How long was I away?

I went to the allotment last night for the first time in a few days - well, almost a week I think.  Back  in spring I planted an area with squashes, courgettes and cucumbers.  At home the soil is so poor it's a miracle if things take off at all.  But at the allotment the soil is utter perfection, and everything grows like the devil.  The squashes, courgettes and cucumbers have gone absolutely mad.  It's impossible to step between them, they are all completely tangled, and if you look under the leaves it is a terrifying sight.

Squashes, courgettes and cucumbers everywhere.  Now I know that this is the whole point of an allotment, but I should just mention at this point that I am the only one who really actually likes squashes and courgettes.  I can slide some onto smaller people's plates, but only in limited quantities.  And the other half will only put up with them up to a point.  And judging by the above, that point will be reached fairly soon.  I've already done them sauteed in oil, soup, curry and roasted.  In the past three days.  And some of the squashes are spaghetti ones, which the other half will refuse to eat if he identifies them.  I was hoping that he wouldn't notice the odd bit, but I have a feeling that if he has it every day for two months he may well twig.  Any recipes for spaghetti squash gratefully received.  I'm thinking I may be able to pass them off as noodles.

In my defence, had I planted all of the above things at home, I would have been lucky to get half a dozen courgettes.  But the plot is wonderful.  Before I had it, it was tended by the same man for 45 years.  It amazes me that before I was born, and for the whole of my life, the same person has been there growing things and improving the soil, year in, year out.  For a long time it was an award winning plot, in the site competitions.  Towards the end things were harder for him I think, but I still count myself very lucky to have inherited such a gem.  The soil is exquisite, and everything grows beautifully.  Unfortunately this does include the weeds.  And the courgettes.

Next year, all being well, I won't grow so many.  And I'll space them out a lot more.  I'm learning, learning, learning all the time.

I put the biggest courgette in the space at the site where you can leave unwanted items.  There's quite often a few enormous courgettes lurking there, unloved and unwanted.  But they do always find a new owner.  Really, it's probably not necessary to grow your own courgettes at all, you could just adopt the strays.

The things in the middle are plums.  A small branch was down, so I salvaged them.  Something had clearly been eating some of them.  I'm hoping there'll be a few left for me.

Elsewhere there are still mountains of blackcurrants.  The boys and I have de-stalked about six kilos so far.  If I close my eyes I can still see them.  I have discovered a delicious recipe though - blackcurrant Eton mess.  Cook some blackcurrants with sugar to taste, cool, then push through a sieve.  Crush a meringue, drizzle with blackcurrant puree and swirl through some whipped cream.  It's wonderful.  But the absolute top fruit dish I've discovered this summer has to be morello cherries with Greek yoghurt.  My neighbour gave me a tub of them.  I stoned them, cooked with sugar and then put them over plain Greek yoghurt and honestly, it was utterly divine.  Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best.  The ones where the fruit is allowed to shine.

Elsewhere, tomatoes are swelling and ripening.  I always grow Sungold because they are so reliable outside.  I've had far more success with them than any other variety, including Gardener's Delight, and I've tried lots of varieties.

There are beetroots and a paltry amount of carrots.  Why are they so hard to grow?  I have a theory that a rabbit burrowed under the little chicken wire fence I have and ate the seedlings as they came up.  Something had definitely burrowed under the wire.  We like to think it was Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit.  This is all they have left us.

I took the littlest boy with me.  He entertained himself by cutting things down with a pair of scissors.

Then we pulled up the onions together.  I do so love having a little helper.  Maybe one day he'll grow onions for his little boys.

Along with the beans and carrots there are one or two fancier things.

And a few flowers which have been very easy to grow and which I do so love to see on every visit.  The rose I inherited with the plot, and it really does flower from June until right at the end of the season.

After a bit of a wobble I'm back in love with the plot.  It does still give me a few anxious moments, and I still don't know what the future holds but really, I would so love to keep it.  Maybe even for forty-five years...

