Our runner beans are doing well, taken late yesterday evening, which is why the picture is so dark.

Courgettes, Jemma a yellow variety, personally I can’t wait until they are big enough to eat. We are looking after them well.

so much to see.

So… just for a few weeks I will try and update my blog with a piccie from the plot every day! (or nearly every day). with just a few words about that particular photo.

I am still knitting and am finishing lots of little projects and I promise to update all of those soon.

Today, Spring onions..

Last year I tried to grow spring onions several times. I was hopeless, if any did germinate they were swamped by the weeds or damaged by me with a hoe and no matter how many times I tried to hand weed and I did try it was practically impossible to judge which were tiny spring onion plants and which were blades of grass.

So, this year, I thought I would try to grow them in a tray. One tray was very successful, the other tray was placed lower down on the outside rack and I believe a local rabbit or rabbits took a fancy to them as they were growing well and then were nibbled to death. Unless we have some very fat and flavoursome escargot hiding somewhere!

Although the weeds are/were sky high after all of the rain and a weekend not working on the allotment, it was good to get back to it on Sunday.

Our tomatoes are coming along well, lets hope they start to ripen soon. The marigolds are doing an excellent job standing guard against white fly in the greenhouse.

The marigolds on duty in the cabbage fields. Fingers crossed, no white fly as yet.

We have picked about 8lb of peas podded weight, with lots to come. I actually started another four trays yesterday, it will be touch and go to see if they have enough time to fully form, but I always hope for an Indian summer. Hubby’s picked at least 10lb of his favourite fruit in all the world, raspberries. (he ate three bowls full of raspberries and ice cream After a Sunday lunch, oink, oink!)

The slightly strange, paddling its own canoe, blackcurrant bush had some fruit ready to pick. This is the easiest way to pick blackcurrants. There is a draw back, you do have to own the bush to start with. I will do a proper job of pruning when its lost some of its leaves. Blackcurrants will only fruit on young canes, anything over three years needs to go.

As we had a very good piece of Aberdeen Angus waiting in the fridge to cook, I thought it was an appropriate time to crack open a dustbin of potatoes. It is a little early and I was a little apprehensive, I was also getting moaned at about how early it was, although the moaning stopped when He heard that potato blight had been spotted up at the allotments. Better to eat them, than let the blight get ’em. I don’t really want to spray against blight. I know the potatoes that I eat for most of the year will most probably have been sprayed for lots of things, but for me anyway, it goes against the grain to use chemicals up at the plot. (although slug pellets are an exception!)


There was one dustbin containing potato plants that had been heavily beaten about by the wind. The plants looked rather sorry for themselves and as the labels I had carefully written out had long since been lost we thought this was the best one to crack open. Sadly it was the King Edwards which are a late main crop.

There were lots and lots of small delicious looking potatoes. The tiny, tiny ones I will make into potato salad. I think about four to five pound in weight.

I then picked very small carrots and a Greyhound cabbage. An old boy we chat to gave us a lovely piece of horseradish which we thanked him with a couple of pounds of peas. I picked some mint, (I am a heathen I like mint sauce with all roast dinners, regardless of type of meat) There was a nearly blown, quite tiny cauliflower. (the only one that has survived, I think it is heading for the chickens) then I picked some Japanese onions.

And then I picked more raspberries, Sunday lunch is shaping up very nicely by this point.

Hubby put some more pea plants in the ground for me and some celery plants which my dad has requested. I did a bit of pottering and watering and potting things on.

Then homeward bound.

Son no.1 was home with his girlfriend. I shall call her L. Somewhere along the line and I’m not quite sure how, I invited her for Sunday lunch, (although it was gone 7 p.m. by this point) which she happily accepted. Then I had a full blown panic attack, (said in jovial terms) as it hit me, that it was the first Ever, entertain a girlfriend type meal. I think I went into a bit of a panic. It was a lovely dinner, roast beef, new potatoes, roast onions, peas, carrots, cabbage, mint sauce and horseradish sauce enlivened with some fresh root and some lovely gravy. Followed by raspberries and ice cream.

Was L impressed, I think she enjoyed it, was she stunned by the freshness and taste of my ingredients. She was not, (although she said she really liked the potatoes) as her father has an allotment and he has Two Plots, but at least she wasn’t fazed when son no.1 found some extra protein in his raspberries (a tiny, tiny insect, you could barely see it!) and she carried on eating hers. Unlike my two wimpy sons who stopped eating, which is Why, hubby ended up with three bowls of raspberries and ice cream. ‘wink’

At long last I can reveal our wonderful news. After two years of searching, often until long into the night, hundreds of mailshots, cold calling, many many interviews, psychometric tests, aptitude tests, understanding of mechanics type tests, working as a team type tests, and other types of tests I have long since forgotten. Our beautiful son (son no.1) has at long last secured an apprenticeship as a car technician with BMW.

🙂

I’ve had a wonderful day, I may never wash my right hand again. After a false start and not managing to achieve a photo that was blog worthy I repositioned myself, with the aid of a steward who verbally gave me the Royal timetable at The Royal Show. (thanks mate!)

This is the photo that I shall always treasure the most, within seconds of this photograph being taken Camilla shook my hand. Okay, well I did call her name,(as two other people had before me) did a semi almost stagger over yourself type curtsy and she had at that point just walked past me, but she came back and shook my hand. (and yes, because teenage sons have asked, I Was wearing the wig). I gave her the hugest grin possible with a “Oh My God” exclamation as she headed off. I mean, Me.. little old me (okay not so much of the little) shaking Camilla’s hand. Wow! There were only three of us that shook her hand (at this point) so I felt very, very honoured.

