Monday 28th June - Slugs and snails...

 And other things that are chomping their way through my vegetables...

Yesterday a vine beetley weevily thing had the temerity to drop into the sink from among the leaves of the lettuce I pulled from the garden. I quite like the smart look of the beast; its shape is sharply defined in an attractive dark, dusty, charcoal black; but its horrible white maggoty larva wriggling obscenely in the soil are very upsetting.

I am going to send off for nematodes in due course - apparently Spring and Autumn are the time for taking action. Like, May and September, which isn't now.

I dug about in the soil of that particular pot but couldn't find any larva... I'll have another prod about tomorrow.

Other woes; fox pooh. A pungent pile of poo greets us every morning. Somewhere it said that vinegar is a deterrent, so I have sent off for a 5 litre flagon of the stuff, 'for cleaning purposes'. 

In the meantime, last night, I thought I would have a go with a bottle of Sarsons. Reckoning that pouring the vinegar onto the grass might not do the grass any good, I poured it into foil trays and weighted them down with brick.

It sort of worked - sort of. Today's pile of poo is about a foot further over from this patch. (Don't the salvias look good!). I have refrained from taking a picture of the poo - I'll leave that to your imagination. Now I have no vinegar in the house for the fish-and-chips lunch I promised my father on Tuesday - which may, or may not happen anyway - and am also expecting a delivery of 5 litres of lemon scented vinegar. I shall be able to do lots and lots of cleaning. 

Meanwhile the quartermaster is searching on line for phase 2 the anti-fox war. 

Something is making a meal out of my basil and it is not me.

The sour dough adventures continue. A lot of sourdough started gets discarded along the way, but there are also plenty of recipes for using it up. I sort of adapted a bread-machine recipe for cinnamon and raisin sourdough bread and produced this 

I was lucky it didn't stick the top crust to the lid of the machine! It is very good toasted, although toasting it is a slight challenge as the loaf is so tall. About a quarter of the slice sticks out of the top of the toaster.

After a short time (it burns easily, believe you me) you have to ping the red button and put the toast back in up-side down.

The new dishwasher is a great success. It is almost silent; how can it be washing the dishes without sloshings and churnings and rattlings? It dries everything like a dream, and takes forever to unload because it takes just about every plate, cup, bowl and mug we own to fill it. There were no bowls left for our pudding, so we had to use these, from a set of four called 'the proof is in the pudding'. I got a prime numbers theorem; his was Pythagorus. I understand Pythagorus, but was not in the right frame of mine to consider prime numbers. 

 It is raining, again. Any moment now Leo the cat will appear, and leap onto a lap demanding to be dried off with a paper tissue.  

Wednesday 23rd June - After the monsoon

 It has rained. You may well have noticed it. 

I gave in, found socks, put the summer sandals to the back and fetched out my proper shoes, discarded the summer night-dress (short sleeves) after being too cold and replaced it with a winter one (long sleeves).

And now it is sunny, like June did ought to be. 

I now have two sets of clothes left out ready for the day - tee-shirt, light-weight top, jeans, sandals, thick short, heavier fleece, thicker jeans, shoes and socks. Both nightdresses are at the foot of the bed.

The Man who Mows (he knows who he is) has finally been able to get the grass cut. It was looking extremely pretty - mostly white clover at the back, and mostly what I have always called 'egg and bacon' at the front, but I have no idea if that is its name - oh! how about that! 

It is Common Bird's-Foot-Trefoil, or even 'Granny's Toe-nails' - which describes the seed heads, and, really, Eggs-and-Bacon'!

Thank you internet - whatever did we used to do? 

I know what we did; I have shelves full of mighty tomes about history, atlases, Roget's Thesaurus and the Oxford Companion to Music. I can't bear to chuck them out (although I think I would scrap a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica if such a thing was consuming shelf space).

Anyway, it has all gone now, apart from some secretive stalks that managed to lay low as the blades passed overhead.