A Liebster Award

The lovely Leanne at Today's Stuff nominated me for a Liebster Award the other day, and needless to say I was thrilled.  The idea is that I write eleven random facts about myself, answer eleven questions that Leanne has asked, and then nominate three blogs to answer eleven questions of mine.

So here goes, a little about me.

1.   I was a vegan for 25 years, although now I'm just a vegetarian.

2.   I'm naturally a quiet person and I dislike loud noises.  With three noisy boys this is unfortunate.

3.   I would love to visit Venice.

4.   I am fairly impatient.

5.   My children were all born at home.

6.   I love it when things are "Made in Britain".  Increasingly hard to find.

7.   I suspect I have a tiny little bit of OCD.  People should not move my stuff!

8.   I make bread machine bread almost every day, with barleycorn flour, yeast, salt, honey and water.

9.   I used to be a croupier.

10. Right now I have more blackcurrants that I know what to do with.

11. I completed my law degree part-time in the evenings, whilst working full-time.

And now my answers to Leanne's questions.

1.   Are you a morning person?

Yes, totally.  I'm usually awake between 5.30 and 6.30am, and I get straight up.

2.   What is your favourite fruit?

I think I would have to say cherries, they're so moreish.

3.  Are you superstitious?

I try not to be, but occasionally I touch wood.

4.   What is your favourite smell?

So many to choose from!  I'm going to say coconut, it's sublime.  Although the littlest boy and I were sniffing vanilla earlier and that was good too.  Does it say something about me that I'm thinking food and not expensive perfume..?

5.   Rock chick or hippy chick?

I did go through a rock chick phase, but the hippy was always in there I think.  I grow my own vegetables and I've got a wormery, so I'm thinking hippy chick.

6.   Do you have any pets?

We've got three - Lulu and Mrs Armitage are Abyssinian (rosetted) guinea pigs, and Nibbles is a Syrian hamster.  A gerbil stayed last week, but he's gone home now.  He did send us a thank you card today saying that he'd had a nice time though.

7.  What is the furthest from home that you've travelled?

Casablanca.  I cycled there.  From Bristol.  It took a while.

8.   Do you read a paper?

Nope, not any more, no time!  I listen to news and current affairs on Radio 4 while I'm doing kitchen things.  Sometimes it's so grim I turn it off though.  I'm tired of hearing about the economy.

9.   What was your favourite TV programme as a child?

I loved Paddington Bear.  There was a cosy happiness to it, as well as the humour.

10.  Flora or fauna?

Fauna I think.  Whilst the woods are beautiful, there is nothing like seeing a deer or an owl or even a rabbit.

11.  What is your favourite Madonna song?

I'm going to say Borderline.

And now my eleven questions.

1.   Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

2.   What was your first job?

3.   Is there a book you return to again and again?

4.   If you had an afternoon to yourself, what would you choose to do with it?

5.   Is there something you would like to learn to do?

6.   Do you have a favourite saying or quote?

7.   Is there a naughty treat you love to eat?

8.   Is there a great pub or restaurant near you that you would recommend?

9.   What country would you visit if you could go anywhere?

10.  Jeans or a skirt?

11.  What is your favourite hobby?

The three blogs I'm nominating are:

   Sustainable Mum
   This, too
   Rusty Duck

They are all blogs I really enjoy reading, and well worth visiting.  Thanks Leanne for nominating me, and for your great questions.

Simple pleasures

One of my favourite walks is on Stinchcombe Common.  The views are wonderful, and I love to watch the countryside changing through the year.  Right now summer is in full throttle everywhere.

There were dozens of these moths (cinnabar moths?) on the many scabious flowers along the path.

It reminded me of a line from Mick Inkpen's "One year with Kipper", "... Kipper lay on his back and watched as little things with legs and wings climbed the spindly grasses and whizzed into the big, blue sky.  There are a lot more little things with legs and wings than you would think, thought Kipper".

