We've bought another car

 Yesterday Tony and I wandered around a few car showroom forecourts looking at different cars.  We spotted a couple that we liked the look of and today we popped back for a test drive. Tony really liked a Kia Sportage and after a quick test drive he decided that it was the one he wanted.  I'm not sure when he'll pick it up but he's like a dog with two tails. 

This morning I walked with my group of friends and we had brunch at the home of one of our group. I don't think I'll eat for a week after the amount Ann had prepared for us all. I've been prepping for a couple of friends coming for lunch tomorrow. We're planning on playing Rumikub before lunch and cribbage after lunch. I'm loving retirement. 

It's pickling season

 This morning I pickled a few jars of tomatoes and one of cucumbers. The tomatoes will only keep a couple of months but the cucumbers stay crisp for a very long time. Don't they look pretty. My freezer is stuffed to bursting with garden produce and I am planning on reducing the amount of tomatoes and courgettes that I grow next year. There's only so much space in the freezer. 

I gave a neighbour a tub of vegetables this morning. She popped back a little later with a bar of chocolate for me. I was so touched as that's the first time anyone's given me anything in return. I'll make a tray of rocky road with it as I've got all the ingredients. We're off out to friends for a meal this evening and it'll be a nice change not having to cook. 

In crafter mode

 I've been getting the urge to craft again lately. Yesterday I used some of my dies to cut the components for a couple of fuchsia flowers. I rubbed baby oil onto the flower parts after I'd cut them out. Needless to say I didn't use new paper but chose to use the envelopes that my birthday cards came in. I had to wait for the baby oil to dry and the flowers are now all put together and drying. I'll take a photo later today and show how they look. The baby oil is great for darkening the coloured paper. It turns the white inside the envelopes to a pale version of the facing colour. Very useful as I don't have any dark green paper

While I'm sitting here a road sweeping machine has just gone past. It's clearing all the gutters. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these. Everywhere we go these days the gutters are filled with grass and weeds. People don't take pride in their neighbourhood any more. Tony and I clean the gutter in front of our house and the chap down the road does the same.  We each take turns to do the gutter in between our house and his. About four houses in total.  If everyone that was able to did a little bit to keep their area tidy it would look so much nicer. And if people with drives actually put their cars on them the road would look so much more inviting.

 

Fresh from my garden

 It won't be long before summer is a distant memory and we're complaining about the cold will it? I'm making the most of my harvests while they're abundant.  I took a lovely selection of veggies to one of the (older*) men at my carving club last night. It's lovely having plenty to share and Jim does so much for his sisters. He's been quite poorly and not felt inclined to grow much this year so I'm trying to take a little something for him each week. I hesitate to say old these days because I'm not getting any younger.* 

I've just been out and picked this lovely little selection of flowers and vegetables. The posy of sweet peas and roses are filling my kitchen with a beautiful scent.

There's two types of cucumber, a Rondo de Nice courgette,  a medley of tomatoes and a little handful of French beans.

A great day for laundry

 I've been  a right old domestic goddess today. Beef curry simmering  by 08.30, bedding stripped,washed, dried outdoors and replaced by lunch time.  Veggies harvested and ironing  finished.  My halo is positively blinding. The little jar is a pear, raspberry and strawberry compote.  I'd spotted two small windfall pears this morning and managed to find a few strawberries and a raspberry. It'll need using up quite quickly so I'll stir it into some porridge on Thursday morning 

Do you remember this?

 Many years ago when I was very much into crafting, I crafted using junk. Even now I can't look at anything without seeing several ways to craft with it. I'm getting the urge to craft again and thought perhaps if you didn't see this the first time around you'd be interested in seeing it.

Well worth growing

 If you've only got an average sized garden you'd be staggered at how much food you can grow. I'm in the North East of England not too far from the coast and here's what I picked over the past two days. The first tray is literally minutes old and the second tray shows my harvest for the past two days. Top tray has Patty pan squash and Rondo de Nice courgette.  Two mini cucumbers and a mix of different tomatoes

 

I added today's harvest to yesterday's.  That doesn't include the 680g of tomatoes that I picked and froze yesterday. The cup and saucer is just to give you an idea of the size of the different veggies.

Oh no. Not again

 Poor Tony has just had someone run into the side of his car.  The lady admitted responsibility straight away but that doesn't make it any better. Our car now has a nasty dent and huge scrape all along the passenger side and Tony is understandably most definitely not feeling very happy. He's smoking like a chimney and he very rarely smokes these days. Hopefully the damage is just cosmetic and easily repaired.  Our car is bright red so very visible. 

Harvesting and another freebie

 This mornings harvest fresh from the garden 

And Tony  came home with this yesterday. His former colleague bought it to use at work. He's changing jobs and has no further need of it.

He can't resist a freebie bless him.

