Hubby had intended to surprise me and take me to Batsford Arboretum yesterday afternoon but unfortunately his conference call took longer than intended and when we arrived it was damp, cold and getting dark. It was too late for a nice long walk around the woods, however it was not too late for a quick look in at the Cotswold Falconry Centre. My photography is not very good and I think this must simply be because I was feeling so cold.

I love this, a Bengal Eagle Owl with rather fluffy britches.

A pair of Tawny Owls, these are my favourite Owls because of their hauntingly beautiful calls.

A Snowy Owl, who seemed quite comedic.

A barn Owl.

A Great Grey Owl.

When my boys were very young and I walked them past a sweet shop twice a day to and from school, the phrase, “No darling, Friday is sweetie day” came from my lips several times a week. This plan had two effects, firstly, they learnt the days of the week and which order they fell in extremely quickly and secondly, soon after learning the days of the week, they stopped nagging.

I don’t see why I shouldn’t resurrect Friday as sweetie day for me. Its seems like a plan and a good one at that.

I heard a whisper about a special treat that some sock knitters had become just a little bit giddy about. (although I am probably in reality one of the last to know about this). So I had a little bit of a slow trawl around the Internet and found what I was looking for.

We do like pink packages, with Socktopus written on them, don’t we girls?

This is Malabrigo sock wool, which is in a superwash merino. (which to Mandycharlie is of extreme importance after hubby shrunk one of her hand knitted socks) There are so many gorgeous colours to choose from I had real difficulty (life is so tough!!) choosing which to have but eventually settled on Persia and Velvet Grapes. They are as scrumptious as they look.

And then I thought, I’ve got to fill this blog post up with something else, two piccies, one of a package, a very nice package, but still a package and the other of two skeins of wool is not really making much of an effort.

I am taking part in (and I’ll get this the wrong way around) NaNoBloMo, for the first time, which means to the uninitiated that you blog every day in the month of November. Its quite, not in a child birth way, but quite draining. I’m not the greatest of writers or the greatest of wits, I have no fundamental knowledge of the arts in any form or any great political stance and mostly the things I know are what I have struggled to learn without tuition (apart from the use of books and the Internet) for myself. I think, although I could be wrong that my blog is more of a gentle chatter that is accessible. So if I struggle over the next few weeks, and there are just one or two posts too many about food or the plot, please forgive me. I am trying to make this month varied and interesting, but I can see that I will probably fail at that.

As I was sorting through my stash I came across these (along with some other treasures) that I haven’t blogged about. They are Wildflower Socks by f. pea knit on 2.25 mm needles. I altered the pattern just slightly and knit it smooth under the foot. Son no.2 bought me this yarn, last year he asked me what I would like for Christmas and I pitifully cried that I would like some Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock in Gold Hill and that I couldn’t find any (in that particular colourway) in this country. So I found some in America and had it flown over, not very green, but very necessary and son no.2 was most pleased that he had bought something that his mum loved and adored.

And although I should be knitting lots of Christmas socks, I have taken time off recently to knit dk socks for me! I love the way these have knitted up, they are nice and thick and quite dense, they are 56 stitch,56 row by Nancy McGlynn. using Country 2529 Limbo Schoeller & Stahl on 3mm needles. I always put two needles together when casting on to make sure the cast on isn’t too tight and I’ve also given them a longer length in the foot than I need, so that I can fit another pair of socks underneath.

Having missed a couple of weeks of our stained glass window course, for one reason or another, we finally got there last night. Hubby was already ahead of me, as I seemed to spend longer than he did on finalizing my design. I don’t know why really, because his and my design were essentially copied from patterns, we just made a few changed to make things slightly easier for us as beginners. Our teacher likes hubby’s design, but keeps frowning at mine, I think she thinks its a little complicated for a first effort. “Oh well, never do anything by halfs” that’s what I say. Although now I have started to cut the glass she seems to have lightened up a little.

Last night was the first time I had cut my pretty, (aka quite expensive) glass and I was quite nervous. Piece no. 25 took three attempts. Not because I was inaccurate, but because of the nature of the glass with its rippled effect, it took the break the wrong way. I was running out of that type of glass when I finally got it right.

