Harvest time

  It was harvest time, across the road, a few days ago - a rather hazy photo from my bedroom window, but the air was full of dust from the activities.  Unfortunately, if I am not mistaken, next year's crop should be the disgusting (but apparently very profitable)   rapeseed.  Still, I would much prefer that to a field full of houses, as threatened! 

 

  Came back from the plot yesterday with a large container of raspberries, plus a few blackberries I spotted hanging over the fence as I walked back up the path, even more courgettes, three bunches of sweetpeas, three lovely, white gladioli (to give to my friend Debbie as it was her birthday), and 'Sweet Aperitif'' tomatoes and a cucumber, from the greenhouse at home.  In the greenhouse the garlic is drying off, ready for plaiting together - it's very fat and juicy and much better than last year's.

 

 



 

 

 

The two grapevines at the side of my house are looking very promising for a good harvest in mid October.  I must do something with last year's grapes in the freezer before then though.  There are just about enough for some more grape jelly.  As well as the tiny, and very prolific 'Sweet Aperitif' I am also growing 'Pomodoro' tomatoes in the greenhouse (and on the plot), and this morning I enjoyed the first ripe one, sliced, with a little salt and olive oil, on toast.  It made me think of Mike, as this was one of his favourite breakfasts.  Delicious!

Last Monday A & R took me to see their forthcoming wedding reception venue, where we met up with R's parents.  What a delightful place, and something to really look forward to - can't wait.  Then we all came back to my house for a meal, which I had prepared earlier.  Using one of those sneaky courgettes, which hide under the leaves and grow into mini marrows, I sliced across it, into four pieces and then, by scooping out most of the inside, but leaving a base, I basted them with a little olive oil, and left them to soften up in a hot oven, while I cooked down a mixture of mince, onion, garlic, tinned and fresh tomatoes, the scooped out remains, oregano, basil and paprika, and some stock and thickening.  Then the little 'cups' were filled and returned to the oven for a bit longer.  When we returned home, after our day out, I grated cheese on the tops, and returned them to a hot oven while I prepared and cooked some new potatoes (must grow some next year) and french beans from the plot.  After our meal, the R & S and our grandchildren turned up, and we all caught up wedding preparation talk, and holiday experiences.  A lovely evening.

Wednesay's walk with Mollie and Frank was from Lyth Hill in Shropshire, with panoramic views towards the Welsh Hills.  The hedgerows were already full of ripe blackberries, with lots more to come, sloes, damsons and crab apples.   In one of the little villages, Mollie took us to look at these interesting buildings, complete with old petrol pump.  Whilst most of the footpaths were well marked and used, there were one or two which gave us the distinct impression that the local land-owners were not too keen for us to find them, even though they were marked on the maps. Fortunately, on their first walk in this area, had persevered down these unmarked and overgrown paths, in their efforts to find their way, according to the map, but I had to agree with them, that if, by lack of signage these paths were missed and unused in the future, they could possibly be lost for ever.

 Yesterday I actually got round to a day of of jewellery making, and feeling quite creative (sometimes things don't go well) I produced quite a few items.  The creative feeling is still with me today, which is a bit unfortunate, as I really ought to get some gardening done, as planned.  I'll never get anything done if I keep blogging, will I?  And now I have to catch up with the jewellery blog!



Having a lazy day

I'm not out walking, as usual today, as I have been feeling a bit under the weather over the past few days, so I decided to have a day off.  Last week Mollie led a walk from Repton, in Derbyshire and we stopped off to look at St Saviours at Foremark.   Luckily for us the doors were open, as there were men cutting the grass outside.  What a little treasure.  Consecrated in 1662, St Saviours was one of the first churches to be built in England after the Restoration of the Monarchy, and the estate church of the Burdett family of Foremark Hall.  Inside is very simple, with box pews, a triple-decker pulpit, and a period screen with some interesting, old glass.

It was a delightful day, walking in perfect conditions, through fields of ripening barley and wheat, with lots of butterflies and birds.

Here we are, just stopping for lunch, on the edge of a track.

 

 



Hill Allotment Show

Our annual allotment show was held on Sunday, and this was to be a rather special one, to celebrate the centenary year of Hill Allotments.  Apart from a little, light drizzle early on, we were lucky with the weather, and the plots were looking neat and tidy and very productive, and decorated with bunting and a selection of scarecrows.  Inside the social club, tables soon filled up with competition entries.  There was a BBQ outside, and live music in the clubhouse.

