A fine late winter's day

Today's weather was memorable - a bit misty & cold until midday with just a promise of sun, and then the sun came out in all it's glory. Through the misty sun I walked with the large dog & looked for patches of blue violets & buttery primroses under the trees. Patches of white violets have been in flowers for about a week as they all seem to be growing on sunny banks & verges. The blue violets are less abundant perhaps because they grow in the fields & get trampled by the horses. Down by the brook that runs along the bottom of the field I spotted some coltsfoot - how apt for a field with about 25 horses & ponies in it. I heard a woodpecker in a stand of old trees that grow by one of the deep pools along the brook.

The mild bright weather & lengthening days are suiting the hens. They are laying well, which is very good as today there are no fresh eggs left to sell as we have sold the lot! Word spreads about a good egg! As it is now light quite early (around 6:50am) we are leaving the pop-hole open & the electric fencing on. The fencing has served us & the hens well for about 6 months now so I guess it's time to trust it at night to. Even so Mr PoppyM has gone to sleep tonight dreaming up schemes to keep the hen's safe.

Talking of keeping things safe, one of the 4 geese on this site has been killed. Today we found the geese's nest - 2 of the girls seem to be laying in the nest - there are 20 eggs. All 3 geese came hot legging it over to us when we were checking the nest - it is in fairly safe place & well camouflaged & it good to see them so alert. It's a sad fact that there is very little we can do to keep the eggs & any goslings safe, the geese will have to do it all themselves even in this very human environment.

Caring for young things seems to be a feature at the moment - the place is over-flowing with pots & tray of seeds in varying stages of germination & growth. When they are ready I'll be moving some to the outdoor plastic mini-greenhouse & set another lot of seeds. Mr PoppyM, aided by the hens has prepared a bed for the early potatoes. If the weather holds up tomorrow, I plan to plant out the sweet peas I sowed in the autumn - they are healthy vigorous plants now that need more space. I have just the situation for them, right outside the kitchen window. I'll be able to check that the peacocks don't get to them & more importantly, I'll be able to see & smell them for most of the day. I have grown a mix of varieties for flower colour & shape & scent & one just for it's name "Gwendoline"! I'm really looking forward to having bunches of sweet peas in the house throughout the summer.
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Amazing seeds

I've started my seed planting in earnest. A few days ago I planted some Morning Glory, put them above the fire with a cover & like magic they have sprouted & are already substantial shoots.

Last year I squirreled away lots of seeds from the Butternut Squashes I brought. I was unsure if they would be viable so I put 2 batches on some wet kitchen towel, covered them with a plastic bag & put them somewhere warm. Hey presto, 3 days later they have lovely long shoots just calling out to be planted - how amazing is that. I have many batches & don't really need hundreds of plants so I'll grow on a few from each batch & give the remainder to the hens - no waste & all seeds appreciated.

It was a mildish sunny day today so I was pottering outside tiding-up pots & straggly over-winterers. While I was planting out the larkspur & pulling up some dead stuff I noticed some nasturtium shoots. It was down to -9C this winter for days on end, those seedlings have come from last years plants -I decided to let the seeds fall where they would. So here are some tender plants that have survived the rigors of a British winter- incredible.

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Earlier in the week I spent a happy few hours in a garden centre selecting seeds - my belated birthday present. This was followed by frothy cappuccino & cake - what a blissful few hours. And of course the pleasure continues with all the planting, the growing, the admiring, the harvesting & more collecting - perfect.

All images from Flickr

Surprising Things Come in Orange

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Well I never thought I'd say it - but I actually like swedes - and all because of a recipe from VegBox Give it a go. http://www.vegbox-recipes.co.uk/recipes/recipes-index.php

Swede Soup
Ingredients
Serves 6
1 swede
2 parsnips
2-3 medium carrots
1 litre vegetable stock
1 onion

Method
Peel the swede with a potato peeler. Chop it into 1/2 in cubes.
Scrub the carrots and chop.
Peel the onion and chop.
Scrub the parsnip and chop.
Bring the stock to the boil and add the vegetables. Simmer for 20 minutes until the swede chunks are soft.
Add any herbs and spices of your choice.
Liquidise (if desired) and serve with crusty bread.

For a more filling version, top each bowl with about 30g grated hard cheese (such as Cheddar) and some toasted seeds and nuts.

And I've tried for the first time - Pumpkin Pie (actually Butternut Squash) - so give it a try .

