The Last of the Crops

It's getting quite cold at night now so I was surprised that the cucumbers are still surviving

in the greenhouse.  Not only surviving, but producing cucumbers.   I decided to pick the best of them before they spoil;  the one on the left here....

....and the one on the right below.....

I can't bear to pull up the plant and dispose of it yet, so I'll wait and see if the other cucumbers mature or die off first.  So far we have had 22 off one plant.

The last couple of peppers are still green but, similarly, I  don't want them to spoil and have snipped them off.   They won't be as sweet but are still edible.  We have harvested 12 sweet yellow peppers off one plant.....

 It always seems sad 😔 when the last of the crop is finished don't you think?  At the allotment on Thursday we pulled the last of the carrots from a raised bed.  They have been washed, dried, and should last the week for meals.  We have one more bed of carrots remaining then they will be gone too 😔

Our sprouts have totally failed to produce at all and have gone on the compost heap.  It looks like there will only be leeks now, that's assuming they actually take off!

Do you grow anything through the winter months?

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

Angie 💗

PS:  forgot to mention that we have our covid boosters booked for Saturday morning 😳

Aaarrgh !

Fig Variety and Sneaky Behaviour!

After sharing my figgy news I thought I'd check on the variety shown on the plant label.  The variety is Lucky Berry and is on a Verve label.  The price is still on the label too: £20, and  I think it's been in the pot since 2023.  Gray decided not to put it in the ground as it likes to have it's roots contained, and we don't want it to grow too big anyway in our small garden space.  I hope you can track one down if you fancy one of your own!

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On the door camera this morning there is footage of Moaning Myrtle next door putting something in our grey rubbish bin at 4.30 am this morning.  His own bin has not been put out for collection so I went to check on what he's added to ours.  It was an almost full plastic punnet of rotting grapes and a bunch of small, perfectly edible bananas 😒

I had to retrieve the plastic punnet to put into the recycling instead of the rubbish and  I thought about retrieving the bananas too but couldn't face them.  What a waste.  No wonder our planet is covered in plastic waste when so many ( relatively young too) people just can't be bothered.  Myrtle obviously doesn't realise we have a camera because we've seen him wandering the streets under cover of darkness, checking out other neighbour's homes 👀

We have our eye on you, Myrtle !😂

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Today we have errands to run, including taking another batch of cards to the Hospice shop, and leeks need to be popped into the raised bed at the allotment.  Might pull some carrots for our evening meal too...🤔

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

Angie 💗

Home Grown Figs & September Expenses

 We have had some lovely sunny days over the last week.  Yes, it's been cold at night as well as first thing in the morning but, once the mist has dissipated, the sun has shone beautifully.  I knew that we had some small figs on the tree but didn't really expect them to ripen .....

..... so I was pleasantly surprised to find these last Saturday..... 

😊

I cut them in half lengthways, drizzled them lightly with golden syrup ( I had no runny honey) and baked them in the oven for a few minutes as the oven was on to cook lunch anyway.  Served with a scoop of ice cream they were absolutely delicious.  I didn't realise that you can eat the skin but it was so tender after baking that eating it wasn't an issue!

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A week after my blood test my arm is still bruised.....

Doesn't it take an age to heal as you get older? 😕

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As we have had such an expensive month with special birthdays and such, we didn't have a September treat so I'm hoping we can have an October one before the bad weather really sets in.  I'm not sure what we can do.  Maybe Dudley Zoo or Severn Valley Railway?

We have the Swindon Gardening Club meeting this Friday (£5.50 each) plus the Gardeners' Guild meeting next Tuesday (£3.00 each) so need to watch our spending this month too.

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Right now I'm waiting for the heating engineer to come and service the boiler.  I think we need inhibitor in the system too so I'm not sure how much it will all cost.  The service alone is around £80 👀 I'll let you know how much it finally comes to.

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

Angie 💗

What a Blunder, What a Week.....

 I just haven't been able to settle for worrying about things and am not sleeping well at all.  The icing on the cake came last week when I was searching the NHS App for my test results and I came across a hospital appointment for the end of this month which I knew nothing about.  It was with the eye clinic. What ??? Oh...I thought maybe for my dizziness ?

