What growing on the allotment

Another good harvest from the allotment this week.  The courgettes are still putting out, I picked another four yesterday, although I think after this week that may be our lot.  

I have been eating a lot of courgettes😂, good job I like them, and now I know that I much prefer the yellow variety to the green ones.

This year rather than trying to grow everything we just planted what we know we eat, so lots and lots of onions went in, I picked a fair amount again this week but we still have two more sections of onions planted up.  That should keep us going for a while, I'll chop most of these up and freeze them. 

  I pulled a couple carrots to see how they were doing and they aren't a bad size, but could do with a little longer in the ground, again we have quite a lot and I sowed some more yesterday which will be ready around Christmas time.

We've just started picking runner beans, again these have been put in the freezer for future use.  These were a slow start and for some reason they are growing better on one side than the other and you do have to play hunt the bean as they are hard to spot!

I'm really happy with how the beetroot is looking.  I'll have another go at pickling this year, I didn't sweeten it enough last time I tried.  

If you have any tried and tested recipes then do let me know, I just used one I found online last year.

No idea what variety of squash we planted, they were from the plug plant party on the allotment, they seem to be doing ok though, as do the pumpkins.  We grew those from seed, so the kids will have their own homegrown pumpkin to carve this year 😁

I picked up a butternut squash plant by mistake when I got the yellow courgettes, Joanne got one too so hopefully this isn't the only one we'll get.

The tomato's are doing ok, not a lot of red ones yet but hopefully that will happen soon, I'm starting to think that tomato's are not my thing, I've never had a lot of luck with them.

I didn't realise when I sowed swede that I'ts classed as a brassica so should be covered.  It looked like something was eating it a while ago but now it seems to have picked up and the leaves look alright again.  We shall see if they are a success or failure in due course, It's all a learning curve isn't it?

One thing I won't be planting next year are peas, we never had enough to put on a plate, only had enough for the kids to pick and eat while they were there, they did taste nice though.

Strawberries are putting out their runners so I have lots of pots around colleting new plants, I bought I few home yesterday that had rooted and I'm considering planting up one of my raised beds at home with strawberries next year. 

My strawberries at home are in a tall salad planter and have really outgrown their space now, and it's easier to pick them at home rather than make a trip to the allotment every day.  I would have to put some netting over them though otherwise the squirrels would have a feast!

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I have Bonnie and Jacob tomorrow and Tuesday and my steroid injection on Wednesday, eeek.

Fingers crossed it works.

-X-

A Week in Woolacombe

 Last week was the first week of the school holidays, Joanne was taking the kids to Woolacombe and asked if I wanted to go too.  We stayed at a holiday park where there was kids entertainment and lots of things for them to do, they enjoyed the children's games and disco, swimming and pottery painting, bowling and of course the arcade where countless 2p coins were put through slots in the hope of winning a keyring.

It's been quite a few years since I've been to Woolacombe, the best thing about it is the lovely long sandy beach.  We spent some time there twice during the week, the first time it was quite chilly, the second time the weather was perfect, warm but not too hot, the kids had a great time building sand castles and playing in the sea, Jacob especially enjoyed playing in the waves.  We bought a kite to take with us, only a cheap one from the site shop, and I was impressed with myself when I actually managed to get it up in the air and keep it there, first time I've ever managed to do that!

We got out and about and did something different every day, visiting the aquarium in Ilfracombe one day.

 it's always fascinating to see what lives in the water, but we all agreed the rays were our favourite, and they are just as cute on the underside too.

We had a day at Clovelly, a privately owned harbour village on a very steep incline, no cars are allowed, it would be impossible with the steep cobbled street.  Years ago donkeys were used to transport any shopping or goods to the houses, now they use a type of sled, we saw quite a few locals transporting their Amazon parcels or shopping down the hill while we were there.

All those cobbles are quite a workout for the feet!

A few of the pretty cottages at Clovelly

We spent a lovely few hours there, the kids enjoyed a paddle in the harbour but then or course we had to walk back up that very steep hill, but we fortified ourselves with a cream tea for the climb, and it wasn't too bad if you took it slowly.

Another day was spent at Watermouth Castle, another place which is a workout for the legs!  But we did have a lovely day.

Then on our last day we visited Lynton & Lynmouth.  

Lynton is at the top, Lynmouth is 500 feet below, the two towns are connected by a water powered funicular railway.  Lynton is a lovely little town with shops, restaurants and cafe's while Lynmouth is a harbour town.  We opted to save our legs this time and take the cliff railway both ways.

Pretty street in Lynton

Lynmouth, the harbour town

We packed a lot into the week, did a lot of walking, mostly up and down hills! Visited some beautiful places and made some lovey memories.