The walk is around the edge of the high common area, the middle being taken up with a golf course.  The boys like to hunt for lost golf balls.  Other half likes to check out people's swings.  I like the views and looking for the elusive skylarks that you can hear overhead.

It's not too long a walk, even for little legs, with plenty of things to keep them going - bits of woodland, different views from different spots, the odd bench for eating cookies, golfers to watch, a little hut to hide in and nature everywhere.  Also lots of exciting slopes for scrambling up and down.

The woods are mossy and cool, even on warm summer days.  I found this early sycamore key lying in a patch of sun on this beautiful tree root.  I do so love the little details.

Halfway through the walk a corner is turned and a new view opens up, that of the Severn estuary, the river that is never far away.

I've done this walk in all of the seasons, but summer has to be my favourite.  Or maybe that's because summer is right now, I'm not sure.  Whichever it is, I love it here, in the beautiful English countryside, with the pulse of nature everywhere.  The best tonic for whatever ails.

Gooseberries are not the only fruit

This is the time of year when all of the hard work at the allotment and in the garden starts to pay off.  In fact I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the stuff that needs picking, washing, topping, tailing, jamming and frreezing.  Every spare moment is spent trying to make sure none of it is wasted.  Above is just some of this week's haul.

The cherries are from my next-door neighbour, whose new cherry tree overhangs our garden.  The cherries are morello, so really need cooking, but they do have the most exquisite taste.  I'd definitely put in a tree myself if I had room.  I cooked these lightly with sugar, and served them over a vanilla cheesecake.

I've got more gooseberries than I can shake a stick at.  Ironic really, because when I took over the allotment a year ago, the two big gooseberry bushes hardly had a single leaf on them.  The wood looked ancient, and I thought about taking them out, in fact I was advised to do so.  But I gave them a year, and they have been covered in fruit.  I made a couple of jars of jam - not too much, as I've already made strawberry and strawberry and raspberry, and I've probably got enough to last a year now.  And today I made some gooseberry ice-cream from a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe.  It was delicious, and two out of three boys liked it, which is pretty much a triumph in my book.

I drafted in a little assistance with the shelling of peas, by making it a competition.  Clever me.

Elsewhere there has been a little pond-dipping.  The tadpoles are still tadpoles.  Shouldn't they be froglets by now?  I worry that they won't be done by the time that autumn comes.

I'm off to wrestle with mountains of blackcurrants now.  I'm thinking a nice tart and then the rest into the freezer, which is rapidly running out of space.  But I'm not complaining, it is so very good to harvest these things, and to lay them by for the winter.

A beautiful old pier, a picnic in the sun and the very latest in hairstyling - you saw it here first

I've been searching through the cookery books for things to do with gooseberries, blackcurrants and courgettes.  And then I saw this page and thought, we must go on a picnic before the rain comes.  So yesterday afternoon we did.

We went to Clevedon, in North Somerset, where this Victorian pier juts out into the Bristol Channel.  We spent a while on the little beach, doing things with sticks and stones and scrambling about on rocks.  It always amazes me how much boys love doing this kind of thing.  Nothing fancy is required, just a pebbly beach and a little freedom.

We checked out the lovely community bookshop, then the boys had a scoot along the front to the park.  We ate our picnic - humous and crudites, sandwiches, hula hoops, cherries and cookies - and then headed back to the pier, which had free access for the evening.  I used to work with someone whose favourite saying was, "If it's free it's for me".  I feel the same way.   So we wandered along the pier to the pagoda at the end, which is a tea room now.  We chatted to the men who were fishing off of the side and admired the sole that one of them had caught.  And the boys got to have a really good close look at the huge bait worms.  And I mean huge.  And apparently they had teeth and could bite quite hard.  Yikes.  I stayed well back and admired the view instead.

Back at the gatehouse to the pier there is a little shop with an art gallery upstairs.  At the moment there is a display of deckchairs that have been designed by various people, including the wonderful Nick Park, and that will be auctioned for charity. 

