what a week!

from sushine and shorts to snow and scarves - within the space of a few days!

much as i did enjoy our mini-heatwave, it really didn't feel 'right' that it was so warm so early in the year, i mean the tulips hadn't bloomed yet and it was scorching.  plus, i wasn't getting anything done ... as soon as the sun was shining i dropped everything and got myself outside!

having said that though, i didn't exactly welcome the snow!  my poor wee plants are looking very sorry for themselves this week as everything has been severely nipped by the frost.

here's hoping for more 'normal' spring weather this week :)

rspb big garden birdwatch this weekend!

you can register here
and download your recording sheet here

i took part for the first time last year and would definitely recommend it - if nothing else, look upon it as a guilt free way to spend an hour with a cuppa, watching the birds in your garden (don't forget to count them too!) and the results you collect will help the rspb protect our garden birds in years to come.

beware though - if the birds in your garden know what you're up to, they seem to disappear for the hour you are recording!  no, seriously.  i had read about this before, but i can assure you that the garden is usually hopping and flapping and cheeping and chirping like crazy, but for the hour i was recording last year it was almost eerily quiet :)

i really encourage you to take an hour out of your day to take part, you won't regret it.

lovely berries

blackcurrants
in between the rain showers this year, it was just about sunny enough for our berries to ripen!

i just love these, such rich colours and ripe enough to burst, just amazing.

red and blackcurrants
as well as enjoying copious amounts fresh with a little ice cream, and leaving some on the bush for the birds to enjoy, we decided to turn our hand to jam making with a little vodka experimentation thrown in for good measure!

despite the fact that we don't really drink these days, i'm sure a little warming drop or two of this will be welcome on a winter's eve.

strawberry vodka

blackcurrant vodka
our strawberries are wee, wild ones and have such an intense flavour, the seeds are so tiny and soft that we didn't need to filter them out.

strawberry jam
i was hoping to have some jam to enjoy now and some to give away, with a couple of jars left over to bring some summer colour and flavour to those long winter evenings, but the currant jam is just so deliciously tempting that we have almost finished it now.

currant jam

as much as i enjoy picking and eating fruit and veg fresh from the garden there is something about preserving it for the months to come, quite a comforting way to spend a rainy, summer evening really.

lawn or grass?

so, this is our front grass ... ... and something we get a lot of hassle about from our neighbours with their bowling-green-type lawns, where no blade of grass must be allowed to exceed 1.5cm!

goodness, really? now, i don't like their lawn (plus it's not very good for plant or animal diversity) but do i feel the need to make a comment to them about it, every time i see them? no, i don't! because i respect their right to have their stupid grass how they like it.

do you know, i was in the front garden the other day and two folk walking past were tutting and making disparaging remarks about how i should be cutting my grass, the only thing i could do was stare in utter disbelief!

i'm thinking of making a sign that says something along the lines of not to criticise us for the length of our grass but to appreciate the variety of flowers and insects it supports as they walk past.

ahem, rant over, normal service will be resumed by the next post :)

beetroot dye bath

digging in the front patch to pop in some new plants the other day, i discovered a few beetroots from last year! we did try cooking with them but they were very tough and didn't taste too nice either.

so, as i'm having a bit of a dyeing experiment phase, into the dye bath they went. i've read conflicting reports about success with dyeing using beets but it looked quite promising given the colour it turned the water.

and, did it work ... ? you'll have to wait to find out, i'm off to find some nettles for the next dye bath :)

sanctuary

strawberries

we've been quite lucky with the weather (mostly!) since we got back from hols and it has meant that we've been able to catch up a bit with the garden.

rocket

it's hard to know when to make a proper start - too early and you lose everything when the next frost arrives; too late and you miss the warm(ish), sunny days, and rainy nights which seem to help everything burst into life.

thyme

i do feel like we have cheated a little this year because we bought seedlings to start the veg patch off, what with the late frosts and being away i didn't get any seeds started. maybe i'll get some started in the next week or so and this will mean successional cropping and more veg and salad throughout the year.

beetroot

i get so excited at this time of year, i do love planting out, weeding (if it's sunny!), starting off the seeds, seeing new plants burst into life and the plants from previous years awake from their winter slumber but i have to admit a little rumbling of my tummy when i think about all of the lovely, tasty, fresh food to come and the chutneys, pickles and sauces that i'll make and will us last through the winter.

lettuce

i love sitting in the garden too, on one of those rare scottish sunny days, the sounds of the birds and the insects buzzing away, and being surrounded by the colour, texture and scent of so many different plants.

sage

this is my third year of growing and each year i've learnt so much and each year i realise i still have so much to learn and can't wait till the next season to try out something new.

