Hello there ...
what a lovely day we have had ... I do hope you have had a bit of sunshine in your little bit of the world.
Cheers a Girl up no end!
On such a Spring like day ...
a Girls thoughts turn to her garden....
I reached it down from the shelf ... my special tin ... my seed tin ....
just to have a see what's in there ... just to kinda plan .. and daydream a bit...
Not that I can plant much just yet ...
not being as organised as some lucky people with their heated propagators and nice warm glasshouses ...
Oh a Girl can dream....
But I found a packet of Cress languishing at the bottom of the tin ... that will do ... it will curb the urge to plant and grow ..,
it gives a bit of fresh green stuff in no time at all ...
and its just nice to see something growing.
I didn't even need to find any compost ... just sprinkled it on a bi of damp kitchen paper ... and sat it on the windowsill.
My Christmas flowers have given up the ghost ... not bad they lasted almost three weeks in this hot room.
So as Hubby P said ... 'you've had your annual flowers ... its back to the weeds .. I see' ... and they say romance is dead!
He was commenting on the rather fetching arrangement of seasonal greenery ... or rather what I could find in the garden that didn't look dank and half dead.
It looks quite pretty with the sun on it ...
nice and fresh and zingy green.
I spent a pleasant couple of hours sectors in hand ... and filled the green (garden waste) wheelie bin with some rather nasty .. sharp..
half dead roses ... and I thinned the gooseberry bushes.
Not very glamorous but it had to be done.
I needed to clear and trim the shrubs away from up against this fence ... its a very old fence .. and the recent winds have done their worst with it.
Its about had it I'm afraid ... it will be used as firewood .. and keep us warm for a night or two.
The fence sits atop the wall between us and next door ... we have a lovely family next door ... its not as if we want to shut them out... but the fence was put up many many years ago when their boys were small ... and we had bouncy .. energetic dogs.
We found two little boys ... lots and lots of footballs .. and noisy dogs ... was not a good mix.
We spent a good amount of our days finding footballs lodged in the greenery of the garden and returning them over the wall...
to little shouts of 'thank youuuu'!
Not that I minded in the least we have four boys of our own ...
and children have to play .... but a fence made sense .. and made life easier.
But now sadly we have no dogs barking over the wall .. and the little boys are big boys and have other fish to fry ... football has turned into other more grown up pursuits.
So down it all comes ...
its not a very wide garden bed .. I shall just plant a few more shrubs and turn it into more of a hedge. It will give our friend next door a bit of privacy and something pretty to look at.
So all this fresh air ... what shall I feed a hungry man...
Well I rooted about in the freezer and found a very small pack of scrappy looking lamb chops ... obviously I had hotpot in mind when I bagged them up.
So I put them in the bottom of the much used roasting tin ..
pulled out what veg I had left and chopped it (I had some carrots .. a leek from the garden ... butternut squash .. swede and a little cabbage) ... put the mixed chopped veg on top of the chops .. added 2 oxo's and a spoonful of mint sauce (some water). I sliced some potatoes and layered them on top.
Pan/tin lid on and in the oven very..very low for a couple of hours.
I switched the oven up for the last hour (whilst we were out packing the van) ... took the lid off on our return and let the top brown/crisp up
By the time we had coats off .. fire stoked and hands washed ..it was all ready.
And very nice it was too.
I must just say .... that the butternut squash and cabbage I have were bought before Christmas from Approved Food ... I bought two of each. Just as an experiment really .. I've not had fresh food from them before.
It was one way of me bringing the weight up (to get my moneys worth) ... buying something I would use ..yet keeping the overall cost low.
And they have lasted ... they are still good to use ...I will buy fresh again.
So what have you been up to today ... did you get the sun on your face?
xxx
