I Think You’re Bonkers

Dino had his full day in school just before his birthday and he came home absolutely shattered  and having done more work in one go than he ever has - but he enjoyed it and is talking about the local kids as being "in my class" with a big grin. The change in him is remarkable and has been noticed by other people too.

School is clearly the right thing for him, for us and for now. I’m feeling better about it all, although I’m really not looking forward to having to get up in the mornings from Sept. 

Mimi is planning lots of baking, painting, colouring and dvd watching for during the school day when she and I are home together. 

This summer, for the first time, I’m letting them both play out at the front of the house - with local kids and on bikes/skateboards etc. I figured that as Dino gets older and as he’s going to be in school with quite a few of them it makes sense for him to get to know them a bit before he goes full time. It seems to be fine, no major issues yet. We’ve had a couple of run ins with some of the boys recently but Dino seems to be holding his own out there, and looking out for Mimi too.

So, while the kids are out at the front of the house I’m pottering about at the back, in my garden… Today the grass got cut, the rose, teasel, buddleia and blackcurrant all got pruned; a flower bed got weeded; the blackcurrant prunings got shoved in some freshly dug soil - in the hope of sprouting more for sharing/next year. Having successfully made jam for the first time a couple of weeks ago I think I can find the space for a third bush for jam making! The apple trees got retied so their support stakes are actually supporting properly and the hens got de-loused, again. We currently have the 2 adult hens and Rainbow is the only one laying at the moment and she’s the one who is literally crawling with lice round her bum. Copper hates being handled and the indignity of being hung upside down by her feet and liberally dusted with "stuff" was more than the poor creature could bare and she let her protest be known, loudly. Rainbow, on the other hand, just sits there and lets me do it for a while. Eventually she gets fed up and makes a break for it so I have to hold on tight and work fast, but she’s easier. The lice will need keeping an eye on and will need re-treating in a day or so, again.

BBC Dig In is offering free packets of seed for Grown ups, and for kids (under 16’s) - just fill in a simple form on each site and seeds turn up 28 days later. I’ve just done it for us and hopefully we’ll get packets in the post!

The Dig In pack has Lettuce, Tomato, Squash, Beetroot and Carrot - no idea what varieties but should be fun. There are also videos on there showing you how to sow, grow and get the best from your seeds and resulting edibles.

No doubt Dino and Mimi will be growing things again this year….. 

Certainly feels like it with warm, sunny, blue skies…..

I have washing out on the line, the sun is shining and the sky is blue (ish, in patches in between the clouds) - shame it’s still cold really, it’s a lovely day. The ground is still very very wet, so no digging but I may go back out to spike some more lawn in a bit. The washing won’t dry but it’ll air and smell nice!

The kids took a bucket and went slug hunting - feeding them to the hens as they found them. That should help with the slug problem this year. While they did that I got out my new cordless drill and put up a new bird table on the big shed. Then we discovered we have no bird food apart from an old fat ball we found in a cupboard - I have no idea how long it’s been there but it didn’t smell rancid so we hung that up. Then on the table part we chucked a handful of mixed grains (don’t tell the hens!) and a couple of apple cores and we’ll see what happens. We have bird food on the shopping list for next week.

Thinking about the garden - we had a chat about how there’s pretty much no cover round our garden and nowhere for wildlife to live. So this year we’ll be putting in more shrubs, bushes and wildlife friendly stuff, as well as the veg we’ll be growing too. I don’t think another tree will work, we already have three and more might cause problems, I’ll have a think on that. I do like trees though.

I also want a bit of a herb garden, some for eating, some for pretty and some for scent, and some just because…. I think a visit to The Herb Garden near here is in order sometime in March or April.  They do native wild flowers too, which might be nice.

The kids are clearing and hoovering the living room and making a decent job of it - probably because I banned DS time until it’s done to my satisfaction. Also likely a result of the serious talk we had about their sliding behaviour again. 

