I've got a red one!

Tomato that is. The reason that this deserves it's own special post?
Last year I got not one. The dreaded blight swept through whilst they were all still green.
I watched Alys Fowler's programme and she said that this year she wasn't even going to try, and I felt the same, but then...
Isn't gardening always like that? A series of disappointments and small victories.
Today was a victory.  I hope Alys changed her mind too.

Courgettes

Today we had courgettes for lunch.
Today we had courgettes for tea.
Today we had courgettes for pudding too.

I guess the courgette season is here?

Lunch : Pasta with ribbons of courgette fried in olive oil with a cream sauce, chilli flakes and black pepper. Served with a green salad, smoked salmon and a wedge of lemon.
Pudding: Chocolate courgette cake, raspberries, cream.
Tea BBQ sausages, courgette marinated in olive oil and a little lemon, salad, potatoes. And ketchup.
Pudding BBQ chocolate bananas, toasted marshmallows.

Yum!
Today I am liking courgettes.

(camera is broken again - but I guess by this point in the season you all know what a courgette looks like...)

The birds and the bees

My 4yo is a child of the soil.

One bedtime last week we were answering the age old question of "Where do babies come from?".
I told him that Daddies plant seeds inside Mummies and a baby grows.  He thought for a bit - "is it a carrot seed?" he asked. "No", I said "because that would grow a carrot". "Oh yes! I must be a baby seed". "Yes" I said. "That's good" he said - "because you can't grow carrots..."

(We then got onto the mechanics. After flatly dismissing the anatomical explaination of the "special cuddle" that Daddies give to Mummies he seems to have decided that Daddy keeps a magic wand in his trousers that he waved over Mummy. A trip to the magician will never seem the same again!)

On the gardening front after a week away in Brittany I am dusting off my courgette recipies.

Sunday lunch

I am quite pleased with myself this afternoon, not only did I cook a delicious Sunday lunch but most of it was home grown.

We had:

potatoes - look YS is so talented he grew them himself. Maybe now he will believe me when I tell him he will grow potatoes behind his ears if he doesen't wash...
Delicious roast lamb, home grown french beans (two sorts), homegrown broad beans, carrots (we'll gloss over those shall we?), homegrown roasted garlic - yummy!
 While we are on the subject of garlic mine seems to be growing bulbs half way up the stem - is this normal? never seen this before...

For pudding we had berries picked by OS

didn't he do well?

So I have a new camera and my gardening mojo is back thanks for all the support.

Lessons I have learnt.

1. Do not leave 7YO in charge of camera
2. Do not post on blog after drinking the red grape.

Have a good weekend!

Reaping what I've sowed (or not)

I've had a bit of a rubbish year at the plot this year for several reasons, but mostly due to lack of effort - particularly effort at the right time.
Tonight I nipped to the plot to do a bit of watering the first for over a week to find the peas and broad beans cropping like mad but beginning to go over - water last week might well have helped. The radishes are small and firey again water is possibly a factor.The strawberries were also going great guns in amongst the weeds and there looks like a bumper crop of raspberries on the horizon (probably just in time for my hols).

But I feel a bit despondant, some of the beans have gone crispy - still in pots waiting for more canes to be brought up from the village, nowhere to plant the brussel sprouts out yet  and they are more than ready, and oh the weeds.
To top it all it seems I (well probably OS) have lost my camera which makes me less likely to update the blog, so less likely to get to the plot to have something to write about so more neglect and - you see where this is leading?
So I am resolved to pull myself together and get up there and pick the strawberies and weed again tommorrow. I will replace the camera and get my gardening mojo back.
Meanwhile OS has just been sick in the wash hand basin - events are beginning to conspire again...

Gardeners World (not weeding)

I gave the weeding a break this afternoon to visit Gardeners World Live at the NEC in Birmingham after winning a pair of tickets from Deb on Carrots and Kids http://www.carrotsandkids.com/ thanks Deb! I took the family along too.

We had a pretty good time

Celebrity spotting ...

Tony who? Joe who? Said OH

We found a few veggi gardens (I bribed the boys with the promise of an ice cream for this photo)

Ice creams and the cactus and suculent stand - what more could a girl want?

Not to have her photo taken unexpectedly it seems...

So what did we think?

Well we didn't stay that long - just over 2 hours was enough for the boys so I guess we barely scratched the surface but all in all it was a sucess.  The food was horrendously pricey but as the Good Food Show was next door it seemed rude not to try a few samples. There were some very silly things to buy, I failed miserably - I only managed to buy one £1 packet of seed. But there were some lovely moments (why did that man have a red and white sheep slung over his shoulders?) and a nice atmosphere to the whole place. The ask the expert bit was very middle England and easy to mock but what's not to like about people being passionate about their sweetcorn? So all in all a good afternoon out, I probably wouldn't have been as happy if I'd driven further or I'd paid £21 per ticket and next time, I'm sorry boys, I'd leave you at home.

This evening we got back to the lottie and I pulled weeds with new vigor.  I'm so close to finishing 2009 winter digging - maybe by the end of the week.

Can't blog

Can't blog - weeding!