 



 

 

Flowers and plants were set out in the conservatory, where the sweet pea entries soon filled the air with their perfume.   I just happened to have a little jug which matches the colours of my sweet peas perfectly but I forgot to present my flowers 'to full frontal effect', unlike the deserving winner.  Mine was more an 'all rounder'.

 

 Here are my 2nd prize beans.  Not a bad result, considering Jason (who wins multiple prizes each year) came 1st!  My beetroot were a bit pathetic, but I am enjoying eating them.

Outside, there was a BBQ and inside the clubhouse we were entertained by Martyn Brown and his very talented family of musicians.

It was good to see so many visitors 
wandering around admiring the plots, which are looking pretty good at the moment.  After all, we did come 2nd in all Birmingham (and 1st last year).



Apologies to Brian and Pauline, as I cannot work out how to rotate the photo of your beautifully dressed lady detective (forgot her name) scarecrow, so she is lying on her side at the moment.  Tips please.  And here are some others, including Hazel's 'Grumpy George' complete with gold balloon, and my own entry 'Party Lottie from the Plottie'. 

 















 Visited the plot this morning to harvest more veg, and took a few photos.  The wild life is pretty interesting at the moment.   At the front of one plot is a clump of ragwort, which is considered as a real problem where horses are grazing.  However, this clump is, at the moment,  alive with bees and cinnabar moth caterpillars.  I'm looking forward to seeing some of the moths.

 On my own plot, the runners are doing very well.  I have no idea what variety they are as the seeds were originally from plants grown by Rhubarb Brian (he'd bought them from a nursery at Canwell).  I just call them 'Brian's extra long beans'.  They taste very good and are not at all stringy.

As mentioned before, there will be no cherries (the tiny cherries all dropped off) and only about 4 or 5 plums on my trees this year.  The  plum tree is covered in aphids and a real attraction to ladybirds (what is going on here, with two different types of ladybird, apparently mating?), and lots of wasps taking advantage of the honeydew produced by the aphids.l
 

My apples (variety 'Queen Cox') look pretty good at the moment though.  I hope they aren't full of grubs etc, when I come to harvest them, as I don't take any precautions against pests etc.   I must make more effort, next season.  It seems very quiet at the bottom of the hill, without John Badger around.  He used to call Boula, who took over his plot, his 'little butterfly' which is an apt description, as she flits back and forth between her plot at The Hill and her other one near Kew Gardens.  When she turns up, with her cheery smile, we catch up with all the latest, then both settle down to our work on our plots.  John was a lovely man but even he would agree that his plot was a bit like Steptoe's yard and quite hazardous at times.  Now Boula has made her mark on it, and filling it with enough beans of various varieties, garlic and coriander, to feed half of Thailand!  Nothing goes to waste - she uses lots of wood prunings to support her beans, and has even provided the grape vine with something to climb along, at the side of her shed.  She's been missing for a while, so I expect I'll meet her down on her plot soon. During her absences she never depends on anyone else's help, altho I do like to keep an eye on things for her.  Once she is back, and within a day or so of hard work, her plot will be back in shape, as usual.  

 

.On the other side of my plot is Scotsman, Eric or, as I call him 'Farmer Eric'.  With little fuss, he just appears occasionally and sows his veg seed, and before you know it he has wide swathes of perfect looking vegetables.  Just look at them!  Then next to him is Brian, aka 'Rhubarb Brian' by Hazel, prob due to the fact that when he took over his plot he had a vast quantity of rhubarb growing at the front of his path.  In fact, this has now been replaced in the main by a large brassica bed, protected from the pests and predators with plenty of green and blue netting.  I couldn't resist a photo of the ripe aubergines in Brian's greenhouse.   Brian (as already mentioned in Hazel's Blog) has very kindly filled my rather bare and patchy paths with lots of new bark chips, for which I am very grateful.  Looks so much better now.

 

 

Opposite the gate we are welcomed with a colourful display of flowers and hanging baskets,



and further up the hill,  I just had to take a photo of Julie's beautiful lilies.

 And to finish off, this Veronica was covered in bees.  There is plenty of wild life at The Hill - and that includes the slugs and caterpillars that are eating away my brassicas, the blackbirds nicking the first of my autumn raspberries and as for the pigeons ....................

 

Meanwhile, back at home, the cakes made for the show are quickly disappearing, some of it to my sons and family, and the rest.......to me.  Hazel did suggest that maybe that was why I was feeling under the weather.