The solar eclipse

 Yesterday Tony and I sat in the garden and watched the solar eclipse unfold.  It was the most incredible spectacle as the moon slowly nibbled away at the sun. I had expected it all to turn dark which unfortunately didn't happen.  Nonetheless it was a lovely experience. Afterwards I snapped some photos of the amazing colour in my garden 

Sitting watching the eclipse with the scent from this tuberose filling the evening air was absolutely magical 

Freebies and tomatoes

 It's tomato season at long last and I have many different varieties to enjoy over the coming weeks 

And look what we were given yesterday 

It's the perfect size for two people and will be really useful during the colder weather for cooking quick meals and snacks.

Quiche with potato crust

 I've just made the most utterly delicious quiche using  left over mashed potato instead of pastry for the crust.  It turned out absolutely flipping gorgeous. I started out by squishing left over mashed potato into a very well buttered pie dish. Bake for twenty minutes at about 180.

Then I scattered grated cheese all over the cooked base

I filled up the pie dish with a mix of cooked sausages, cooked bacon and fried onions 

Then I wisked five eggs with a good slug of milk and seasoned it well with plenty of salt and pepper

 I scattered a good handful of grated cheese over the top. Popped it into a 180 oven for about twenty minutes. And it came out looking like this

Then of course came the test.  Would it release from the dish like a proper quiche?

It most certainly did and all it needed was a handful of fresh picked tomatoes as it was very filling. The possibilities are endless for fillings.  

Booked a short break in Doncaster

 Yesterday while speaking to my friend Debs on the phone she asked whether Tony and I would fancy meeting up in York in October. They live in Kent and have booked a week in Doncaster. I've done better than that. I booked a couple of days in Doncaster. They're travelling up by train to their hotel and I've booked a lovely hotel about 15 minutes walking distance from them. We've arranged to pick them up and drive over to York for the day. It saves them having to get the train from Doncaster into York. It'll be lovely to spend the day with them. I'd only an hour before said to Tony that we need to look for somewhere to visit in October.  Isn't coincidence a strange thing. We've got two mini breaks booked for September and hope to stay somewhere in December close to a theatre.  We fancy seeing a show. If you've any suggestions for places worth visiting please let me know. Next year we're planning to go away for a couple of days every month. I can't leave the garden for much longer than that unless it's raining. And wandering around in the rain isn't very appealing.

Planning some changes

 A couple of weeks ago I ordered an arch to put on our driveway.  Unfortunately I measured wrong and it won't fit. I love the arch and didn't want to return it so I'm planning big changes in the back garden.  We can't do anything until September as I've got some many plants growing that won't finish until then.  It's going to be very pretty this time next year.

Back to normal

 Tony and I have been away most weekends for what seems like ages now. We've been to some real lovely places and have several more booked for September.  We're going out tomorrow night then things settle back down again for a little while. It's nice to get back to normal but it's made me rethink how I should keep the garden watered as we can't really leave it for more than a couple of days if it's really hot. I certainly don't mind only staying away for couple of days when it means I can eat lovely meals using veg straight from the garden. Tonight we had a chicken stir fry with noodles.  The veg from the garden... courgettes, onions, chillis, mini peppers, chard, French beans and garlic.  It's saving me an absolute fortune as we aren't visiting any supermarkets as often. Therefore we aren't being tempted by bargain prices on things we really don't need.

It's my birthday

 Today we're off to Pickering to ride Tornado.  I can't wait as I absolutely adore steam trains. I'm really touched that my friend's daughter and son in law remembered my birthday and have both text me to wish me a happy birthday.  After my friend passed, Tom and Julie kind of adopted Tony and I.  My friend would be so pleased. There's not a day goes by that Tony and I don't think of Marian, and the loss of her doesn't get any easier.  

Yesterday our friends Brian and Brenda invited us over for a birthday meal. We had such a lovely time with them. Next week some other friends and I are going out for the day out to celebrate my birthday and that of another friend. I feel as though Tony and I have had a whole month of celebrations this year. It's exhausting in a lovely kind of way.

We had plenty of rain last night

 Boy oh boy did it rain last night. The garden has perked up beautifully so clearly needed a thoroughly good soaking. Isn't this sunflower beautiful in a strange and different way.

 

Cucumbers are growing faster than I can use them so I've taken to pickling them.

I've given several away to friends and neighbours too. The cost of food is likely to rocket again in the Autumn as the heatwave takes it's toll on harvests. I'm so glad that I turned my garden into a little allotment.  It still looks beautiful but saves me a fortune on our grocery bill.

We've been to Blackpool

 Tony and I have spent the weekend in Blackpool. We'd gone to visit the Open Allotment day in Lytham St Anne's but couldn't get booked up there so had to stay in Blackpool.  It was brilliant using our bus pass to travel freely on the buses. The guest house was spotless and the breakfast lovely.  The owner was really friendly but unfortunately his constant of the f word puts me off staying there again.  Such a pity as the position on the promenade gave us wonderful sea views and a stunning sunset.

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