Progress in the Garden

Not much, admittedly, but the herb wheelbarrow is doing well - the larger of the two parsley plants went in over a year ago (just goes to show that we didn't exactly have a harsh winter last year) and the rest of the plants are new, all but a rosemary cutting that I didn't expect to root at all; it was one of the bits cut to cook with the roasted root vegetables and didn't get used. I had put them all in a little vase of water in the kitchen, so they were decorative as well as useful and, blow me, when I came to change the water I found little roots growing. I left it a bit longer, then planted it out and it seems to be doing well!

We have cleaned up, varnished and painted an old and very decrepit Apple Press to use as a quirky planter and at a recent trip to Waitrose for their Essentials Chicken in Jelly cat food (the only one that our fussy lot will eat), we spotted a sedum that we thought would be perfect in it - Sedum 'Rose Carpet'

The grey-green of the leaves goes well with the Hammerite Smooth 'Wild Sage' paint that we used on the apple press and with the Garden Colours used on the bench and small table.

The pond is looking much better now that we have cleared a lot of the duckweed!

Though we haven't got all of it yet!

The 'Scrumptious' apples on our tree are colouring up nicely, though we have had an attack of Apple Scab and, of course, we can't use anything on the tree now as the anti-fungals have been withdrawn. It was a very wet winter and spring, which didn't help; we'll just have to make sure that all of the leaves are swept up in the autumn and hope for less rain next season.

The two hawthorn trees on the boundary are thick with berries - the birds are going to have a feast this year, there was far more blossom this spring and this is the result!

We have measured up for the fencing panels to divide the garden and Kevin started to chop up the last remaining Hebe in what will become the vegetable garden. 

We also have to get rid of the two conifers, but I doubt we'll be able to get those in my little car to take them to the dump - we'll need someone with a trailer!

The Very Vigorous Evergreen Clematis had to be pruned to within an inch of its life as it  had rendered the pergola on which it was draped somewhat unstable. It looks awful at the moment but the pergola has been mended and repainted and hopefully the clematis will stop sulking and return next year, all invigorated. I hope so, it has the most beautiful fragrance that fills the whole garden with perfume in the mornings.

We've also done a Feed and Weed on the lawn - it will never be a beautiful bowling green sward (it is far too uneven for that) but it looks a lot happier now and we'll reseed the odd patches in September. Considering how awful it looked the year after we moved in, what with all the to-ing and fro-ing, installation of the oil tank and so on, it has recovered remarkably well.

New from old.

I have in my stash, some curtains that my husband tells me hung in his and his first wife's kitchen many years ago. The fabric is called 'Arden' and it was made in Britain by a firm called Textra.

I know that Janet is an accomplished knitter but I don't believe that she sews and Kevin can't remember who made them but at a guess, I would have said that they were made by his mother - Kathleen - who was an excellent seamstress. These curtains were lined and french seams were used to join the widths of the cream lining fabric, an impressive step that I will freely confess that I'm not sure I would have been bothered to take.

The colours are as bright as they were when the fabric was first printed - there was no fading to be seen when I let down the hems - and the weakest part of the whole construction was in the cotton used to stitch them, which broke easily.

I have only unpicked one curtain and there is easily enough fabric for me to make the apron that I am planning; September sees the first of the Soup and Sweet Lunches at the Village Hall and I always help out there when possible. An apron is essential! I'm also a messy cook, but currently I only have one pinny, so I found a pattern for a substantial pinafore and when the bias binding arrives on Friday, I can get to work.

I love the fact that I can create something new from something old, and I love the fact that this fabric, though it is around forty years old, is still as strong, bright and useful as the day that Textra printed and sent the bolts out for sale.

Of Yurts, Tractor Rides and Wine-Tasting.

Yesterday, Kevin and I drove to Goathurst in Somerset where his daughter Kate and our grandson Fin were spending a few days with her friend Jodie and her son, 'glamping' in a yurt. We hadn't seen Kate and Fin since last October, though we speak often and keep in touch through Facebook, so it was lovely to get together with them and to meet up with Jodie and Matt.

Once off the motorway, we had a pleasant drive through some pretty villages, finally arriving at the  Secret Valley, 400 acres of farmland, some of which is devoted to various 'glamping' accommodations (I rather fancy the Shepherd's Hut - very romantic) and met up with Kate and Jodie (the boys were racing their radio-controlled cars in the Play Barn).

