I’m hoping that all things Royal and Jubilee calm down now, I’m ready for the news to go back to go other things.
Last week, was lovely, I had four days off which was great although I’m pretty confused about what the day of the week is right now. I took some time to look at my budget and inflation proof my it a bit. I can see bills going up and I’m expecting that rent may increase soonish, I’m lucky enough that things aren’t desperate but it doesn’t hurt to review and see what you can get rid of and how you can maybe give yourself a bit of cushion. For me it was cancelling some subscriptions and doing things like changing my mobile contract so it’s cheaper, checking my credit score and so on. It’s taken me years to feel confident with this stuff and not to close my eyes and try to wing it and if you’re there because of cost of living or debt or just because no-one taught you, I get it.
I failed to get a haircut due to issues with the trains, Ma and I went to Osterley House, it rained and I’ve never felt more British, visiting a stately home in the rain! We allotmented, I did a bit of baking, I avoided Jubilee stuff and read books instead. It was a pretty good week.
This week is a full week of work, June is going to hurt a bit after May with so many days out! But I’m home for Monday and Tuesday (Tube strike) and in for Wednesday and Thursday. I have a bunch of stuff to do and I’ll need to take some time to go to the plot to water the polytunnel. That and housework is what the week is going to be all about.
If you listen to Radio 4 (I do, extensively) you would think that we were all thrilled about the Jubilee. While I don’t dislike the person, I still don’t agree with the institution. I happen to believe that if the taxpaxer is going to spend all the money that we do on the Head of State and hangers on (£87.5 million last year although Republic estimates that it’s nearer £345,000,000 a year, when the lost the two duchies (Lancaster and Cornwall), security, costs met by local councils and police forces, and lost tax revenue are accounted for), then the taxpayer should have a say in deciding who that Head of State is. The Queen is quite overpaid for what she does and she has used the law to maintain her own personal wealth and the less said about Prince Andrew, the better.
Yes, I would rather risk President Blair or Johnson, than have Charles III (or whatever name he choses).
Was it really asking too much for Amber Heard to be listened to without prejudice? At the point of the London trial, I thought it was a case of a bad marriage, with all the toxicity that goes with drugs and money. Now, I think Depp was abusive. It’s the way he’s gone after Heard, is she sympathetic, probably not, but I still think that he’s abusive. I hope that he never works again.
The plot is really beginning to look like its summer. Flowers are flowering and we are getting properly close to planting the summer garden.
Californian Poppies
Usually, I feel perpetually behind but this year I’m a bit more relaxed. I am behind but we had a cold spring and I didn’t have the physical or mental space for all the seedlings. The good news is that the polytunnel is going to revolutionise next year and there are and will be plants and vegetables this year, so I’m not going to worry too much.
This week we took the decision that we weren’t going to hit our (ok my) aim to grow everything from seed this year and ordered brassicas from DT Brown. We did it on the Kitchen Garden offer, so we bought 10 brussels sprout plants and got the winter brassica collection for free, which consists of 10 savoy cabbages, 10 sweetheart cabbages, 10 cauliflowers, 10 broccoli plants and 10 cavolo nero kale plants. Eagle eyed readers will notice it’s the same one we had last year, and we really liked it. With delivery charges it’s going to cost £11.90, which breaks down to about 20p per plant. I know, especially right now, that we’re lucky to be able to throw money at it but it’s really worth it to save me the hassle, I just don’t have the time or the mental space to manage growing 60 brassica plants from seed and I don’t think that means I’m cheating.
I’m not actually that bothered by what people think but I had a conversation last week with one of the people on our garden plots and she was really concerned that she wasn’t doing gardening properly. I really hate gatekeepers, my love of something is not invalidated because someone loves what I do and does it differently. We all start off lacking knowledge and we learn what works for us and how we do things changes as we learn. My sister-in-law has a plot and gardens completely differently from me, she also has a ‘hungry’ job, a husband, two boys and a dog. Which means she has to garden differently from me, she still loves her plot and still manages to produce food and teach her boys about the value and cost of growing food. All that to say, I want to be honest about the fact that my gardening and my plot are not perfect, and sometimes I need to buy seedlings because I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with seedlings.
Anyway, back to the work we did this weekend. We started in the polytunnel, all of the seedlings came outside for some sunshine and we cleared the back bed of the salad leaves and the stray potato plant to let the sweet potato spread themselves.
We have two beds of garlic, and one of them was ready, so we pulled them up and left them to dry in the polytunnel. We’re very impressed with ourselves. The second bed is of later garlic and I think that next year we’ll just go with the early types. The entire site has allium rust and leaf miner and early garlic seems to do better.
Some of the drying garlic
We covered the blueberries with netting. So in the photo below, you can see the dark blue netting covering the gooseberries, the white netting covering the big black currant bush and the lighter blue netting behind that.
