A Shade of Lavender

More Summer Fun....

2010-07-25T20:28:00.000+01:00

...arrgghh, the holidays official start tomorrow (well for us anyway) and I've just realised that although I have made a note of a few ideas, I haven't actually got anything definately planned or organised. So here goes....firstly I've just printed out the ideas for the 'Mom I'm Bored Jar (or box in our case)', I've also added a couple of things that I know my children would enjoy and some they may not enjoy so much - although I'm sure we can have a lot of fun cleaning the car with a hosepipe and in swimsuits!

So plans for day 1 - for this summer holiday we are going to pretend we are at 'camp'. So tomorrow we will come up with a camp name and make a big poster with it on to hang up. We will come up with a couple of camp rules - 'no whining' (a la flylady) may be a good one to start with, but also things like we must be dressed by 9am (otherwise no doubt we'd still be in our PJ's by lunchtime!) plus a chore rota with things like who is going to help Mummy make lunch, who gets to lay the table etc. etc.
Tomorrow afternoon, we're planning on going to the local library. The library have set up a special summer reading programme, whereby the children read certain books and get a wall chart to record their progress on (I'll find out a lot more tomorrow!!).

Other things that I need to add into our summer are....

a Nature Treasure Trail and possibly a bug trail (I might see if the library has a 'bug' book we can borrow to identify some creepie crawlies).
Kitchen Skating - Cleaning the floor by 'skating' with wet socks.
Making a Volcano with paper maiche and making it 'erupt'
Something to do with space and planets

That's on top of the things I have listed earlier - so plenty of things to do and no excuse to be 'bored'!!

Allotment/Growing Update

2010-07-18T20:37:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've mentioned the allotment (and since we got a chance to visit it lol!). We've harvested our first lot of potatoes today. Unfortunately having been completely useless the first half of this year the seed potatoes were put in late and consequently didn't receive much water (I think we put them in just before the dry period in May - yes we were very late!! - and then didn't get around to watering them - ooppps!) and it came back to bite us as our first crop was not very extensive.

NOTE: POTATOES NEED TO GO IN EARLIER NEXT YEAR AND NEED WATER LOL!

We also harvested some more redcurrants, raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants, fortunately these were all unaffected by neglect and actually the currant bushes are giving us our biggest harvest to date. From this I've have already made -

5 Jars of Redcurrant Jelly (more to be made soon)
9 1/2 Jars of Blackcurrant Jam
5 Jars of Gooseberry Jame
Plus we now have an assortment of frozen mixed berries ready for desserts.

Seedling-wise, things have been dire.
I've planted 3 rows of carrots and only 4 individual carrots have come up.
Two rows of beetroot planted over 2 weeks ago and I'm only just started to get a few seedlings appearing on the 2nd row I planted.
The 2 rows of swedes I planted initially came up really well but then started disappearing despite slug pellets (I think birds might have had something to do with it!).
And today I've planted 2 rows of turnips and fingers crossed something might come up!
Parsnips ....errr well, I kind of forgot them, can you believe it!!! So at the end of June (a couple of months late) I planted 2 rows. Goodness know if they will come up or not, but it was worth a try.
The same for the shallots. I planted them at the end of June and then read that harvest are traditionally planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest day. Another huge oopss then, I've got that one completely round the wrong way this year. Having said that though, they've all sprouted so you never know!

Our broad beans, peas and runner beans are in awful shape but the purple french beans have done OK and we were able to have our first portion of them today - delicious!

The sweetcorn, pumpkin and melon are doing OK although still no sign of any flowering on anything. I'm really hoping the pumpkin will produce as DS & DD will be most disappointed.

On the positive....I now have my very own greenhouse!!! It's so exciting!! The plastic one that I'd bought the year before last finally succombed over the winter (well actually I got fed up with it blowing over and taking everything inside it with it - I lost so many plants and seedlings). So now my proper greenhouse is up and running and with more time on my hands now I've already managed to get some winter cabbages started and a load of lettuces, so fingers crossed next year I can be far more organised and start things off a bit earlier without losing sight of all my window sills!

I'm started to think about next year already (I know, I know, summer's hardly here and here I am thinking about the new growing season!). I guess it's because this year has been so haphazard with things happening that have stopped me doing as much as I'd have liked to, so it has made me really focussed on getting a good crop of everything next year. Seeds needed for next year must include -

** NOTES -

Mini Cucumbers - The larger ones although nice take ages to grow and then I never use a full one at a time. The mini ones grew quicker and were a perfect portion size.
Tomatoes - Once again I have lots of green tomatoes and I think despite sowing 3 different varieties they are all going to mature at the same time. Next year I'd like to perhaps try some early varieties, plus have some in hanging baskets. Also perhaps not starting them all off at the same time might help stagger the harvest.
Lettuces - I'm still not very good at sowing them every 2 weeks. I really must get a grip on this!!!
Shallots
Garlic

Teacher gifts

2010-06-27T21:52:00.003+01:00

We are nearing the end of term and my DS is moving into a new class in September and his current teacher is going to be leaving the school for pastures new, so I really ought to arrange a thank you gift. Now not only am I a bit rubbish at gift ideas but I also believe that the gift shouldn't cost the earth and should preferably be handmade (ideally including DS in the making process!). We've previously made pommanders and edible gifts so I need to think of something a bit different. Browsing the wonderful web (I don't know how I coped before it!) I found this wonderful website (http://www.skiptomylou.org/) which has quite a few ideas we can make -
Bath Bombs
A personalised notebook and cover
A pretty Lanyard

Now I just need to decide what we are going to make and get the items we need .... decisions, decisions.