I loved the one with all of the Clevedon street names on it.  I have a bit of a thing for nice text.

Then it was time to head for home.  Clevedon is quite pretty in places, with lovely old properties.

It has that small town feel that I love, and most of the time it's quite quiet and peaceful, with a good sense of community.  Well worth a visit.

The rain finally came late this afternoon.  Summer rain, so welcome after long dry spells. 

The boys got soaked and made funny hairstyles with their wet hair.  Then while I was making tea and other half was dozing on the sofa, the littlest boy found a pair of scissors and went a little further.

Oh dear.  He took a chunk out of the back, some off the top and almost everything off of the fringe.  Then it must have occurred to him that maybe he would be in a little trouble over this, and he proceeded to try and hide the hair under people's beds.  He's been rumbled.  I probably don't need to say any more.

A year of allotmenteering

A year ago, just a few days before the start of the summer holidays, I got The Call.  After five years of impatient waiting, an allotment was available.  I'd already turned down one without a shed, back in a damp and uninspiring November, so I was thrilled when one with a shed finally became available.  It was very weedy, with seeding weeds chest-high, but it had previously belonged to the same man for 45 years and it had also been an award winning plot. 

I didn't grow much last year, just a few radishes and some courgettes, but I did spend a long time weeding and clearing the ground.  And then in the New Year it was time to begin.  I put in some garlic, which did beautifully, and gradually I added little things I'd grown from seeds and some plants from the local garden shop.  I pop down when I can, to battle the weeds.  Lots of things seeded last year before I took over the plot, so this year there are lots of things trying to take over.  And just lately I've been doing a lot of watering.  And quite a bit of picking.  And then I reached a point where it all felt just a bit overwhelming.

I think it began after the holiday.  The weather was hot, lots of water was needed, but I had a hundred things to do at home, and there was also lots going on at school.  I've had a little panic over all the time needed.  I really need to find a job, and I think while I'm at the plot I feel I should be doing something that actually earns some money.  And when I do find a job, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to keep the plot.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  So I got to the point where I felt that the plot was something that maybe I'd be doing this year, but not next.  And yet.  And yet...

When I walk down there, and I see some really wonderful plots, when the children come along too and have fun "helping", exploring, picking things, when I leave the plot with a big bag of wonderful things, when everything is weeded and watered and in order, when I go to the open day and see what a great community is there, when I get to the site and close the gate behind me and enter a whole new world that moves peacefully and quietly, when I'm working there and I think about all the people in the almost 500-year history of the site that have worked there before me...  Then I think that I will try so very hard to hold on to this wonderful little plot of mine.  Weeds and all.

Can I show you around a little?  First we need to head down the path to the flatter plots at the bottom.

Here we are.  The one with the corrugated green shed is mine.  It's a bit of a doddery shed and it's not watertight, but it has its own resident bees and inside is a nice little chair and my wellies and I love it.

In front of the shed are a few flowers, squashes, tomatoes and fennel.

Further up there are beans, asparagus and beetroot.

And then at the top of the plot is the fruit.  Gooseberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and a little plum tree that I put in at the end of the winter.

 And a Japanese wineberry that I found in the "Free" area of the allotment, where people leave things they don't want.  I'm proud of this one; it sulked for ages, but I watered it, nurtured it, talked to it, and finally it started to grow.  I've heard they're delicious.

I think that for me being an allotment holder might be a thing of ups and downs.  Sometimes it will be a chore, and one I can barely fit into my life.  And sometimes it will just be glorious.  Today was a good day.

The soil there is fantastic and things are growing far better than at home.  The weeds (in places) are under control (after a fashion).  And rain is coming, so I didn't bother watering.  I've even worked out how to get the rest of the blackcurrants and gooseberries picked.  I shall turn it into a competition.  The boy who picks the most will win.  Now all I have to do is work out what to do with them all...

Back up to the top and along the dry grass path to the gate.  I hope the boys have happy memories of this place.  They all say they want to keep it, and on balance, so do I.