If you reached the end of this long post, thank you, I know it was a long one 😁

-X-

Bumper harvest

 So chuffed with my harvest from the allotment today.

I'm away next week so wanted to harvest everything that was ready so that It didn't go to waste.

Rhubarb - enough for another crumble, (that's the last now).

Five onions -I'll chop these and freeze, we still have more in the ground to pull.

Two lettuce

Two cucumbers

Couple hands full of tomato's - (a little under ripe but I'll take them with us in a paper bag).

And 21 courgettes!

Think it's safe to say we planted too many courgettes this year 😂 although everyone likes them so they will be shared with extended family.

While I was there I also collected some more poppy seed heads.

They were so easy to collect, simply wait until the seed head has turned brown and just cut and shake out into a bag or container.  I will leave the seed heads upside down in a bag for another week to collect any remaining seeds.  Apparently the seeds need to be stored in the fridge and can be sown in the Autumn.   Then, with a bit of luck I will have beautiful pink peony poppies next year. 😁

-X-

That's better...

Thank goodness it's cooled down and we finally got some rain yesterday, it was nice steady rain that soaked into the ground, although it had stopped by mid afternoon but the temperature is much better.

I manged to get a few jobs done last week, working earlier in the morning so as to avoid the heat.  My Summer house had a good clean, I jet washed the path and patio and also gave the summerhouse, shed and gate a paint over. 

I even managed to sit in my summerhouse a couple afternoons

I'm still getting good pickings from the allotment, we have an abundance of courgettes, onions and lettuce, all have been made good use of.  

 French Onion soup, this was very tasty

Courgette lasagna, Mark was a bit sceptical at first but admitted that it was very nice :-)

And of course courgette cake, this version had orange and sultanas also, I left off the frosting on top.

The rhubarb and broad beans were frozen, the potato's are the harvest from one of the three bags I planted, we have yet to try these.

On Saturday one of my friends had a stitching get together as her birthday party, what a great idea, I can see others copying this one.  It was a lovely day spent stitching and chatting, the caterer she used put on a great buffet and there was even a cream tea later on, we all came away stuffed!

I finally managed to get an appointment with the doctor who does the steroid injections at our surgery, I've had to wait two weeks to see this particular doctor but after telling him how long I've been waiting and that I've been paying for my own physio for almost five months he relented and pushed me up the list.  Still a month away, but at least I've got a date, yayyy.

  I was discharged from physio last week, I've been given all the exercises, it's just a matter of keeping them up, it's a slow process, he said that steroid jabs have very good results with my particular hip problem and If I continue the exercises after I should be ok, (fingers crossed). 

Enjoy the rest of the week, I'm off to make another courgette cake 😁

(all recipes were from the Good Food website)

-X-

Sew knit stitch

I've managed to get a few things finished off recently, one of them is a cross stitch piece which I haven't been in the mood for doing lately but there was such a small amount to do for it to be complete, and I'm glad it's done now. 

First though are the two cushion covers I made for the caravan.  Just some simple envelope back covers made using a table cloth that I bought in a charity shop years ago.  I do like a bit of gingham, and I think these go quite well.  It was a big table cloth so I've still got plenty left for something else, just don't know what yet.

Next is a pair of socks, these are knit using King Cole Zig Zag cotton yarn in the watermelon colourway.

And the big finish is my Hoot in a Boot by The Needles's Notion.

I used the recommended threads but not the recommend fabric, I didn't like the called for fabric, it was quite dark. 

The fabric I used was a 28 count evenweave in storm grey, (don't know what make), It has a lovely washed mottling.   The colour is coming out  more on the blue side here but it's defiantly grey in real life.

Here's a closer look.

That was a lot of black stitching but it was okay and didn't seem to take that long.

There is a separate chart, included in the pattern, of an owl to stitch, you sort of attach it along with some greenery to a piece of dowelling and it sits atop the stocking when the stocking is made up.  I haven't stitched that yet, and i'm not sure that I want to, I'll decide once the stocking is made up. 

Hopefully I can find some black felt and get it fully finished ready for Autumn.

I cast on another pair of socks yesterday, and have sorted out some yarn from stash to start another Salty Air Tee.  No new cross stitch project planned at the moment, I'm finding knitting easier to pick up.

-X-

Dust bath party

This made my day :-) 

-X-

I don't like Summer...

 But the feeling is mutual, Summer doesn't like me either.  

I was bitten ten times over two days this week, one was quite nasty and the swelling is only just going down.  I've tried all sorts of things over the years that are supposed to stop you getting bitten, nothing I've tried has worked, they always get me!

