Eating in Season

 

I don't like the heat at all, but I love this time of year for all the home grown fruit and veg that nature provides us with.  We are still picking, eating

 (and freezing) :

Green beans

Tomatoes

Yellow peppers

Cucumbers

Potatoes

Carrots

Onions

Bramley apples

Dessert apples (Russet type)

Raspberries

And we have been given (by other allotment friends):

Victoria plums

Cherry tomatoes

We have, of course been giving stuff away to family, friends and allotment neighbours too.

If the local badgers hadn't got there first, there would have been sweetcorn as well.  We managed to retrieve just one cob which they had missed in the middle of the bed, and it was delicious.  Sweet and tender with just a little butter...mmm

We haven't bothered with cabbages and such this year,  as we don't eat much of them, and it's a good job we didn't spend money on the seedlings this time.  Brassicas and such have failed spectacularly at the allotment. Seasoned growers have been really disappointed with results.  Our one surviving Brussels sprout plant has developed club root and has had to be pulled up and burned. 

Oh well, you can't win 'em all, can you 🫣

Today,  Wednesday,  we have had a little rain, thankfully.   It has rained on and off for a couple of hours.  Still not enough....but it helps. 

Are you still picking crops from your garden? 

Have you had rain in your area?

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Thanks for popping in and stay safe and well wherever you happen to be, 

Angie 💓 

The Next Day......Aftermath....

 I woke up the day after my fall to a lovely black eye.  As I fell and broke my glasses, it must have been them that cut my head. 

 I was really annoyed with myself as they had been good quality glasses with titanium frames to make them lighter and easy to wear.  Gray offered to take them back to the optician to see if they could be repaired.  I didn't hold out much hope so was amazed when he brought them back a couple of hours later, fully repaired and with good wishes for a speedy recovery from the staff ! 😎😂  They didn't charge a penny.  What excellent service.

It wasn't until this morning that I discovered something else.......When I put my hand into my bag to get my keys, it came out soaking wet.  As I fell, I must have landed on my cross body bag and smashed the plastic bottle of hand sanitizer inside which had then leaked all night, covering everything inside in gel  👀 I was so lucky.  My bag must have saved my hip from the impact as I didn't even get a bruise on it.  God was watching me that day 🙏

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Thanks so much for your sympathy and good wishes on my last post.

Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Reducing me to tears....in more ways than one !

When I dropped off my latest batch of cards at the Hospice shop this morning (220 in total now) I  was surprised to be handed an envelope.  It contained a beautiful thank you card from the staff at the shop..

The handwritten messages reduced me to tears.  It was so kind of them and I got a lovely hug from the young manageress too.  She is always so friendly and smiling that I look forward to going in every time 😊 

There was just one...yes, ONE ! card left in the basket so I was in the nick of time.  I don't want customer interest to wane simply because the basket is empty.  Must get a wriggle on !

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When I got home, I grabbed my bags and stepped out of my car, stood up, and felt myself falling instantly.  I landed with a bang, firstly on my right knee, then hitting my head on the tarmac , breaking my glasses on impact 😱

I was reduced to tears for the second time in an hour 🥲 My knee took the biggest impact.   Luckily I was wearing jeans....

Poor Graham got a shock when he answered the door to find my head and hand covered in blood.  Don't head wounds bleed profusely! It wasn't actually too bad, more of a scrape than a cut.  My hands are scraped and bruised though.  They do say that pride comes before a fall 🙄....

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Thanks so much for popping in.  Stay safe wherever you happen to be, 

Angie 💓 

A Place of Calm, Stolen Sweetcorn, Peppers & Harvesting Good Things..

 Despite the excessive heat, we have had to visit the allotment on a regular basis to water the produce and harvest stuff before it spoils.  I didn't feel very well towards the end of last week and Friday turned out very, very hot.  I felt almost overcome with the heat and was grateful when our daughter suggested (whilst talking to her on the mobile phone) that I go and sit in the community garden where it's cooler and eat my sandwich.  Oh boy...it was a place of cool, calm respite 😎 This is the view seated in the shade on one of our folding chairs.  Someone has kindly donated an old patio table so I could eat my food, and drink my chilled water in comfort.  I soon felt much better; more relaxed and very much cooler.....