Pumpkin Pie
ingredients

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (or butternut squash)
1 cup brown sugar (I used 1 tablespoon as there is a diabetic in the house)
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each of ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg
1 1/2 cups cream (I used milk)
1 8 inch pre-prepared pastry case or 250g shortcrust pastry lining an 8 inch pie tin

Method
Cook the pumpkin
Cut the pumpkin into quarters
Remove the seeds
Cut the flesh from the skin
Cut the flesh into chunks
Steam (or boil in a little water in a covered pan) for about 10 minutes until soft
Allow to cool slightly
Mash the pumpkin and mix together pumpkin, sugar, eggs, salt and spices.
Gradually stir in milk or cream.
Pour into prepared pie shell.
Bake in preheated 210 C oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 190 C and continue baking for about 40 minutes.
Serve warm or cold with cream/yoghurt


And in a bright orange book I've rediscovered a very very funny poem by Wendy Cope;

Strugnel's Haiku- here's the 1st haiku of the 3:


The cherry blossom
In my neighbour's garden - Oh!
It looks really nice.


Go get the book out of the library or buy a copy & read all her wonderful poems: "Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis" Faber & Faber ISBN 0-571-13747-4

Non-Orange things

It's wild & blowy out there - a real March Day. Finally the daffodils are opening & I've seen lambs in the field - bleating & gamboling - aah.

Spring Cleaning must be "in the air". In the last 10 days the chicken house has been scrubbed & disinfected. The horse's stable has been completely emptied of bedding & disinfected. The kitchen has been blitzed twice - due to a blockage - fixed this morning. And because it has been too cold to work out doors for long spells, today Mr PoppyM "mucked-out" the sitting room, hoovered it AND washed the kitchen floor. He has retired to bed early complaining of feeling ill - let that be a warning -too much cleaning is bad for you!

It's been a busy few days with the chickens. We now have our own egg-boxes - sourced from a great place selling all manner of things for a small-holding. I have designed & printed off labels for the boxes. Mr PoppyM has made a "Eggs for Sale" sign - which has already generated a sale. The hens are laying really well considering it is a cold March & Alfie has settled in & is being a cockerel! The aim is to sell our surplus eggs to cover the cost of feed etc - the hens are our pets who happen to generate a few pounds a week. It would be lovely to have chicks but we are not set-up for them & don't have a broody hen - but who knows what the future will bring!

Today is the 1st day of my planting season - hurrah!

Have a Laugh

This made me laugh! It's from the excellent blog of illustrator/artist/writer Keri Smith. Go visit the site & be entertained & inspired - apparently there are 10,000 people who do!

March has ARRIVED. Following the wind & rain yesterday, all the plants & flowers look washed & refreshed. I have a long tub (actually an old horse storage box) filled with approx 100 small crocuses in 2 colours & a gnome buried in the middle. A majority of the simple white crocuses are open &, looking down on them, they look like tiny lilies.

Walking up the hill I stopped to watch as a flock of rooks & jackdaws rose together up out of a stubble field. As I watched I saw why- a very large bird of prey was flying through the flock. There are several resident large birds here, buzzards & I am 95% sure 1 or more goshawk. The rookery is in occupation now, and I see numerous birds with twigs in their bills. I guess there are eggs in the nests & eggs will soon mean chicks & chicks mean food for raptors.

The bird table is being well visited, there was a surprise visitor yesterday, a jackdaw.

Still on a bird theme, we have finally collected the Light Sussex cockerel. What a magnificent specimen he is & very nice natured. We have named him Alfred - Alfie. It's taken a few days for him to settle but he now has the measure of the place & yesterday managed to "bags" for hi self a big piece of boiled potato - those hens are no respecter of status!

I've finished reading "The Little White Horse", a book of such simplicity & innocence - a world that I don't think ever really existed & certainly does not exist now. In total contrast I read straight afterward the last in the Malorie Blackman Noughts & Crosses series "Double Cross". What a fabulous book & sadly a much truer depiction of life today for children & young adults. There are common themes i both books - the redemptive power of love & kindness, choice of good & bad, the young being a match for the older. I love children's books, they are frequently full of a vigour, creativity & clarity that sometimes gets lost in the "cleverness" that adult authors sometimes strive for.

