August in the garden

I had some time at home today, so I took a little wander around the garden with my camera.

Fruit is ripening nicely.

The tomatoes are Sungold and they rarely let me down, despite being grown outside.  They're quite sweet, but lovely in salads and great for children.  I like that there are a few ripe ones every day.  If I could only grow one tomato, this would be it, purely because it's so reliable.

Not everything is doing wonderfully though.  The figs won't come to anything, although that doesn't bother me particularly, I love them just for the foliage.

The aubergines are small.  They were an experiment, but I don't think I'll grow them again as they're not something I cook with much.

And the olives!  I shan't order an olive press quite yet.

Chillies are something else I might not grow many of next year.  We don't eat that many of them, and they take a huge amount of care.  Some of them were sown in February.  That's half a year of nurturing, and it's not over yet.  But I've tried some varieties that are supposed to be mild, so I shall see what they're like before making a final decision.  Whole stuffed mild chillies are a wonderful thing, if the heat level is just right.  It's probably all down to the exact right moment of picking.  I've tried the Anaheim ones when they're green and there's no heat at all.  This is a Hungarian Hot Wax Yellow.  Sounds hot, but Sarah Raven says it's a milder one.  We shall see.

The borlotti beans have been very sparse.  I like the beans from inside cooked while fresh in minestrone soup.  But the ones at home and at the allotment have been disappointing.  I was extra disappointed when the ones at the allotment turned out not to be climbing beans at all, especially after I spent a chunk of time making a nice frame of canes for them to clamber up.

The runner beans aren't producing masses yet either, although there are lots of flowers so I'm hoping there will be loads soon.

I've let the oregano flower, and even though it's not a big plant the bees love it.

Some of the other herbs are flowering too.  Not sure if this is oregano or marjoram, but the paler one is a golden version and I always love seeing the colour contrast.

The grape vines are doing their usual thing of disguising the fence, which is great.  But I would really love to see at least part of this area covered in figs.  I'm not sure what to do about it.  The figs will take quite a long time to establish, and the vines are very rampant so if I grow both at the same time the vines might stop the figs from doing well.  I only have a very narrow strip of soil between the little wall and the fence, so digging things up here is tricky.   I'm mulling it over.  For some reason the vine on the left, which always grows incredibly vigorously, is not producing fruit at the moment.  A real shame as it's the best one - small seedless green grapes which are delicious.

If you look closely above the bench you will see a string of onions.  I plaited three strings this morning.  Not very expertly, but it did make me happy to see them all hung up ready for cooking throughout the coming months.

There aren't many flowers in the garden, but this rose, Rose de Rescht, is still flowering weeks after it started.  It's nice and compact and sits in a pot next to the bench.  When I pick off the spent flowers I'm always tempted to throw them up in the air like confetti, they have so many petals.

Dahlias, pretty but rather full of living things.  Blackfly, ants, earwigs.  Best left in the garden this year I think.  I'm not good with earwigs.  Especially when they're in the house.

The pond is still full of froggies, and the little people spend hours watching them.  You will note the wrinkliness of the littlest boy's hands from a happy half hour spent fishing around for things.  He does love his little froglings.  And don't worry, he is carefully policed to make sure there is no squeezing or dropping.

So that's it.  An August afternoon in the garden.  When I get the camera out and wander round I'm always surprised at how much stuff there is and how much is going on.  I do love how it all grows and changes while I'm out and about doing other things.  It's a perpetual surprise.

Beautiful Hawkesbury

At the weekend we headed out for a walk in the Cotswolds, with the promise of a metaphorical carrot at the end of it.  As it happened everyone was in a pretty good mood, so the carrot wasn't essential.

At the end of this field a view opened up, described as the finest in Gloucestershire.

Can't argue with that.  We headed down quite a way next, to the ancient village of Hawkesbury.   It's a tiny place now, apparently it was abandoned when plague struck, and now only a few houses remain, along with a beautiful church that dates back in part to Saxon times, and has bits from pretty much every period since then.

Outside the church were the most fantastic blocks of yew, and a little gateway was cut into one of the trees.  I may have mentioned before how much I love yew.

Inside the church was beautiful in that still, timeless way that old churches have.

It really was such a pleasure to visit.  Outside we began to climb slowly back up to the top.

There is a Bronze Age burial mound to the right of the hill, and some terracing where in ancient times the land was cultivated.  This area has been settled for thousands of years.  Quite amazing to think about.

Further on we could see a much newer landmark, the Hawkesbury Monument, built in the 1800s.

We ended up in Hawkesbury Upton, the "new" village where we were told people moved when plague struck Hawkesbury.  There's a nice pub there, the Beaufort Arms, and out the back we found the metaphorical carrot.

Another Gromit.  He's a long way from the other Gromits, but nonetheless there was a steady stream of visitors.  The Gromit trail is proving very popular I think.