Notes to myself

2010-06-27T21:51:00.001+01:00

There are quite a few things that I need to start thinking about and organising, but I never get round to writing them down and consequently forget about them at a drop of a hat. As the idea of this blog is to become my online notebook, I have decided to bite the bullet and start listing things down (with links) as I think of them. So please excuse some varied posts.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS
Browsing the Skip to my Lou website reminded me that the summer holidays are looming. Last year, for the first time, I came up with quite a few activities from my LOs (now age 7 and 3) rather than having nothing planned and everyone driving each other up the wall. It worked really well and although we didn't do masses, we had some lovely memerable days and most of all we had lots of fun! This summer I want to do the same but I also want to have a few more ideas up my sleeve. Last year we..........

Full sized pictures of ourselves on wallpaper

Bubble Blowing Session

Make Gloop

Paving Slab Chalk Drawings

Paper Mache Rockets (we'll probably go for something different this year)

Visit a Museum

Baking Day

Make Playdoh

Visit the Wildlife Park

Visit the Library

All of it was really successful and fun. This year also on the agenda is -

Firstly a 'Mum I'm Bored Jar'. This is a fab idea to keep LOs entertained, this will be the first thing I do!! There is also a paper fortune teller which is similar.
Painting Stones (making stone pets)
Making Tie Rattle Snakes
Potato Printing
Puffy Paints
Paper Kites for windy days
Juice box boats

That's it for now, I'll be adding to it as and when.

It's been a long time but.....

2010-06-26T12:19:00.006+01:00

......gosh, I really hadn't realised I'd been away so long. So much has happened and changed, too much to go into but whilst thinking about the impending summer holidays, I suddenly remembered this blog and all the notes and reminders I'd written.

I'd always meant this blog to be a sort of diary and online notebook for myself but somehow I drifted away (tbh not unsurprisingly with everything that has gone on) and forgot about it. But I have come back to it several times in the last couple of weeks for various things and it is definately time I resserected it.

So here I am, and with a new title and blog name which more accurately reflects me and my family.

Hooray! Red Tomatoes!

2009-09-07T19:26:00.006+01:00

Despite a decidedly green start and a multitude of caterpillars, our tomatoes have finally started turning red...

and I think we may have more than just a handful this year!

Things I need to remember for tomato growing for next year:

Don't start panicking when you still have green tomatoes in July
Watch out for the dreaded tomato hornworms (that almost had all of our green tomatoes) and try to prevent them by putting mesh against the greenhouse windows so that when they are open the moths can't get in.
Open the greenhouse and add shading early on in the summer so that you don't scorch the majority of your plants.
And finally...don't forget to water and feed them (as I was doing constantly this year).

Perfect Pasta Sauce for kids...

2009-09-04T19:29:00.002+01:00

I was given this recipe from a friend. Not only does it taste delicious but it is a perfect way to get a good portion of vegetables (especially fantastic for my fussy child who won't eat veg!).

1 small onion
1 crushed garlic clove
75g of chopped carrots
75g of chopped courgette
75g of chopped mushrooms
400g can of tinned chopped tomatoes
125ml of vegetable stock
1/4 tsp sugar

How to make it....

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan, then add the onions and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
Add the carrots, courgettes and mushrooms and cook until softened (about 15 mins)
Add the tomatoes, stock and sugar and simmer for 10 minutes
Once cooked blend to a puree

This sauce is also perfect to freeze. I often make double or triple the quantity and then freeze in large ice cubes trays. I can then take a few cubes out at a time.

Don't buy books....swap them!

2009-09-03T20:02:00.004+01:00

Thank you very much to Magic Mummy and a life less simple for introducing me to this fantastic site, readitswapit.co.uk.

The idea is really simple but genius! List any books that you would like to swap (if you enter the ISBN number, it fills it all out for you) and then look through the library section for any books you would like to read. Select the book and pick a person to swap with, if they would like to read one of your books then the swap is agreed and you can post your book and eagerly await the delivery of your new reading material.

This saves a fortune, as rather than buying a book you simply pay for the postage.

I have already hunted through my old books and found a pile that I am quite happy to swap and guess what?! I had my first swap agreed with in 10 minutes and I now have two books I couldn't find in the Library winging their way to me :)

Winter Preparation (part 1)

2009-09-02T20:03:00.006+01:00

The recent weather we have been having here has really made me start thinking about getting ready for winter (sorry, I need little encouragement as Autumn is my favourite season!).

To try and cut our gas and electricity costs we have already had cavity wall insulation put in but I really want to keep our heating off for as long as possible - last year we made it to the first week of October, this year I am hoping to make it to November, but we shall see.

To help me along I have been following the fantastic 'preparations for winter thread' on the old style forum at money saving expert. They have some great ideas and it is a wonderful inspiration.

After sitting down and having a think about what we did last year and how we can improve, I've come up with my 'Winter Prep' list:

Kitchen: Last year our kitchen was freezing first thing in the morning probably because we have 2 large windows, a patio door and a door to the garage and no curtains or blinds up! So I have bought 2 door curtains off ebay (fantastic value for money at £7 each plus they are lined) and Dunelm Mill have really reasonably priced thermal blinds, so I ordered some blinds for the windows. - All done

A tip from the moneysavingexpert forums is to put fridge magnets over key holes to stop a draught, so I will definately be doing this with our garage door, providing the kids don't move it!

Living Room: We only have very thin curtains up at the moment (until we can afford some heavy weight ones) so last year I dug out a pair of voile tie top curtains that I had in the loft and tied them to the curtain poles behind the existing curtains to create a lining effect. This worked really well, but this year I have a blind for the window as well, so that should really help to keep the heat in - All done

All the bedrooms already have lined curtains or thermal blackout blinds. Last year I bought some cheap fleecy throws for the children so that they could have them on their beds for added warmth but it turns out they love them so much (and they are really toasty) that they also come downstairs with the kids first thing as well so they can snuggle up on the sofa. I also have another throw for OH and myself for the evenings.

