I'm going to try again .....

I'm back from some more travels, the combi boiler is not working, so no heating or hot water - but am I down hearted? (No, only cold and probably smelly!!) Well.... let's see!!

It is March and the garden is starting to grow, snowdrops and crocuses are out, daffodils are just starting to flower and shrubs like honeysuckle and viburnum are filling the air with a gloriously sttrong perfume.

However, that is not what is exciting me at the moment. In the past I have begged for someone to search out a tidiness gene - not any more! A book has come to my rescue - "A perfect mess. the hidden benefits of disorder' is helping me to accept my lifestyle. The authors, Abrahamson and Freedman point out lots of things that I think I instinctively felt but could not put together as an argument against those who demanded tidiness. Don't get me wrong, I admire the tidy ones amonst us and have always felt I would like to be up there with them, but I can't do it for more than 5 minutes. And of course, all my really good friends are incredible tidy. I have frequently asked why they still talk to me, but got no real answer, now I shall not be asking any more!

I even sign up to web sites that send me weekly emails to help me tidy up my life, I know I should only touch a letter once, then it should have been dealt with. (Hah!! Get real!)

So, the next few posts will be 'a trumpet blast against' this expectation of tidiness, not quite in the same vein as John Knox, but equally vehement I hope!

I'm back again!

Just back from walking in the rainforests of Boreno and Brunei seeing lots of lovely creatures and plants, only to find that my own garden resembles some of those areas rather too closely! The courgette plants have produced marrows which are about 2 feet long and seem to be burrowing into the soil, the plants are also heading off to the hills with runners many yards long! The more worrying thing is that the spiders in the house also seem to have gone into overdrive and some of the rooms feel as if they need a machete to deal with the webs. They aren't quite as thick as the web made by the tarantula spider, but they feel every bit as sticky!

Most of the unpacking is done and I have found my brother's card that I forgot to take to his birthday bbq on the way down to Heathrow. He'll get it late, but better late than never! Its my so's birthday today but I managed to get his card sent off and will speak to him tonight - he's playing golf today so will enjoy his day!

Tomorrow I am going to try one of the Malaysian recipes from our holiday cooking course, so I had better clear the decks.

Dirty Stop Out!!

Am away in Riga at the moment.... back soon! And yes, I am taking lots of photographs.

Come for a Pizza!

My daughter invited my over for a meal on Saturday night - a meal with a difference. She had build an oven outside and used it to cook pizzas, so she wondered if I would like to try it too. Wow, that's a treat I would not turn down, almost as good as my bucket barbeque - in fact I think it's better!!

She dug out the clay from her garden which is near this lake, then she built the oven over a pile of sand.





Mum and some babies - we thought they were cute!






This is Livvy putting a loaf of bread into the oven..











Here's one of the pizzas, they were small so we made several. (And yes, they are now sitting well on my hips!) They were delicious and took very little time to cook - in fact almost exactly the time it took to eat half of one and wet our lips with some wine!









To finish, we needed a walk around the lake at sunset - almost as good as the Kariba dam!!




Just as we were almost home, we saw this funny sight -

Some weeds will grow anywhere! (The hedge it is growing through is about 4 feet high.)

I will write about our Sunday adventures later.

Grrr! I hate sorting out piles of paperwork which should have been done ........ago!!!

All day!! That's what it has taken - well apart from a little shopping outing to buy a bin, the tap and the gravel for the second wormery. I shall set it up tomorrow and start it off with a little bucket of worms and compost from the present wormery. Then I shall add the new bokashi compost to it. So exciting!! (Yes, so sad too....!) Oh and I tried a new recipe - broad bean frittata. It was yummy, so yummy I have nibbled at it all afternoon and finished it! (Looks a slightly strange colour in the photo)




However, I have cleared from left to right of the desk top, filed all my statements etc and filled in all forms - oh no, I lie, there's one more to do....

Only when that is done will I pour myself a good stiff gin and tonic as a reward. I can almost hear my mother chuntering that if I had done all this as soon as I received the papers, then today would not have been so awful. I hate it when she is so right - even retrospectively!!

Done it!

Most people run marathons, I feel I have weeded a gardenathon... my lengthy trips away have encouraged the weeds to grow abundantly in the garden, so it has been a busy time sorting it out. Luckily I have finished it before the real season starts, so I can also sit down and read a book sometimes during the day without listening to the weeds getting closer and closer. (The person who first told the story of the princess sleeping in the tower which became totally overgrown, must have been a gardener!) Now I must train myself to do a section a day with the hoe so that 'they' don't have a second crop and take over again!

It looks like my sister's pruning of the pear tree was successful, there are some fruit on the tree this year, not many, but enough to give it a reprieve from the chop. The quince has set well so I am looking forward to a good crop this year, lots of quince cheese and paste I think. (OOH and vodka...) All the other fruit trees have set some fruits so I must now water them, especially the cherries as they do not like getting too dry.

Tonight's little job is to make sleeping bags for the tomato and basil plants that I have planted out in pots, I am sure they will help them to grow better. I just love freshly picked tomatoes to eat. This morning I managed to pick a little handful of alpine strawberries from the garden for my breakfast, the first fruit of the season.

Tonight's supper is going to be stuffed puffball, with quincemeat pies for pudding. Oh its no wonder I don't lose weight!

Update on the bumblebees' 'des res'

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust were pleased to know about the nest in my compost heap!! There, what an extremely pleasing achievement in life - to know that there are areas of the garden which wildlife likes and chooses to live in.

However, I was not too pleased with the local hornet coming into my kitchen - she did not receive such a welcome, and is no more although she is beautiful!