radish

last year the wee girl next door discovered that we grow 'tasty plants' and is a frequent visitor now, asking what each plant is, whether or not it's edible and what it tastes like, quickly followed by 'can i try some ... no, you try some first'!

leek

she was amazed that we dug out potatoes from the soil and had a hard time connecting them to the potatoes her mum buys in the grocery store.

chives and marjoram

her favourite from last year was strawberries and every time she passes she asks if they are ripe enough to eat yet ... not quite i keep telling her, mostly because she nearly ate her own weight in strawberries last summer!

tayberry, raspberry, redcurrant, blackcurrant

of course, you do realise, that i'm only showing the bestest parts of the garden ... ?!

tarragon and oregano

i'm not showing the borders that are overgrown with weeds or the empty veg patches that still need planted!

peas, mangetout, runner beans, broad beans

dandelion dyepot, tea, coffee

the day after we got back from hols was a bit dreich and i was feeling quite fed up with myself to be honest.

i really loved being back under the big skies, being at the coast and being outside for the whole day. i always feel a little twitchy and claustrophobic when i come back!

so i decided i should get out in the garden and pick some of the hundreds of dandelion flowers we returned to, and experiment with some natural dyeing - it's been on my to-do list for waaaaaaaaaay too long.

i'm sure the neighbours thought i was daft - out in the rain, picking the flower-heads off the dandelions! as well as being able to experiment with dyeing, it means the dandelions won't go to seed, so i'll hopefully have less weeds to deal with later on in the year.

here's the dandelion heads in the dye pot. it took a wee while to get to this stage - the flower heads had mostly closed over because of the weather, so i wanted to open out each one to make sure i wasn't committing any wee critters to a boiling pot of water.

just as well i was so careful, look at this wee fella ...

while i was online reading up on using dandelions for the dye bath, i read about dandelion tea. i kept a few flowers back, gave them a good rinse, covered them with water and simmered them for a while (i think it's supposed to be five minutes but i was so occupied with the dye bath, i forgot to check the clock).

it's hard to describe the flavour to be honest! i tried it both with and without honey and i think i preferred it without, it wasn't quite as bitter as i expected it to be. while i don't think i would drink it every day, i did enjoy it and would think about using it as a base for blending other infusions.


i also read about dandelion 'coffee' so a few days later, when the garden had dried out, i went back out to dig up the dandelions to get to the roots. the trick is to rinse, and rinse, and rinse until all the dirt is removed but it's taken me so long to get them to this stage, i'm not sure i can stand much more rinsing! i think i may stick to my jar of barley coffee in the cupboard.


progress report on the dyeing to follow!

mushrooms

day ... you know, i've lost count!

but finally, long after m wanted to throw the box out because "nothing's happening" ...

ta-daaa!!!

unless we get a huge crop of mushrooms very soon, this must be the most expensive mushroom in the history of mushroom growing kits! all that hard work for one precious mushroom - here's hoping it's full of flavour!

mushrooms (or not)

day 21
hhhmmmmmm, not looking good is it?!

the pack said that the peat did contain a type of mould which was perfectly normal. unfortunately, that's all the peat seems to contain as we have no signs of mushroom-life at all!

mushroom update

day 3
re-read the instructions and discover that on the third day, you are supposed to add the peat on top of the bark fibre-ry stuff and it will now take a further fourteen (yes fourteen!) whole days before you see any signs of mushroomy-loveliness.

mushrooms

day 1
not much to report, other than a delicious earthy mushroomy smell from the box. trying to resist the temptation to keep checking for mushrooms every five minutes!

garden planning

we've had such a long winter compared to our usual - snow from mid november through to the end of january, and then another dump of snow just when we were enjoying the sight of the grass again. followed by weeks of ice and frost, sigh!

as the ground was too hard to dig and i couldn't see the plants to prune them, i consoled myself with sorting through our seed packets and reading books, while planning and making lists.

finally it looks like spring is arriving, we've had a few sunny, but still chilly, days so we might at last be able to get out and start digging in the garden again. time to get tidying, ready for sowing and planting.

each year we plant a little more than last year and try something new, and this year i'm really looking forward to getting some plants in that will give us lovely flowers in the summer before they get harvested for the dye pot in the autumn :)

birdwatch

well, it's been a busy old time here, so i'm only just getting round to posting my numbers from the rspb birdwatch (i blogged about it here) ...

