Broad beans ready for picking

And peas ready to be eaten

Beautiful potato flowers

Preparing for Sunday lunch

It remains a funny year, weatherwise.  After a beautiful weekend the weather has reverted to its usual rain, gloom, chill and wind.  But not everything is suffering.  So far the Under Gardener has picked a little over 6 kilos of gooseberries, 2 kilos of peas and nearly 2 kilos of broad beans.  We have a mountain of rhubarb in the freezer, and rather more red currants than I was expecting.  We also have raspberries in the freezer, although nothing like as many as last year.  Even so, not too bad.  But the poor zucchini, squash, cucumber and pumpkin plants in the garden are seriously struggling.  They are not enjoying the cool temperatures and rain at all.  But the plants on the allotment in the greenhouse are thriving. There might even, soon, be cucumbers ready to pick!

At the risk of tempting fate and inviting calamity upon the tomato plants - so far I think they are not blighted.  I might (finally) plant into bigger pots the few plants left in the potting greenhouse. And the ones in the allotment greenhouses have flowers and even one or two small tomatoes growing on them.  Now all we need is some sunshine to encourage them along.

Mid-July

The Under Gardener has been busy in the garden and on the allotment. He has finally managed to get the grass cut in the garden, and the rain has lifted long enough for him to get in red currants, black currants and some raspberries.  But we are not going to have huge gluts of most fruit this year.  The cherries are all split and are being eaten by the birds before they are ripe enough for humans to eat.  We can't bring them in to ripen indoors because they rot along the splits before they are ripe. Next year we will lop the top branches off and net the trees.  In the meantime - it's quite funny watching magpies, blackbirds and sparrows trying to balance on the branches of the trees, which aren't quite strong enough to support them!!

The greenhouse in the garden. Click on the watering can to reach the full album

Also,  he has planted out the last of the brassica seedlings, which have been being nurtured in the greenhouse. They came from a highly reputable seed and plant company about three weeks ago, in a truly terrible state.  They looked as though they had been packed and then packaged by a particularly dim work experience student. Half of them were broken. The rest were all yellow and limp and sad.  I potted up the not-broken ones and was about to send of a very grumpy email to the plant company when I realised that they had sent considerably more seedlings than I had ordered and that I probably had about as many plants that would survive as I had paid for.  So I didn't.

It therefore came as something of a shock to the Under Gardener when a package arrived yesterday lunchtime from that very same seed and plant company, bearing another 60 seedlings - Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers and cabbages. Where, he asked me, did I intend him to plant them? There is no room at the horticultural inn!  Nothing to do with me.  I didn't order them.  Check the invoice.  So he did - and found not an invoice but a letter of apology from the seed company asking us to accept the replacement plants in place of the previous consignment.  You really can't complain about that - especially since I didn't complain and had in any case already got planted out about the number of plants that I had originally ordered.  So thank you, Thompson & Morgan. We will definitely be back for more.  Next year. Not this!!!!

I have offered some of the seedlings to colleagues who have allotments or kitchen gardens.  And we'll find somewhere to plant the rest.  If we plant them very close together (which we did, accidentally, last year) you get lots of mini-vegetables which are quite fun.

Apart from that, we are keeping an eye out for potato and tomato blight.  The weather is still absolutely ideal for blight. And I have an uneasy suspicion that the remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse at home may have been got - the leaves are turning a funny colour.  I shall keep an eye on them. We have started digging the first/second early potatoes too.  They also are a bit small yet but they are beginnign to look a bit forlorn.
The carrots are coming on though.  As are the herbs, the onions and the garlic.  I might plant up another couple of boxes of carrots at the weekend. I've got loads of seed left and there might be enough time to get a second crop in before the winter.  Plus, of course, boxes of carrots can now be moved into the porch if it snows

I do love Sundays

Home made Yorkshire puddings. Home made mustardy gravy. Home grown carrots.  Everything else I bought. But it was bought fresh. And it all tasted delicious

And then I made these mini fruit pies. I made the pastry with flour, butter and cinnamon. And I made the filling with a bramley apple, a couple of green eating apples (peeled and diced) and a cup of black currants, sweetened with some freshly squeezed orange juice and a teaspoonful of honey.  We had the bigger ones on Sunday and have been eating the little ones at lunchtime during the week. I was really very pleased with them

I've been to London

I don't know if you remember, but twice last year I went to London with Roger for meetings of a very new user group which Roger was asked to establish. It brings together representatives from University libraries and representatives from one of the main purveyors of technical information. The meetings are very interesting and I rather enjoy going to them.

Now, however, Roger has stepped down from the group. And now I am the chair ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?  And the third meeting of the group was on Tuesday.  I have to say that it felt extremely odd to be going to a meeting of this group without Roger.  But his influence lingers on - I took a much earlier train than I really needed to Just In Case!

