Off to a ceilidh tonight

 Last night we danced our legs off at our country dancing group and we'll be doing the same thing tonight at the ceilidh. Pizza is included in the ticket price of £5 and it's almost an eat all you can night as the church order in so many lovely fresh cooked pizzas from a local takeaway. This particular ceilidh is one of our absolute favourites and it's a pity that they only run them twice a year. We've made so many friends at the various ceilidhs that we attend and they're so much fun. We've had a light lunch of homegrown salad with sauerkraut and Double Gloucester cheese.  I grated a pear into the salad and it was so tasty.  Definitely something I'll add again. We're picking apples and pears every day at the moment and I'm fermenting them for the winter.  I've got so many jars packed with produce from the garden and it's saving us an absolute fortune.

Changes in the front garden

 At the front of my house we had a big wooden planter where over the years I've grown all manner of things. Tony and I had decided to dismantle it as it was starting to decay quite badly. Yesterday we took it apart and it's just as well we did. We think it would probably have collapsed if we had a heavy fall of rain. It was disintegrating as we dismantled it. The front of the house looks so different now

My garden today

 It's hard to believe that it's almost October. My garden is still looking really colourful and I'll really miss it once the frosts arrive to kill most of it off. Tony and I are giving everything a thoroughly good tidy up while the weather is decent.  Soon we'll be curling up under a snuggly blanket and dreaming of Christmas.  

Changes in the veg garden

 Now that autumn is well underway I'm making some changes in the veg garden. I've planted up the Greenstalk planters that will go out into the front garden and hopefully they'll give me loads of lovely fresh veggies next spring. Garlic, leeks, onion sets and chard are planted in the front garden. Tomorrow if the weather continues to be decent I want to empty one of my back garden raised beds and sow more veggie seeds. Slugs continue to be a flaming nuisance but frogs are hopping around in the garden so hopefully they'll be munching their way through plenty of the slimey little blighters 

My sweet potato harvest

 This morning I tipped out one of my tubs of sweet potatoes to see if anything had grown. I was absolutely delighted to find this lovely little harvest. There was 745g of beautiful healthy sweet potatoes.  I think that the long hot summer has helped as they're very much a heat loving vegetable 

Pretty vegetables

 Isn't mother nature wonderful. This is my little harvest for today 

We've just left Whist and we're off to our folk dancing group tonight. 

Aldi bargains

 We've just popped to Aldi to pick up a couple of things. I'd put a large pack of chicken drumsticks in the trolley when I spotted these. They're today's date but my intention had been to cook the big tray of drumsticks and put them in the fridge for snacking. I'll keep all the bones and the cooking juices to make a nice stock. Needless to say I put the more expensive ones back. Swedes are a really good buy as they keep for absolutely ages. The leeks and lettuce were also a good find. I've scattered a gorgeous hot spice powder all over and it'll make both the drumsticks and the stock very tasty. We've a lovely Asian supermarket not too far from us and we can buy the most delicious curry powders and spice mixes 

 And if gardening is your thing we're in the middle of changing things around a bit

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Lacto fermenting

 I've had a busy morning preserving some of my recent harvests again.  There's a huge pan of pasta sauce which I'll leave overnight to develop flavour.  Then I'll bag it up and freeze it. There's several big 2l jars of lacto fermented tomatoes. A jar of fermented hot sauce and a jar of fermented apples and pears. I've really had a good think about what I plan to grow  next year as I have given absolutely tons of produce away. I'll grow more carrots and onions are far less tomatoes and courgettes 

Beautiful weather 22nd September

 I really can't believe that we're two thirds into September. The weather is absolutely amazing. It's the perfect weather for gardening and that's exactly what we did today.  We had a run to a local garden centre and picked up some pretty autumn bedding plants. The front garden is now awash with colour and it'll look even nicer as the plants grow and spread out. Then we moved out into the back garden and gave it a thoroughly good tidy up.  We'll put more bedding plants into the big raised bed in a couple of days as it needs to settle after being topped up with compost. The pink GreenStalk was under the pergola and is heading for the front garden. 

A lovely night away

 Tony and I spent last night at the beautiful Brass Castle hotel in Middlesbrough.  We've stayed before and I've already booked to stay again in November.  It was my friend Ann's birthday and she'd arranged to have it here as it was local for most of us. 

 If you are looking for a nice venue to hold an event I can highly recommend Brass Castle hotel. If walking is your thing then a lovely scenic walk is accessible directly from the garden.