Still here and happier than ever in 2015!

Well here we are nearly half the way through 2015 and not a single blog post to be seen from me.
 Well really - what a very poor show!!!  ;-D
Back at the start of this year I made one single resolution (that's one more than normal) and it was to be more selfish.  More selfish with my time where it concerned people who sapped the life from you, more selfish with myself round people whose endless negativity drags you down, and more selfish in pursuit of a lasting happiness for me.
That is not to say I immediately set off on some sort of hedonistic crusade and forsook all my friends.  In reality only a few things changed, but key was deciding I deserved more of my time.  So to that end; and this is all a bit of a roundabout way of saying it, blogging has taken a backseat along with a few other things.
So what have I been doing?  Applying for work, a little bit of temping, some sorting out of the house, and (this is the biggy) telling the man I fell in love with 22 years ago how I feel!!!  Now that was somewhat scary, but it was a gamble that paid off.  Turns out he feels the same, right down to liking me back 22 years ago.  Who knew??!  (We were both far too shy to do anything about it then.)

The Scotsman on the ancient
clapper style bridge at
Postbridge on Dartmoor.

Now the practicalities of this are not exactly straight forward, which is why I've never admitted it to myself before, let alone him.  He's in Aberdeen.  I'm in Exeter.  These are more than the Proclaimers famed 500 miles of walking apart.  Doh!
He came to visit for a week and with that time together we both realised we were more sure of this than anything before, so we will make it work.
We had a fab week, even though the weather wasn't all it could be, and his friends have already been asking when he's transferring down here!  That's all for the future though.  In the meantime I'm just as happy as I could possibly be, and it's truly wonderful.

So in other news; I have been doing some more temping and am currently on a 2 week assignment as a telephone receptionist.  In between calls though they are happy for me to potter around on the t'internet hence me taking the time to write this post.  Pretty decent of them I'd say.  :-)
On Friday I attended 2 interviews through a different temping agency and, (wait for it) have definitely secured at least one of the positions!  The lady from the agency is calling me back with full details later but apparently they came back with a big 'yes' to me after my interview.  Which is nice considering I'm very out of practice and was physically shaking going into it!  Perhaps a little more faith in myself wouldn't go amiss!  This may mean that I can't get up to Aberdeen as soon as I might have wished to but I will have to wait and find out as the company in question was advertising both 6 month fixed term contracts and permanent positions.  Exciting stuff though, none the less!
One of the other major decisions I have taken is to give up the allotment.  The friend I was helping bowed out at the start of the year and I have come to realise that a full plot on my own is just too much.  Instead I want to concentrate on the much neglected back garden at home.  Although small it's plenty of space just for me and has the advantage of not requiring me to tramp along the road with tools or a wheelbarrow en route to do a bit of digging.

Unsliced bamboo shoots

Otherwise I've been busy in the kitchen - a lot of noodles have been consumed recently as I've been getting right into the Cheung Fun (flat rice noodles in rolls) they sell fresh in my favourite Chinese
supermarket.  I also discovered recently what bamboo shoots look like before they're sliced - crazy huh!
My family came to visit for the annual Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink.  Saw many lovely things, sampled some of them and bought some cheese.  A lovely time had by all.

A summer off

Greetings and salutations!  I must admit that it has been rather a long time since my last post despite my best intentions.  So; what have we all been up to this summer?

I have been enjoying the fact that we’re actually having a summer this year.  I.E. – sunshine.  I've taken the opportunity of not working to busy myself hacking back the garden.  I knew there was a shed in there somewhere but since it seems that this year is the year that finally the bramble and the honeysuckle have declared all out war on each other, and are both intent on full domination of the garden, said shed took some unearthing!

