Reflecting on my week #79

It’s been a bit of a food week here, which is never a bad thing, and I’m going to subject you to some of the photos. As I told you last week I was off work on Wednesday and went to brunch with Heston Blumenthal at the launch of the 4K Everdure barbecues. It was a sunny, but chilly day, and as expected the food was good. The ribs were definitely worth waiting for, and well, they didn’t hang around for long.

The event took place at The Sipping Room in West India Quay, and as you’d expect I took a peek at the loos, and they were good. So as well as more about the barbecues, I’ll be sharing the latest in the Loo Series. And of course, just like buses good loos seem to come along in twos.

On Saturday we were out in town for a bit of a celebration, and headed to Jason Atherton’s Social Eating House starting off in the bar upstairs called the Blind Pig. Their cocktails are based on children’s books, and mine was based on Beatrix Potter’s Jemima Puddle-Duck, called Fowl Play. It’s ingredients sounded fascinating: duck fat washed Aylsbury Duck vodka, Blood orange, Chartreuse, honey, herbs and spices. It looked great and tasted lovely too.

I’ve no pictures of the food - although that was heavenly too - I was too busy eating it to photograph it. The cocktails on the other hand, well I was ok taking pictures of those, as it slowed the drinking down!

Remember that large - and pretty - skein of wool that I bought in Islington back in February? Well, it’s made it onto my crochet hook. I started making a shawl with a chevron and feather pattern but wasn’t happy with it, as it wasn’t as deep as I wanted it to be. But I was worried that if I made it as deep as I wanted, then I’d run out of wool, and while it’s lovely, it was also expensive and so I didn’t want to have to buy another one. Then again, a half-made shawl isn’t much good either, so I unravelled it all and looked again for a pattern.

I found one and it’s working out better this time round. The pattern is based on groups of five, which I can cope with, and have quickly memorised. It grows pretty quick too, so I’m hopeful it won’t be on my hook for very long.

The final food shot of the week, is this home cooked Persian green bean and spiced tomato rice, which I made for tea tonight. Unusually I had all of the ingredients, and spotted it was marked as easy. What I didn’t quite read was the number of pots and the length of cooking time. The rice was par-boiled, that’s one pan. The onions, beans, tomato puree and spices were cooked in another pan, so that’s two. And then the combined ingredients were cooked for another forty-five minutes in a third pan, lined with greaseproof paper and the lid wrapped in a tea towel.

I’ve never cooked rice like this, but it was worth it.  The base could have been crunchier, and I suspect I could have had the heat on higher , but it was still good.  There’s enough for lunch tomorrow too.  Even MOH was impressed, and didn’t even ask if there was any meat in it, which is his usual for meat-free dishes.  It’s one of those ritual things, he’s ok with not eating meat at every meal but always needs to ask.

You might be wondering how my healthy regime is going, and it’s a fair question to ask. I’ve been asking myself that this week too, but it’s back on and I’ve stepped up a level on the fitness angle with a new 55 minute workout to replace the 35 minute one that I started with, and which initially gave good results. I hadn’t mastered the shorter version - as in a real class, I’m out of time and going the wrong way to those on the screen - but it was probably as mastered as it’s going to get.

So it’s been a productive evening, with household chores like emptying the dishwasher and putting the bins out, cooking an inappropriate weeknight dinner, and making myself exercise too. But also one that’s stood out for the shocking news about the fire at Paris’ Notre Dame.

NOTRE DAME IN 2010

Let’s hope they can salvage as much as possible, although from the pictures on the news I fear that may not be much.  It’s such a shame that this beautiful building has withstood so much that history had to throw at it, but couldn’t withstand a modern day renovation. Let’s hope there’s some more positive news emerging over the next few days.

The Contemporary and Family Fun garden room sets

I’m sharing two of the garden room sets today from this year’s Ideal Home Show. I’ve already shared the Grow Your Own Garden, which means after today there’s just one more to share, and you’d be right to think I’ve saved my favourite garden until last. But before I tell you all about that space and spoil that post, let me share the pictures and info on these two gardens.

I’m sharing them both together so you can see them both, as I’m unlikely to share the Family Fun garden on its own, it’s just not content I usually cover, but it is full of bright colours and colour is quite at home here on my blog, isn’t it?

The Contemporary garden

This garden was sponsored by Gardena, and is an ultra-stylish garden, full of modern planting and design ideas by Charles Benton, one of the Benton Brothers, who you may know from their appearances on ITV’s This Morning.

