Apple blossom

England needs more orchards. They are so beautiful.

I love this time of year, when you can spot fruit trees in hedges and gardens, old orchards behind high hedges, lost fruit trees in full blossom.

Roma

Canker in the Lord Lambourne

We have hacked it back, daubed it with stuff, and are hoping it will survive. It is a particular bummer as it is by far and away our most productive dessert apple, sharp and tangy, nice with cheese, and was full of blossom.

It meant a bonfire, which BT and his mate enjoyed. Amazing how dirty 2 small boys can get with the help of a couple of fields, a few trees and a bit of charcoal. Dirt is a sign of a day well spent...

Shoots and stuff

I tidied the porch last week, and now it is full of seedlings in a mixture of pots and trays. I get very excited about beans sprouting - such large leaves, pushing through the soil. Cotyledons. I can understand why Jack climbed a beanstalk.

I am not an organised gardener. I always forget to label my seedlings, and have to trust to recognising what they are when they grow big enough. I have runner beans and broad beans and some broccoli, and various herbs.

We still have a box full of chillis in the freezer that I planted in a haze. It was a mixed pack of seeds that would produce chillis of different strengths. It adds a new dimension to things to not quite know what you're getting when you reach for a chilli - every curry has a touch of Russian roulette about it.

We planted lettuces and stuff direct in the vegetable patch. We were restrained in our planting, and aim to succession plant over the next few weeks. This is something we have failed to achieve in the past, so perhaps we are getting marginally more organised.
The first year we grew radishes YM planted the whole packet in one go. There is a limit to the number of radishes you can eat. You reach it quite quickly, we found.

Flowers we saw on our walk

Primroses

Celandines

Violets

Tiny little wild strawberry flowers

seals

We dropped down to north Cornwall last weekend, sat on a cliff top and watched seals. At first we saw one or two, bobbing and playing in the pools the tide had left. Then Rainbow noticed some strange, smooth shapes on the patch of sand up under the cliffs. A paisley print of seals, and as soon as we had seen them, we saw more and more and more.

I tried to photograph the seals, but all you can see are tiny dots. So here is the giant we met, along with her pixie brother.

And if you look very carefully you can see the sculpture the pixie made, channelling Goldsworthy...

The moon is a liar

A tiny sliver of moon in the sky tonight, almost flat on its back. On our honeymoon a lovely Italian lady told us "In Italy we say the moon is a liar. When he say crescendo he is diminuendo. When he say diminuendo he is crescendo".

Had a mad weekend in Dublin, came back Sunday morning and had a roast dinner in the pub. The kids went down to one of the neighbours, YM wallowed in Liverpool beating Man U,  and I had an hour of weeding. There's sorrel up in the vegetable patch, the first signs of mint, and I have things to plant. Had some sorrel in my cheese sandwich this lunchtime. Am feeling excited about spring.

The Song of the Snowdrop Fairy - C M Barker

Deep sleeps the Winter,
Cold, wet, and grey;
Surely all the world is dead;
Spring is far away.
Wait! The world shall waken;
It is not dead, for lo,
The Fair Maids of February
Stand in the snow!

Half term

It is just so nice to be off with the kids. YM finished early yesterday and we went to the beach with a rugby ball and a bike. I am determined to get BT riding a bike this year. He is seven for goodness sake. He makes about 50 metres and then falls off with varying degrees of elegance. Much more interested in the rugby ball, but took some convincing that there was more to rugby than just throwing yourself over the try line.

Secret of Kells - Pangur Ban

Secret of Kells - Pangur Ban

We took the children to see this last night. Rainbow is now struggling to recapture this song. The whole thing was just an amazing experience, but there was something very special about this song.

Getting over blehh

Felt blehh. With some justification, if you can ever justify feeling blehh. Hair was wrong. Skin was wrong. Clothes were wrong. Blehh.

Bumped into JB as I roamed the streets looking for a hairdresser I wanted to go and see. She took me round some dark alley behind M&S to meet her perfectly lovely hairdresser, who has done almost nothing to my hair and made an unbelievable difference.

Then she took me to the local department store and sat me in front of the Dior counter...

I have never tried a grown up moisturiser before. I am amazed.

So it has been a very expensive week, but the blehh has gone. For now.

Room by Emma Donoghue

This was my book of the year for 2010. It is the most amazing book. I totally believed in Jack. I loved him. You must read it.

