First Produce

We had new potatoes tonight, grown by yours truly in the garden at Tre Agan. I would have left them a little longer, but the recent winds had broken some of the stems of the potato plants leaving me no choice but to harvest.

We didn't get that many, but as a first attempt I was delighted with the outcome and the flavour was great. They were harvested, cooked and eaten within two hours.. even Birds Eye couldn't do any better.

Served up with English lamb steaks, fresh carrots (though not home grown) and some Cornish cauliflower they tasted like ambrosia and I finally get it, why Dad grew his own. It wasn't the savings in money, but the enhanced flavour and knowing it was your own hard work.. Bless you Dad, it has only taken me the best part of 50 years to work that out.. I obviously wasn't there when they handed out the brains lol.

So I am hoping to get some more seed potatoes in, I think I have a chance with the extended growing season down here to get one more crop in and enjoy the fruits but certainly planning on doing more and have my name down for an allotment as well.. nothing like future planning.

Wastage this weekend

For those of you who will buy pumpkins just for the ability to carve them and put candles in them on Saturday, please consider using the flesh rather than wasting it..

I don't celebrate Halloween though if the neighbours children want to tuck into some sweets that's fine by me though I don't like the idea of playing tricks as these can get out of hand with eggs being thrown and as a result being banned from sale at this time.. I know bit of a killjoy really...lol

Instead I see 31st October as Samhain (pronounced so wain) as Summers End, a time when we formally suspend the sun and warmth of Summer together with their harvests and head into the chills of wintertime brrrh.

I have been busy trying to come up with some useful ways of utilising the flesh and seeds..

Seeds, you can bake them in the oven for a tasty snack, try sprinkling on some spices to pep them up a bit. To see how to do this go to this site and prepare for some ooey-gooeyness from Ginny Larsen

Steam the flesh of the pumpkin and blitz in a food processor along with some stock (either vegetable or chicken) and then serve with crispy bread rolls - you can spice it up with chilli or with curry spice to give more depth.

Or you could do an Asian Chicken recipe or my personal favourite and one to try is these gorgeously moist Chocolate Brownies

Roasted Squash

I feel autumnal, the need to nest and hibernate is strong.. the lure of a nice dark, warm cave increasingly attractive lol...

So to while away the weekend, I made a batch of Roasted Squash goodies... which included soup, tart and tortilla roll bakes....

First of all I roasted my butternut squash, a favourite of mine, first of all rubbed with garlic and olive oil then baked until softened and browned..

For the soup scoop 1/3 of the flesh out of the tough skin and added to some vegetable stock and blitz until smooth, return to the pan and add some fresh corn, peas and tomatoes to the mixture.. serve with crusty fresh bread.

For the tart, roll out some puff pastry, into a rectangle, or smaller squares, and put 1/3 of the flesh roughly chopped onto the pastry, put some chopped tomatoes on, and top with grated mozzarella cheese (or you can use a blue cheese such as cambozola).. I dusted with some dried herbs and mustard mix, but go with your own flavours. Put in a hot oven for 20 mins until the pastry is cooked, serve in slices with a herb salad and fresh crusty bread.

Lastly the remaining 1/3 of squash mix chop up and add to some softened onion's and garlic mix and put them in rolled up tortilla's (makes 2)... place in an ovenproof dish, and cover with a tomato based sauce, I used spanish chicken sauce from the Knorr range. Sprinkle with a strong cheese, either mature cheddar or you can use mozarella.. and bake for 20-25 mins in a moderate oven... these taste delicious and make a greate vegetarian option for meals.

Enjoy

I want....

As much as I love the golden days of Autumn, inevitably my mind turns to Winter... and the shorter darker day... with everything packed (or more or less everything) I have little to occupy my mind with crafts etc.

The past couple of weeks have been made absolutely glorious with a display of nature at her best with golds, reds, greens and browns making a patchwork of the earth. The sunsets and sunrises are at their best, it is almost as though she is making one long last effort to show off her power before she descends into a hibernation lasting until next spring.

I really want a holiday in the sun before Winter, but with the house sale proceeding oh so very slowly I can't even arrange that.. so I might just join Nature in her hibernation... lol

An old one

Today is star wars day.. why? you may wonder... prepare to groan...

May the 4th be with you


And a typical bank holiday monday, dank and dreary, though we are luckier than most, as being in the back of beyond the rain that northern England and Scotland are having today makes the weather here look sub-tropical by comparison. Did I really hear the mention of snow in yesterday's forecast?