The garden is a constant source of delight - we have cranesbill flowers, or geraniums, depending on how up-to-date you are, and pelargoniums (or geraniums, depending on how up-to-date you are) and clematis and salvia hotlips and one rose and also the patio tubs I planted bedding plants I planted up a few weeks ago all in flower.

We have been eating salads - lettuce and spring onions from the garden, and we have had strawberries again, one or two as they ripen.

There are promising signs of french beans, broad beans and peas, and half a dozen courgette flowers are looking sunny, even if they never turn into courgettes - who knows...

Having the garden sorted out by a professional was one of the best things we ever did for our house. It has made sitting out there, and pottering about doing a bit of weeding or planting such a pleasure (apart from the weeding bit obviously...)

  

Friday 18th June 2021 - The Rain has Stopped

 what a day of rain!

It rained yesterday afternoon as well; McCavity came in so wet that her tail dripped a great puddle on the floor. (The cat, in case you hadn't guessed)

The book club meeting at lunchtime today that I nearly went to last week on the wrong day was cancelled in the end. I gather two or three people met together and shared coffee and cake indoors but I wasn't one of them. I'm still not ready for any avoidable indoor meetings yet. 

I could quickly give you my thoughts on the book; A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende; skip to next bit if you are not interested.

 I think, if it hadn't been for the book club I would not have chosen to read this book. It is a curious mixture. There is the detailed history of the Spanish Civil war and the refugee crisis afterwards and then life in Chile before General Pinochet took over and during his brutal dictatorship and then afterwards. At the same time there are the threads of passion for one's country, and passion for your wife/husband/lover/family. It felt like being immersed in a collage of three different stories, three different worlds. I am still reflecting on the book, but with no desire to re-read it. So yes, it's good, no, I didn't 'like' it.

Here we are, let's talk about carrots instead; I pulled one up about two weeks ago and it was clearly too soon

Don't raise your eyebrows like that! I have never grown carrots before, and usually buy them without the leaves so I have no idea when they will be ready to harvest. It's not like growing peas or courgettes where all the important action takes place above ground.

I pulled another one yesterday and it is looking more promising. I cleaned it up and ate it raw - delicious, only slightly carrot flavoured at the moment. I think they need another week or so yet. 

I've picked the first bowlful of strawberries, but we ate them before I could take a photograph. But you know what strawberries look like. They looked like that. One had a baby slug curled up the a little hollowed out home it had made for itself in the tip - sorry sluggy, I chucked you and your strawberry house into the garden recycling bin.   

I've also started up another sourdough 'brew'. This version is simplicity itself; you get a decent sized jar, and each day for 5 days you stir in 50g bread flour and 50 tepid water, mix well, and leave out, partially covered.

So after 5 days you have a total of 250g flour and 250 g water (the equivalent of 250 ml). I mention this because you will be glad you chose the right size bowl or jar at the beginning.

Then I googled 'Sourdough Loaf made in a bread machine', picked the easiest recipe and did that. You basically dump the ingredients on the list -flour, salt, water and gloopy starter into the bread machine and press play. All the bread machine recipes (only three or four) I read seem to use yeast - if you want to be a purist then you google 'sour dough loaf' and then you will be embarking on a sort of sour dough ceremony lasting two days of of mixing and stirring and resting and kneading and proving overnight in the fridge and so on. You will most likely get a better result - I won't know as I am unlikely to go through the palaver.

Here's my bread and the rest of the sourdough starter which has been transferred to a smaller jar ready to hibernate in the fridge until next time;

It's looking plausible (both the bread and the starter) and tastes plausible (just the bread)

It tastes like ordinary bread, but has distinct but not too 'in-your-face' ('in-your-mouth'?) sourdough  tang. Should be cool enough by tea time....

    

 

Friday 11th June - A series of surprises

 This could have been - as they say - 'interesting'

I am a member of a book group. 