10 woodpigeon
7 chaffinch
4 blackbirds
3 house sparrows
1 robin
1 blue tit
1 magpie
1 dunnock

it was a shame that the coal tits, great tits and collared doves didn't put in an appearance, and the numbers did seem a little low, but as i was reading on shirl's gardenwatch blog it seems like there may be a conspiracy by our feathered friends to 'hide' when they know a census is being taken.

i thought that i might do this once a month to see how the seasons affect the types and number of birds that visit our little patch, it really was a lovely way to spend an hour :)

the birds

the hungry birds ...
as well as the usual mix of garden birds that have been enjoying our home-made bird cake, apple, seed, and fruit mix, it seems that the gulls have found us! i think they may have come from the harbour and are possibly having to come further and further to find food. the pigeons did seem a little put out by them though!

grabbing as much as they can before the gulls return

when we first moved here, five years ago, there weren't any magpies in the area but just recently i've seen a few flying around. given that corvids are a bit of an obsession of mine (encouraged by reading esther woolfson's, corvus: a life with birds), i've been delighted to see the magpie starting to get braver and take some food from our temporary feeding spot (out of the way of the neighbour's cats), we even had two the other morning - cue not a lot getting done, other than me gazing out of the window at the myriad clouds of birds coming and going, and changing throughout the day.


if i go reeeally quietly, they might not notice me ...
the grab and run approach

fellow gardeners

put down those seed catalogues, grab a cuppa, and head over to
the inelegant gardeners almanac for 2011, for a hilarous read. it's quite reassuring that i'm not alone in the over-excited buying of seeds!

first crop of strawberries

oh i wish you could smell these! they smell heavenly and are as sweet as strawberry jam :)

i was really chuffed that our strawberry plants produced any berries, let alone such delicious ones. i discovered a strawberry plant growing out of a wall on my way to work a couple of years ago and took a wee cutting, brought it home, rooted it and potted it up but then nothing much happened.

then earlier this year, the plants started putting out runners and have now nearly taken over the herb patch - the poor thyme is being squashed and the oregano is putting up a brave battle for space.

the second batch of berries looks like it might be ready for picking soon, yum!

p.s.
no that isn't the largest dollop of cream you've ever seen! we were being healthy and added some natural yoghurt, i'm sure my arteries will thank me :)

bumbbelly bees

we have a patch of chives in our herb garden which the bees really seem to love and it's usually covered with a few different types of bees at a time.

i'm not sure if the chive pollen makes them sleepy or they just feel safe surrounded by the flowers but they seem to sleep here too. at least i think that's what they're doing, they seem fine and do fly off after a while but they sit with their wings folded for ages.

this one sat and posed for ages as i took photos. they're really gorgeous little things close up, he/she looked really fuzzy and temptingly strokeable (although i did resist the urge!)

how lovely is the sky today?

but i'm safely tucked away in the house, hiding from the horrid effects of hayfever! i'm starting to miss getting out in the garden, everything is finally starting to grow now and i've got lots of seeds to get started. i've always thought i should start a campaign to have gardeners exempted from suffering with hayfever!

still, it's a good excuse to get lots of felting done :)

hope the sun is shining where you are.

home-smoked cheese!!!

thursday afternoon in work i got a call from m, which went along the lines of ...

m: do we have any tin cans?
me: think there's some in the recycling bin, why?
m: do we have a soldering iron?
me: (getting slightly concerned) why?
m: no reason, just wondering
me: what are you doing ... ?
m: nothing. how about a blow torch, do we have one of those?
me: honey, why would you need any of those things, what are you doing?
m: if it works, you'll have a surprise when you come home, bye.
me: be careful .......

of course this lead to great amounts of discussion with my work-mates as to what he could actually be doing. none of which put my mind at rest!

how surprised was i to get home and find out that m had been smoking cheese all afternoon :)))))))

anyone who knows me will know that i could no more live without cheese than i could oxygen. being veggie i think it's an important source of vital vitamins and minerals (or at least, that's my excuse for eating it at least once per day!). the lady in our local deli has got to know us quite well now and she also shares my assertion that there is no meal (at any time of the day) that can't be improved by adding cheese.

our poor old rosemary bush hadn't fared too well during the winter so m chopped it down and used the twigs to make rosemary-smoked cheddar. the pic i took is a little blurry as i was shaking with excitement at the thought of wolfing down the lot! and being the classy little eater that i am, my first meal with it was chips and cheese! heaven :)

farewell old pal

well, we waved goodbye to the bike recently :(

i'd never been one for bikes, being a bit of a scaredy-cat but when we lived on the isle of lewis m persuaded me to become a bit of a biker chick instead!

we have so many happy memories of riding around the island in the sunshine. however, moving back to the mainland a few years ago put me back into the scaredy-cat category ... so much traffic going far too fast and only a few layers of leather between the hard tarmac and our skin!!!

plus, the bike had been rendered almost impractical due to many more new hobbies and interests - try strapping a canoe to the back of the bike! so the tough decision was taken to sell it thus ending m's 30 years as a biker dude.

although i do feel a little sad too, i'm also excitedly planning what to do with the new space in the front garden that used to be occupied by the bike! new tree ... new shrubs ... or many, many more flowers :)