I got some Autumn planting onion sets, they should have gone in the ground in October and over-wintered but I didn’t bother with much over winter planning so didn’t get any until I saw an offer on some online…. So, my onion sets arrived yesterday and the instruction was to get them in the ground as soon as possible - so as the sun is shining and the sky is blue today - even if the ground is hard and cold - we turned over a smallish area of one of the Bramble patch beds and stuck in 24 onions. I hope they grow! I want some red onions to go alongside them now, I love red onions….

We had quite a discussion about how some things need to be outside through the winter so they can grow properly - like the garlic which is showing nicely and looking good. It doesn’t look quite as good as last year but it’s still going to be a good crop I think. 

We pottered about, tidied up a bit out there and threw the hens a bucket of weeds to pick over, which they seemed to like. Didn’t stay outside long as it’s bitterly cold and we were starting to get chilled despite coats, scarves and gloves.

Both kids are getting their set "sitting-down-work" done each day, although I called a halt early today and they are each short one piece of work because they both have horrendous colds and can’t concentrate properly. We’ll get back to that when they’re feeling better - but I’m not dropping it completely, they need to learn that some things just need to be done.

No eggs so far today. Hens seem happy though so not worried but I have told the kids to stay out of the pen and leave the poor things alone today.

We weighed Mimi’s pumpkin today - it’s 7kg and it’s turning slowly orange! She’s very pleased. 

Edited to add - Nope, they were just working out the nest box and taking very long turns in there. One egg so far and one hen sitting in there and refusing to come out or let anyone else in. Umm, that’d be Red, and she’s mine. Stroppy bugger.

Picked our 2 surviving apples today….

 

 

Today we cleared 3 of the 4 squash/pumpkin plants from behind the shed. I know there were 4 plants in there, I found 2 labels and I know the one left is a Howden pumpkin but it never set any fruit. It can come out another day. So, I pulled plants for a Howden pumpkin (another one) and a Spaghetti squash and something unlabelled.

Now, we grew Howden, Jack O’Lantern and Lumina pumpkins and I know where the Jack’s went.  So the mystery plant was either a Howden or Lumina pumpkin.

However, we have a mystery fruit and the plants were so tangled that if it weren’t for having 3 root ends I’d be convinced they were 2 plants, if that makes sense.

Fruit on the right - the darker green one with the wider base, is definitely a Howden pumpkin - I traced the stem from the root and label, and it looks exactly like the one Mimi grew. But the fruit on the left? Not a clue. It’s clearly something else…. Answers in comments please….. 

 

Mimi with her HUGE pumpkin for you.

 

We declared a draw in the end ….

 

His is the greener one on the left - nicer shape, lovely markings and slightly lighter weight at 1.11kg. But it recovered after almost being lost to a late frost and Dino nurtured it to that size. He’s very proud. Mine is the all orange one on the right. It’s a bit bigger at 1.53kg. It had the advantage of benign neglect and a lovely sunny spot to grow in. Both will become small lanterns for Samhain and the insides will be soup or pie. 

Well, mostly.

 

• Take home grown veg from the garden - you’ll need an onion, some garlic, a carrot or 2 (depending on size) and a beetroot - I put in a couple of small celery sticks and about half a courgette too.
• Cook beetroot in water until soft enough to peel the skin off and dice. Keep the water.
• Dice the veg and fry until soft in some oil - I like olive but any will do.
• Add a spoon or so of plain flour and stir in to soak up the oil.
• Add in a tin of tomatoes (not home grown but it’s what we had, you could cook some home grown toms if you felt like it I suppose) 
• Top up with water from the beetroot, and a bit more if needed (and a stock cube if you want) and any seasoning you feel might be needed, herbs etc.
• Simmer gently until all veg are soft. 
• Blitz until smooth.
• Serve with bread.

It’s a variation of the Shrek Lava Soup recipe and we liked it. I used the biggest pot I have and kept topping up the water so there was enough to freeze half too. The beetroot makes it really red and changes the flavour away from that sharp tomato that can happen. Was home made bread too.