Another tip from MSE is to put your summer duvet underneath the sheet of your bed for added warmth and snugness. What a great way to store the summer duvets! The children don't have seperate duvets but instead I have found 2 old cot bed duvets which I am going to use instead - amazingly we are still using our summer duvet so as soon as the weather really turns I will swap these over.

Slippers - All of us now have slippers and dressing gowns so no excuse for being cold in the morning! - All done, just need to remind everyone to use them!

Hall - we are lucky enough to have a porch on our house which stops the worst of the cold but we still have quite a draft blowing through the hall door so I really need to get a heavy weight door curtain - still waiting for the right one to appear on ebay!

Energy Saving Lightbulbs - I know some people really don't get on with these, we seem to be lucky and they don't affect us so we have started changing all the lightbulbs over to energy saving ones. We do have quite a few halogens at the moment which are just too expensive to replace so instead we are trying to keep those lights off and just use side lamps which have the energy saving bulbs in them.

This is just a quick list which I intend on adding to when I think of more things. One last thing that I have invested in is an Owl energy monitor (a fab bargain off ebay) to see how much electricity we are using - wow, these things are a real eye opener. Since getting it we have really become aware of how much we are wasting so everyone is making the effort to turn off lights, we are also switching things off at the mains and when the oven is on I try and cook as much as possible (if we are making oven chips then I will try and bake a tray of muffins or biscuits etc at the same time to make good use of the electricity rather than having the oven on two seperate times). So hopefully, using the above list we should be able to cut down our gas and electric this year and save ourselves some pennies.

Photo Courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Making chicken strreeetttccchh

2009-09-01T19:14:00.007+01:00

We had a roast dinner yesterday (a delayed sunday!) and in a true old-style and frugal fashion we have managed to make the leftovers stretch to today's lunches, dinner and I have also made some stock for the freezer - not bad for a chicken that was on special offer!

Lunch - coronation chicken sandwiches -

Shredded Chicken mixed with equal dollops of mayonaise and greek yoghurt, a spoonful of mango chutney, and a sprinkle of medium curry powder all mixed together. I also added some lettuce in the sandwich. It was lovely!

Dinner

In true frugal style, sainsburys are selling there basics curry sauce for.....wait for it.......4p a jar! So I splashed out and bought 2 jars. Therefore tonight's dinner is chicken curry - I'll let you know what it tastes like and whether it is worth the 4p!

Chicken Stock

Homemade chicken stock really makes soups taste amazing and not only is it really simple to make, it freezes beautifully.

Take one chicken carcass (all the bones and any scraps of meat) and put it in a big pot with a stick of chopped celery, 1 chopped carrot and a sliced onion, add a bayleaf (and any other seasoning/herbs you like), bring to the boil and the simmer (part covered) for about 2 hours or less if you have a pressure cooker.
Once cooked strain the stock and allow to cool, you can then pour the stock into an ice cube tray and freeze. When you need stock you can then take out a cube and pour over hot water (like a normal stock cube) and the heat will defrost the cube straight away.

Courgettes....Ground or Pot?

2009-09-01T15:59:00.006+01:00

I've always been a bit worried about planting my courgette plants in the ground, prefering instead to grow them in a pot. The whole slug/snail thing made me think that somehow they were safer slightly raised off the ground, well I've changed my mind!

As I had run out of pots, I decided that rather than waste the plant (even though it wasn't doing too well) I would plant it in the garden and this is the result....

Compared to the courgette grown on the patio in the pot......

OK, I admit I am completely rubbish at feeding my potted plants, but that's still a hell of a difference. So added to my 'things to remember for next year' is Plant out all courgettes in the ground and not in pots!

Summer's end....

2009-08-31T19:18:00.009+01:00

It's been a busy and eventful summer for us, some great things and some very sad things (which I won't bore you with) but I can't believe the summer holidays are almost over already.

Out of my list of holiday activities, we did nearly everything and had a great time with it. It was surprising how my little ones loved the simple things like drawing round ourselves and then colouring them in, and spent hours perfecting their pictures or playdoh models. The Library and Museum also went down well and I am certainly going to make an effort to visit the Library regularly (it's definately cheaper than buying books!).

Here are the finished paper-mache rockets that the children spent 3 days making..

...they were so easy and enjoyable to make that I think we may go for a paper mache castle next time!

So August is almost over and it really seems like the weather is heralding in the start of September with some really quite autumnal weather. Autumn is however my favourite season, what with the amazing colours in the trees and the chilly but bright sunny mornings, and of course when the nights start drawing in, so I really don't mind this early start. It has however, given me a kick up the backside to start getting organised for winter so be prepared for some winter preparation posts coming up over the next few weeks.

A final note....apologies for the lack of blogging over the last month and a big thank you to alifelesssimple for your comment, it really helped to give me the push I need to get into it again.

Summer holiday activity ideas

2009-07-22T20:26:00.001+01:00

Full sized pictures of ourselves
Bubble Blowing Session
Make Gloop
Paving Slab Chalk Drawings
Paper Mache Rockets
Visit a Museum
Baking Day
Make Playdoh
Visit the Wildlife Park
Visit the Library
Painting Stones

Paper Mache Rockets

2009-07-21T19:18:00.006+01:00

We had our first 'proper' school holiday day today (as I was working yesterday) and despite the continous rain, we had a great day.

Our mission today was Paper Mache Rockets (excuse the pun!). Both DS (6) and DD (2 1/2) had a great time making them and took great delight in getting stuck into the paper mache goo!

Here's how we did it, just in case you fancy a go too....