I have been navigating the perils of ‘signing on’ for the first time.  That’s fun!  There is a distinct paucity of information readily available about what you can get, how you’re eligible for what and how long anything takes.  The entire system seems a bit of a mare but better minds than I have waxed lyrical on this subject many times so I won’t bang on about it.  It has meant I've had to go up into the city centre rather more often than I usually do with the side effect that I happened to go through the Exeter farmer’s market on a Thursday and take a look at what I spied:

 Razor clams! I have wanted to try these for a very long time.  Ever since I saw HFW extolling their virtues several years ago.  After that I came to realise they were one of things that people used to forage for and eat rather a lot more in decades past than currently.  That seems to be changing now though with the rise in popularity of foraging, and awareness of what local delicacies we have available without having to ship our food for miles.  I didn't purchase any yet; being out of employment they seemed a little unnecessary, but I spoke with the stall holder (from local fishmongers Gibson's Plaice) and he told me they have them most weeks bar the winter.  I shall save them for a treat.  J  In fact all of their produce looked very tempting, and beautifully fresh.

I have been making some crafty things.  Remember my purse I made that gets re-invented every time the cover is falling apart too much?  A friend had mentioned that she cannot find a card sized purse anywhere and as it was her birthday coming up I decided to make her one. 

I used some scraps in her favourite colours and stitched it up on a visit home to Ma (and her sewing machine) and she loved it.

I've also been doing waaay more baking than I ever normally have the time for - tried cheese and courgette scones - thoroughly lovely.  Useful to use up any excess courgettes from the garden or allotment.  Which brings me to the news that I am helping a friend with her allotment as she has virtually no experience at growing things.  In return I get to adopt the shed on the right  and get part of the plot to myself and we share the rest.  I've been loving getting back into the digging - it made me realise how much I missed the old plot.  Lots of plans going round my head for next season.

All of these things have made me rather wish I could make a living crafting things, and doing gardens, and baking, with perhaps some social media marketing and invoicing / IT thrown in for good measure.  I wonder if that’s possible...  Sadly something tells me I'm going to have to get a ‘real’ job.  It has been lovely having a several weeks to myself though, for which I am grateful, and it has given me time to re-evaluate quite drastically what I want from a job.  I have come to the conclusion that as long as I can pay the rent and bills and have enough for Zeke and I to live on then it is far more important to me now, to find something I am happy doing / can believe in.  It may take me some time to find this so in the time being I have been applying for casual type stuff/temping whilst I search.  Wish me luck in my quest!

Allotment top tipple

Although it rained [a lot] here over the weekend we did manage to nip down the alloment briefly.  There's rasps and strawbs and we have black mint growing too.  Well - there's only one thing to do with these - Pimms it is!  Well - it's not but it's Aldi's cheap version at £ 5.99 a bottle.

We discovered a rather nice adjustment to the traditional Pimms drink.  Put ice, strawbs and rasps in the bottom of a pint glass.  Pour in Pimms to the top of the ice.  Add lemonade to about half way to two thirds of the way up the glass then top up with - [wait for it] - cider!  Use something with a decent taste of apple to it [not Strongbow etc that tastes of naff all - like the cider version of Fosters] and think of the flavours of those fruity ciders that seem to be popular now.  Take a few mint leaves and scrunch them up a bit then tear and add to the drink.  Stir and enjoy!

Why we do it...

The constant digging I mean.  And weeding, stooping, scrubbing dirt from fingernails and clothes, the battle with slugs, snails, bugs and birds, the expenditure on varied types of poo be it worm casts, chicken manure or good old horse dung, the endless endless bindweed...

2 kg fresh strawberries picked yesterday.  That's why.  Pimms o'clock anyone? 

Allotment update

Well, where to start?  It seems rather a long time since I got a proper regular 'this is me wittering on about what I've been up to' post up on here.  Perhaps a little allotment update as it seems to change daily at this time of year.  Every time I look around the seeds in the front window have grown another inch I'm sure!  Triffids on a bid for world domination!  (Yes, yes - I know that was an excess of exclamation marks then.)

My allotment is long and thin and one short edge abuts the track round the site.  Theres a small slope here from the track to the plot which was just dead space with grass on it which I wanted to utilise better with some 'raised' (built into the bank) 3 sided beds.  These could then be planted up with bee friendly plants - good for the bees and hopefully good for my plot by attracting more pollinators to it.  Well - mention it and it shall be done.  Chap was there with wood assorted and power tools and in a couple of hours I was the proud owner of 2 smart, free, upcycled beds.  All the wood came from other jobs - old fences, roofs etc.  The preservative I've used on the insides was a branded end of line one in £land that I've had sitting around at home for a good 8 years!  From this:

 Grassy bank and scraggy old bits of wood. 

