Time of abundance... and the Big Butterfly Count...

This week...

Oh the joys of the allotment... well half an allotment plot...

Tomatoes are looking great... fingers crossed we don't get blight (again)
this year... if we do at least there will be plenty of green tomato chutney this year !!



























Black Berries are abundant again this year and I'm still picking Gooseberries ...

More lettuce leaves sown and others ready for the plate

 Plenty of beans and courgettes...

Lots of apples growing on the tree..

My little bench to sit and ponder on...

The butterfly habitat behind... nettles covered with eggs...


I always leave plenty of leeks to flower for the bees to enjoy...

First cucumbers for three years... four so far and very yummy!!

The first of the squashes...

The squashes and sweetcorn patch is really lush...

Then where would we be without the comfrey feed... it might stink but it makes everything so lush...

I've also been picking and hanging Lavender, Melissa, Sage, Mint, Peppermint and Marjoram to dry...

Then my two  lovely vintage Fabric buys...

I'm thinking of cutting some squares out of this and adding them to a white duvet cover...

What do you think??

Huge fabulous fabric, which I think is probably Boras... If you know what it is do let me know....

Hooray it is Boras 'Lago' by Saini Salonen

Then I found these beautifully made cotton curtains last sunday...
I just couldn't resist them...

I thought Maud might like them...

I love them!!



But three frustrations this week the TV box broke, the shower broke and well let's not say too much about the loo..

* update the blockages were caused by roots!! lush roots grown through the old dry sealed pipe work and growing inside the U bend.... very common the chap said... Hmmm... the whole lot has got to be dug out and replaced!


Instead let's celebrate the masses of Butterflies...

Have you joined in with the Big Butterfly count yet??

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about


Have a lovely weekend...
Smiles Cass x

Fabulous vintage fabric and homegrown goodness...

Firstly thank you for your kind comments to get well from the dreaded flu lurgy... still a bit congested 10 days on but so much better..

Anyway onto cotton vintage fabric finds...

I had a bad vintage eBay experience recently which left me £5 out of pocket with no fabric and feeling ... well a tad pissed off so I'm so pleased that the fabric I won this week has all been fabulous...

I had entended to cover this bit of foam for a seat for Maud, but as lovely as this fabric is it is also very soft and I'm not sure it will wear well... so am having a rethink...

There is enough to make a bottom and back cuison, I wondered if I sew a heavier twill type fabric behind it would that help??

Any thoughts??

I thought some recycled dark unstretchy Denim...


I love it.... and it would work a treat visually but I would be very sad if it just ripped!


Then....

I won a few small bits, below is my favourite...

Then I found and to my surprise came home to find I'd won this beautiful piece of Rapsodi Boras cotton... which I am in awe of... it only arrived this morning.... Mmmmmm

I'm very, very happy with all the vintage fabric I've got for my £25 of Paypal credit...






















Meanwhile a quick visit up to the allotment yesterday

- to pick leaves, herbs and flowers for salads,

- to pick side shoots off tomatoes and tie them to stakes,

- to feed toms / courgettes / cucumbers / squashes with lovely smelly comfrey and nettle water 1:10

  I make this regularly throughout the growing season storing it in old containers...
  I wait till the plants start producing fruit and then feed every fortnight or so.

- cut the first courgettes of this season,

- picked some strawberries,

- picked some more gooseberries

I have a friend joining me up there later today so we will be lifting some salad spuds...
so new spuds for tea!!


Hope you too are eating the fruit of your labours... and are having a lovely weekend...


Smiles Cass x

Allotment August 2012

So how is the allotment today...
well see for yourself... it has been a slow challenging year...

Just planted out some more lettuces, parsley and newly sown seeds... please slugs leave me some to actually eat!

I have to cover small things with chicken wire otherwise the rat patrol have a tendency to to use the nice fine earth for other things hmmm...

Celery on the left celariac to the right doing well...

I have just planted some carrots and beetroot behind...

I have some spaces this year, sadly I have lost all my tomatoes due to blight so this plot is full of nasturtiums an marigolds... I leave some leeks to flower each year for the bees and then for leeklets to plant out later... if you look carefully (by the white chair) you can see two heads ready to plant  soon.

I have only just started picking my Runner and French beans, some I've had to plant twice due to serious slug damage. I grow four types French -long green flat, small green and purple flat and a nice long runner.

I grow marigolds everywhere too, I dry lots of heads and then put them in oil out in the sun to infuse making calendula oil to make ointments.

I do love Borage and so do the bees I have Blue and White this year!

Behind in the netting Mange tout and Peas that I've been picking for a while


















The four Courgettes plants have started picking up now with a bit of sun...

Dark green, stripy green and yellow long varieties and a round green... I feed them with Comfrey.

I'm growing a small sweet variety of corn on the cob and the little ones you put in stir fry too this year... under them a trailing Trumpet courgette and yet more nasturtiums...

The black berries are going mad as ever, the red currants and gooseberries did really well too.



The first lot of my squashes were eaten my the rather huge slugs, only two plants out of eight survived so I've had to grow more and managed to swap for two more, not sure what will happen as they are normally romping away by now and they are still tiny...

I still have 4 squashes to eat from last season so as long as I get a few I'll be happy.


So there is my colourful little plot at the moment, ups and downs as every year...

How is your plot doing??

With a little help...

Well with a little help, thanks to Anne for digging them up I am now eating my rather yummy salad spuds

Other veggies picked this weekend

Beetroot
Four types of Courgettes (now I did warn you)
Runners
Broad Beans
Mange tout
and Mellissa for drying...










And today I managed to pick a punnet of  blackberries and there are still a few raspberries to be munched too.

I am struggling a bit at the moment with my neck and back so not able to do a great deal, after the much needed rain the plot is rather a thick with weeds  but luckily on the whole everything else is doing ok too.

The hoeing will just have to wait...

but I did made a lovely Courgette and Chickpea Soup

1  huge round courgette
2  leeks
4 celery sticks
1 tin of org chickpeas
salt and pepper to suit
Parsley
Bouillon
Water

Rather yummy with a drizzle of olive oil, a chunk of rye bread and more Lebanese olive oil for dipping...

Comfort food for these windy wet summer days...