Take a large plastic bottle and 2 smaller bottles (for thrusters).

Use masking tape to attach the thrusters onto the main rocket...Make up your paper mache goo - we used 1 part flour to 2 parts water, (and I added some salt so it doesn't go mouldy) and just mixed it all together.

Then get dipping! we used torn up newspaper in the paper mache goo, squeezed off the excess and stuck it on to the bottles and voila.........

OK they don't look much at the moment, but once they have dried the kids will have great fun painting them.

Green tomatoes anyone?

2009-07-19T19:53:00.005+01:00

I'm beginning to think that I am jinxed when it comes to growing tomatoes. Last year I planted 2 packets of seeds (albeit quit late in the season) and at the end of August all I had was an abundance of green tomatoes (and lots of chutney).

This year started well, (I'm growing 3 varieties - cherry, beef and matina) and I planted the seeds in early March as instructed. They grew well and when the weather was warm enough I moved them outside (plus another batch in the greenhouse) where they seemed to thrive. BUT it seems that I am the only one who is not currently tucking into juicy red tomatoes, mine (the ones that are visible) are distinctly green and have been for quite a while.

Am I doomed never to grow a red tomato?!? All tips greatfully received as I am still eating the green tomato chutney from last year!

Bargains for the summer

2009-07-18T20:13:00.009+01:00

I was out for a rare shopping expedition this morning and just popped into Laura Ashley (it would be rude not to!) for some window shipping, when I came across some amazing wall paper....

BARGAIN 1 ......
I've decided I need to get a bit crafty, as we desperately need a picture (or I'm thinking 3 pictures next to each other) in our bedroom, so I thought I would get a sample (or 3) of nice wall paper so I could choose which would be suitable to make into a picture(s). It turns out that the lovely lady who cut the swatches gave me so much that I can actually make the 3 pictures out of the samples she gave me....what a bargain (although I do feel ever so slightly guilty!). So the challenge is now on the make them, and I'll post pictures when they are ready.

BARGAIN 2......
I did actually buy something for the first time in Laura Ashley. When inspecting the wall papers I found a box on the floor full of different rolls of paper (the discontinued/end of lines) and managed to purchase a 10m roll for £1.50! No, I'm not mad (honest!), that roll is the cheapest kids play paper I have come across. We are going to be doing a lot of drawing round ourselves and painting the results to make full size portraits - DS and DD can't wait!

'Blog Hopping'

2009-07-16T17:25:00.006+01:00

I'm not sure if this term exists or not (or if there even is a term), but I really enjoy visting a blog and then hopping on to other blogs that they have linked to and so on. I have found some amazing blogs recently and each 'hop' can take you to a different set of blogs. I have tried to list all the blogs that I want to go back to again and my links have been ordered by the most recently updated at the top, so feel free to go 'blog hopping' and see where it takes you.

Redcurrant Jelly

2009-07-15T16:22:00.003+01:00

Our 3 redcurrant bushes have yielded over 7lbs of fruit this year, the majority of which I have made into Jelly. Redcurrant Jelly is so easy to make and both my kids love it -

REDCURRANT JELLY

2lbs of Redcurrants

2lbs of Sugar

Place all the washed redcurrants in a large pan (don't worry about removing the stalks) and slowly bring to the boil pressing down on the redcurrants to release the juice. Once the redcurrants are cooked (takes about 10 minutes) add the sugar and still until it has all dissolved. After it has dissolved, bring to a rapid boil for 8 minutes and that's it!

To strain the jelly I initially tried using a jelly bag but this took far too long and the jelly was cooling in the bag so all I use now is 2 fine mesh sieves placed inside each other. This is far quicker, although the jelly is not as clear.

Finally pour the jelly into prepared jars (I put washed and dried jars and lids into a moderate oven for 5 minutes to sterilise them), cover with waxed discs (available from lakeland) and seal whilst still hot. Allow to cool and label.

Schools out for the summer

2009-07-14T17:03:00.002+01:00

That time of the year is nearly upon us, when the children break up for their long summer break. In previous years these have flown by and all too soon I am trying to sort out uniforms, PE kits and book bags for the Autumn term. This year I am going to make a list of all the things that we would like to do and try and do them! DS started the list with a trip to the wildlife park to see the wolves, I think they would also enjoy doing some crafty and cooking things at home if the weather is not so good and nature walks and treasure trails if the sun shines. So my task has been set and I am going to keep a list of all the ideas we come up with on here so they stay close to hand.

Long time no see...

2009-07-13T20:38:00.003+01:00

...I'm sorry, I really haven't got to grips with blogging properly yet. I sit at the computer thinking what should I write about today and come up with a blank until I leave and go somewhere and then typically the ideas come flooding in and I haven't remembered once to write the ideas down. There is definitely an art to this blogging and hats off to everyone who manages it every day.

A lot has happened since my last blog entry (over a month ago!) and a lot of things that I want to note down for future reference so please bear with me as I bounce around various things I want to remember for next year.

PEAS & BEANS
Firstly separating sugar snaps and peas. It seemed a really good idea to have them in a neat line side by side but they have grown so much that they have intertwined with each other and I am having great fun working out which is which (yes, you can tell I am new to this allotment lark!).

On the topic of peas, I was happily podding peas the other evening when I got the shock of my life - a load of tiny maggoty things came out of one. Thinking it was just a one-off I carried on but unfortunately over half of the peas I had picked had got them in. After googling I have now found out that peas can be affected by Pea Moths who lay their eggs on the surface and their maggoty offspring burrow into the pod before emerging as caterpillars. From what I read I think I might net the peas next year rather than share my dinner with maggots.