And it is true that the train I was on was ten minutes late in.  But ten minutes is neither here nor there when you are going all the way to London.  What was slightly more disconcerting was the announcement as the train was pulling into St Pancras that "The King's Cross Underground station is being evacuated because of overcrowding".  I regret to say that this provoked much mirth amongst the passengers in my carriage!!  It seems that a train had broken down in one of the tunnels on the Northern Line and the platforms were getting very crowded.  It was complicated a bit more by the fact that someone was doing practice runs elsewhere on the Underground network for the Olympics.  However, it didn't entirely inconvenience me.  It's true I had intended to use the King's Cross station but if it wasn't available it was hardly a huge problem.  I simply ambled off in the sunshine down Gray's Inn Road, past the place where Freyja is doing work experience this week (hello Freyja!) and on to another Underground station which handily was on the line I needed to be on.  And off I trundled to my meeting, arrive a bit early but not too early.

The meeting went quite well, I think. The lunch they provided was only sandwiches, crisps, fruit and cake - but what sandwiches they were.  And the fruit was cut into pieces and put on kebab sticks.  And the cakes were delicious. It was all good :-)

We finished a bit early so I took myself off to the British Museum for a bit of a potter around.  I was quite surprised by how busy it was, to say that it was 4:00 on a Tuesday afternoon.  And I was extremely surprised not so much by the groups of school children from France or Spain or Italy, but by the number of groups of school children from places like China and other Far Eastern countries.  Seems quite a long way to come to visit a museum!  There was a group of schoolgirls from, I think, China in one of the galleries doing a dance that seemed to be based on Tai Chi moves. They were chanting the music as they did their movements.  It was extremely beautiful.  And then I came out of the museum - to find it raining with considerable determination.  I acquired a startlingly expensive umbrella from the museum shop and wandered through the rain back to St Pancras where Freyja met me after she had finished work .  We had dinner at the station and then I came back to Chesterfield and Freyja went off back to East London.

It was a good day.

Well - it was for me.  Not quite such an exciting day for the poor Builder.  Although - I suppose it was a bit exciting.  He was pottering about, minding his own business, not doing anyone any harm when there was a Big Bang. Lightning hit the road outside.  There was an intense rain shower. There was a mighty clap of thunder.  And the wifi modem died ;-(  Nothing else.  Just the wifi modem.  No internet for The Builder then!  Fortunately the TV and the SKY box were fine so he had things to amuse himself with.  But no internet.  According to the very helpful lady in the electrical store, they had had many people in yesterday saying that their modems had been taken out by lightning.  Nothing else in the house. Just the wifi modem.  Weird.  Anyway, I griddled my lions and rang our internet provider to see how much it would cost to get a new modem through them rather than through the electrical store.  And it seems they are willing to give me a new modem for no money at all.  That suits me just fine.  A new modem is on its way.  I have charged my dongle so we do have internet at home in the meantime.  But it was a tiny tad disconcerting to find that my mobile phone provider had major problems with *its* network yesterday so not only were we on reduced internet at home (only one laptop at a time!) but i was without my mobile phone as well :-S  Fortunately that seems to be better today too.

Oh - and the sun is shining in a bright blue sky.  It's not expected to last very long - but it's nice to see, once in a while :-D

The Great Court in the British Museum

This was obviously once a very beautiful wheel. I think it should be mended!!

A Chinese camel for Lindsey

Some more Chinese camels for Lindsey

Not at the British Museum. Olympic rings viewed from behind at St Pancras Station

Stevia

I had a couple of bananas loitering in the kitchen at the weekend that really needed something useful to do. So I decided to make a banana cake, (very) loosely following this recipe

I am not very fond of cardamom. It's not that I don't like the taste. It's more that I find it remarkably overpowering, so that you can't taste anything but cardamom. And there doesn't seem to be much point in making a banana and choc chip cake if all you can taste is cardamom. So I left it out.  I also reduced the amount of chocolate by half.  And in the interests of fitting into my summer shorts, should the sun ever oblige and shine, I replaced the sugar with 10g of stevia, which I hadn't ever used before. It's a herb based sweetener, which has a very pleasant herby after taste. I quite liked it

The cake itself was absolutely delicious. Lovely and moist. Quite fluffy.  Something of a treat. I shall definitely make it again

I'm not sure that I'll use the stevia again, though.  Which is a bit of a pity because I've got quite a bit left and it's not exactly cheap.

But about half an hour after eating my piece of banana cake I realised that the left side of my mouth had gone a bit numb and my lips were tingling. My eyes were itchy. My throat was scratchy. I felt a wee bit spacy. It was very much the sort of reaction I get when I eat a piece of nut. A very mild allergic reaction to something.  Only I hadn't eaten any nuts (I do actively avoid eating nuts because the reaction I get isn't always, or even often, a mild one!). The only things I had eaten that day were things that I had made myself, from first principles.  And the only new thing I had had was the stevia.