Just to be on the safe side, I rang the surgery to ask who referred me and was told SpecSavers of Wolverhampton had done it.  Well, I have never in my life been to them for eye tests! The receptionist at the surgery was as flumaxed as I was and asked me to leave it with her to investigate.  The next day I rang again because I don't want it on my NHS record that I just couldn't be bothered to turn up for a hospital appointment 😠 To cut a long story short....there is another patient with the name Angela Green at our surgery and we got mixed up. Now that is scary. The surgery manager rang me back to apologise and admitted that the mistake was theirs.  Again, I requested that they cancel the appointment on my behalf and she promised it would be done.  The appointment is still showing on my App.......

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After a reasonable night's sleep on Friday ( 5 hours for once),  I decided to try to relax by crafting some more cards for the Hospice on Saturday morning.  It actually worked well and I managed another 14 cards 😊 

A sample here:

I dropped them off at the shop on Tuesday.  Again, there were just 4 left in the basket so a timely delivery!  The manageress is keeping my Christmas cards in the office until Halloween has passed before displaying them for sale, so I have plenty of time to make more.....

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

Angie 💗

What an Excellent Idea!

It has been a horrible week of family worries and not feeling 100% well, so when we went for a walk at the local park, we popped into the coffee shop to treat ourselves to a hot drink.  They have recently created this lovely reading area with a free book exchange set up. When we visited there were very few people around, as the kids are now back at school, and it was so quiet and peaceful.....

I took 2 books to donate and found this one for me....

 

I saw the film based on the first book ages ago and enjoyed it, and am looking forward to reading this one.

Then, when we did a bit of shopping in Sainsburys, I saw this in the sale....

It was half price at just £2.50 and I fell under it's spell 😉 There is even a bit of paper string to save and use for my crafting !

I LOVE a good notebook, don't you? 

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

Angie 💗

Preparations for the 'C' Word ....

 On Monday we had a few errands to run in the next village so I took the opportunity to drop another batch of cards into the Hospice shop.  The first batch of 15 Christmas cards was donated, as well as another 10 birthday ones. This brings the total up to 272 since March this year. A peek at the Christmas contribution below:

There were just 2 cards left in the basket again (both of them anniversary cards so a bit niche)  so I need to get a wriggle on ! I've made another 3 small sales on eBay recently netting £20.33 so I'm spending the money on more supplies to keep me crafting.  The adhesives are quite pricey, especially the glue tape runners which I find really useful to stick the blank inserts inside the cards neatly, and the cello bags to protect the finished card have almost doubled in price this year.  I'm spending just under £10 on 250 bags this time as it makes them a little cheaper.  Luckily, I still have a good supply of gold, silver, red and green mirri card and can die cut my own Christmas shapes.  It takes time to do but costs pennies and keeps the base costs down.

Have you started Christmas preparations yet?  Gift buying? Planning?

Our Daughter started a new job three months ago and she's been told to expect the bonus of a turkey !  It will be a tremendous help to her and we are usually invited to lunch on the big day and don't mind sampling it 😉

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Anyway, thanks so much for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie  💗

What a Lovely Day! Successful? or Not?

 We had a lovely day on Saturday at the village fair.  Apart from one heavy downpour in the early afternoon,  the weather was kind to us, even the sun came out to take a peep.

There were loads of entries in the apples section.  Everyone had done really well with their crops so Gray didn't get placed.

I was amazed and delighted to get second place for my photograph of 'Trees' as there were a couple of dozen entries.....

I got third place for my card in  'Greetings Card....nor Christmas'......

....as well as Highly Commended and compliments on my Christmas cards....

I didn't win any money as only the first prize wins £2, but it really made my day 😊

I treated Gray to a coffee and cupcake to commiserate his lack of a win.  The coffee was only 50p and homemade cupcakes £1.50 so it only cost £4 in total.  A bargain in my view 👍

The fair was very well attended and the entries of an extremely high standard...

At the end of the fair, a lot of the produce and cakes were auctioned off.  I got a jar of citrus marmalade for £2 and Gray bought a bag of potatoes, 3 huge leeks and some celery for £2. We haven't grown either leeks or celery this year so they will be sliced up and frozen for soups and stews.  It was decidedly colder yesterday (Sunday) and yummy soup weather isn't far away.  All in all a wonderful, cheap day out which lifted the spirits before the onslaught of Winter 😊

Do you have Autumn fairs in your area?

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Thanks so much for all your comments on my last post.  I have been so busy that I haven't had time to respond. Please bear with me.

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

Angie 💗