NETTING
I am experimenting this year with a different type of netting. Last year our Brassicas were devastated by caterpillars so this year I wanted to net them. I looked around various garden centres and online and all the butterfly netting was so expensive but after trawling various forums to see what everyone else was doing I came across someone who was using scaffolding netting. It is much cheaper than standard netting and is has a much tighter mesh than butterfly netting so we shall see how it works - so far so good though.

SOWING
A couple of things I have learnt this year. Firstly after vowing to go completing slug pellet free, I have lost so many seedlings to slugs this year (2 rows and pretty much a whole pot of carrots and a couple of rows of beetroot) that I think I am going to go back to them for next year. Yes, I know I shouldn't, but it is so disheartening to have a lovely row of seedlings one minute and have them gone the next.
I need to get the hang of successional sowing. Once again I have missed the boat on quite a few things I wanted to plant more than one row of. Albeit they are long rows but I still have only managed (after the slugs) 3 rows of carrots (some rows with only about 5 in them!), 2 rows of parsnips (again one row only has about 6 as this one was planted with the radishes, which is another story), 1 row of swede and 1 row of turnips. I quickly planted another row of swede (my reckoning that it's not that far past June!) and 2 rows of turnips tonight so we shall see how they fare.
Lettuces. I know I can carry on sowing them now but I just need to get my finger out and do it! I have none, then a glut, then use them all and then realise I haven't planted anymore, hopeless!

Right I think that's it on the things to remember for the time being. On the positive side, everything is growing and I am now harvesting loads of raspberries (my favourite!), I have just finished harvesting the blackcurrrants (I have frozen the whole 2lbs for desserts later in the year as we still haven't eaten the jam from last year) and redcurrants (8 jars of redcurrant jelly and the rest I have frozen. On the veggie side we have an abundance of potatoes, all the Red Duke of York are ready and have started dying down as are the Marie Peer. The Maris Piper and Rooster have flowered but are still growing. The are absolutely delicious although I think I may have planted too much. At the moment I am just digging them up when I need them but I think I will have to reach the stage where I dig the whole lot up and store them.
I am also harvesting peas (and maggots!), sugar snaps, the first lot of my dwarf french beans, lettuce, and all the shallots, which after a couple of failed attempts are now plaited and hung in my garage along with my supermarket grown garlic which produced 4 decent big garlic bulbs in the end (not bad for 39p!). In the greenhouse baby tomatoes are appearing so fingers crossed for a good crop. That's it for now. I am going to try really hard to try and blog at least every couple of days so hopefully my next entry will not be too long coming.

Where did they weekend go?

2009-06-14T19:38:00.002+01:00

What a fantastic weekend! The sun shone, we had a great time out and about, great company on Saturday evening for a BBQ and all in all it was also very productive, perfect. The only trouble, as always is that it went far to quickly.
On Saturday I managed to sow more rows of carrots, parsnips (minus the radishes this time), beetroot and lettuces on the allotment. We visited our village church fete and bought far too much, but it's all in a good cause so I don't mind and they were an absolute bargain - 10 books (mainly children's books and a couple of novels for me) for 20p each, a brand new scooby doo puzzle, large barbie car, small doll and lovely dolls wooden bunk beds all for a total of £7. We had friends round in the evening for a lovely BBQ and no, I never managed to make a dessert but fortunately we were all so stuffed after the main course that I don't think anyone minded.
Today has been a bit of a lazy one. I planted in our garden (with some help from the children) a pot of carrots, spring onions, lettuce, french beans and sugar snaps, mainly so that the children can watch them grow. I also filled my strawberry planter and potted on some tomatoes, so now I can sit back and chill, well for a few minutes anyway before I start sorting things for Monday morning (groan).

A couple of free hours on the allotment

2009-06-12T18:36:00.006+01:00

It makes a change that I have any free time and it certainly doesn't happen very often so after I dropped my little boy of to school and my little girl off to preschool, I managed to disappear to the allotment for 2 hours. It really is amazing what you can achieve in a short space of time. This morning I managed to plant out all of the (long overdue) brassicas - cauliflowers, cabbages, 2 rows of brussel sprouts and two rows of purple sprouting broccoli. I am beginning to think maybe I've overdone the brussels and broccoli but we shall see!
I also got a chance to plant out the carrots that I had sown in old toilet rolls back in April. These looked really promising with quite a few baby carrots although I 'm not sure if it really is worth all the effort, I think I may just stick to normal planting next year.
The final job was weeding the roots bed, it looks so much better now and allowed me to spot a few parsnips coming up (although not as many as I had hoped - I think that the radishes planted with the parsnip seed may have hindered the parsnip seeds growing as I couldn't pick the radishes quick enough, another lessons learnt for next year!).
I managed to be quite productive in the garden as well this afternoon. I planted out my blueberry bush, 3 courgette plants and as I am overrun with tomato plants, I have also started planting these out in the borders.
On the house/domestic goddess front I have failed miserably! The house is a tip lol. So that's the next job (especially as we have friends coming for a BBQ tomorrow) as well as trying to prepare the food for tomorrow and think of a dessert - oh why oh why do I always leave everything to the last minute.....

Not very frugal, oops.

2009-06-11T13:49:00.004+01:00

OK, yes I know, this blog is supposed to inspire me to be moneysaving, frugal and green but I just couldn't resist...

I saw this on ebay and really liked the look of it and my finger accidentally slipped on the 'bid' button. My winning bid was £13 and it was only 5 miles away so I managed to collect it in person (so I did save on the postage - this is me trying to justify it to myself!).
I am even more pleased with it since I got it home. It looks quite old and also looks like it is an original painting (rather than a print which I thought it was). It is signed in pencil by what looks like Conway Martin and despite googling it I haven't got a clue who that is, so if anyone knows, I'd love to hear from you.

First allotment crop..