The reaction took a long time to subside ;-S

I decided the following day to try a small piece of the cake and see if it happened again.  And it did, only more quickly this time.  It also proved very difficult to swallow the cake. I decided that maybe I should listen to what my body was saying and not eat any more.

I had had a quick hunt on the internet and see that American comments suggest that people do seem to have allergic reactions to stevia, but that largely they're people who are allergic to other members of the daisy family (I'm not) or to related foods (bananas are among the list - but I've been perfectly ok eating plain bananas ).  There is no suggestion that people who are allergic to tree nuts should avoid eating stevia.  It's all a bit odd.

But I think next time I'll put more banana, no sugar or stevia and perhaps a little bit of honey.

And The Builder was perfectly happy finishing up the very delicious banana cake!!

Wet, Wet, Wet

The Weather pundits had been forecasting rain on Friday for quite some time, so the fact that it was wet came as no great surprise.  It wasn't really even very surprising that it was VeryWetIndeed - enough weather alerts had been issued that we should all have been aware and prepared.

But by heavens it was wet. It rained and rained and rained and rained.  And it wasn't just persistent drizzle.  It RAINED!  Poor old Hebden Bridge was flooded - again. The Don tried hard to escape from its banks in Sheffield.  Meadowhall, which had been quite seriously flooded in 2007, now has flood gates, which it closed. Fortunately The Don didn't flood - but it was quite a close thing.  The Cliffhanger festival in Graves Park was cancelled. The Sharrow Festival was cancelled. Pretty much all the outdoor events in Sheffield over the weekend were cancelled.

The Weather Dogs then turned their attention to the south of England and did their damnedest to wash away Dorset.  The River Cottage Members' Summer Party was cancelled on Saturday evening (it ran on the Friday before the rains came) because all the paths around the site had turned into raging rivers. The Dorset Seafood Festival had to be put back a day.  Back in the Midlands, the F1 people at Silverstone told people who had tickets to the Saturday racing not to come. It was quite significantly wet around England.

Two Anglican bishops, who really should know better, have declared that the floods are a serious rebuke from God who is clearly very angry about proposals that Parliament should legislate in favour of Gay Marriage and that the church should legislate in favour of Women Bishops.  I would refer them back to their bibles, but to be honest I can't be bothered.  In any case,  everyone knows it is the responsibility of the Weather Dogs who obviously heard everyone whinging back in the spring that we haven't had any decent proper rainfall for nearly two years and please could we have some - and obliged.  People should be very careful what they wish for!!

In the meantime, the butter churning activity at Bishops' House was not cancelled on Saturday morning. And The Builder and I managed to make it from Tupton to Norton Lees in Sheffield to take our turn opening the house for the morning.  Around 20 people came in and lots of children went away beaming and clutching pats of butter. We had quite a good morning. We went home via the supermarket. Mostly, on Saturday, it wasn't raining much in Sheffield or Chesterfield.  Just the odd shower.  Like the one we ran into on our way to the dairy for some milk.  We could see it as we drove along.  Just over there.  Looking a bit fierce.  And then we arrived where it was.  And it was like driving into a solid wall of water.  I have never sat in an observation deck behind Niagara Falls.  But if there is such a deck, and if Niagara Falls were in full spate, that is what I imagine it would look like. It was AMAZING!  Fortunately it was also short lived otherwise I could have easily seen Tupton being flooded :-S

The water companies and the Environment Agency have now declared that the drought is over and all water restrictions in England have been lifted.  If you wish to use your hose to water your garden, you now can do (we always could, but that's by the by). I am hopeful that the Weather Dogs will decide that we have had enough rain for the moment and turn it off.  Well, maybe not hopeful. But it would be nice.

Dinner at Cally's place

We went and had dinner at Cally's place last evening. We had lovely roast pork and a lovely chat.  Tired this morning though! (Me, that is - I assume not Cally!)

Oh.  Hello.  You've arrived :-)

Did you bring The Builder?

My chef is inside preparing dinner for us

We are not having rabbit stew

I think we should bring the washing in. It might rain

It's a flower. I believe it's called a poppy

Off we go to meet Mummy. She's on her way back from work

Dinner time!

This is the view from Cally's back door, across over Woodseats and out onto the moors

Much quieter week so far

So after all that excitement the past few days have been quite quiet. It was a very quiet weekend in which we did very little apart from dodge the showers, rush out during the occasional burst of sunshine, inspect the garden and allotment, eat and drink, and watch a bit of television.

