I'm back............

............hopefully got the problems sorted, so will be back tomorrow and get back to normal. :)

Computer problems..................................

Sorry for my absence here and at my other blogs; our computer seems to have caught itelf a virus :( EJ says he can fix it, but it might take a day or two. Just thought I'd let you all know, and hopefully I'll be back very soon.

MrsL

xx

Those vernal seasons of the year....................

Lovely - another new month for me to get on with! It was the most beautiful day ehre yesterday - warm and sunny, no wind, so I spent a lot of time out in the garden, aided and abetted by MrL, who was under my strict supervision, but he needs to be in my garden............He dug out the biggest part of the cardoon (I saved a couple of chunks for replanting, he's not getting away with that, you know LOL), and we moved the asparagus into two new raised beds - teh size of teh roootballs on them were amazing; I need to get out and tuck them up with a good mulch of goat manure this morning. Teh resulting space is going to be for more fruit trees - a mini orchard, although we have fruit trees in lots of other places too, I now have space for a cherry, greengage and mulberry. The cherry is being re-located from the front garden wehre it's enver been happy, and I need to go off and order the others today. I also did some tidying up, got the sweetpeas out into the coldframe to harden off and tidied around in the wooden greenhouse. Got the blackcurrants mulched with manure too. There's still a lot to do, but we made a good start on it. Daffodils well on their way now, crocuses out, Imperial fritillaries making their way skyward ( ooh, the smell.............yuck(: - the smell liek foxes), oxlips out, stirring amongs the perennials and lots of buds forming on trees.Woke up to a frosty start this morning, but I think of it as an early spring frost, because for me, the winter turned last week, and it's now spring. :) I need to get the tomatoes in today - teh first of the chillies are showing now, but it's been a bit cold, even indoors for things really. Sown a bit later, they soon catch up.

A traditional saying goes thus: "It's not spring until you can plant your foot on twelve daisies" - not in this house.....................lol

I like this quote from Milton:

"In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth"

"March is the first month of spring. He is Nature's Old Forester, going through the woods and dotting the trees with green, to mark out the spots where the future leaves are to be hung. Teh sun throws a godlen glory over the eastern hills, as the village-clock from the ivy-covered tower tolls six, gilding the hands and teh figures that were scaarcely visible two hours later a few weeks ago. Teh streams now hurry along with a rapid motion, as if they..........were eager to rush along the green meadow-lands, to tell the flowers it's time to awaken"

Chambers Book of Days (1864)

The joys of late winter

Spring is almost here, but the tail end of winter is still with us; frost forecast for some of the country at the weekedn,a nd it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when the sun shines out there!
Although there is n't much fresh green stuff to be had from the garden - parsley, a couple of other herbs, the beginnings of the wild garlic/tri-cornered leek - it's nice to have a fresh tasting salad sometimes to add variety to the table. This is one of my favourites at any time of the year, but especially about now. It's easy and quick to prepare, very juicy with a nice crunch from the nuts and not too expensive.

Carrot and apple salad



Per person: 1 large carrot, one apple, a few pine nut kernels. Grate the carrot and apple into a bowl - I leave the skins on; if not organic, give a good scrub first. Add the oine nuts and mix well. That's it!

Aanother simple joy is the spring flowers that appear - all of them, I love them all. My very favourite, just coming on now, is the Snakeshead fritillary (fritillaria meleagris). When I was at college in Paisley, I spent a lot of time in Glasgow, and became interested in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh - the tearooms, art school and Hill House in Helensborough - I visited them all! I love the stylised patterns and flowing lines, especially the flowers in his art. I used to buy postcards of his work to put up in my college bedroom, and my favourite one then was the snakeshead fritillary study he did - simple, perfect, capturing the essence of this unassuming little flower. If ever there was a flower put on thsi earth with a view to be painted, this is it! I was fascinated by this flower - its square chequerboard pattern, the defined lines between the dark purple and greeny creamy white - surely no such flower could exist in nature, with the straight lines and geometry of the patterned flowerhead? Knowing very very little about gardening at that time, let alone spring bulbs and flowers, I came to teh conclusion that this was a design out of his head, a made up one to fit exactly into his style of work.
many years later, when I got my first garden, we lived in a small village that had its own garden centre. I used to spend a lot of time up there in my lunch hours when I worked in a nearby office. Suddenly, there it was. Growing - in a pot. The fabled (in my mind) snakeshead fritillary. It existed. I could buy it. I could have it in my own garden.I have had a lot of tgardening successes and moments since then, but nothing will ever match the complete thrill I got from finding that little pot of gorgeousness! For one pound and twenty nine pence, I could take that pot home and have it for my very self.
I've grown them ever since, both the chequered ones and the creamy white ones, but they don't do well in my heavy clay soil here, so I tend to put them in pots. I have tried many times from the dry bulbs, but am usually disappointed in the no-show. These bulbs can be quite old and stale, with no life left in them when they reach your potting bench - better to buy a few "in the green" to give them the best chance. I bought a couple of small pots at the weekend, and the first heads are beginning to colour up now; they'll go on the stand outside the kitchen window where I can see them whilst working int he kitchen, then when the flowers are spent, they'll get tucked into a little corner I have in mind to take their chance.