2009-06-09T18:18:00.006+01:00

...apart from the radishes!

I'm probably way too early, but curosity got the best of me and tonight I dug up one plant of our early red duke of york and look what I found!!.....

plus I also spotted a few sugar snaps, so a real homegrown treat for dinner tonight! There were also a few tiny potatoes attached to the plant and although they flowered a couple of weeks ago I think I might leave them a couple more weeks before digging any more up just in case.

The pig has arrived, well a half of it anyway...

2009-06-07T18:19:00.005+01:00

Our half of a pig has been delivered and I must say I am very impressed (please excuse the ignorance as I really didn't know what to expect!). In our tray of meat (which had to be carried by 2 people as it was so heavy) we had...

Two 1/2 hands of Pork
Six bags of 2 large Pork chops
A Pork Hock
Two big Belly of Porks Joints
One Pork Loin Joint
Two Shoulder Joints
Three massive Leg Joints (one was over 4.4kg!)
and the kidneys (not sure about this one)

With my experiment hat on, I decided to weigh the meat before it entered the freezer to see if apart from being a better deal for the pig (which had a good life) if it was economical for us too.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I found the equivalent products on the Tesco and Sainsburys websites and using the weight per kg I totted it all up. The cost of buying it in the supermarket was over double what we paid and that didn't include the two 1/2 hands (2.6kg and 2.1kg) and the pork hock as the supermarkets don't seem to stock those cuts of meat.

So now the challenge is on to use the meat in a sensible fashion. Some of the joints are absolutely huge so we are going to plan our pork meals so we use the leftovers the following day in a meal and perhaps freeze any other cooked pork for future meals. That interspersed with the other meat that we use, I think this pig will last us quite some time.

Rain, rain, go away!

2009-06-06T13:49:00.004+01:00

The weather is truly lousy here today. After a glorious couple of weeks it has finally turned, but I guess that's the good old British weather for you, and at least it is good for the allotment.
My plans for the weekend therefore have been altered. I was hoping to have a couple of hours on the allotment but it's going to be too wet underfoot I think especially as it is still raining.
Instead this morning I was organised and sorted a menu plan for the week and then braved our nearest town to visit the local market, something I haven't done before (I have always taken the quick shop round the supermarket or having the shopping delivered option to save time). I got soaked but was amazed at the bargains they had. Fruit and vegetables were a lot cheaper than the supermarket and they even had a stall selling meat and cheese which again was much cheaper. I think until all my allotment veg is ready I must try and make the effort to visit the market first before resorting to the supermarket.

Carrot Cake

2009-06-06T13:26:00.005+01:00

My little girl goes to our local pre-school one morning a week, and this weekend the preschool are having a cake stand at the local garden open day to raise much needed funds, consequently yesterday I got asked to supply a carrot cake.
After the initial panic of a)I've never made a carrot cake before and b) do I have any ingredients? wore off, I googled carrot cake recipe (thank goodness for google!) and came up with this recipe from the bbc good food website (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/). I made 2 cakes so we could try one (just to check for quality control purposes you understand!) and this recipe is absolutely delicious! For the complete recipe including the breakdown of calories, fat, protein etc. per serving the link is http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3229/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake.

YUMMY SCRUMMY CARROT CAKE
Ingredients
175g light muscovado sugar
175ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs , lightly beaten
140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)
100g raisins
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)
For the frosting
175g icing sugar
1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut two long strips the width of the tin and put each strip crossways, covering the base and sides of the tin, with a double layer in the base.

Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)

Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth - you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides

2009-06-05T13:34:00.005+01:00

Well it's been a while and I do apologise, one of the only down-sides to having children is the amount of illnesses they pick up and pass on to the rest of the family. It really has been a month of viruses and bugs! Oh well all are fully recovered now and after a weeks family holiday down to Weymouth we are all feeling restored and raring to go.

So what's been happening? Well the allotment is finally starting to look like an allotment (although there are still too many weeds!) and everything seems to be flourishing. I have had our first crop of radishes (quite a decent size I think), which I planted with the parsnip seeds, I have also had lots of salad leaves and our first lot of strawberries are just ripening. The 5 mini cucumber plants are also doing really well, they are the 'Rocky' variety and I have had loads off the plants already and loads more flowers are appearing so a definate thumbs up for this type and I will had it to my must have list for next year. Tomatoes, Chillis, Potatoes are flowering and the only things which aren't doing too well are my carrots of which very few seedlings have appeared.

It's so nice to be finally reaching the stage where we only have to water, weed and the occasional sowing, rather then the completly hectic couple of months we have has with mass sowing, potting on and planting out.

On the greener, frugal front we have decided to purchase 1/2 a pig. We eat quite a bit of pork and our local farmer who breeds a few pigs as a sideline offered us 1/2 of one. It's being delivered this weekend and although I know it will have been butchered I haven't got clue what we are going to end up with!! This could be very much a one-off, but I do like the idea that the pig has been born and bred locally, has had a good life and hasn't travelled half way across the country to an abbatoir. So if it turns out as economical and tasty as I hope, we may buy in bulk again...so expect lots of recipes for Pork to appear soon!

A perfect day for washing

2009-05-07T20:42:00.006+01:00

I'm always on the lookout for decent washing powders.

I wash everything at 40 degrees and most of the time the branded washing powders hardly shift the everyday marks my children seem to gather, which is why I was intrigued to find these Ecoballs in the Lakeland catalogue (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/):

I must admit I bought them because I didn't think they could be any worse than what I have been using and given the price per wash they were going to work out a lot cheaper (and greener) than my normal brand.

I didn't break them in gently in fact their first outing included a mass of filthy washing, stained with chocolate, grass and mud. I used the stain remover provided on the worst of the marks and just chucked the balls in and really didn't anticipate much.

