This is a Jamie Oliver recipe, I’ve made it a couple of times and it’s great and pretty much a store cupboard recipe for me aside from the sausages. Although I don’t have chilli flakes so I left them out and it’s better if you use really good sausages (obviously, use what you can afford but I used the ones we bought from The Amble Butcher when we were away) and I used more kale than in the recipe because I love kale and have lots of it!
I’ve eaten it by itself but because I liked it so much I made it for Ma and that time served it with rice.
This weekend, we started the revamp of the plot. After we had walked to the plot three times, me with wheelbarrows of woodchip, Ma with all the cardboard and other things we needed!
We took apart the two beds next to the rose garden and pond. Then we set about making an established bed taller. That done we planted garlic in it!
Ma started to clear the big squash bed, and I started at the back of the plot, where the new compost bins are going to be, we also moved one of the bins. That makes it sound much quicker and easier than it actually was. There was much swearing and I was pretty broken by the end of the day!
But it looks much better. I’ve ordered the compost bins, so fingers crossed, we’ll get them this week and put them up next week. Eventually, we’ll woodchip the whole of this path because it’s slippery and over grown and if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I love woodchip!
We also started to build another bed but the drill ran out of charge!
The big squash bed is going to make three smaller beds and will be filled with overwintering onions and shallots. I also need to order and sow broad beans, but they will probably go at the front of the plot.
My must do plan for the next few weeks:
Build the compost bins
Finish splitting the big squash bed
Sow the onions, shallots and broad beans
Once I’m done with that, we’re going to have a weeding blitz. There is grass everywhere on the paths and it really needs dealing with.
That done and we’ll be at least into mid November and I start moving the gooseberries and splitting up rhubarb. Then we’ll be back to rebuilding beds.
There is lots to do and it’s really nice to have made a start.
2020 has been a terrible year for my reading life. It’s not that I’ve not been reading it’s just that things I would usually gallop through, I haven’t had the emotional energy for.
I have listed the books I’ve read this year and just updated this year’s reading list. My reading has been mostly about comfort and I’m fine with that, so lots of easy reading, lots of re-reading and very little in the way of difficult or ambiguous endings, I’ve also yet to finish The Mirror and the Light! There have been a couple of new books that have broken through my fog and I read one last week.
I mentioned back in April that I’d re-read The Queen’s Thief series and this month the final book arrived, I read it in 24 hours. It’s so good. I’m going to re-read the whole series again. Every time I re-read them, I notice something new. They are technically YA but that is more about them not being explicit than the characters as there are things in the book, you only understand as an adult.
There are lots of twists but they aren’t that surprising when they come because you realise the clues were always there in the story, it’s more of an ‘ah’ moment. I’ve inflicted them on godchildren 2 to 5 and am working out when I can inflict them on Ms. T and Oli because they are so good. I’ve also inflicted them on Sarah, Fred and anyone who I think might enjoy them they weren’t such a hit with Christelle…
They are considered and beautifully crafted books and everyone should read them.
So on Friday night, London went into Tier Two. What does that mean for me? Well Mum isn’t going to come over mid-week unless she hires a car but she will and can continue to come over at the weekend. We are in a support bubble so that is allowed, if the allotment was near her house, I’d go to her! Also at the weekend, she comes over and goes home first thing, so the buses are pretty empty. But we’re not allowed to go into anyone’s house or meet them indoors, which puts Christmas at my brother’s in doubt. We’ll see.
Other than the government not having a sodding clue and the rising COVID numbers, it was a pretty good week. I’m settling into an autumn routine, the desk has really helped me focus on work when I’m working. I am taking time to exercise but what I need to get my head around, is getting outside more during the week. I’m managing it at the moment because we have a work walking challenge but I’m naturally a pretty good hermit!
Other good things, a great day’s work on the plot, and yesterday Kathy and her eldest came for a visit, which was lovely, I’ve not been able to spend time with either of the Baxter children so it was lovely to see this one in such good health, it’s been quite the year for them!
This week, is more of the same, work, exercise and the grown up stuff we have to do, like laundry and hoovering and enjoying the last week of light(ish) evenings before the clocks go back!
I’ve already written about my love for Altruist Sun Cream aka the magic unicorn of sun block.
They have a moisturiser which is amazing. I had a persistent patch of dry elbow (just my left elbow for some reason!) which moisturiser wasn’t touching, after two days of using this, I didn’t. I use it on my hands, my feet and my body, in an emergency on my face and it’s been brilliant. It’s all purpose and £5 a tube.
It’s a small thing but going into winter, especially this one, I need to moisturise more and I need things that work, if they work and are well within my budget, that’s even better!
It’s been an ok week, I’m still wrestling diaries at work and my listening choice for work from home has taken a bit of a diversion to 6Music. It’s usually Women’s Hour that scares me off and then I go back for WATO and PM. In other news, Ma and I now the proud owner of a wheelbarrow, a strimmer and 400 litres of woodchip (there wasn’t any free stuff at weekend!). The allotment is going to begin it’s transformation for next spring at the weekend!
What do you do with a couple of kilos of green tomatoes?