We can't do all that much.  I have started buying plane tickets for the Grand World Tour!!  So far I have bought the plane flights to Manchester for the beginning of December, flights from Cairns to Osaka at the beginning of January and then flights from Tokyo to Manchester mid-January.  I do realise that that abandons us in Singapore, whereupon we drop into a black hole only to reappear 4 weeks later in Cairns. But that's the really big tickets now paid for and we are now waiting for other people to make decisions about December - plus I also have a few things I want to think about before booking anything else. And, of course, I have now run out of money!!! So we can't dash about spending money wildly or we'll end up abandoned in Singapore and not be able to get to Cairns, still less Perth and Melbourne!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, it continues to rain. April to June were, I think, the wettest on record in England.  I asked the Magic Eight Ball last evening if it would ever stop raining.  The answer was a resounding "NO!".  Although I would have to admit that it isn't actually raining at this exact moment. In fact, there is a strange light shining outside and the sky is patchworked with a strange blue colour.  But I think it probably won't last.  It's beginning to look tired by the exertion already.

Off to see Tabitha, Gareth and Cally this evening. I believe there will be food and drink and conversation - and an opportunity to see how many times I can bowl Cally over as she runs about avoiding my bowling ball  :-D

Early summer food that is more like autumn food!

On Sunday I slow roasted two tiny, tiny lamb shanks which we had with roast potatoes, a mountain of vegetables, gravy and a red currant and mint jus.  On Monday I made a mince beef, mushroom and vegetable stew which we had with potatoes and more vegetables. On Tuesday I took the left over mince and veg stew and made individual pies which we had with mash and carrots and cabbage.

I will grant you that the vegetables we've been eating have been peas and broad beans and baby carrots and a spring cabbage. We've had the last of the English asparagus and the last of the new Jersey potatoes.  I've made a potato, celery and cucumber salad to go with the mushroom, onion and cheese flan we've been having for lunches this week.  There are hints and blandishments and subtle clues that suggest this should be summer. But they are fleeting and ephemeral. The only thing that says that it's summer is that the leaves on the trees are a vivid green and the days are long and the nights are short.

But the weather is autumnal in look and feel.  And so the main food is reminiscent of autumn.  I even made coffee and cinnamon scrolls on Sunday!

We managed at the weekend to dodge the rain, in the end, to get out into the garden and to plant out 12 Brussels sprouts plants, 12 sprouting broccoli plants and 4 cauliflower plants in bed #4.  The Undergardener has made a frame with a fine net over it to protect the plants from the pigeons and from the butterflies and catterpillars.  So far they seem to be doing OK.  There are loads more brassica plants to plant out and the Undergardener has bought more wood and netting to make new frames.  Alas - everytime he goes out to try to assemble the frames, the rain comes back and he has to beat a hasty retreat inside!

We also managed to get up to the allotment and planted in the greenhouses some more tomato plants and some melon and a watermelon and a pumpkin plant. So far they seem to be doing OK.  The cucumber plants that we put in a few weeks ago now have tiny, tiny cucumbers on them.  I hope they will grow into full-sized cucumbers :-)  There were some left over melon, watermelon and pumpkin plants which wouldn't fit in the greenhouses, so I've planted them in the garden beds with the other cucurbits in bed #3.  Plus two sweet melon plants in with the sweet corn in bed #1. 

There are also some tomato plants left over but I'm not sure what to do with them. The continual rain coupled with a fair degree of humidity means the conditions for blight are absolutely ideal.  The tumbling tomatoes have already been afflicted and have had to be thrown away.  The first early potatoes are struggling with wireworm but also, we think, possibly with blight. It seems inevitable that if I put the tomato plants in the garden, they will succumb too.    The potatoes and tomatoes on the allotment so far seem unaffected. But there's no more room for tomatoes on the allotment. I am tempted to put them in pots and have them on the driveway and see what happens - but first we need to get more potting mix.

I am happy to report, however, that it's not just us that are having a funny year.  Colleagues at work and on various blogs are also reporting that their seeds didn't germinate, or they did but the seedlings died, or that the seedlings survived and then just died or failed to thrive once they'd been planted out.  Apart from rhubarb (which is absolutely relishing the non-stop rain) and the gooseberries (one of the new plants on the allotment yielded 1.3kg of gooseberries at the weekend and there are more to come from the other allotment plant and the established plants in the garden) - apart from them, nothing is very much enjoying the weather.

Even the chickens aren't thriving.  Egg production has dropped to one every two or three days at most.  This is probably partly because the chooks are now 2 years old and hybrids aren't designed to lay much beyond that. Partly it's because one of them is moulting.  One of them hasn't laid anyway for 12 months.  And the one who is moulting looked for all the world as though she was going to decide to lie down and die on Sunday.  She didn't - but I'm sure she was contemplating it!!

Oh well.  Maybe we'll do OK for winter cabbages .  And the peas and broad beans, although not flourishing, at least are imminently about to produce peas and broad beans!