A fellow hand shaker and I exchanged information, she found Camilla’s hand cold, I just found it very, very soft and thought to myself just at that split second, that I really should start using moisteriser. Sand papery hands from digging an allotment are never good really, but its something you get used to. ‘grin’

Camilla in a fit of the giggles.

Some piccies of Charles, I like the one with all of his badges which are the organisations he supports.



A rather sprightly Prince Charles.

Camilla in another fit of the giggles.

Camilla, posing for me, I was the nearest camera, a sneaky position in the Members of RASE area meant I was actually infront of security! Me!

Starting to head home after a quick walk about with the crowds.

Heading home.

Byyeeeee… me merrily waving and Camilla waved to me.

It has recently been announced that Charles and Camilla will be at The Royal Show on Friday.

Wow!

We often only get ‘minor’ royals.

The Duke of Gloucester will be present on Thursday.

Mandy trundles off to put camera battery on charge…

Although we have the Royal Show this week, we will be squeezing this in!

The boys and I think it looks fab. (A family visit to the cinema beckons, which will be very strange event!, its not often our tastes coincide)

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Two things,

Firstly Dad’s cardiologist has given him the thumbs up to have his replacement knee operation in a couple of weeks. That was such a huge relief.

And..

I can’t talk about the other thing 😦 (yet!)

But it is Excellent, Excellent News.

I haven’t played very much up at the plot recently, events and the weather and lets face it a high dose of lethargy have all played there part. Hubby has been faithfully watering our tomatoes, its what I like most about being a couple, when one dips a little for whatever reason, hopefully the other takes up the slack.

Son no.1 had very disappointing news earlier in the week, he received a rejection letter from a company who he had dearly hoped to have secured an apprenticeship with. There were 11 candidates, 2 places. To be honest, hubby and I are at our wits end. He has secured a place at a local college for a car mechanics apprenticeship and ALL he has to do is secure an apprenticeship with a local firm. On all the tests he has had, his mathematical and engineering skills stand him in good stead, one lady said she had Never seen such a high grade. But can we secure him an apprenticeship with a local firm, we cannot. He has sent his C.V. which prove he has worked and is a steady employee, has passed his driving test, not the average 16 yr old, plus follow up phone calls to all of the garages, car manufacturers in Kenilworth, Leamington, Warwick and Coventry. Time is running out, he will be 19 next month, 19 is a critical age (apparently) to do with funding. We are about to head further afield.
Dad is on the treadmill again! (3rd time lucky) for his replacement knee operation. He and Mum were at the hospital for nearly four hours last week, (they had lost his records, couldn’t find them and had to wait until our G.P. surgery opened up after lunch before they could get enough information to progress with his tests). Due to the messing around, waiting for xrays, ECG’s, blood tests etc etc, my parents who are both on various medications, several times a day and are both over 70 did not manage to find time to have lunch. Of course they survived, but its not good is it and I know Mum gets terribly stressed by events such as this.

The tests did not go well, there was no one qualified to give full information, But, Dad’s heart is not good. We will find out more tomorrow as he has a cardiologist appointment.

I can see my Dad is in pain, he is in pain constantly, I hate to see him stumble along with the silent (and sometimes not silent) screams in his head, which I see oh so clearly, just to get across a room. Its painful to see him and its painful if I don’t.

Sorry to witter on, its just been a tough week. I’ve always been a sensitive soul. The week started well, (I have a high level of sarcasm, I’m sure its a protective instrument) when I took son no.2 to have coffee at the new to us Starbucks in our local town. It was going well, lovely coffee, nice bit of jazz to listen to, wonderful comfy chairs and an excellent view of our local town, when…

Four women sat behind me and starting to talk quite loudly about hair removal. Nowt wrong with that you might say, I would agree, but I was completely as nature intended, well my nature at least! i.e. bald. And they talked and they wittered about their eyebrows and the difference between waxing and threading and then legs and waxing and shaving and the amount of time between waxing and the pros and cons of other treatments and then other parts were mentioned, which was quite shocking really as my son aged 16 was in full hearing for 25 minutes. Not solidly for 25 minutes, cause you know what us women are like, we chop and change conversations every five minutes or so, but everytime they changed it to their holiday adventures, for some reason it was brought back to hair. Bearing in mind, I am sitting in full view of two of the ladies, I really felt, very, very sad.

It was not good.

I know I’ve got to toughen up and I am trying, but you get days like this and its difficult. This was the same week, (I am so sorry to bore you all) that I was applying my make up, such as it is these days. Foundation is a bit of a problem when your bald, Where do you stop! There is no hairline… LOL I can see the funny side of that, and that laughter makes me, me. But then I’ve learnt and I’ve removed various products out of my make up basket, to lessen any emotional judders that I might experience. When this week, in my happy little world, applying eyeshadow, eyeliner and then, (I have no idea why) I looked for the mascara. And I kept looking, thinking where on earth have I put that.. and still kept looking and then it was like a smack in the face with a wet fish, (well actually the weight of it was more like a wet dog,, ie, wallop)… Yep.. Don’t need mascara.. I was literally stunned by my stupidity and extremely emotional.

I must apologise for my pity party, and lets face it my self induced leakage. I will publish this, (normally I don’t) but sometimes you need to let just a little bit out.

So hubby dragged me up the plot today to pick things. Which is the best bit. And I felt a little better.

And we picked these..

and these

and then rain stopped play, heavy bouts, which stopped us picking blackcurrants.