Reflecting on my week #92

We were still eating that trifle well into the week, although I’m sure it was punctuated by an ice cream or two. We’ve snuck in barbecues around the weather, MOH managed a longer than usual bike ride after work and while my plan was to catch up with myself, I found myself potting up those dahlias instead. It was a good way for some reflection in a week that marked rage first anniversary of my FILs passing, just as the bike ride was for MOH. I’d forgotten the joys of getting soil under my fingernails during the week, but clearly enjoying the pottering I also got a seed trays worth of lettuce pricked out in one of my new pots and transferred some beans and courgettes into pots outside too. The next day was, of course, wet but a quick check on them proved they’d managed overnight without the greenhouse for protection. The chicken wire went back on, as I’m just not sure that the squirrels won’t take advantage.

The humid weather has helped the parsley seeds germinate too, I’ve half a seed tray ready to be pricked on. I usually struggle growing parsley, but it seems I’m in for plenty this year. However my basil had yet to germinate before we’d left for a long weekend away in Liverpool. It’s still not showing any signs of life so I’ll give it another go with some seeds I bought the other week. Not having fresh basil, especially as we’re hoping to fire up the pizza oven, wasn’t really in my plans. However, if I’m still struggling I’ll buy a supermarket pot of basil and plant that on.

So after five days at work, we’re off again. We took an early train to Liverpool Saturday morning and are back in London Monday evening. We had some firm, and some loose plans for our time in the city, and if you’re following me on Instagram you’ll no doubt have seen some of what I’ve been up to.

I’d briefly been to Liverpool before, and it was brief. I was there for the commonwealth games in Manchester, to watch the netball. There were no affordable rooms in Manchester for 10+ of us, and so we stayed in The Adelphi no less, which at the time had featured on one of those docu-dramas, though thankfully my netball group avoided all that. I remember walking to Albert Docks, the Tate was relatively new there and the This Morning weather map was still moored in the dock. We walked to see the Liver Birds and that’s about as much as I can remember. Looking back at commonwealth games venues, it was as long ago as 2002.

And a lot has changed in the city since then.

This time we stayed at Jury’s Inn right in the docks area, and opposite the arena for the Netball World Cup. We didn’t have tickets, and to be fair when I booked this weekend away I hadn’t realised the netball was on. But clearly my netball affinity is strong, and not only did I find myself in the very city, and in the hotel where many of the players were staying but I also had my own happy coincidence bumping into a netball friend who’d been Treasurer to my Chairmanship of the Surrey Netball League a good few years before.

But strange as that may seem, it wasn’t strange at all. I knew, through Facebook, that many of my netballing friends were in town and I’m surprised I didn’t bump into more of them. What was strange was that Some photos were being taken outside our hotel while we were having breakfast. Wondering what MOH was looking at I saw my friend who said she’d looked as she had the same T-shirt I was wearing, and then realised she knew who was wearing it too!

We explored the city mostly on foot clocking up over fifty thousand steps, the exceptions were the open-top bus to and from Anfield and the cab we hailed to get us back to the hotel Sunday evening when the heavens opened. We’ve had endless trips around the Albert Docks and the city centre, so much so that I could easily navigate my way around the place.

There was the England bronze medal match in the fan zone, having dashed back from our Anfield stadium tour to see the second half. The stadium tour was fantastic, even for this non-Liverpool fan. I did let on in the end that I was Palace and they were very gracious about that saying that Selhurst Park is the London ground with the most atmosphere and sound. I suspect they say that to most visiting supporters, perhaps with the exception of Tottenham, they weren’t overly popular for some reason…

MOH is a Liverpool fan having seen them many a time at Wembley, or as they said they called it at the time ‘South Liverpool!’ We were treated to the Scouse wit and warmth, and plenty of fabulous food. As well as sport, there was culture with a visit to the Museum of Liverpool and a 360 tour of the Royal Liver Building, including a trip up to the observation deck on the fifteenth floor. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but when it opened in 1911, it was one the UK’s first ‘skyscraper’. I’ve plenty of pictures (no surprises there!) including a snap of the most photographed statue in the city - the Beatles - and a wander around the John and Yoko exhibition, Double Fantasy.

There was so much more we could have done too, so it’s safe to say, I think we’ll be back!

Reflecting on my week #91

After the celebrations for MOH’s birthday last week, this week was slightly less sociable, but no less busy. It started by cramming with a week’s worth of work into just three days, and trying to make a plan for some time off at home. Even though we’ve not long come back from Portugal our heads have been quite quickly filled up with work stuff and deadlines, which despite our good intentions post-holiday happened much more quickly than it should have done.

So the plan was to take a few days off here and there between now and the middle of August, and this was the first of these. However, we did such a good job of emptying our heads of deadlines and generally pootling around trying to tick things off our house list, that we forgot other things that we really shouldn’t have, which wasn’t so good.

The house list had way more than we could achieve - that sounds familiar doesn’t it? - but we did achieve some, including finally buying my long-lusted after and never quite finding exactly what I wanted pots. At the Garden Press Event in February I’d identified a maker, and a potential stockist, but not the actual pots. I was confident that I wouldn’t need to backtrack on the calamitous online order and non-delivery from last summer.

One short visit to a bit further away than normal garden centre later and we were the proud owner of four new pots. Ideally I wanted more, but I settled for this, for now. If you remember when we gave up the allotment my plan was to grow some edibles in pots which would hug the edge of the greenhouse.

I’d measured and measured and knew what I needed, but just couldn’t find it. But now I have. Though of course I wasn’t really expecting too and left my tape measure at home. Which meant at the garden centre I needed to find one on the shelves, or as it turned out, borrow one. Thankfully the latter was much easier than I expected, and the pots were cheaper than my online foray too.