To this:

Pretty smart eh?  (Ignore the rasps there - they need tidying up I know!)   Both are now nearly full of earth - as I've been prepping, raking over & planting each bed I've been shoveling the rock hard lumps that refuse to break up [see pic above left to see what I mean] into these.  I'll cover with some compost and plant up very soon.  I have various wild flower bee happy seedlings at home to go in and more seeds to sprinkle over.

Speaking of seeds here's some random exciting heirloom bean varieties a friend sent me.  I have planted a few of all of them and passed some on where there were spares.  I also got the Pea Bean recently after reading about it on littleblackfox's blog.  It's also a heirloom variety - I found them at Nicky's Nursery - incidentally very reasonable on price and very helpful on the phone when you realise you forgot something on your order the day before so call up to see if you can add it in!  Lovely people. 

I hope they all do ok - the Pea Bean is the only one not to have sprouted yet!  They're in loo roll inners at home along with 3 different runner beans, celeriac, 2 types of beetroot, the bee plants, asparagus peas, soya beans [they haven't come up yet either thinking about it], herbs, the Chap's chillis, pumpkin, 3 different squashes, courgettes, chard &c, &c, &c... 

Since these photos of the plot, where you can see my [somewhat straggly] broad beans; we've also planted the spuds, onion and garlic sets, peas x 2 varieties, parsnip x 2 varieties, salsify - not expecting much there as the seeds were somewhat out of date - I've put the lot in to see if anything happens, Hamburg Parsley and 3 different types of salad leaves as catch crops between these.  Also 2 different radish types in the centre of the runner poles which are in but so far only colonised by a few sweet peas - worth having a few in amongst the runners to attract the pollinating insects to the area.  More pollinators = more food for you.  Companion planting a go-go!  Plus I like sweet peas.  Anyway, this is the product of a couple of weekends.  Now the rest to do - toms, carrots, kale, perpetual spinach beet, the oriental radish the Chap bought, swede, land cress, saltwort, cabbage, cauli, sprouts, er - I'm sure there's lots more but I'll have to check the seed box[es.]  I defy anyone to have as many packs of seeds as me and remember them all!!  :-D  What have you planted?

Laarn-don

Well I got my wish and managed to christen the new fork before going off for my training course. The angled handle really makes a difference when you go to do the first lift and turn of a spit. The handle is some sort of soft grip effect and nice to work with. I like my new toy!! If you're looking for an inexpensive set of tools you could do worse than keep an eye out for these 2 when they're on offer together.

The end of last week took me to London for training on the new IT systems we'll be using in a weeks time. We go live with them on the first day of our new term - brilliant timing!! Not looking forwards to that. I was staying in a hotel just off the end of Brick Lane - with this great juxtaposition of a view outside. Rundown graffitied derelict buildings in the foreground with the shiny gherkin behind. It's near Aldgate East station - one of those with a few odd original bits left like the fantastically retro looking [except presumably they're original so therefore can't really be called 'retro'? Vintage maybe? Answers on a postcard please!] signs telling you which way to go. I love those little individualistic notes in an otherwise rushed world; people with no time to notice them as they pass by on their way to and from the daily grind. Sad really. Or maybe I'm assuming too much apathy on their behalf and these little touches are what keeps people living in and loving London. Who knows?

