Before the threatened rain I dashed out with trug and secateurs to secure the makings of our Sunday Dinner. Markana peas, Arran Pilot spuds, The Sutton broad beans and Invicta gooseberries. The latter came from a plant I bought for our old allotment and successfully brought with me. It's said not to have as fine a flavour as some varieties but is resistant to mildew. I suspect I don't have a seriously gooseberry-sensitive palate but it tastes fine to me. When we next get a bit of sun I am off down the lane elderflower sniffing. There are a couple of really nice ones but a few tom-catty efforts which I've avoided for wine-making too. These flowers will join the goosegogs in a jam - one of my favourites.
The gooseberry bush I harvested this morning is growing in a very overgrown border that hasn't really been tackled since we came here. I've hard-pruned a thicket of forsythia to leave just the main shrub - I'll lose a year's blossom but I'll gain a huge area. I want to prune this gooseberry too - it's been neglected since it went in. However, as I grubbed around it, I found some of the lower branches had layered. I chopped them off and potted them into one of the containers I'd had early potatoes in. I really do intend to mend my ways but it's a fact that the rewards of sloppy gardening are so great! The space I've gained in this border will become a fruit bed. I'm intending to take some cuttings of the Ben Sarek blackcurrant I brought from the old allotment later this week. It would be too much to hope that this has layered itself too - it's at the back of Himself's wildflower meadow so is a little inaccessible much of the time.
I am still sucking thorns out of my fingers after picking the gooseberries. This plant is seriously thorny - it must be the original 'Prickety Bush' of folk song fame!
Yesterday was hot and sunny - what a contrast! We walked along the river bank and met our son-in-law and grand-daughter and walked back here - they live in the next village along the river. We were very surprised to see a black swan on the river. SIL and GD saw a long (4ft) grass snake basking on the path too. Wildlife abounds around here!
Handsome chap (or chapess) isn't it? It swam (swanned?) up and down the river and although it kept to the far bank it didn't seem at all fazed by the company.
The rain is set in for the day now, I suspect. Ho hum. Better go and count me seeds!
5 comments:
I'm on seed counting too this afternoon, Flum - but at least we wont have to go a-watering this evening, eh?
The arran pilots look good in your lovely wicker basket - how do they compare to the lady cristl for taste?
I think on balance I prefer Lady Crystl. They are a lovely cold potato with a salad. Often the flavour is reduced when the potato goes cold but Lady C is brilliant. I like Arran Pilot as a hot new potato and I seem to get a slightly heavier yield with it. However, I think flavour is very personal. I'd really love tasting days!
Freshly dug spuds are so gorgeous that they rarely have time to go cold in my house...
Now you've got the allotment, think how many varieties you can experiment with next year...
Half an allotment - and pea seeds that I need to grow out and see what I've got. So many seeds, so little soil!
For a couple of years there were a pair of black swans on the Thames at Runnymead (outside cousin Dorothy's front door) but this year they have gone - D says the white swans chased them away - this pair of whites will not tolerate any other swans in their patch, but down at Staine's bridge there is a flock of about 50 living together comfortably! strange!
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