Amazingly (and yes I was totally shocked) the washing came out of the machine totally clean and I was hard pushed to find any stains or marks on any of the clothing. the only difference being that there was no obvious smell of the artificial fragrance in most washing powders.

I've been using the ecoballs for a while now and yes I am still really pleased with them and my little one's mild eczema has cleared up completely (I can't guarantee that it was the washballs that did it but it cleared immediately after I started using them) and all in all I don't dread doing the washing now, especially on a dry, warm, windy day like today.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb...

2009-05-06T19:25:00.004+01:00

Spring is here and that means it's the season of harvesting rhubarb.

Before last year rhubarb was but a distant memory for me. I remember having rhubarb crumble occasionally as a child but as we didn't have a plant, these times were few and far between.

This changed last year when we inherited our allotment and found 4 rhubarb plants buried in the undergrowth. Now however we have gone from one extreme to the other and we have so much rhubarb I'm not entirely sure what to do with it all!

Rhubarb crumble is the obvious answer but there is only so much crumble I can eat without it affecting my waistline! I did a search today and came up with a recipe for Rhubarb cake from http://www.allotment.org.uk/. I made it earlier and it was absolutely delicious but again another one for moderation I think.

I think the only option at the moment is to freeze as much as possible and make sweet things with it for a nice treat...unless anyone has any healthy recipes for rhubarb?

What a bank holiday!

2009-05-05T11:03:00.006+01:00

Unsurprising really that I didn't get much done this weekend, we have had a lovely time being very social albeit unproductive. We visited the jousting at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock for the first time and had a fantastic day. The weather held and the performances were fantastic, highly recommended if you are ever in the area when it is on again:

And on the bank holiday Monday we attended our villages' annual breakfast in the woods. A lovely way to spend a May morning - eating a cooked breakfast among the bluebells. There was a great turnout and atmosphere with over 100 villagers cooking their breakfasts on the communal BBQs....the official start of Spring!

Getting a Grip

2009-05-04T20:05:00.005+01:00

May already, where did April go?? I really must get a grip of blogging, my last post was 2 weeks ago and since then it has felt that time has flown by, and not much has been achieved.

Growing-wise things are getting bigger, although I think the weeds are over-taking what is meant to be there. My first sowing of beetroot seems to have disappeared bar one solitary plant (I think this was due to me watering after I had sown the seeds and washing most of them away - lesson now learned, water the soil before planting!).

The Shallots and Red Onions are doing well and all have sprouted. A couple of carrots seedlings have just appeared, and I am hoping that more will appear soon. The broad beans are doing well after been eaten by what I thought were slugs but turned out to be bean weavils, fortunately I have been told that it just looks unsightly and shouldn't affect the plants or productivity. The early duke of york potatoes are now about 6 inches high and the maris peer and maris piper have just emerged so at least we will have some potatoes if nothing else!

My supermarket garlic has also sprouted nicely although whether it does anything has yet to be seen! The two things however that are growing the best at the allotment (and prolifically) are the Bindweed and Mare's Tail - bar spraying everything (which I am rather loathe to do) I think I am just going to have to do a load of weeding this weekend.

In the greenhouse I have a number of cauliflowers, cabbages and brussels to be planted out but after the horror of last year's caterpillar episode I really need to get my act in gear and construct a frame for the netting before I dare plant them outside - another job to add to the list for next weekend I think.

The tomatoes are doing well although no sign of any flowers yet (maybe I am too impatient) although my mini cucumbers are going great guns and are rapidly growing out of their windowsill positions - roll on the warmer weather so that they can move into the greenhouse. I am still waiting for my lettuces to grow along with my newly planted runner beans, french beans, and sugar snaps. I also have some beans I planted earlier that I now need to replant at the allotment and the pumpkin and courgette plants really could do with moving to the greenhouse as well. Busy, busy, busy.

Home-wise, not much old-styling going on I'm afraid. I've managed to spent a lot more time with the munchkins and we have all had a lot of fun and benefited from doing different things, although they were more keen on eating the marshmallows than creating models when we tried that activity! The house has exploded over these last couple of weeks though so a job for this week really must be to clear the decks a bit, in between the 2 1/2 days of work. So all in all a lot to do...

Sunday Musings

2009-04-19T19:59:00.008+01:00

I always get to a Sunday evening and start both reflecting on the previous week and then also planning what we have got on and what I want to achieve in the forthcoming week.

One thing I always try at least to do is follow the fantastic Flylady thread on the MSE forums (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ - under home and play /oldstyle). I have never been much good at trying to keep up with the housework to the point where I just gave up trying, and then got really embarressed anytime anyone 'dropped' round.
The wonderful people on this forum employ the principles of flylady (http://www.flylady.net/) but break it down into babysteps so you can achieve as much as you want. This has really helped to organise me and keep me motivated to the point where my house is no longer a complete eyesore! Thank you to everyone involved in that thread.

I have couple of aims for this week and hopefully writing them down will keep me focused. Firstly I want to spend some quality time with the munchkins - I'm finding at the moment that I am so busy that I get to the end of the day and wonder where the time went. I am going to do one of the activities from the wonderful blog a life less simple with them (see list of blogs for a link) and I am also going to get them involved in as many things as possible be it helping to sort the laundry, cooking etc. I always used to do this but then became guilty of the 'it's quicker and easier to do it yourself' syndrome.

My other lesser aims for this week include making a load of pasta sauce for the kids and freezing it for a quick an easy meal,as my last batch ran out a while ago. Drilling some holes in my makeshift planters (old freezer drawers) and planting some spinach. Right I think that's it...let the fun begin!