The space is based around entertaining and making the most of the garden, as well as somewhere to eat there’s somewhere to cook, complete with a barbecue I’m not sure I’d show MOH for fear of it ending up quite high on his wishlist, on size alone.

There’s also somewhere to relax, which was my favourite part of the garden - and it seemed the perfect spot to sit and watch the robotic lawnmower go about its work. There’s other gadgetry in the garden too, including smart watering which is part of the Gardena smart system, which comes complete with its own smart app so you really can garden from your armchair, or sunlounger.

Family Fun garden

This garden room set was sponsored by Flymo and according to the leaflet it’s inspired by children and includes all the fun things they can get up to that will keep them entertained all day, and focuses on the sensory experience. It seemed to be well received, as unusually for a space like this, children were in the garden playing.

It was designed by the Skinny Jean Gardener who’s aka Lee Connelly, best known for his work as the CBBC Blue Peter Gardener. It seems gardening for kids has come a long way since Percy Thrower was the Blue Peter Gardener when I was growing up!

The bright colours, activities and sensory elements were all very much evident, and it shows you can have gardens, or spaces in gardens that are child friendly and stylish.

So two very different gardens, with quite different audiences in mind, but two great spaces. Look out for the final - and my favourite - garden room set next week.

My garden in March

March has been a funny month. It’s had all the seasons and some, and as I saw on Facebook earlier in the week “we’ve had a good winter this spring!” How true is that? I’m hoping that the weather remembers it should be getting warmer soon. Although yesterday was the first time that I’ve got caught in one of the showers, rain, hail or otherwise. It hardly makes sense when looking at the photo below.

As a consequence we’ve done very little gardening. The grass has had its first cut, a week or so ago and it looks better for it. At the rear of the garden the grass needs some work as something’s been digging out there. I don’t think it’s the foxes, but I do need to put a battery in the fox scarer just in case. It’s more likely to be the squirrels. MOH is convinced they dig the lawn just to annoy him, I nod sagely at this point and then more often than not draw his attention to the latest squirrel workforce in the garden. And to think at one point we used to feed them, but no more - maybe that’s why?!

The euphorbias with their lime green fresh ‘flowers’ are in full flow, following shortly behind the ‘elephants ears’ whose cheery pink flowers have all but gone. The euphorbia above has made a dash for a new location, which I’m rather pleased about. It’s alongside the fence which is nearest to the conservatory, and it’s hard to grow anything there as the soil is so poor. So even if I wasn’t happy about it migrating there (and I am) I think I’d have to let it grow for pluck alone.

On the other side of the patio among the jasmine twigs there’s signs of new life for the clematis and the climbing rose, although I think I’m going to have to get brave and prune the clematis this year as all the growth is pretty much at the top of the fence. I learnt how to prune roses last year, so it’s perfectly doable, just a bit scary when you make the cut.

The grape hyacinths have also been and gone, as have the orangey-red flowers of the ornamental quince. We’ve only really enjoyed these through the windows this year, which is a shame.

The hellebores at the end of the garden seem to have a bit more staying power. I had a wander to the greenhouse this last weekend and they were still blushing away in the shy way that only hellebores can. They clearly like where they are and I’m hopeful that there’ll be plenty of new plants for next year too. It’d be good to move some of them to a different part of the garden, but then again they’re thriving here so it’s a case of finding another spot they like. Planting some into a pot, might help find somewhere they like.

The forget-me-nots are starting their annual spring march. They’re not ones to observe boundaries, as you can see from the various bunches below which have already hopped over the border and into the grass. They will have to face the wrath of MOH and the lawnmower, and I don’t fancy their chances. They are pretty flowers, but we have so many that like ivy, these are allowed to be removed at any opportunity.

What does seem to be lasting longer than usual is the forsythia. Ours is still flowering, perhaps not as much as this, but it’s still obviously yellow. I was expecting to be able to cut this already, but the forsythia - and the weather - had other ideas.

This one is due quite a heavy trim. It’s shape is just about still there, and now I have my new ladder there’ll be nothing to stop me. It just needs to stop flowering first. Further down the garden the cherry tree is further along than this photo suggests, but I couldn’t resist sharing the cherry blossom when it’s in its brussels sprout stage.

And don’t mention the impending trim to the forsythia. While I’m sure it knows its coming, what it probably doesn’t know is that all winter it’s been harbouring and shelter my partner in crime.

It’s not all one-sided though, I’m pretty sure the yucca - which is the spikiest of spiky plants - will give me a prod or two as I retrieve the ladder, trim the forsythia and clear up. It’s pretty persistent!