Naming the moon

The first full moon after the winter solstice is the moon after yule.
Then comes the wolf moon
The lenten moon
The moon after the vernal equinox is the egg moon
Milk moon
Flower moon
The moon after summer solstice is the hay moon
Grain moon
Fruit moon
The moon after the autumn equinox is the harvest moon
Hunter's moon
The moon before yule

If a season has 4 full moons, the third is a blue moon

Cranberry fizz

Spending Twixtmas in Snowdonia. All the snow has gone, and there is a light penetrating drizzle, so we are mooching with friends and knocking back the cranberry fizz - cointreau, prosecco and cranberry juice. Too easy to drink. Like a very sophisticated alcopop. Alison, who makes this as her signature cocktail every New Year, reminds me not to forget the orange zest and the cranberries. So I won't.

Bliss.

Less than a month until Christmas - what does Tove Jansson have to teach us?

"Is it spring already?" murmured Moomin.

"Spring?" exclaimed Hemulen irritably. "It's Christmas, don't you know? - Christmas. And I haven't got anything, and nothing's arranged; and then in the middle of it all, they send me to dig you out. I've lost my yellow gloves, I expect, and everyone's running around in circles, and nothing's ready..."

And Hemulen stamped up the stairs again and climbed out of the attic skylight.

"Mamma! Wake up" called Moomin, frightened. "Something awful's happened. They call it Christmas."

"What do you mean?" said Moominmamma and put out her nose.

"I don't know really," said her son. "But nothing's arranged, and someone's lost and everyone's running around in circles. Perhaps it's the water rising again."

He shook the Snorkmaiden gently and whispered:

"Don't be frightened, but something awful's happened."

"Calm!" said Moominpappa. "Calm above all!"

Back at the blog

Have been away for such a long time. So much has happened - Halloween, our Tour of the North, casting for the school Christmas play (  I  have one alien with lines and one dancing robot in the family), BT discovering Harry Potter...

My parents are having a clear out, so every time I go over there I am presented with stuff to take away. Some of it is exciting to get. Like this:

and this

Blast those katzenjammer kids

and this as well

What would Ma do?

So great to get them - all books that I loved.

fledgeling back

She's back! She had a great time! She got muddy! She abseiled! ("I'm not doing abseiling")! Abseiling was fun - once you got your feet over the edge (though apparently a chocolate bribe was used by the brownie leader - wise woman)! She wants to do it all over again!

My fledgeling flutters

My no 1 fledgeling is trying her wings out this weekend. Well, she's gone on a brownie trip to the local PGL, but she will be away for 2 nights, which seems immense to me. We dropped her off this evening, with vast amounts of luggage, and don't get her back until Sunday.

Interestingly, even though I would have said BT was the one who made all the noise, the house is very quiet.

Autumn

I have pickled some plums.

That's all. I have restrained myself from making chutneys and jams. Apart from 3 jars of chilli jelly - red chilli flakes suspended in apple jelly, like pollen in amber. Rather beautiful.

But nothing else. Really. Promise. We have a shelf full of jam, and chutney, and quince jelly, and marmalade. So this year I'm holding off. Definitely.

I will make sloe gin. Rainbow wrote the labels for me last year, so it was all neatly labelled "Slow Gin". Actually, I find it is rather fast gin. but there you go.

I had quite a good summer in the veg patch. It is a blaze of gold and orange now - marigolds and nasturtiums, which gradually take over as the summer goes on - and there are 5 rather splendid pumpkins, one immensely tall sunflower, still a steady supply of courgettes (and the odd courges), and runner beans. I have some chard and kale on the way back, too. We may keep some over the winter, but last the year the deer came in and ate all my winter greens, so I'm not expecting much.

I have discovered sorrel - sharp, lemony, very useful in salads and sandwiches. Will definitely have some next year. And lovage, which is really like celery, so a little sprig gives that celery flavour to soups and stocks. I rarely buy celery, because I find I use a couple of sticks, store it til it goes totally flaccid and then put it in the compost bucket. And now I have lovage, I don't have to!

I have conceived a desire to grow jerusalem artichokes next year. Am trying to work out where to put them.

Also, some different kinds of beans, some mange-tout, more carrots and parsnips. The spinach was good, and we used loads of it, though it seems a long time ago. There is some perpetual spinach coming back. I am not entirely sure how perpetual perpetual is.

Nigel Slater has almost convinced me to grow beetroot.