But apart from not liking bugs, because they like to nibble on me, I have a serious fear of things that flutter, so butterflies, moths, dragonflies, daddy longlegs, that sort of thing, but moths in particular.  I didn't go into our back sitting room for two days a few weeks ago because there was a huge moth in there, Mark was away so my son in law kindly came to evict it.  

Hubby likes to tell people how I abandoned the car in the middle of the high street once because a moth had got through the air vent, it's true, I did, It was about 10pm and I just stopped the car and got as far away as possible.  I stopped a random stranger, who must have thought I was a complete mad woman, but he got the moth out for me.  Might sound like a funny story but I would have walked home rather than get back in that car, and in fairness it was one of those big hairy things, ugh!!

Anyway, bugs and fluttering things aside I have managed to get quite a bit done in the garden this week.  The greenhouse has had a good sort out and clean,  I've washed and organized all the pots and modular trays and taken anything I wasn't going to use to the allotment sharing shelf

It been a bit of a chore going to water the allotment every night, I was complaining to Mark when he phoned that it was too much and that I might give my share of the allotment up when the season ends, sometimes it just feels like the work out ways the reward.

But then I came back with this little harvest on Monday and Wednesday and I'm chuffed to bits that I grew this food 😀

It seems I'm not the only one that's been suffering in the heat, my sweet peas at the allotment did really well for a couple weeks and now they are on the turn, the ones at home haven't really got going at all, a very poor show this year.  The fuchsias in the window boxes are doing okay, I got them from the garden centre this year and they haven't trailed as much as the ones that I've bought from Aldi in the past although the flowers are lovely and big.  Five of the eight dahlia's I planted came up, hoping they will grow a bit now they have been moved, I bought some copper scourers which I've stretched and put around the pots.  I got Mark to move the hydrangea in the pot to the middle of the boarder, the ground is just too hard to dig out to plant anything and it fills the place nicely, I can see it from the kitchen window too now. 

These are the copper scourers I used on the dahlia pots if anyone is interested.

 No grass was growing in this shaded corner so I cut it out and planted some shade loving plants a while ago, so far they are all doing really well, even the hosta has survived, I'm putting that success down to the wool pellets I scattered around.

And a few weeks ago Aldi had one of the pots I wanted for the mind your own business plant I bought in the Spring, I was happy to find one at a reasonable price, although he does look rather stern

The temperatures have cooled a little from earlier in the week, it's still sunny and warm but without the stifling heat we had at the beginning of the week.  Showers are due here at the weekend, that will be a blessing for the garden, the ground is so dry and cracked.

-X-

Our first outing

 Weather wise we couldn't have picked a better week for our first caravaning adventure, there was only one night that we had a little bit of rain, but other than that it was hot and sunny every day, sometimes a little too hot.  

We chose Upton on Severn for our first trip, just 45 minutes down the motorway, a little longer If you take the scenic route.  The site was small and quiet and had everything needed, both the showers and toilets on site were clean.  The only downside was that there was no WIFI and it was hit and miss as to whether we could get online on our phones, although the call signal was fine, I was surprised how quickly I got used to not picking my phone up to check it every five minutes, lol.

We arrived on the Friday lunchtime and it was baking hot, Mark had never put an awning up before and although it was fairly straightforward, working in the heat made it difficult, while I sorted everything inside the van I could hear a fair bit of huffing, puffing and swearing going on outside, lol.  But as you can see he got there in the end.  

There were a couple of things that took time to sort out, the water wasn't coming through and it took the rest of the afternoon for Mark to sort that out, then the water wasn't getting though to flush the toilet so it was the next day before all the little niggles were sorted but there was nothing major and everything works as it should.

It's been an expensive month, besides buying the caravan its been like setting up another house with all the bits and pieces but we did have a couple good buys from fb marketplace, the porch air awning, roof bars, ground sheet and air pump cost us £140, they had only been used once and would have cost over £300 new and the awning carpet was another fb find for £40 again looked like new and the price ticket of £72 was still on the bag.

As I said the weather was great all week so we have spent a lot of time sitting and reading, listening to music and in my case some stitching and knitting and the occasional afternoon nap.  It was very relaxing, just what we both needed.  We did have a few outings, we walked into Upton a couple times and drove out to Tewksbury and Ledbury, both about 20 minutes away.

I'll leave you with some photos I took while we were away, we were both pleasantly surprised by Ledbury and will definitely try and get back there over the Summer.

Upton on Severn

We both fell in love with Ledbury, lovely shops, beautiful buildings and great history

Enjoying the beautiful countryside

Lovely sunset at the caravan park

Start of a new month tomorrow, hope you have a good one

-X-