I know there is somebody in particular who will laugh out loud and probably clap her hands together in glee when she sees hubby’s design.

Its certainly tickled our teacher and other members of the group.

I wonder what the allotment holders will say when it becomes part of the greenhouse!

Some time ago I signed a petition asking for the withdrawal of Aminopyralid. I received an email yesterday pointing me to this. The Government’s response.

It will take years to get rid of the muck that is already contaminated, current thinking is that contaminated manure will take four years to break down and become safe to use. There will be gardeners up and down the country cursing the company that released this product and the government that authorised it for a very long time. We, as in allotment holders are crossing our fingers every time we order muck. I put off ordering muck last year when the news of this broke, my ground is desperate for a load of muck this year so I have ordered, as carefully as I can. Even when you buy muck that has come from horses/cows that have eaten organically and been ranged on fields that have never been treated with Aminopyralid, there have been instances where a farmer has had to buy in straw for bedding for his livestock and this has been treated, therefore contaminating the muck.

Even if every farmer has full knowledge and understanding that this product has been withdrawn from use and this in itself is doubtful, how many, bearing in mind we are all, even farmers, on a budget, will just use up that last full container, rather than buying a different product, which would then mean that it is still being used up next year.

The good news is that the government listened and they reacted and for that we have to be grateful.

My grandparents had several fruit trees in there garden, three of which were apples. I think there may have been four apple trees when I was very young, but one was chopped down. So come late autumn, even with my Nan giving bagfulls of apples away there was still much to do and the smell of apples being processed for the freezer was an almost daily event. When my Nan wasn’t preparing apples she was making plum jam or marrow chutney or salting beans or tying up onions and sometimes she would make a bakewell tart which was really nice.

Just the smell of the apples being tumbled into the sink for a wash immediately transported me back to my Nan’s kitchen.

Nice memories of learning how to sew on her ancient Singer, whilst awash with the smell of apples cooking.

I’m pleased with the way the tomatoes have ripened. I was wondering whether they would rot before they ripened and some of them have, but mostly they have ripened well. We still have a dozen tomatoes left to ripen, which is okay, as I would have been disappointed to have been left with a couple of trays of green tomatoes. I know this means that I could have made chutney, but I’m not in a chutney making mood and you really do need to be in that mindset, otherwise it just becomes one big job that by the time you have managed to get to the end, you feel quite vindictive towards it. I am sure that food is meant to be made with love, not the evil imaginings of a forty something woman trapped in the kitchen for the afternoon.

As we bought some hot smoked salmon nicely reduced at Ikea yesterday, (still in date for a month) I’ve made hot smoked salmon fishcakes with horseradish for supper. Or should I say We have made fishcakes for supper, son no.2 and I. I think my boy did really well at shaping these for me. I try on a daily basis to include at least one of my sons in the cooking process. From this they have learnt and can knock up a reasonable chilli con carne or a spaghetti bolognese, fajitas also feature quite strongly on the things they can cook. They’ve been making pancakes since they were eight..

Look good don’t they?

You might not have seen this technique before. My nan taught me this technique. She used to make two (industrial sized) trays of fishcakes three times a week until she was in her late seventies for probably the oldest fish and chip shop in Kenilworth. They sold, as they say, like hot cakes. They were floured and battered and sold as requested. But at home, you don’t want to be messing around with deep fat frying, well not in the days before thermostatically controlled chip pans and if you have a large family, its nice to sit down to eat together.

So her method, was to chill the ingredients before shaping, shape them and then fry them gently without having floured them. You fry them until they form a nice crust, you do not at this stage move them around in the pan, always using fresh oil for each batch. When they have fried on both sides, place them in a lightly oiled (so they don’t stick) baking pan and bake them off in a moderate oven, about 170 C for 25 to 30 mins and serve.

Hubby wandered up to the plot this morning to deliver some chicken poo to the compost bins and whilst there had a look around at my prize brussel sprouts.   As you may remember we have, as have all of the allotment holders on this site, been inundated with whitefly.  I tried my Marigold weapons, which had limited success, but they did look pretty, we have sprayed up to the maximum we can of what is currently licensed for use by people such as myself.  When you walk past the brussels and give them a little shake a huge cloud of white fly appears before they quickly settle back onto the plants. 