Covered fruit
We trimmed the overgrown path down the side of the plot next to Dennis (our plot neighbour on the other side had trimmed the other path – for which I’m thankful!). We watered the beds and then we assessed the tomato situation. Last week I had 25 tomato plants and 19 spaces in the beds. Some of the plants had rallied enough that I was happy to put them in the ground. So the four healthly Black Russian plants went into the bed with the Tigerellas and the four remaining Yellow Millefleurs went into the cherry tomato bed.
Tigerellas and Black Russians
The Peche Vilmorins, were looking worse, I think they were waterlogged, but some of the Ethel Watkins and remaining Amish Pastes were a bit better, so we put all of them in what I’m calling the ‘hospital bed’, we’ll see how they do. If they survive, great, if not I’ll plug the gaps with the Sungolds (that still aren’t here and I suspect I won’t see this side of the Bank Holiday!). Two plants ended up in the bin and that left me with three Orange Queens and three tiny Black Russians. They had recovered a bit but I was pretty sure that they needed to be in a bed, so I decided that they could go in the polytunnel bed, I’m hoping that they’ll do well but if they don’t no harm done. The other side of that bed will be for melons and I’m planting them from seed straight into the bed tomorrow.
We also discovered the two of the camomile lawn pots had been colonised by ants, the downside of encouraging wildlife is we seem also to encourage those buggers. We had a terrible ant problem a couple of years ago and I thought it had gotten better (despite everyone saying that ants bites are just annoying, I’m convinced that the two extreme reactions I’ve had were due to red ant bites!). One plant went in the bin, one at the back next to the wild garlic, that isn’t doing so well. The other two I put in the bed with the jasmine and thyme, we’ll see if they live.
Hands should not be that puffy!
We picked rhubarb, chard and herbs to add to our produce haul and finally went home.
Haul
That done we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. Due to the Bank Holiday we’re having two days on the plot this week. I want to get the arches built, fill up the beds, and sow more beans, cucumbers, melons and some flowers. I need to clear the chard bed and we really need to get to some weeding and sorting out the boysenberry bed.
Sweet peas
I also got bonus time at the plot on Sunday morning with Tom and Ivy. She seemed to enjoy it!
Last week was back to work, with a small twist, that twist being a Tuesday morning LFT with a very faint positive. I had a sore throat and was very tired (but that could be any day of the week in hayfever season and I’m always tired!). It’s half term week this week, so I didn’t want to go into the office and give anyone about to go away COVID, so I worked from home, I had a faint positive on Wednesday, didn’t test on Thursday and was all clear on Friday.
If it was COVID, for me it was a sore throat and feeling knackered, I was in bed stupidly early for most of the week because I just wanted to sleep. Again not a surprise because when I’m under the weather, I always want to sleep. Ma didn’t test positive and I’d spend most of the week and weekend with her so I’m inclined to think it was a bug, Saturday was the first day my throat wasn’t sore and I did a test on Sunday morning because Tom was coming over with Ivy and that was negative too. Who knows?
So my week was pretty quiet. We got loads done on the plot, Ma’s team won the Champions League (so the family are all £10 poorer, with the exception of Ma who is £40 richer) and on Sunday I had a visit from Tom and Ivy.
Ivy still has her dubious face, I like her, she takes her time to get to know you, she did warm up (I think feeding her raspberries and giving her flowers helped!). It was also lovely to see Tom and he’s promised to come again!
Today is my only day at work, I needed to have tomorrow off work for a haircut and given that we have Thursday and Friday off for the Bank Holiday, I thought I’d just take two days and have a straight four days off. The plan is a day at the allotment and a visit to Osterley House, I haven’t been since I was 15 so it’ll be interesting to see what I remember.
I’m almost at the point where I have nothing to say. The news is terrible, you know people die all the time but children shouldn’t be killed because men love guns. I feel at this point the world has become a parody, did you know that in Texas you can own as many guns as you like but only 5 dildos. In the UK if you own two houses, you’ll get £800 off your energy bills, but if you don’t claim benefit or you’re not a pensioner, you’ll only get £400. If you hold an illegal party in your house during lockdown, the police won’t charge you, unless you’re a junior civil servant.
It seems like the world is upside down and there is only so much energy I can muster for it and remain sane, I’ve sort of hit my limit….
I’ve been using Oddbox for about a year now. I’ve settled into a small veg box and a fruit booster very other week and it’s been useful for making sure I get a lot of veg. I may stop the veg box in the summer but so far so good.
I get get kiwis quite a lot and I’m not keen on eating them as is and there aren’t a lot of ways to cook kiwis.
I thought I’d make a smoothie pack (I used to do this quite a bit). The week I did this I had apples and spinach in the Oddbox to. I did need to buy bananas but I collect the single ones rather than a bunch so I can get the right amount.
Yes for the sake of this photo, I poured smoothie into a wine glass…
I made up the smoothie packs with one kiwi, half an apple, half a banana, a handful of spinach. In the morning I add half a cup of whole yoghurt and half a cup of water and blend.
They are really handy to have in the freezer, especially on the days that I go into the office because breakfast is harder when I have to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning, what I don’t get to drinking before I leave the house, I can stick in a flask and finish in the office.