It's hard to express how lovely this walk was.  It was one of those days when everything just works.  Nobody complained, there were stunning views, a little historical interest, fascinating locals to chat to, sheep to chase (ahem, I did put a stop to that), some real walking to do and some hills but not too many  The littlest boy did get stung by stinging nettles quite a bit, but he was incredibly brave, and in a moment of huge brotherly loveliness the biggest boy found some dock leaves and rubbed them on his chunky little legs for him.  If only every walk could go this well.

We had a little mooch around Tetbury the other weekend.  It's somewhere we used to go Before Children, but given the amount of lovely antique shops and other smart establishments we tend to give it a wide berth now.

But we were in the mood for something a little classier, so everyone promised not to touch anything and not to play tag in the middle of the pavement (they do that, oh yes they do, we are that family) and off we set.

Much of this Cotswold town dates from the 16th and 17th century, and there are many beautiful buildings.

This is The Close Hotel, built in 1535 during the reign of Henry VIII.  I've heard it's wonderful, and every time I see it in summer I long to have afternoon tea on the lawn - the gardens are supposed to be beautiful.  But my budget is more along the lines of cookies and juice brought from home, and besides that, the children would definitely be playing tag if they saw a wide expanse of grass.  So I contented myself with looking at the outside.

Nice, huh?  There's other nice stuff too.

These are the houses at the top of Chipping Steps.  The steps have been there since medieval times in one form or another, and again some of the houses date back to the 16th and 17th century.  I'm trying to train other half not to walk into my photos.  Limited success so far.

The front gardens were an inspiration.  I really must do something with my bare patch of gravel.  Although it probably helps if your house looks something like this to start with.

Can you see the roof?  Wonderful.  I should have got a better shot of it.  For some reason I also missed taking a picture of the market building, which is amazing.  Next time.  I also missed taking a shot of Marco Pierre White who was strolling up the high street.  Probably not next time, I don't think I have the paparazzi gene.  I did get this picture though...

We found him in an antiques shop.  The children are obsessed with wild boar, being as they read "Asterix" quite a bit.  (Obelix eats wild boar by the dozen.)    The label says "Harry" Boar's Head £420.  Unfortunately he wasn't in the budget either.  But the very next time I have £420 to spare...

I've been trying to think of a Harry quote to put as the title of this post, but I've not come up with any.  I'm no good at captions, but I'm sure the perfect one is out there somewhere.  Any suggestions gratefully received.  I'll leave it blank for now...

Home, home on the range, where the frogs and the guinea pigs play

Last week there was I think one too many picnics in a row, one too many long days out.  There was a little tiredness followed by a little grumpiness and slightly more than a little shouting.  I learned my lesson.  This week there has been more down time.  A couple of trips to libraries, with something for everyone.  That's always a favourite thing to do, for all of us.  When we get home from a library there is always complete silence as books are discovered and digested.

A little pottering in the garden.  A couple of raised beds have been cleared.  Old raspberry canes were cut out and new ones tied in.  Hanging baskets were disposed of.  They were past their best and at this time of year disappearing into the rampaging grape vines.  The sweet peas have been really disappointing this year, but they have a reprieve for now.

Thanks to the regular showers the grass is back.  Just a month ago it was dry and brown.  It's still really patchy because of the incredibly hard use it gets, and it's still full of weeds, but there is actual green grass and the piggies are happy.

A little baking was done.  These contained blueberries and blackcurrants.  And a little chocolate.  An unusual combination I think, but I like to throw in whatever's to hand.  And they were pretty nice.  I forgot to take a picture of them once they'd been cooked.  I always do.  I enjoy seeing food on blogs, but there is no clue as to how people keep the ravening hoards away from the food long enough to photograph it.  If I paused to take pictures before serving there would be a mutiny.

After I made these I carefully washed my lovely mixing bowl.  Then I immediately wiped it up, so it wasn't hanging about dangerously on the draining board.  And then I smashed it.  Sigh.  I honestly am so completely clumsy, and it's only ever a matter of time before anything I have is broken.  It does make me so cross, especially when it's something I really like.  Oh well, worse things happen at sea.

A ridiculous amount of apples were eaten.  Twelve (organic) ones disappeared in 36 hours.  I'm going to have to ration them I think.  The same thing with grapes.  I put out a new bunch in the bowl, and next time I look there's just a big stalky bit left.  I know it's good for them to eat fruit, but when I worked out how much it's all costing it made me feel peculiar.  I'm thinking of putting apple trees in at the allotment...

Plenty of Lego-ing was done.  Most of it accompanied by an apple.

We had another bash at doing this puzzle ball.  We've mostly done the land, just those pesky oceans left.  There's so much of them, they're all blue and it's very confusing.



And we spent quite a bit of time peering into the pond at these.  Little froglings, at last!  Most of them are tiny, and we still have plenty of tadpoles in various stages of frogginess.  But there are some definite froglets now, hopping about on land.  We are riveted.

We're rested now, and ready for a little more adventure.