All home grown and utterly delicious

  Both lunch and tea were from the garden today. Lunch was a gorgeous, open cheesy sandwich with fresh salad veggies. It means that instead of the usual two slice sandwich I've cut the carbs and piled the veggies high. It was definitely a knife and fork sandwich 

And our tea tonight was so simple but so tasty. It's just potatoes,courgettes and tomatoes built up in layers. I started with a layer of potatoes then plenty of Red Leicester cheese between each layer of veg. I finished off with another layer of potato and grated plenty of cheese on top. Cooked at 190 for forty minutes. It was so easy to put together and packed with flavour. 

My mini oven is an absolute godsend lately. I can't remember the last time I used the main oven.                                                                        

My plum tree is an apricot

 This is the first year that my plum tree has born fruit. The label says it's a Stanley plum but as the fruit is a blushed golden yellow and huge it's clearly not. I googled it a while ago and thought I'd nailed it down to a particular variety of yellow plum. I was baffled as to why the fruit is ready now though as the plum I'd thought it was, shouldn't ripen until September. Imagine my surprise this morning when Tony and I shared one to discover that they are actually apricots.  That means that in my garden I'm growing  several varieties of apples pears and plums. I now know that there's apricots,  strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, honeyberry, gooseberry, two varieties of grape and some rhubarb.  Not bad for a relatively small garden. The teacup is to show how big the squash and apricot are

Thrilled to bits

 Tony's been for a drive out to Grosmont with his friend today.  I was absolutely delighted when he got home as he's bought tickets to ride Tornado from Pickering on my birthday next week.  He checked to make sure that it would be running under steam as we'd read that it wouldn't be due to the potential fire risk. I adore steam trains and fully intend to incorporate quite a few rides on them. Blow the expense. 

I had a nasty fall the other day while out in Whitby with friends. My hand is badly bruised and my knee has an impressive looking graze. Tony and my friends are insisting that I use my walking poles from now on. To be honest I'm not sure they would have prevented me falling but I'll give them a try. My dodgy leg has a nasty habit of collapsing under me if for even a minute I forget to lock my knee. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it as it's the result of the nerve damage I suffered when I had my hip replacement. The surgeon said it's unlikely to ever fully recover and I must remember to always lock my knee. Occasionally I forget and take a tumble. I'm at the age where a fracture wouldn't be very helpful.... not that a fracture at any age is very nice.

 

Utterly delicious

 Sometimes it's difficult to know what to do with a glut of courgettes isn't it. Well we've just eaten the most delicious meal. I cooked spicy, garlic and lemon tiger prawns and courgettes.  Served it with a home grown,  fresh picked salad. I'd pay good money in any restaurant for meals like this.

Tony has asked if we can have it again tomorrow.  I guess he really enjoyed it.

Redcar on the Yorkshire coast

 Tony and I spent a lovely night away for our wedding anniversary.  The hotel was a bit basic but clean and comfortable with a lovely sea view. We thoroughly enjoyed the Thai meal at The Lemongrass and will definitely go there again.  

I've just booked a couple of days in Blackpool to celebrate my upcoming birthday. We'd originally intended to spend the night in Pickering where we'd hoped to book a ride on the steamtrain Tornado. We were treated to a drive past yesterday as it heads to Grosmont. 

 Unfortunately due to the extreme fire risk it would cause because of the heatwave it would actually be pulled along by electric diesel locomotive. That isn't what we'd wanted so I'll book a trip once the danger of setting fire to the moors is no longer cause for concern. Tony and I intend to book a couple of days away each month and hope to visit many bits of Britain. It's a very long time since we visited Blackpool and we're planning to nip over to Lytham St Anne's allotments open day. I'll take plenty of photos in Blackpool and hopefully we'll catch a nice sunset.

It's courgette season

 Courgettes are coming thick and fast now and are a great addition to pasta sauces. I'm freezing plenty of bags of sauce and lasagne/vegetable layer bakes. They'll be lovely through the colder months when the heatwave summer is a distant memory. Aren't the vivid purple potatoes pretty. They don't lose their colour when cooked and make spectacular chips. 

21 years

 Tony and I are celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary today. We can't believe that it's 21 years since we got married.  We're off out for a Thai meal tonight. The restaurant comes highly recommended by friends and we are looking forward to trying it. We're staying the night in a hotel and will have a wander along the promenade to work off the carbs. I'm definitely not missing out on rice today.  I could eat it with every meal. Unfortunately a low carb diet isn't great for a rice lover 😕 😢 😞 

Changes in the garden

 Tony and I are planning some big changes in the back garden. This is completely my fault as I'd ordered a beautiful garden arch with the intention of putting it on the drive. I measured wrong. I could of course just send it back but I'd set my heart on growing a jasmine covered arch. We've decided to change things around in the garden at the end of summer and use the arch in the back garden instead.  It's funny how this blog was always about crafting but has become a gardening blog these days. I did set up a separate gardening blog but kept forgetting to update it. Maybe one day I'll return to crafting but for the foreseeable future I'm happiest when I am in the garden.  And who wouldn't be when I can wander down the garden and pick beautiful squash,  potatoes and cucumbers for weeks on end

 

Torquay and South Devon German railway society open day

 Tony and I are currently in Torquay for a long weekend.  Himself is a member of the German model railway club.. or something along those lines. We came down to Torquay for the open day of the South Devon German railway society and have had a thoroughly lovely time. Torquay council could do with spending some money tidying up the place though. The stench of ripe dustbin isn't my favourite fragrance.

Poor Tony

 Yesterday Tony was stung by a wasp and has had a nasty reaction to it. His arm is treble the size and he's been prescribed penicillin by the local pharmacist.  All I'll say is 'poor little brave soldier'. 😃 😀 😄 😁 🤣 nuff said..