No matter, it is a holiday, and I am working hard.. trying to declutter nearly 40 years of rubbish sorry important pieces of life history such as walking stick badges, photographs, napkin rings etc is a challenging one and one I don't always relish but it needs to be done and failing that even if the sun were shining I would be out in the garden weeding away trying to make inroads into Winters lingering grip.

How are you guys spending your bank holiday, don't know if the US/Aussie readers have a similar holiday but if not commiserations.

Fished out

Last night after work, I fished the remaining fish out of the gloop that was the water feature in the garden. It was full of green sludge, water if you will, that looked as though it could support nothing useful and I had an aquarium inside ready and waiting for the occupants of the feature.

When I had the bright idea to have a water feature in the garden, about 4 years ago (or thereabouts), I didn't intend to have fish but a neighbour who had a pond full of koi carp and other fish let me have some pond weed for oxygenation purposes. So I filled the tub up with weed, rocks and gravel as well as water and sat and enjoyed the water irises, both blue and yellow, as they bloomed in the middle of the lawn.

It was about 4 months later when I was sitting on the grass, admiring the beetles and water boatmen on the surface of the water when I noticed movement. Somehow when I had brought the weed from my neighbours pond it had contained eggs and I was suddenly the owner of some tiny little fishlets.

I originally counted 22 fishlets in the pond, and various of them succumbed to cats, ill-health, the visit of a heron to the garden and cold winters and last night I took out 10 medium sized fish from the tub and relocated them to the aquarium in the kitchen where they are happily swimming around wondering why they could suddenly see movement after months in green sludge.

Chances are that eventually they will get far too big for the tank and will have to go into a pond but for the moment, my total number of pets has just gone up and I am trying to think of names for them all. Pics will follow when I find my camera in the chaos that is the house in disorder.

Warm spring days

Today I took a book out at lunchtime, sat on a picnic rug on the grass and enjoyed the sunshine and warmth.. yet a week ago it was cold, misty and very much not at all outdoor friendly. I enjoyed getting out of the office, away from the computer and all forms of technology, back into something that is pure form of escapism for me - a book.

This one is by Quintin Jardine called Fallen Gods and set in and around Scotland. Hadn't read anything by the author before, but thought it looked interesting when I saw it at the book swap on Friday last week. Needless to say, I managed 70 pages before I had to reluctantly return to work, but it sits on my desk willing me to find more time to read. Oh the joys of being a bookaholic :-)

Another book I picked up last week, was one I have always wanted to read. Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, while I have seen glimpses of bullfighting when I was in Spain for a holiday once, it was very much something to be avoided as I didn't and still don't pretend to understand the reasoning behind seeing this as a sport - in fact I rank it up there with bull-baiting and dog-fighting ethically. However, I like Hemingway's style with words and the fact that he also kept a journal of his travels and thoughts as do I but without the style and charisma he does and so I will enjoy the book for that reason if no other.

Autumnal Mornings

Just for your amusement and pleasure this picture was taken early in the morning (well before 8am anyway).. last week. I love the colours and the contrast of the tree against the colour of the sky..

Never mind that red sky in the morning means a sheperd's warning and the weather might deteriorate; it is a gorgeous picture of nature at her best and worth a post.

This picture was taken just after 7am this morning and from a similar angle but just edging into the trees.

We get this view from our bedroom window and in the spring we get to see the leaves start to block out the skyline and you have to wait until Autumn to get the same view again. Kind of makes up for the loss of the warm sunshine and long sunny days.

Autumnal Mutterings

Here I am surrounded by technology, looking out of my window to blue skies and sunshine, wishing I was not at work but able to enjoy the Autumnal morning.

It is cold, but bright, sunny but chilly and yet I love this time of year. The crispness of the air hints at frosts still to arrive and means coats have to be worn when outside for any length of time, yet the sunshine engenders a warmth to the soul that grey skies and rain never do (even for the hardened gardeners).

Autumn brings the colours on the trees to life, like butterflies they are short-lived and fall like broken wings to the floor to catch the unwary walker.

It is a the seasons for hearty stews, of buttered potatoes and sweet vegetables; for mulled wine and hot puddings to warm the inner soul.

So far we have resisted the lure of putting on the heating at home, but it is drawing ever closer. The evening temperatures fall dramatically and by 8pm last night it was 3 degrees outside; the temperature, not the singers.

This weekend the clocks will be wound back, and the days will appear a lot shorter, due to getting home in the dark and by the middle of winter it will be dark in the mornings. Do we really need to keep messing around with the clocks these days, are there any tangible benefits in doing so? I don't know, when children used to walk to school, maybe, but so many of them don't these days though perhaps the increases in the cost of living might make a difference this winter.