My special chill-out place

I wasn't tempted to sit down! I did spend ages taking photos though – everything looked so perfect and pure and the light was stunning. I think I was the only person who had been on the allotment, but mine weren't the only footprints. The animal tracks crossed and re-crossed everywhere I looked. The bigger ones were fox tracks and there were lots of bird footprints too. I followed the path to the woods and stood for a while watching a fox, waiting to take his picture when he moved away from the bushes but my camera timed out and switched off with a whirring sound so he melted away into the undergrowth. Even so, we were close enough to have made eye contact.

The snow will be brief here. This transformation of the landscape is fleeting. I feel priveleged to have seen the snow work its magic on my familiar allotment.

Happy gardening – enjoy the snow

Pruning with the ancient gods

To successfully prune an old apple tree you must first remove any diseased or dead wood, any branches that cross over each other and also any that have sprouted up much higher than you want the tree to go. Then you should look at the shape of the tree, taking care to leave a cup shape of branches with an open centre. Only after this should you begin to prune the twigs by cutting the leading twig on each branch back by about a third to a good bud and the other twigs back by two thirds. That's what my book says, anyway. The reality is a bit more hit and miss with some branches too high for me to reach so they got missed out, and some twigs just too confusing for proper pruning so they mostly got all chopped off. However, today is Imbolc, a good day for tending my tree for the coming year, so to make up for the haphazard saw work I have tied ribbons to some of its branches and cast its fate to the old gods of the wildwood. Safer hands than mine!

Happy gardening and light a candle for Imbolc tonight

Moving rhubarb

The black plastic covers the holes where I've taken out the later cropping of my two rhubarbs, hopefully not killing it in the process. It's gone a few yards away in the narrow strip to the right of the tree.

It was amazing to be able to do anything at all today. I only went to see if we still had a hut or the cloches after the gales.

The hut's still there, one cloche is ok, but I couldn't see the other one. Hardly anything to clear up really. Oh, and the old incinerator I was using to force the other rhubarb had blown quite a long way away, but I still found it.

The plan is (there's always a plan) to plant potatoes where the black plastic is. It's a flowerbed that I've been clearing over the winter and the ground is very uneven and full of weeds so I'll mulch it with some more plastic and when the weeds have gone, potatoes will help the soil return to a more usable vegetable bed. The flowers are all being popped into odd places where they won't take up so much space.

Happy gardening (and planning ahead)

Gadgets

As you can see I've been messing about with the blog. I love the moon phases gadget and I'm definitely keeping that one, but the cat may have to go! |It's kind of fun, but I can see it'll end up being annoying after a while. I wanted to put a playlist in as well but Roo (trainee computer nerd) says websites that start playing music at you as soon as the page loads are really annoying too. I suppose that's true but it must depend on whether you find one with music that you like, doesn't it?

What I really want to do is change the background. I want to keep it green, but with a pattern of oak leaves printed down the side borders, and I haven't a clue how to do it. Anybody know?

Happy blogging

Temporary hibernation of gardener

Brr. No photo today. It's been a lovely, lovely day but too cold to be outside. I seem to be one day behind at the moment - I mean I'm updating the blog a day after whatever it is I'm writing about. I must be all slowed down because of the cold. Heaven knows, I'm finding it hard to get up in the mornings, it doesn't seem natural to crawl out from under a warm duvet before it gets light. I can really identify with all hibernating creatures right now. My cat's doing it too. And as for the kids...

Anyway, yesterday I took the opportunity to put some more broad beans seeds in pots. I'd had to wait for the compost to thaw enough to fill the pots, it's been solid for ages. The previous sowing has grown to about 3 or 4 inches high so I've moved it to hide from squirrels and frost under some fleece in the front garden. Hopefully, I'll have some successional croppings of beans later on in the year if they survive.

happy gardening

Cold winter days

Happy new year to anyone who looks at this blog. The photo was taken yesterday (new year's day) and the happy smile is because I was well wrapped up against the cold. The temperature struggled to get above freezing as it has done for many days so the warm coat and the fab hippy hat (Christmas present) were much needed.

The pond was thick with ice and the ground solid. I managed to dig out some leeks and parsnips but didn't hang around for long, just went home to make soup.

Happy gardening for 2009

Windfall pears

There is a big, old pear tree on the allotments. It's seen many tenants come and go over the years and mostly, after a few skirmishes with harvesting them, trying to eat them and then adding them to the compost, the pears stay uneaten on the tree. They are an old fashioned culinary variety of pear, meaning that they just won't ripen however long you leave them. They have to be cooked.

I picked up a basket of windfall pears nearly two months ago and although they've been in the kitchen ever since, they are still pretty rigid. This year I've been using them to make chutney.

After my first ever go at making chutney, I quickly gave up using recipes. Apart from the science bit of needing to know the approximate quantities of sugar and vinegar to fruit, it seems a good way of using up whatever I had going spare at the time. I've made use of several gluts this way. This is my most recent effort:


Pear chutney with lemon and ginger

2 lb pears
1 lb onions
2 lemons, zest and juice
1/4 pint cider vinegar
1/2 lb soft dark brown sugar
A piece of ginger root - size depends on how much you like ginger
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
sea salt
small amount olive oil

Chop the onions and soften in a teeny bit of olive oil, chop and add the pears and cook gently while measuring the sugar and vinegar, grating the rind of both lemons, and squeezing them for the juice. Also shred the ginger and lightly crush the coriander seeds.

Add all these ingredients to the mixture in the pan and give it a good stir, grinding in a little sea salt. Cook for as long as it takes to thicken, I used a potato masher to help the consistency along a bit. try it for taste - you may need to add some more sugar. Mine has too much ginger, but I did use a huge piece of ginger root. J won't like this particular chutney, he doesn't like ginger at all and the ginger is a dominant flavour.
Decant into warmed jars and cover immediately. Mop excess chutney off jars, self and work surface. Take photos of little row of jars and add to blog. Regret excess ginger.

Happy gardening (and cooking for winter storage)