(Digression

At the moment we are reading Isabel Allende 'A Long Petal of the Sea' which has been interesting so far; I have to take breaks from it, rather in the way that I used to hide behind the settee when things got too scary in 'Thunderbirds Are Go'; don't get me started on Dt Who and the Weeping Angels as that left me shivering for several weeks.

I took the first break during the graphic descriptions of combat and then the plight of the refugees in the Spanish Civil War. Once I had rebuilt my strength and courage I travelled with the lucky ones on the boat from France to find asylum in Chile.

I'm now taking another break because several of the characters have got themselves into a real romantic tangle and I cannot see how this is going to end except in tragedy and tears; I hope Ms Allende has a plot twist that will save the situation.)

Anyway, the reason for joining the book group is to meet with friends and also broaden my horizons in the choice of books that I read. We meet every six weeks or so, over zoom this past year, but before then in each other's houses, all bringing contributions for a shared supper - sometimes everyone brought cheese, other times everyone seemed to bring cake, but does this matter?

We are coming up to our first 'real' meeting for over a year - such excitement - a shared lunch this time in someone's garden, except that we are all bringing our own picnic. 

The first surprise was that it had crept up on me so quickly. Our grocery order was not as comprehensive as usual as the quartermaster was having an ;off' day when he placed the order. So there was a distinct lack of variety in what was available for a packed lunch. In the end I assembled a hard boiled egg, sliced cooked new potatoes and a handful of frozen peas, dill pickles, lettuce from the garden and a dollop of french dressing into a saladish sort of combination. I found a small pot of stewed apples in the freezer, made up some cold tea and put out a speckly banana. That will do...

I sent an email to the host asking for directions to her house - I sort of know where it is, and I sort of remember a sudden and slightly hidden entrance to the drive somewhere near a bridge on the main road out of town. As this would  be my first time driving the car since about May last year I wanted to reduce the number of unknowns before heading off.

'I've arranged that you can park in my next-door neighbour's drive so that there's room for all'. she said. 

Noted.

I chose my outfit with care, summery, and a huge soft wrap in case of getting cold.

'I thought it was next Friday?' asked Himself as I was about to load up a picnic bag. 

'I'll check if you like,' I grumbled.

It is NEXT Friday. That has saved me from the considerable embarrassment of driving up to a stranger's house, parking my car and ambling next door for a non-existent book group meeting. I also have another week to renew my strength and discover how Victor, Roser, Orfiel, Matias, Felipe and all the others are going to get out of this dreadful fix. 

   

    

Tuesday 8th June - Episodes and Interludes

 I have resurrected one of my other blogs, 'Episodes and Interludes', which has been dormant for several years. 

I created it years ago to be a sort of on-line Commonplace Book, then deleted nearly all the posts, got bored with it, and now I'm using it as a sort of notebook for an Almanac cum Diary cum Year Book sort of thing. 

There may be a fair amount of overlap between this one and that one - or maybe not? Who knows! 

We'll see how it goes... maybe I'll carry on with it, maybe I won't!

The blog address is www.episodesandinterludes.blogspot.com

Monday 7th June - NOT 'the sewing bee'

 I promised you a post - or did I threaten you with one?

Last week I decided it was 'now or never' to make up the material that I had bought back in 2019 (or maybe 2018?). I bought the red flowery material because I couldn't make up my mind how to make up the blue embroidered material - this makes perfect sense to me, and to anyone who knows me.

The problem with the blue material was that I couldn't work out which side I liked better; the right side, darker, with thicker embroidery, or paler, with thinner embroidery. 

One solution was to sew the seams in such a way that it would be reversible... so I bought the red fabric to try this out.

And then NOTHING happened; every so often I would get it all out, look at the pattern pieces, and put it all away again. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.... On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

And that time had not yet come... until last week...

So I decided to 'game' it, and play 'The Sewing Bee'.