Sunday was so much better weatherwise; cooler both during the day and at night so that I could sleep.  Today, Tuesday, was overcast and cool and we again visited the allotment to water as we still have had no rain, only to find that the badgers had eaten all our sweetcorn overnight 😨It was almost ripe too. This is the second year they have stolen it.  It appears that they used claws and muzzle to reach in and take it.  What they didn't eat was broken and ruined 😭.....

Despite losing out on the corn, we have been really pleased with the yellow peppers grown at home.  So far we have harvested 8 and there are 3 more to ripen on the plant, making 11 in all.  We will certainly buy Lumos F1 again next year......

In Sainsbury's peppers cost 65p each ie £7.15 worth of fresh, crisp, tasty peppers.....

Similarly, we have had 19 cucumbers off our one plant and there is one more to come, so 20 in total @ 69p each = £13.80

We will definitely buy Passandra again next year !

We are also harvesting:

The last French beans

Runner beans

Carrots

Onions

Beetroot

Radish

Raspberries galore

Bramley apples

Dessert apples

Butternut squash

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Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Longing for Autumn.....

 Oh my gosh, it's far too hot for us right now.  I can't believe that we're having a fourth ! heat wave.  Poor sleep and lack of exercise, because it's far too hot to go out, is taking it's toll.  We feel sluggish, have no appetite and I'm now at the stage where I long for Autumn 😟 There is no sign of the heat wave breaking yet and it will be hot here right through the coming weekend. Help!

And now we are officially in a drought situation in the UK.  I'm trying to conserve water and using grey water for the garden and yet I am still hearing people watering their gardens with a hosepipe.  We have a dip tank at the allotment so our veg are still getting a drink, thanks to Graham venturing out, brave soul, but our grass is just straw.  Gray is at the allotment now doing some repairs to the shed.  It was third hand when it was given to us and is now starting to fall apart.  There is no way that we can afford a new one so it will be repaired until it literally falls down.  I'm trying to tackle the ironing.  I have the fan at my feet and an iced drink to hand but I've had to take a break and write this post before I melt clean away !

Here's a cooling photo for all those feeling the heat....sigh.....

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The post has just this minute arrived.  I have 2 letters; one reminding me to renew my Road Tax @ £195 for the year, one reminding me to renew my driving licence which I hope is free.  It's now decision time about whether or not to sell my car.  I will still need to renew my driving licence if I can because I don't have a passport and it can be used for ID purposes.

I need to do some sums and decide if it's worth keeping.  I'll let you know.....

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Thanks for popping in. Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Good News, Not so Good & Brilliant News!

photo borrowed from Google

The good news is that I dropped another batch of cards off at the Hospice shop, bringing the total to a satisfying 200 since the end of March this year.  There were just 4 left in the basket again.  As long as they keep selling, I'll keep on making them 😊

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Not so good news?  Son-in-Law has Covid again.  This is the third time 😕

Unfortunately, they are due to go on holiday in about a week's time and, if he passes it on to the family, then the holiday is in question.  Meanwhile he is being isolated in the bedroom and working from home.  We dare not visit.  It's a nasty strain with a razor-sore throat and cough.  

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The brilliant news is that our Grandson has a new job!  He's been looking for a while and finally found one that he really liked the sound of.  The employer was much nicer and gave him a test weld to do.  They were really pleased with the quality of his work and have actually waited for him to finish his year's apprenticeship with the other company.  He now has a proper contract and, on his first day, was given a full-face mask to wear when grinding, and proper PPE.  Fingers crossed that he'll be safer there 🤞They will also be paying him more money.

We are beyond relieved 😌

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Thanks so much for popping in.  Stay safe wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗 

Demise of the Sunflowers, Bloomin' Floris.....

 We fully intended to go out somewhere on Tuesday for a treat day, but the night before had been so windy that it had snapped the head off the biggest sunflower 😭 

 When we got up next morning a second sunflower had bitten the dust too so we spent the morning in the garden, clearing up the debris.  We tidied pots and trimmed plants, giving everything that needed it a good haircut.  It all looks much fresher now and should, hopefully, give us more colour for a few more weeks into Autumn.  Even the hanging basket has new buds on the Geraniums 👍

Lunch was a quick sandwich and tea (or dinner depending on what you call your evening meal) was cheese and leek omelettes with a big salad, utilising home grown tomatoes and yellow peppers 😜 It was absolutely delicious 😋 

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Adventures will have to wait....

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe wherever you happen to be, 

Angie 💓