I think they were meant to be, and so to celebrate, we also left with some yellow dahlias which I plan to pot up and add a pop of colour to our patio.

I’m not much of a morning person, and so, it was nice to have a slower start to the day. There was breakfast in the garden, which is a really good way to start the day. And the day after we spent way too long in the garden centre discussing the pros (him) and cons (me) of having a gas burner on the barbecue, he almost made a point by cooking an egg, as well as bacon and black pudding, on the barbecue.

He used a tray - which was my argument - rather than a gas burner (as we don’t currently have one) and I think we could now be in agreement that the additional price tag didn’t quite justify its inclusion. So now to identify which make of barbecue, and where we’ll buy it from, and when. All minor questions now we’ve worked out the what!

This isn’t unusual for us, we know we want or need something, but nailing it can take a little time. But when we do, we get exactly what we want, and like everyone are impatient for it to actually arrive!

THE BEST BBQ-ED BREAKFAST

Over the winter our conservatory has attracted a lot of dirt, and MOH was almost itching to clean it. Partly I think, despite what he says, because it’s a chance to walk on the roof and partly so he could use the new hose-brush which we bought at Grand Designs.

It actually worked well, and was much less fraught for me. Usually my job is to pass things up as requested from the ground, and to dodge the water which he tells me isn’t directed at me. This time though I was almost redundant, and dry!

So I made the best use of my time and set about getting the stones out of the cherries. Sadly not the ones from our garden, they had far too many wiggly things in, which I wasn’t keen on eating. And it was pretty much cherry carnage…

The resulting trifle was pretty good - and fairly easy to make with shop bought swiss roll and custard. I’m not that much of a purist, or that keen a baker if I’m honest. It tastes good too, it’s a bit of a retro dessert, and I just want to add that it was MOH that wanted the sprinkles. Deep down, he’s got a pink streak too!

How’s your week been?

My garden in June

Well June was a funny old month, I think it must have clocked up the wettest and the hottest day. Not at the same time, though with the humidity in the latter parts of the month, maybe that’s not such an obvious distinction. We were away at the start of the month, and arrived back from Portugal and the wettest day. Of course, we were in sandals and holiday clothes and looked completely out of place in a grey and drab London, as we dashed from the DLR to the bus with our cases. I mean, it’s not everyone that carries their impromptu shopping home in a suitcase is it?

Checking the garden after a holiday is one of my rituals, but this time, no matter how much of a ritual, it had to wait a few days. But when there was a break in the weather one evening, I couldn’t put it off any longer and headed out there armed with my phone. Not only did I discover we’d had our best year for peonies, which were struggling in the rain, but I also remembered how fresh and inviting rain makes plants look.

The peonies were rescued on the basis that if we were to enjoy them this year, they’d need to be in the dry. So indoors, and into a vase they came, and they lasted a good week before being returned to the compost bin.

Rain made the cherries look all that more appetising too. I’m always surprised to find cherries on the tree, and this year was another good year, although if you read yesterday’s post, not quite so good for making the cherry compote for my gin and cherry trifle.

The foxgloves too did well this month, I heard Monty on Gardeners’ World say it was a good year for foxgloves, and while we have fewer than I think we had last year, I’ve pink and cream varieties, which are still going strong.

Our Gertrude Jekyll rose started well and gave us some big blooms, but despite deadheading (and despite evidence to the contrary in this photo) it wasn’t as prolific as I’d like.

The jasmine took over the garden during June, but not as you can see until later. The clematis is still going and looks great with its dark flowers amongst the sweet smelling spots of white jasmine flowers.

The Philadelphus, or Mock Orange, also treated us to weeks of flowers. And now since they’ve dropped fragrant ‘snow’ too. It’s time for this one to be chopped right back though, so that it continues to repay us with plenty of flowers. I need to sort that out, but I bet I’ll be saying the same again in next month’s post…

Somehow I missed the six or so agapanthus buds during a busy week and was surprised to see this, the tallest, standing so proud.

The sweet peas are starting to flower too, there doesn’t seem to be quite so many of these yet, but maybe they’re working up to a good showing. I’m hopeful.

And then after the rain came the sun. And high temperatures. And on that day there was nothing else for it but to down tools, in truth they hadn’t been lifted very much so it wasn’t so much trouble. And that weekend our sun loungers got plenty of use. After all, what’s the point of a garden if you don’t get to enjoy it? That’s the theme of this month’s The Garden Year, so do pop over and share how you enjoy your garden, as it’d be great to see you.

The other big news this month is that I’ve finally made it back into my greenhouse and finally I’ve sowed some seeds. I’m not sure why, but i’d temporarily lost the gardening, or growing bug, but I’m hopeful that with some tasty, and fast growing, crops I’ll be back on track. I’m also hoping to be eating our homegrown lettuce, herbs and beans in the not too distant future too.

Back in May at Grand Designs Live we bought ourselves a new hose, one of those self-retracting ones that extend to, in our case, over 100 foot. The thing is I’ve been paranoid about using it, as the lady demo-ing it did such a good job of scaring me into how powerful its retraction abilities are and I’ve visions of clumsy me getting caught up in it and being catapulted the length of the garden, along with the hose. I know it’s completely irrational, but the visual image is strong, and it even amuses me, but on the other hand, it could happen… (It probably couldn’t!)

And at the end of a day’s gardening there has to be a reward. Back in May I tried to persuade MOH to get on board with Bank Holiday Cocktails, and making that a thing. It seems, I’ve had less trouble persuading him more recently, so Aperol Spritz and teeny, tiny fava bean snacks it was (and yes, I know they look like peanuts, they’re not).

How’s your garden been this past month?