The week the sun came out

What a busy & wonderfully clement week

The Hens
At long last the weather has allowed us to move the hens to their new site. They have an upgraded hen-house & a big run with lots of greenery. It wont be long before they have scratched-up & eaten everything possible within the run but NO PROBLEM. We have masses of expansion room now - bliss!
Ages ago we were offered a Light Sussex cockerel - he is still available but Mr PoppyM is wavering about having him. We have now also been offered 2 Guinea Fowl from the same source. Of course I want the cockerel & the GF - I love GF. I wonder how this will all turn out - tune in & see!

Spring

• The snowdrops are open & it is quite clear that they are not all the same variety.
• In my troughs & pots are hosts of exciting shoot: the 3 rhubarb seedlings I grew last year have fiery red, tough-looking shoots that gave me a huge thrill when I found them quite unexpectedly: the delphiniums have frondy green shoot - I saw the roving peacocks eyeing them up; and there are shoots & shoots of bulbs I had forgotten planting - so many pleasant surprises waiting to reveal themselves.
• Talking of peacocks - the local long-standing pair are still together & the tail, along with the rattling, was on display yesterday.
• In the hedgerows I have seen a few early celandines open - little bursts of sunshine laying on the ground.
• So many birds busy & singing & pairing-up. Spring is well & truly on it's way.

BOOKS
It was my birthday this week & I have had some great presents from friends. One I am particulary enjoying reading is a children's book that has somehow escaped me. Go out & buy it now ..... "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge - such an innocent magical story.

It's nearly Spring!!

A few days ago my first crocuses opened.

And today I saw my first catkins in the hedgerows.

I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of snowdrops. There is a little wood near here with a floor of snowdrops & clumps & clumps of them under a sweet chestnuts & stand of beautiful beech trees. Then I found an on-line article by Monty Don (in the Mail) that indicates we haven't had a warm enough day yet. The weather forecast for the next few days looks promising so perhaps they'll be open for my birthday!
(http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/gardening/article-1118062/All-things-white-beautiful-Why-climate-change-good-thing-case-snowdrop.html#

A snowy week

What to do when you get snowed in!



Read a good book or two.
The image above is from a fantastic book "Birds Britannica" by Mark Cocker & Richard Mabey.

It is full of amazing facts & pictures -in Tudor times "the London population of kites was protected by statues for its valuable refuse-disposal services.." and "together with penguins and owls, puffins are the birds most often found in the baby's cot"-toy ones that is!!

Or ....

I've opened it at random to give a flavour -"Herefordshire Orchards" & "Strid Woods" (in Yorkshire) & in the chapter about Formby Point (a man-made landscape to stablise a dune system) "From the beginning of the twentieth century, there were around 200 acres of ground among the dunes, divided up into small "pieces", where local growers cultivated splendid crops of asparagus"!

I've just baked a brilliant chocolate cake...can't wait to try it with custard. It's a really dark colour & very moist.

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE

Serves 6 (in your dreams!!!)
Prep: 20 min Cook: 50 min

75g cocoa powder or powdered drinking chocolate
180g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
250g caster sugar (I used 200g)
250g cooked beetroot
3 large eggs
200ml corn oil
1tsp vanilla extract (I replaced this with ginger)
Icing sugar for dusting

METHOD
Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and lightly butter a 20cm (8in) round or square cake tin.
Sift the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder into a bowl. Mix in the sugar, and set these dry ingredients aside. Purée the beetroot in a food processor. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and oil, and whiz until it is smooth. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the beetroot mixture and mix it all lightly. Pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean (cover with a loose sheet of foil if it starts to brown at about 30 minutes). This cake will not rise a great deal, and the top will crack. After removing from the oven, leave it for 15 minutes before taking it out of the the pan. Cool on a wiore rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Jill.dupleix@thetimes.co.uk Very Simple Food by Jill Dupleix is published by Quadrille at £20. Order from Times Books First for £16, plus £2.25 p&p. 0870-160 8080

Some more serious stuff

The above cake is apparently an Australian favourite. My heart & healing thoughts go out to those who have suffered as a result of the bush fires. Especially those who have had to watch others suffer & die &, those who are being treated for burns & related injuries. Truely horrific.

An old work colleague sent me an e-mail that caused me some thought. In this age & back through the ages, in every country & amongst every race, so many families have been unwillingly seperated. The pain this causes is carried through the generations -so remember this little girl - she must be somewhere & someone must know something - Madeleine McCann http://www.findmadeleine.com/2008/