Tony and I have been to our folk dance club tonight. It's the first one since late May and we had so much fun learning new dances. We'll be in Leamington Spa next weekend so we will miss our favourite ceilidh. I could kick myself for not checking the diary before I booked. Oh well, we'll be at a different one the following weekend. Here's my garden from yesterday morning before we built the arch
Tony and I have just put this gorgeous garden arch together. I'm amazed he didn't throttle me as I'm utterly useless when it comes to putting this kind of thing together. I'd have had to take it apart a million times before I eventually got it right. Tony on the other hand just looks at the instructions and knows immediately how to put it together. In my defence, I never played with Meccano as a child 😃
Although in all honesty it doesn't have a huge amount of flavour, chard is one of my favourite veg to grow. The stalks are so vibrant and beautiful. They keep their colour when cooked too. Tossed into a mixed salad and stirred through with a dash of mayonnaise they add so much crunch and colour. Here's what I've just picked this morning. Before going to my carving club last night I picked a nice mixed bag of vegetables for my friend Jim. It's lovely having enough to share with people that appreciate good vegetables.
I've noticed that the light levels are changing as we head into autumn. It's dark driving home from carving club now and it won't be too long before it will be dark driving there. I'll be making some big changes in the front garden towards the end of the month. It'll make the space even more productive. Here's today's harvest.
I've added a bunch of grapes to this morning's harvest. Unfortunately they aren't seedless but as they're really sweet they get to stay. They have definitely earned their place in our garden
My courgette and tomato glut is storming along. After I did my daily harvest Tony and I popped out to pick up a few things from Sainsbury's. I've seen a lovely chicken escalope recipe that uses crispy onions instead of breadcrumbs. We managed to find the onions in Sainsbury's so watch this space. Here's the harvest that I pucked this morning.
When we got back I decided to harvest any tomatoes that looked as though they might split. We'd been forecast heavy rain and I didn't want to lose my tomatoes. Several of the big heavy tomatoes had snapped off so I was pleased that I'd checked the plants. This little haul weighs in just short of 5kg. Obviously some aren't ripe yet but give them a few days and they'll be lovely.
Someone is a happy man today. 🙂
He picked his new (to us) car up from the garage. Isn't it a lovely colour
Tony has gone to collect his new car and I'm waiting in for my latest Greenstalk planter to be delivered. I've had a message saying that it'll be delivered today so goodness knows what time that will be. I'm keeping myself busy pottering about in the garden and I've just picked these. The apples and little pears are windfalls. I'll peel them and grate them.There's a small handful each of strawberries and raspberries which I'll mix with the apples and pears. They'll be a nice addition to a fruit crumble. Three different varieties of courgettes. There's a load of beans and two different varieties of tomatoes
The garden is going into overdrive as vegetables are ripening faster than I can harvest them. This morning I made two really delicious pasta layered bakes. We had some at lunch time and it was so utterly delicious that we had another portion each for tea.
I'm currently being tortured with insect bites which I think are caused by ants. They're everywhere this year. Each time I brush past one of the fruit trees I have to brush the little blighters off my clothing and skin. I'm taking an antihistamine to help calm the itch. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working. Tony is collecting our new car tomorrow then we're taking it for a drive out over to Helmsley. We might have lunch out if we find somewhere nice.
Now that Tony and I are retired we plan to visit a different town in Britain every month . A couple of weeks ago I booked a trip to Leamington Spa. I'm a complete pillock as I only booked one night and we wanted to stay two. I've just added another day to our trip but it's in a different hotel not too far from where we'd like to visit. We're really looking forward to visiting the area and trying out the local eateries. Does anyone know of a good Thai restaurant in or close to Leamington Spa.
Harvests are coming thick and fast at the moment and I've just cooked a huge pan of cologne sauce. My intention is to leave it develop some flavour overnight. Tomorrow I'll turn it into a few different pasta dishes. My garden is looking very lush at the moment but I can already see tgat the season us changing
If you'd like to watch my YouTube channel you only have to click on the bottom right hand corner of this video to watch on YouTube