Irish food fail

Well, I got in last night full of ideas for soup but thinking that first I and the Chap would get some seeds sorted. We've been meaning to do this for a week now! So now was the time. Cleared stuff off kitchen table - check. Cleared stuff in lounge window bay - cd rack, 2 small tables, footstool - check. Extricated table from kitchen, round corner, down hall and into bay in lounge where it'll get the best light - check. Plastic sheeting on floor - check. Compost carried in - check. Varied plastic trays and receptacles - check. Big box of toilet roll inners - check. [For growing beans in for the uninitiated - they give a deeper root run and as the beans dislike disturbance to their roots you can plant the entire things out when the time comes.] Chap filled a module tray for his chillies &c; I filled up toilet roll inners for various Broad Beans [including some exciting crimson flowered heritage ones] and some sweet peas [Arthur Hellyer in case you're wondering]. Having omitted to keep back an empty 1 pint plastic milk carton to use for a handy compost scoop/funnel (cut off the base and leave lid on to use as a scoop. Remove lid to use as a funnel) I ended up using the jam funnel. TBH given my various poor efforts at preserve making so far this may be the best use for it! It worked very well so if you want something prettier to fill up your toilet roll liners with than an empty milk carton [though if you're using toilet roll liners in the first place it suggests to me you're not too worried about prettiness where this stage of veg growing is concerned] I'd recommend one. Expect to pay around the £3-4 mark, mine was from The Range for filling flasks with soup since we moved to our new and microwave-less building. Long story!

Anyway, a while later we had a neatly filled module tray, 4 sets of broad bean filled loo roll inners, one set of sweet pea filled ones and I'd laid out all the potatoes to chit and labelled their cardboard egg trays and *fridge egg trays as well.

Thoughts turned to dinner. And eyes turned to the time... :-O

Needless to say at 10 to 10 in the evening I'm afraid I no longer had the will to start making bread; not even soda bread, nor soup from scratch. We had veg and hash browns (cacky emergency freezer food I'm know - though the veg were fresh) with some grated cheese over the top of the veg. So - er - potato cakes are kinda Irish right? [Although I don't think LIDL is...]

I did chop the veg for a soup in the slow cooker overnight so I wasn't completely slack, and it meant I could have fresh home made potato, leek and Dorset Blue Vinney soup today for lunch at my aforementioned work sans microwave. Yum. Anyway, I'm pleased with the seed sowing, we, and especially the Chap, were getting a little twitchy feeling we were behind. Chap has the bad fortune to be working the weekend so I'm planning on getting a lot more seeds and planning done [and rugby watching - final weekend of the 6 nations people!]. Enjoy the weekend and any sun it brings your way! :-)

*You may remember (or not) me wittering on about these previously. I am currently coercing work colleagues into giving them up to me. Mwah ha ha haaa.

Quick quick post

Another 'one good and one bad thing' post.

Love this ingenious use of a recycled tin and a party popper casing for bird feeders here - seen at the local St Bridget Nursery. These have holes punched in the base and a seed & fat mixture inside. And yes; if you're wondering we were there buying seeds! I just can't stop myself... We got these nifty little free guides as well. Also - by searching the ranges available we got the radish seeds for £2.29 for 60 from the Suttons range as opposed to the first pack we picked up - £3.99 for 30 seeds from Unwins! Half the seeds for nearly double the price, go figure. (As an aside to this I find Mr Fothergills good value for money and they don't charge P&P for seed only orders as opposed to T&M who do and take longer to dispatch.)

Gutted and really rather annoyed at myself - managed to break my trusty fork at the weekend trying to extract a big tuffet of grass from a path on the allotment. I can't believe my honourable friend is busted. :-( Think I'll have to borrow the chaps until I decide on a replacement - his already has a broken tine though!

Well, off to Dorset for the weekend for Ma's birthday, fingers crossed for the sun!

February Witterings

As it seems to have been a fairly quiet week since the excitement of V Day on Monday [!] and I've been a busy bunny and therefore failing to cook anything interesting; certainly anything worth blogging about [I have to confess to making us pizza and hash browns on Tuesday :-O] I have very little to spiel on about. Oh no!! I'm sure I'll manage though as wittering is one of my fortes - why use one word when 12 will do?!