Baking with bananas

2009-04-17T19:13:00.007+01:00

I got this recipe from a leaflet from the Early Learning Centre. It's meant to be for banana bread but as my loaf tin was completely manky and beyond cleaning (note to self - must invest in some decent bakewear that does not go rusty!) it morphed into a banana cake instead.

Ingredients
450g ripe bananas ( about 4 )
250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
125g soft unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing)
3 large eggs,lightly beaten
100g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4.

Grease the sides and use baking paper to line the base of a 900g loaf tin (or cake tin!).
Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork until almost smooth.

Sift the flour and baking powder into another mixing bowl and add the butter.

Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs .

Add the beaten eggs,caster sugar and bananas and stir together using a wooden spoon.

Pour the cake mixture into the loaf tin and level the top of the cake.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until risen and golden.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to a cooling rack.

Little Munchkin and I had great fun making this this afternoon and although it doesn't look like a work of art, it tastes delicious! I can highly recommend this recipe if you have any ripe bananas that need using up.

Recycling Milk Cartons

2009-04-17T13:31:00.005+01:00

I've found that the thing about growing your own veg is you tend to end up with loads seedlings and plants that need labeling. I started off by buying a pack of 'proper' white plastic labels but these were soon used up and when I totted up how many I needed I found that it would end up being quite pricey.

Now my idea of having an allotment/growing your own is not only to know that the veg you eat isn't covered in pesticides but also to save some money, and buying labels does not add up to being frugal....hence the milk cartons!

We tend to get through a load of milk and previously all the cartons ended up in the recycle bin, not any more, now the top halves end up as plant tags and the bottom haves turn into plant holders......

Oh no, the dreaded slug

2009-04-16T20:21:00.005+01:00

I thought I was being pro-active this year. I put down my slug traps, did a bit of research and found that coffee grouts were good at deterring the little pests, so duly put around each plant and still they munch my broad beans! I even had a couple of plants with cloches on (halved plastic bottles) and I still found bite marks on the leaves. The slug traps are catching lots of slugs but maybe I need more ? I am really reluctant to resort to slug pellets but the way things are it may have to be a drastic last resort!

The power of Garlic Soup!

2009-04-16T14:15:00.003+01:00

I've had a few days of being under the weather recently, once again I came down with the dreaded tonsillitis. I normally just grin and bear it but this time a friend recommended garlic soup to me and sure enough after just 24hours I was already feeling a lot better. Now I not sure if it was the soup or not, but it certainly tasted nice and didn't do any harm. Here's the recipe...

Garlic Soup
1/2 Bulb of raw garlic (roughly chopped)
1 large Onion (chopped)
1 lb of Potatoes (peeled and chopped into small cubes)
1 litre of chicken stock (homemade if poss)
Enough olive oil to fry the onions
Fresh Herbs - I used oregano as this is meant to be good for sore throats

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic to the pan, cover and cook gently for a few minutes.

Add the onion and stir well. Cover again and cook gently for a further 5 minutes

Add the potatoes, stir and coat them in as much of the oil as possible. Cover and cook for about 10 mins, stirring occassionally.

Add the chicken stock and simmer gently for 20 mins or until the potatoes are cooked

Blend using a hand blender, add herbs and season to taste.

Green Cleaning

2009-04-15T10:40:00.001+01:00

In an attempt to cut down on the amount of 'nasties' that I have around the house I have started making my own cleaning products. The ones that have worked the best for me so far are -

Lavender all purpose kitchen cleaner
1 pint of warm water
1 tablespoon of bicarb of soda
5 or 6 drops of Lavender Essential Oil

Mix all the ingredients together and keep in a labeled spray bottle. I have found this works brilliantly on everything. For stubborn marks or dried on food deposits (like on the hob), I spray until the mark is saturated, leave for about 5 mins and then it just wipes off. This lavender in this also has antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties which is an added bonus.

**Please remember though that essential oils should not be used if you are pregnant or breast feeding and if you have other medical conditions you should consult your doctor before use **

Wood Polish
Mix 1 part white distilled vinegar with 1 part oil olive, give it a shake and voila! store in a bottle (I used a glass one) and give it a shake just before you use it. It brings wood up beautifully.

I'll post any more successful concoctions I come up with.

The Vegetable Beginning

2009-04-15T08:06:00.001+01:00

I've been growing my own veg (on a small scale) for a year now but this year I have access to an allotment! I also have a small, plastic greenhouse in my (tiny) garden. So far I have growing -

On windowsills...

Tomatoes (Cherry, Beefsteak and Matinas)
Cucumbers (5 dwarf variety)
Courgette (9 plants)
Aubergine
Sweetcorn (15 plants)
Pumpkin (planted by the children for Halloween)
Chillis (both Jalepeno and Cayenne)
Salad
Herbs (basil, chives, corainder, lemon balm)
Marigolds (for companion planting)

In the Greenhouse

Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower
Cabbage (red and greyhound)
Globe Artichoke
salad
Sugar Snaps, Peas and Dwarf French Beans
Leeks

At the Allotment

Potatoes (Red Duke of York, Maris Peer)
Broad Beans
Sugar Snaps, Peas
shallots, red onions
beetroot (1 row), parsnip (1 row)

And after all that I still have more to plant -

Purple Sprouting Broccoli
More Lettuce, Rocket and Pak Choi
Sunflowers (the children are going to plant)
Potatoes (Rooster and Maris Piper)
More Peas and Beans (to get a continous supply?)
Nasturtiums (for garden and companion planting)
Allotment - Carrots, Parsnip, Beetroot, Onions

I know this sounds a lot and is probably way too much but I really want to grow as much of our food as possible this year plus we are also sharing our harvest with my parents so this crops is for 4 adults and 2 children. It's probably still way too much! but this year is very much an experiment.