Bargain time!!

Literally! Now, I know this clock would never make the Antiques Roadshow in a zillion years, but I couldn't resist it in the shop at Beaulieu yesterday. Could you? I saw it, pondered on it and went off to think about it. After all, I don't really need a new clock, but.............in the end I came to the conclusion that I would get home and say "I wish I had...............", so, after a long knitting-fuelled think, I went back and bought it. Obviously menat to be, as when the barcode was scanned, it came up as two pounds cheaper than the price tag! LOL.

So, here it is, sitting on my mantelpiece, awaiting complete redecoration of the sitting room to match it!! :)
It is wooden, with a wee door at the back, to access the workings; I need to get a rechargeable battery for it when we're in town next. Because it's quite big, and hollow inside, it has a big loud tick too, which I like to listen to when the house is quiet............

I love it.

A day out...............

Yesterday was EJ's birthday, so we went out for the day; his choice was Beaulieu again, to the car museum there; right up his and MrL's street! There's plenty of other things to see, though, so I was more than happy to tag along. The museum is within the grounds of the Abbey on the estate - so tehre are abbey ruins, the Domus (monks' living quarters). Palace house, Victorian kitchen, wool/weaving buidling ruins, Victorian gardens all to look at. At this time of year, not much int eh gardens themselves - lots of cardoons (did you know you can make bio fuel out of the seeds? Apparently so, but MrL yet to be convinced. I have one *enormous* cardoon in the garden which he hates with a vengeance for some reason. I don;t think it's tidy enough for him LOL), leeks, rhubarb just showing. Beds neatly dug over and compost spread, paths clear, structures up and ready for beans to come. Well - they do have several gardeners I should think, I told MrL, in response to his raised eyebrows whichw ere saying to me "Why doesn't ours look that neat, then?"


They have lovely Big greenhouses too, with venerable vines in; the one in the picture was planted back in 1870, amazing, still giving a good crop of grapes too. There were several lemon trees too, all covered in lemons; I'd love to have a go at one of those, but the cost of a decent size tree is a bit prohibitive at the moment, so I'll have to wait. There is an internationally famous citrus nursery in Dorset, though, so we might have a wander down to that some time and get fired up with a view to home grown lemon curd in the future:)










The lawns under the trees were carpeted in spring flowers - thousands of pale lavender crocuses mainly, the little daffodils still to come. Teh effect of it all was quite ethereal, but no phot would do it justice. One of my favourite bits of planting is in the moat around the Palace House - full of little spring flowers, looks like it is studded with stars.


I spent an hour knitting in the monks' herb garden - nice and peaceful, as in February there aren't too many folk about.


On the way home we stopped at one of my favourite little garden centres; they ahve a lovely shop as well as good plants - I could have spent a fortune in there, but didn;t. Some of Cath Kidston's wares were on sale, but rather pricy; her Washing Line range is very expensive - 5.00 for a bottle of washing up liquid! When you use as much as I do, then it's not a realistic option, is it? I bought a new address book, and a very simple grey metal tealight holder, plus soem spring flowers for the front garden which I hope to get in later.


There and back takes us right through the New Forest - lovely at thsi time of year; roads not busy, ponies strolling around safely, pheasants, cattle, cottages to yearn after............... We also go through the are where we used to live; I'm glad I don;t live in the village any more, though, it doesn't look that good at present, bit sad looking, huge amounts of traffic, new roundabouts, not what it used to be. They say never go back, but we had to go through!





EJ really enjoyed his day, and he's a pleasure to accompany on such visits, unlike a lot of 15 year olds!Looking forward to going back next year again.........................

The ultimate home made pickle this year?

I made this vinegar a long while back, and have just got around to bottling it up; I ended up with 4 wine bottles full, as per the picture. It really is lovely tasting - not the aggressively bitter/sharp taste of most commercial ones. I will be making some more soon.

So - on the cards for this year, the ultimate homeproduced pickled onions I hope. Make vinegar with own honey from hive in garden; grow onions, pickle them with herbs also from garden, in recycled jars. Can't getter better than that!