Firstly - a little expounding on our picnic setting as this really is a top spot. In Exeter there is a 'Green Circle Walk' - a walk of 12 miles that goes round the outskirts of the city and is split into 5 smaller sections. The viewpoint we visited is on one of these - it's in the Barley Valley Nature Reserve. I can recommend this walk - the Redhill's walk. As I mentioned we're going to return when it's a little more clement - and possible lighter [we slipped our way back across the muddy field pretty much in the dark] and will take some photos of the view then. Chap enjoyed his steak sandwiches and I my smoked salmon washed down with some rather nice champagne. I'm sure the lady walking her dogs thought we were nuts!
Secondly - the weather. Argh - I know it's still February but I'VE HAD ENOUGH NOW!!!! Please please can we have spring - warmth - sun - not raining... it'd be lovely. I'm sure I remember the sun - you know - that big yellow ball thing that hangs about in the sky trying to peek through the louring grey rain-sodden clouds from November to March solid. Or so it seems.That's the one - see those rays - aah bliss!

This weekend I'm hoping to get a fair bit done at the allotment - I need to finish digging over 2 of the 3 big beds and re-edge the smaller ones. I also need to make a decision about whether I dedicate a second of the smaller beds to fruit or not. I currently have one small bed with Rasps and Strawbs on and was tempted by a Tayberry bush in Poundstretcher for the princely sum of £2.49 the other day but I kinda think when it comes to fruit - unless you give a fair bit of land to multiple bushes it's not really worth it is it? I suppose I could pick a small handful now and then and save them up in the freezer until I have enough for a pie or crumble but this seems a bit counter intuitive to me. The other side of me though is the bit that causes me to have hundreds more packets of seeds than I have space to plant. It's the bit that wants to try different things out - the bit that snaps my head round in poundstretcher going 'look Ruth - you really NEEEEED that - a Tayberry - bet that'd be exciting, the Chap'd be impressed, it'd taste nice - pleeeease can we, can we, can we...'. That's the bit that gets me in trouble. [It's the reason why I have amongst other things; a toast rack that matches my salt and pepper set - which are admittedly pretty cool little metal wheely objects. I never use a toast rack though. It's a pet hate of mine if the toast isn't warm enough to melt the butter. Why would I need a toast rack? It's basically a cooling device for those deviants that like lukewarm toast. Of course the answer is I don't need one. But I saw it one time and it matched my S+P and that bit of me won that time. This was a few years back - I'm better now on most stuff but seeds / plants - not so good.] Anyway I managed to not succumb to the Tayberry and have been regretting it ever since. The thing is - if I give the third small bed over to fruit as well as the first one there'll be nowhere for the Jerusalem Artichokes which are currently hogging what tiny amount of space there is in the back garden each year. I want herbs in the back garden - to hand like, so the J'Arts need to be moved to the plot. Hmm - a quandry.

In case you're wondering, or are vaguely interested or are merely ploughing on through hoping to see the end in sight to this post some time soon... for info - my allotment is a half plot. 5 x 25m with 3 5x3.5m beds and 3 5x1m beds and space at the end where I will get round to building a shed. Or Chap may do it - being a buildery type bloke ['blokey bloke bloke' as Bill Bailey would say] he's fairly excited by the prospect I think. Anyway - promise I'll take a decent pic sometime vaguely soon and get it up here for y'all. In the meantime I think that is in fact it on the wittering front for today. Buenas Noches kittens.

Evening at the allotment

My allotment is truly the thing that keeps me sane. The ability to escape there after a busy and fraught day at work is priceless. I can get on with the growing, sowing, weeding etc with just the birdsong for company and the occasional cheery hello as another plotholder passes. I know there's waiting lists to the moon and back all over the place at the moment but if you can't get a plot in the forseeable future grow something, anything in pots. I guarantee the feeling of wellbeing it gives you is worth any amount of ranting about the slugs. Just look what you could be eating. Nom nom nom...

Slackness and rain

My apologies for the lack of posts this week; been having a bit of an off week.

Anyway, onwards and all that jazz.

Bank holiday weekend coming up so of course it's raining. The allotment needs it though - I've been trying to finish digging over the last bed (for the brassicas) this week and it's hard going as I've got slightly clayey soil. Have next week booked off work so want to get lots done at the allotment, hoping the rain stops then!

[Pic is my first ever calabrese grown last year.]