Actually it’s more like some of the tomatoes are in the ground. Last week, London got up to 27C and while some of the tomatoes did well, some didn’t. It could be that they didn’t have enough water or that they were too wet. The peat free compost from Wickes, gets really dry on top but under that is really soggy, it could just be that they were too small and didn’t have a good enough root system.
So on Saturday, we chose the ones that were going out and we’ll leave the rest on life support for a bit longer, last week we (ok I) succumbed to the Grow Your Own offer and bought some Sungold Cherry tomatoes, so we’re waiting on those.
The big bed got 15 plants, all Feo de Rio Gordo (eight) and Amish Paste (seven). All the Gardener’s Sweetheart (six) went in but only one of the Yellow Millefleur looked good enough. The three Orange Queen plants might make it and there are four Black Russian plants that need a bit of time but are looking really heathy, so they are going to spend some time in the poly this week, with the four Peche Vilmorin plants. All six of the Tigerella plants are in the ground and look well. The biggest failure were the Ethel Watkins Best, they are looking really weedy (and didn’t do well last year!) so we’ll see. I have 25 plants in the poly, 12 Sungolds on order and 19 spaces in the beds, so I’m going to be ok!
We had a bit of a compost assessment after we topped up all the potatoes, I’m going to order another 12 bags, that will deal with the four summer squash beds, the cucumber bed, the winter squash beds and the two beds at the back of the pot (where the chard and the turnips were) and then we have to be done because I’m so over wheelbarrowing it to the plot!
Other than my tomato babies, we sowed the dwarf french beans (Aida Gold and Purple Queen) and drying beans (Jacobs Cattle Gold).
Ladybird lava hanging out on the shed door
We also did a bit of weeding around the gooseberries, removing some cornflowers and bindweed. We also covered the blackcurrant bush, to protect them from the birds, I would like more than 12 blackcurrants this year.
Then we put together another arch. I know they don’t look perfect but they are what we can afford. One more to go and then we’ll sow climbing beans up them. Giantes and some climbing french beans. Hopefully after the next Bank Holiday, we’ll have both squash beds planted up. Ma did ask if I was also going to sow sweetcorn for a “three indian” bed but I’m not sure that the longer, thinner beds will work as well for a three sisters bed, but you never know, I may change my mind when we move the squash into them.
I’ve been saying that we should visit Seaton Delaval Hall for ages and I finally got Ma to agree as the 40-ish minute bus ride from Newcastle seemed like a better prospect than the drive from Amble did last year.
I didn’t bring my camera with me for this trip so all photos are from my phone..
The Hall was designed by John Vanbrugh, who designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and while Seaton Delaval is not quite on that scale, you can see it’s in the same style (though one of the volunteers did point out that Blenheim has a bit more gilt – which scans for the Churchills!).
Unfortunately, Seaton Delaval didn’t last very long as a family home, building finished in 1728, it was destroyed by fire in 1822 and for 40 years had no roof.
It was sold to the National Trust in 2009 and there has been extensive work to stop it falling further into decay but there are no plans to fully restore it.
We got the bus from Newcastle, it took about 45 minutes and it’s well worth a visit.
We had a fabulous couple of days in Newcastle, it is my favourite UK city after London and the only one I’d contemplate living in full time if I didn’t already live in London. (Although I would also consider Dublin and Paris – although they would be difficult to live in given that we’re not in the EU anymore and I’m really conflicted about applying for an Irish passport*)
We went to Tynemouth and Seaton Delaval and the Baltic. I love the Baltic, it’s just the right amount of space to do enough art, I find the Tate and Tate Modern can be a little bit overwhelming (but I also need to go more often and then it would be less overwhelming!) I love self catering holidays but there was something lovely about not cooking at all for three days. Every morning, I got up and walked along the Quayside to Greggs to pick up coffee and bacon rolls for Ma and I to eat while we planned our day. We ate at Riley’s in Tynemouth, Six at the Baltic (thanks to Laura for the rec) and the Real Greek on our first night. It was delightful.
We got back on Thursday afternoon, and I spent the weekend sorting myself out and tending to the plot.
This week, I’m all about home and work because I have this week and Monday and then I’m on leave again, this time to do more boring things, like have a haircut and sort of the cupboard of doom!
Have a good week!
*possibly a post for another time but my while I could work it out and apply for an Irish passport, it feels like I’m taking advantage of an entire nation to get the advantages of an EU passport. I have a complicated enough relationship with my Dad (yes he’s been dead for 20 odd years – what of it?). Aside from anything else, Dad had pretty strong feelings about claiming to be from a country that he didn’t grow up in. He used to say that he was born in the UK, housed in the UK, educated in the UK and didn’t have to deal with any of the Church nonsense that that his cousins in Ireland had to deal with, so no he was British and of Irish descent. I would say that I’m English but I also know that he always said British and not English, (he was the child of immigrants and it’s complicated).
Nic Dempsey 