Tuesday afternoon - I was so over-confident I included a clock in the photograph

Ready to start cutting out

Several hours later

And later still

After we got the tension sorted out (that was a pretty tense hour)

It took two days in the end, not two hours... interruptions ranged from 

a welcome telephone call from a friend which probably saved the project from being thrown out of the window as I think it was about then that I discovered that I had snipped a hole in the fabric by accident, and also made a bit of an error when cutting out the sleeves - however both problems proved to be 'bodgeable' after a 'time-out' to regain my sanity.

a problem with the sewing machine - I persevered for half an hour keeping a firm rein on gathering frustration, before calling in the heavy brigade. He diagnosed the problem and the solution - a lump of fluff was keeping the tension spring for the upper bobbin thread open (you wanted to know this, didn't you)

a visit to the dentist the following morning

Ta-Dah!   (with thanks to The Son who alerted me to the existence of a timer function on my phone a few weeks ago) 

And then, guess what - I did it all over again the next day!

Without making any of the same mistakes! That is to say I made different ones. For some reason the back piece turned out to be an inch too narrow - but that was bodgeable and doesn't show from the front. This also took two days to make, mostly because arranging the pieces on the embroidery required thought and fettling.   

Note; in the interests of sanity, expediency, and just Getting It Done, neither top is reversible. That's a joy saved for the future! 

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly:

Quotes are always better 'out of context'...

Saturday 5th June - Spring and Summer

 The weather changes this week from cold and wet to a few days of hot sun, a day of determined continuous rain, and now a mix of sun and clouds coming and going.

Half term is nearly over - and a curious 'break' it was too.

'Break' seems to have been be the operative word;

Dishwasher - the pump started whining like a muted dentist drill. On investigation we discovered that we had bought it quite sometime ago, repairs would be expensive and not necessarily successful. So we have a new dishwasher, spookily silent when it is running, and swallows up so much in one load that we have unearthed the extra plates and bowls.

Cooker - one ring has been making odd 'ticking' sound as it heats up for quite a while now. So you can't say we hadn't been warned when, one day, everything was ready to eat except the oven chips. They were still pallid, unappetizing and COLD. With hindsight we should have gone ahead and eaten the rest of the meal while the chips were being blasted with heat in the Air Fryer. We could have pretended that they were a separate course. Instead we had warm steak and veg and burning hot chips.

 Once again the paperwork, and investigations on the forums brought the conclusion that replacement would be better than repair. I suppose we could have carried on with the cooker, using whichever rings still worked, and the top oven, until finally something melted or caught fire or the exploded with a bang... but the new cooker will be delivered later this month.

The Kitchen Floor - well, one thing usually leads to another, and installing the new dishwasher meant disturbing the plumbing which meant that the kitchen floor started buckling - the result of a slow leak in the water connection to the dishwasher. This was easily fixed, in terms of mechanics - merely a matter of cleaning and re-seating a washer. The floor has been persuaded to lie flat again too; the heavy work involved pulling out and pushing back the dishwasher.

The small hammer drill - I won't go into details, but it seems that if don't use a hardened bit in a hammer drill (because an ordinary bit had got into the box of bits, are you still with me?) and you encounter a surprisingly hard piece of wood when you are drilling, you can end up riveting the bit into the thingy that holds the bit. By 'bit' I mean the specific thingy that sticks out of the business end of the drill and goes roundandroundandround very fast and makes the hole. We have proved this to our dissatisfaction and ordered a replacement drill.

Teeth - did I mention a dentist earlier? We both had a 'routine' visit - and what has been 'routine' about the past eighteen months, I ask you? (rhetorical question, please don't reply) - I got off fairly lightly, but we knew that Himself would be 'in for it' as a chunk broke off a tooth several months ago. He's having another crown. I am more than a little apprehensive about the visit to the hygienist we were told to arrange. I've managed to dodge this experience for more than a decade, but like Nemesis it has caught up with me. 

In between times I have finally made up the fabric I bought back in 2019, or even 2018, perhaps. I thought I would play a game of 'Sewing Bee';

'sewists, you have one afternoon to make a simple summer top'

That is worth a whole blog post on its own... I could add 'sewing machine' to the list of items that stopped working...