The last of the tomatoes
I usually leave them to ripen and I did that for quite a few of them but you get to the stage where you need to clear some space and everyone had mentioned green tomato chutney (except my friend Jonny, who isn’t keen!)
I wanted a recipe that didn’t use apples and this one from Lovely Greens, fitted the bill and looked really easy. The hardest thing was chopping a kilo of onions!
It took a hour or two for it to reduce down to chutney and I will confess, I did not water bath the jars. While I’m more than happy to do it for compote, salsa, tomatoes and pressure canning for things like stock. I don’t for most jams, marmalade and chutneys (yes I know and I’m prepared to risk it!)
Ready
It made about eight jars and it’s delightful, I’m not generally keen on pickle but this is lovely and not to harsh, Mum really likes it, so I’m happy!
It’s Ben’s birthday today! (This picture was taken a long time ago, he looks much older nowadays, he is younger than me but he looks older…)
Ben and I get on much better in our 40’s than we ever did when we were younger and I’m so proud of him. None of us are perfect but I know how far he’s come and what a good father and husband he is (my dad was not a great example!)
I’m sure that he’ll have a lovely day with Laura, the boys and the dog! Five more years until 50 brother!
The weather has turned, on Saturday, we went to the plot and it was cold and wet. We’ve got a ton of stuff to do but we are waiting on some key equipment (a wheelbarrow, a strimmer, some more woodchip!) and I should have brought the drill!
We have cleared and covered some more beds and we collected the last of the winter squash, did a bit of weeding and then as it started to rain, we went home. But not before admiring the roses, which are having a moment.
Roses
And we harvested sweet potatoes. It worked! This is my half, they were Ma’s idea and we’ll grow them again next year!
Sweet potatoes
So let’s talk winter construction plans. In some of the flat clearing out over the last week, I found a rough drawing of what I thought the first half plot would eventually look like and it doesn’t look anything like that! So please bear in mind that these are our current plans but the allotment may have other ideas….
First up moving beds, two of the beds that held tomatoes this year are going. We’ll use to wood from one of them to increase the depth of the third bed. And I’m going to have the lovely job of moving and riddling the soil from the old beds into that one and then we’ll plant garlic.
Less fun will be clearing and spliting the big squash bed on the left. This was the last bed to have anything planted in it this year. However, Ma says it’s too big to weed and it is horribly weedy! So we’re going to split it into 3 or 4 beds and increase the depth of them, that with some more cardboard and compost should help with the weeds! I’m thinking that at least three of them will be used for overwintering onions, shallots and broad beans.
I’m not finished with beds because the other squash bed is going to be split in half lengthways, we’ll put a path down the middle and in the spring we’ll make a tunnel for squash to grow up.
Bucket of greens
The other thing I really want to sort over the winter, is the compost area. So it’s moving. I’ve already created a ‘rubbish compost’ pile by moving some of the pallets. We’re going to cover the ground at the back with cardboard and woodchip and then set up 3 compost bins that are easy access so I can turn it more easily. So once we’ve bought and assembled them, we (who am I kidding?) I will need to move the contents of the bins we have to determine what goes back into the compost and what we can use to top up the beds.
Gooseberries. I have two that need moving into a bed and then the area where the gooseberries were needs weeding and amending and then I need to get rhubarb to go into that area.
I’m debating whether the rhubarb in the corner needs splitting. It’s the only one that hasn’t and it wasn’t brilliant this year. So that may or not happen.
Rosemary flowers
Raspberries. I need to move the summer raspberries out and despite the advice, I’m going to put autumn raspberries into them. I also need to move the blackcurrants, I’m either going to move the entire bed and put the blackcurrants back into them or I’m going to move the bed and put more raspberries in that bed (we like raspberries!) and find another space for the blackcurrants.
Patio. The patio may not happen but we are planning to put it slap bang next to the rose garden and pond and I need to sort out the edging for that area and plant some bulbs in the pond area now the soil is less concrete like.
So lots to do and while it feels like winter goes on forever there is actually only 26 weeks between now and our last frost dates next year!
I’ve always been upfront about how autumn affects me. I don’t enjoy the dark, but can cope with the cold, so last week I didn’t post much because last weekend and this week, I was busy with the flat and exercise.
But I did get the desk built and in place, the house is looking very organised and tidy and I love the changes. I want to sort out shelves for above the desk, curtains for the bedroom and maybe a bigger and more insulating rug for the living room and then I am done for home improvement for 2020.
I’m know how lucky I am to have a job and to have the flat and not have to share it, but 2020 has meant that I’ve needed to use it in different ways than usual. So this year I properly sorted out the cupboard of doom and got a decent work from home space carved out in the living room, so my colleagues won’t get distracted by my knife rack during calls!
It’s been an expensive house year and it means that I haven’t (for the 11th year in a row) sorted out a wardrobe but that’s an issue for next year. The flat is a lot like the plot, I’m never really finished!
So the week was mostly about the house, but I got outside a bit more and got a bit more exercise, all good things.
This week is more work – I’ve set myself a deadline for some work because I need to get some things finished for my own peace of mind.