I was reading Knitted Bears blog at some silly time this morning and she informs me that some people are blogging everyday in November. Which sounds like fun, in a round about way, although it may be on of those fun things that soon becomes something not so fun. Time will tell.

So lets pretend this is yesterdays post and I’ll post something later about today.

Do you remember the chap who promised me apples. Well yesterday he came good.

So I have an awful lot of apple peeling to do today! And while I’m doing this I might as well prepare some tomatoes that have ripened for the freezer.

No, October!

As I post this it is getting dark and still snowing heavily.

Yesterday I nipped up to the plot to gather some vegetables for lunch. The first of the leeks, two varieties, I picked the largest of each. I have to say, rather smugly, that my leeks are the largest, by quite a big difference, on the plots that I walk past. It is early for leeks, but as I love them so, I start them off in spring, then prick them out and put them back into another seed tray (I never have enough room for a seed bed!) so that they are standing individually, water them assiduously in the summer of spring and then wait, with bated breath, whilst the onions who are occupying the space for the leeks to come to maturity. There was a point that I thought I had over egged the pudding and the leeks were looking quite sad for a couple of weeks and I thought they might die! Which would have been quite dreadful, but 96 leeks out of 96 leeks have survived.

I dug out some parsnips, these are Tender and True, they are rather nice if a little small. I haven’t cropped any of the other two varieties yet as I was working on the principle that these had the most foliage on them when I started to dig them out, so I’ve just followed that row. I have about a third of a row left of these before I start on the others.

Remember the dustbin potatoes, well these are the last lot. They are Pink Fir Apple, a salad variety which according to the books taste quite nutty, we haven’t tried them yet. Yesterdays lunch was roast pork, so they would not have worked, but today we have cold pork so these will work quite well, I’ll let you know. But the real beauty of these are that they were swapsies , of five seed potatoes given to me by my next door allotment holder, for five of Red Duke of York, I must ask her what she thought of those.

The brussels, well these are Bedford Fillbasket, which are an old variety. They seem to blow before they are formed, so I picked the best of what we have. I also picked some F1’s a mixture of Cascade and Wellington, it was interesting. The F1’s have the flavour and texture, but in the Bedfords defence we have not had a hard frost yet, so in the interest of fairness and along with that an awful lot of the old boys still grow Bedfords on the plot, I will reserve judgement until later in the year.

Today I gathered the last of the tomatoes. I could have done with a small child today. As I was picking these, a lovely memory came back to me, how my Grandad never used to let any of his grandchildren into his greenhouse until the autumn, and then, we were allowed to pick and eat any of the tiny red tomatoes that were left on the plants. We used to beg all summer, “can we have a tomato?”, the answer was always ‘No, they are for your Grandma”.. I think I may well have been the most persistent of the group, as my love for tomatoes is well known. And then at some stage at the end of summer, he would let us in, and we would like locusts, clear the plants.

After much work, I have an empty greenhouse. The glass still needs cleaning but it is empty.

You might have guessed it would not remain empty for long.

Salads for winter. The rocket is already sprouting.

A slight experiment, these are some winter cabbages/calabrese, that really should have gone in months ago. Actually I had fully formed plants of these varieties and no room on my plot so I gave them away. I doubt they will form hearts, but they will have nice leaves which will be a nice addition to our meals come the point in the year that nothing really grows.

Along with some chives and some basil, which will be taken home when the frosts become severe.

Another experiment, I’m trying to force some carrots and radishes along with preserving a root of mint, that will continue to grow in the greenhouse.

Is it a Kite or a Kestrel? I have no idea. Yesterday I saw this bird from a distance working the fields, it was beautiful. Today, for less than a few minutes it worked our plots, the closest it came was two rows away and I managed to get this wonderful photograph.

Then homeward bound, a rainbow,

and just before I left the plots, a little robin red breast, who I heard before I saw, he does look like a well kept lively chap doesn’t he.