After lunch, we went on the tractor tour of the site, passing donkeys, alpacas and free-range chickens on the way. They grow Christmas Trees here and apparently hares like living in the plantations so I kept my eyes peeled but no hares came out to watch us rattle past, sadly.

At the top of a steep hill, we arrived at the Wine Tasting Hut, where we tried a White, a Rosé, two very nice Reds and a sparkling Pinot Noir, while the children on the tour played Quoits. Then we were off again to view the vineyard

and down to the stream to have a Duck Race - Kevin was appointed Chief Duck Pusher, with a long pole designed to persuade any reluctant rubber ducks off the shallows and into the clear, fast-running water. I was too busy watching my own, highly reluctant, duck to take photos though.

They have rare breed turkeys here - the Narragansett Turkeys which are apparently pretty close to the wild turkeys that the Pilgrim Fathers would have hunted for their Thanksgiving Suppers - according to Farmer John, who conducted the tour, they have a 'gamier' taste than commercial breed turkeys and there is less meat on them. I didn't manage to get a photo, but this is what the cock bird would look like!

They have also introduced South African Boer Goats for meat production - the little flock of does came hurtling down the hill to their pen at the sound of the Land Rover, bells jingling merrily. Boer Goats are friendly and docile - the buck wasn't with them, for obvious reasons, but he apparently gets  to visit his harem next month!

When we got back to the drop-off point, we trotted into the communal kitchen, where Kate had all the makings for a cream tea, after which we went to look at their yurt.

The doorway is extremely low and you definitely have to stoop to get in, but it looked very cosy. Kate did say that she and Jodie found it very hot on Sunday night, but I think they were chillier on Monday night, given Kate's Facebook status!

The prices for the three nights look very reasonable, especially given the excellent facilities and standard of accommodation - it'd be great if the whole family could get together there, even if we weren't all in the yurts (don't think Kevin's or my back would be happy on a futon!).

We left them planning to light the firepit and toast marshmallows, and we got back home around 7pm - the Secret Valley is about one and three quarter hours from us. Have to say that I'd highly recommend it as a venue for couples AND families.

#SomersetsGreatEscape.

Yogurt-making Part 2 and a visit to Knightshayes.

My second batch of yogurt used UHT skimmed milk, dried milk powder and some of my earlier batch of yogurt as a starter. I don't think it worked as well in the slow cooker, sadly, as it turned out to be rather runny and no amount of straining was going to change that. It did, however, taste more 'yogurty'!

Cost-wise, the UHT and skimmed milk powder is the better recipe, so I decided to look for a yogurt maker, thinking that perhaps the fact that the slow cooker was a bit hit-and-miss regarding temperature maintenance was the problem. An online buddy pointed me in the direction of the Easiyo maker and although Easiyo promotes the use of their own yogurt mixes, my friend uses hers to make UHT method yogurt successfully.

I found one online from Easiyo at a reduced price (because it had no box - WHY would I even want the box?) and it arrived on Tuesday, so before we went out to Knightshayes Court (more of which later), I started a batch of yogurt in my new toy!

Kevin and I became National Trust members last year and we do try to get to a Trust property as often as we can. I had been wanting to visit Knightshayes as a fellow Open University student works there - of course, we had picked her day off!

We left home around 10.15 and after a long but pretty drive cross-country, arrived at Knightshayes a little after mid-day. The house is spectacularly Gothic, the interiors by Crace are typical of the style (and reminded me much of Pugin's and William Morris's work). It was, however, the garden and more specifically, the kitchen garden that inspired me. I wish we had the space for a cutting garden as well as veggies - the flowers that are grown specifically for the house are breathtakingly lovely. The veggies looked gorgeous too - french and runner beans, heirloom peas, onions, spinach, pumpkins, courgettes and squash all in season and oh, the globe artichokes - past their best for eating but so beautiful for cutting for flower arrangements. We must certainly plant artichokes!

Knightshayes

The Cutting Borders in the Walled Kitchen Garden

Artichoke in flower.

Onions - aren't these beauties?

Pumpkin - these take up so much room, though!

Knightshayes even has a vineyard!

This visit will be the first of many - the atmosphere in the house is warm and inviting and I could spend hours in those gardens.

Anyway, back to the yogurt...

We left it until 10pm (it had then had 12 hours) and had a quick taste - the texture was much better and it was nicely yogurty. It tasted a lot better on Wednesday morning, after it had been chilled in the fridge overnight. So, a success then - looks like I'll be making our yogurt from now on and it works out at £0.66p per litre, so a saving as well.