '££££-Signs at Dawn' scenario at the garden centre!

A big achievement (for me) this week has been ticking another thing off my '50 things' list.....& guess what it was? Yes, shock horror, I actually managed to walk 5 miles WITHOUT MOANING!! I was actually more worried about achieving the 'not moaning' bit than the 5 miles. There were rules about what constituted a moan, i.e aching legs, whining for caffiene, complaining about it being boring, being out of breath, etc, so I decided to have a few subjects in my mind which I could use to work off some vitriol if I needed a moan. These were The Government, particularly Eric Pickles, as I knew he'd be worthy of at least a mile of hatchet job (can you imagine the mess?), the Very Weaselly Grant Shapps (with apologies to actual weasels everywhere),  & the Monarchy (was sure I could get a circuit of Clumber Park out of that one). So I was all prepared, but the oddest thing happened! I didn't need to moan at all because I quite enjoyed it! We saw teenage goslings, moorhens, chaffinches, great-tits & dragonflies. The weather stayed dry & I burned off 520 calories (which I was lucky enough to replenish afterwards with a large coffee & piece of coffee & walnut cake! Feel inspired to tick off a few more things now.

The vegetables keep coming. I've made piccalilli today, a big kilner jar to put away for 'December C-word' & some smaller jars for the pantry. 

I've also baked some jammy buns today (just for the joy of cooking something which doesn't involve veggies!). Hands up who can remember cooking these at school?

They are so simple & quick to make. I've tweaked the recipe over the years, so this is how I make them now:
Jammy Buns
12oz self-raising flour
4oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
1 egg
2-3 tbsp milk
1 tsp almond extract
Jam (I like to use my home-made plum)

Pre-heat the oven to Gas 5. Sieve the flour & rub in the butter till it's crumby. Stir in the sugar. beat up the egg with the milk & almond extract, & mix into the dry ingredients. Flour your hands & bring it together into a soft ball before divvying up into 12 blobs. Shape each blob into a ball & put on a greased (preferably lined) baking sheet. Now make a hole with your thumb & dollop a teaspoon of jam into it. Bake for about 20 mins. 

There's no finesse about these. You wouldn't make them if Paul Hollywood was coming over for coffee. They are proper comfort food home baking. Get a cafetiere made & eat one warm from the oven. Did you like it? Best to have a 2nd one just to make sure. They keep in a tin for a few days & are a nice portable addition to a packed lunch. I suspect the Big Hairy One could probably eat his bodyweight in these.......so as you can see, I only made 6 this time!

While we've been busy with day trips, dealing with the veggie onslaught, pickling, baking & walking 5 miles, the other resident of The People & Cats Republic has been spending a goodly amount of his time thus:

Going by the available evidence (a seriously squashed area of the leek bed, various piles of fur spread around the lawn & 4 new scratches on his nose), I think he may be out most of the night letting the local moggies know he means business. He's also met the neighbours. They said they called him to 'see if he was friendly', & he marched straight in through the french windows, helped himself to a chair & spent the whole afternoon!  I warned them about not leaving food where he can reach it. Albert Whiskers is the sort of cat who'd say 'Hey mate, look over there' then he'd have your pork chop while you were looking. He is, however, proof that these older ex-street cats can be rehabilitated into the most lovely (& very amusing) pets. He's the 3rd ex-stray we have owned. If anyone out there is considering adopting a cat, do consider one of these big older boys. They might have a few issues to begin with, but once they get their paws under the table, they don't look back!

Have a great weekend,
C x

And still they come......

Hello Friends,
I wish I had another topic for you today instead of more adventures with vegetables. I tell you, it's like The Good Life in this house. Don't be surprised if you hear that I'm building a generator out of old lawnmower parts & sticky backed plastic, or indeed weaving scratchy green suits from homespun nettles! Actually, if I start going down that road, do intervene.....I will need stopping for my own good!

It's been all about courgettes recently. I've been putting them on top of spicy hot home-made pizzas, slipping them into curries, roasting them & tossing into bulghur wheat salads, bunging them in stir-fries, but sill they come! Courgette chutney isn't really one of my favourites, so I decided to pickle some. Found a couple of recipes I liked & concocted a mash-up of the two. It seems to have worked really well & will be good with BBQs, pulled pork, etc.

 
The other big croppers waiting in the wings to strike are our apples & pears. The winds this week have resulted in a lot of early windfall apples, which I've made into apple sauce for the freezer, & am half-way into making another bucketful into apple & mint jelly.

I've boiled up the fruit & mint sprigs, added the cider vinegar & it's currently dripping through the jellybag, ready for jamming tomorrow. I completely love the word 'jellybag'. It's totally wasted on a humble piece of muslin. Perhaps it should be recategorized as a personal name? You know, for those parents looking for something that bit unusual? I will make a box of my whisky truffles for any of my friends prepared to name their child 'Jellybag' - & no, you can't just pretend so as to get the truffles!

Well, I'd love to say that my jellybaggery this morning has made impressive inroads into the apple crop, but it would be a fib or the first order. Let me show you our tree:

Almost scarily full of apples, & that's only about a quarter of the tree. I couldn't fit it all in the picture. Apple chutney, apple & ginger chutney, apple muffins......recipes are stacking up ready for the onslaught. And when the apples are under control, look at these........

....loads of lovely pears! Pear chutney, Pear & cinnamon cake.......pickled pears maybe? Though I'm the only person who eats them.....but I could successfully offload a few jars onto my Dad, who is usefully for me at this time of year, a food hoover in the same league as Albert Whiskers! We have a greengage tree too, which only crops when it feels like it. This year, it felt like it, but thankfully I've already dealt with those - 13 jars of scrummy jam packed away into the pantry,

Albert Whiskers continues to get his paws well & truly under the table. I find cat body language fascinating. Let's face it, it isn't usually all that subtle, but previous cats we have owned have managed a little more nuanced approach than Albert Whiskers.

 A brief guide to Albert Whiskers' body language:

* Gluing himself to human leg = Where's my food?
* Licking elbows = Where's my food?
* Jumping onto laptop keyboard & meowing into human's face = Where's my food?
* Bouncing on bed attempting to extract reclining human with actual claws = Where's my food?
* Grabbing human's foot with both sets of front paws while applying teeth = Where's my food?
* Lying in a long sausage across the front door at his big hairy human's home time = She hasn't given me my dinner. P.S Where's my food?
* Staring long & hard at the BBQ while purring like a helicopter = There seems to be an awful lot on there for just the two of you. Where's my food?
* Following human around the house & garden keeping distance below 30cm at all times while emitting increasingly desperate vocal barrage = You have two minutes to fill my bowl before I phone Ban Ki-moon to demand an emergency air drop of food aid parcels over Farndon (Call yourself a cat lover....bloody disgraceful)
Yep, this boy loves his food! I think he may have survived some of his time as a stray by begging scraps at kitchen windows. It's very noticeable that if he's outside when I open a window, he stops what he's doing & races to the window meowing. Old habits die hard. He does this even if he's just snarfed an entire pouch of fish stink with a hefty biscuit chaser. 

He's cute though!
Till next time......Oh, & I gather I may have 'been organised' into doing my '5 miles without moaning' walking challenge by then, so it'll either be a result & a tick on my '50 things' list, or I will have moaned spectacularly & will have had to set another date for it. 
Thanks for all the positive comments I've had about my blog via Facebook, etc. It's had well over 1000 views now, so there are obviously a few people out there who enjoy (or are grimly fascinated or perhaps choosing to self-stultify on a weekly basis) the whole cat/vegetables thing.
C x