Last week did not feel like like a good week but it wasn’t actually all that bad. It absolutely had it’s moments but some of those moments were pretty good.
I had three trips to the allotment. For watering and picking.
On Sunday, I had to face up to a summer with no tomatoes or aubergines. The aubergine just died and the tomato plants have blight. the courgettes remain prolific…
Sue and Richard came for dinner on Friday and it was so good to see them and catch up, they’ve had a tough year so far but it was lovely to just sit and talk and talk and talk!
I spent a large chunk of Saturday with the Baxters, the children were a delight and the elder one and I went off for a trip to the library, for ‘coffee’ and to the park, which hopefully left her good and exercised!
Ma came over on Saturday and helped on the allotment on Sunday, leading to this great example of mother-daughter conversation. And that is all the news that’s fit to print!
I sliced it up and sauted it until it was really soft, browned and a bit mushy and then poured the juice of a lemon into the pan, stirred and turned the heat off. I added the hot cooked pasta and mixed it all up.
You can’t see the courgette under the cheese but I promise you it’s there.
It looks quite different now.
The weeds went haywire in between times 
I was very lucky because the allotment was given up, not abandoned, the weeds were never completely out of control and there was stuff on the plot that has given me a crop. Hello rhubarb, raspberries and gooseberries. There is also a blackcurrant bush and some volunteer strawberry plants but they haven’t really produced. I also got some self seeded afgan and californian poppies.
It’s true what they say about a new plot, clearing some ground and planting something really helps to motivate you to work on the overgrown bits. I was so lucky that I had permanent things producing already and friends that gifted me plants. Jonny gave me two large courgette plants, which are currently keeping me in courgettes.
Being involved in the volunteer days at the allotments and joining the Facebook group was handy for advice on planning and free cherry tomato plants that were looking for a home. 
It’s been fantastic to put seeds in the ground and watch them grow. I have more or less taken the approach that the worst thing that can happen is that the seeds don’t grow or the slugs eat them and I have to go again. That was the case with the dwarf french beans. I had to abandon the first set that were planted out and sow directly and they did come up, not fast but they are growing. The same applies to the sweet peas (bought) and peas (sown) they are alive but not very tall.
And all of the tomatoes, including the two roma tomato plants that I bought have flowers too, although a couple of people have reported blight so I need to keep an eye on them. The courgette plants that I grew from seed (all 5 of them) are only eight weeks old and not producing fruit yet but I have a feeling that I’m going to be giving them away by August! The salad that I sowed has grown with minimal slug damage (they are very fond of rocket though!)
I have long list of things that need will need to be done. I want to move the three gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrant to one area so I can protect them more easily from the pigeons. I want to set up a strawberry bed. I need a shed so I don’t have to carry tools to and from the plot. I would really like to put proper raised beds in. A lot of that needs time, some of it needs money but I think overall, I’m in a good place!
Saturday lunch was a chuck it all in rice thing because I was trying to use things up
Saturday night dinner consisted of the braised lentils with additional vegetables and cheese. The green things are thinned basil seedlings!
For Sunday lunch I made a sausage tart, loosely based off 
Weekday breakfasts were 
Monday night dinner was the leftover potatoes with peppers, mushroom and onion
Thursday was another missed dinner
A lot of that was food for lunches and breakfast but seriously, the fridge was packed. I seemed to have a lot of food left over from last week and using that up was key, then things that I hadn’t planned for like the sausage tart (a last minute, what do I have that will make a nice lunch for Ma?) ended up supplying lunch for the 4 days I needed it.
FINANCE
BODY AND MIND
Nic Dempsey 