Beautiful Poole

Yet again we have have had a lovely day, it is quickly coming to the end of October, and yet it is still warm enough in the middle part of the day to take a walk without a coat. I had to go into work this morning to attend an update on the NHS lifting and handling policy, not such a bad thing... I usually come away with some useful knowledge, and today was no exception.. thanks Jan. So when I got home I decided to walk up to the school and give the dog a much deserved walk. As I had signed up to our local adult education school to further my somewhat limited knowledge of digital photography, I thought I would take my camera to document and share the beautiful walk that we are able to take. I hope that it gives our son some lovely childhood memories when he is older, I know that often he wishes that we take the car, and this has become a bit of a sore point between us.. anyway taking advantage of the sunny weather we walked, and this is a pictorial guide of things we saw.. Goosey, you will recognise this walk....

Have a happy half term....

Lovely Views

We have had some lovely weather lately, although it is definitely feeling quite autumnal, especially in the evenings, the nights are really drawing in. I do like this time of year though, its nice to snuggle up in bed early with a good book, something I dont seem to do in the summer months. Anyway, to take advantage of this lovely weather (and also to have a practice with my new camera!) I went up to our local beauty spot. It is called The viewpoint, and offers the most spectacular views overlooking Poole Habour. This is looking out towards Old Harry Rocks, you can see between Old Harry and the tops of the trees is the Sandbanks Peninsula. Oh boy! We do live in a most beautiful part of the world! Sandbanks is reputed to be one of the most expensive places for property in the world!This picture is looking staight across the water towards the Purbeck Hills. Just in the middle on the right is Brownsea Island, home of the rapidly declining red squirrel.I think this view is looking towards Brownsea Island, again with the Purbecks in the background.

If you look closely you can just make out Corfe Castle sitting between the two hills slightly centre left in the background. (If you right click it should bring the picture up bigger.)In the foreground is Poole Park lake with Baiter just beyond.

Hopefully if this weather holds out, I can get to the allotment tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Rewind please!

We have just returned home from a wonderful 7days in Turkey. What can I say? Everything and everyone was lovely. So here I am on a cold wet dreary Sunday morning thinking rewind please...

Late summer sunshine

While sat out in the garden enjoying some late summer sunshine I was rewarded with a show from some beautiful flutterbies also enjoying some late summer sunshine....

The largest seed in the world?

I have mixed feelings about this time of year. I don't really want to admit that the summer is nearly over, it feels like it never really got off the ground, and the growing season is all but finished. But... it is a nice feeling to have a big clear up, and get rid of all the tatty looking plants.The kids are back at school, and you can really get some serious work done at the plot without having to watch the clock. I find a good three hours is plenty enough time to make an impact on the backlog of jobs that have been building up. Yesterday I dug in the bed of green manure that I had sown about five weeks ago. I then planted out all my overwintering onions. I feel that maybe I was a bit over zealous and I know that in a few weeks time some of the green manure will start overtaking the ground again because there were a few areas that were more like a 45degree tilt rather than a thorough turn over!

The above picture shows how long it had gotten, I had manged about half of the area when I took this picture, the remainder still to do in the background! I had to keep taking frequent stops but that meant in between bouts of heavy digging I was able to take photos of other areas of the plot.

There are still lots of flutterbies around. I found this fellow feeding on a rotting apple,

I think I have identified it as a Comma, he was there for ages.The Butternut squash are nearly ready for harvesting. This is the first time that I have grown them, and will definately be growing them again! They are delicious roasted with potatos, Maris piper of course, courgettes, shallots and parsnips. I will have to get the recipe book out for some more ideas. I only have about 8 left, I wish I had grown more.

The Joan Jay rasperries are really surpassing themselves! They are huge! Delicious too! I can highly recommend them .

The poppies give a lovely bit of colour, I dont even know where it came from, but it is very welcome!

This last picture isn't from my allotment, but I felt it deserved a mention on my blog. It is the flower of my Calamondin that is growing happily on my sunny (!) kitchen window sill. The scent from these flowers is beautiful!! They are only a small flower, but give out such a strong perfume.

As an after thought, has anyone grown a Monkey Puzzle tree from seed? On our regular walks to school, we pass a Monkey Puzzle tree that has dropped its seed all over the path. I have picked some up and will attempt to grow them. I have a feeling that it wont be successful. They are a very large seed, largest seed that I have ever seen , measuring about 2-3 inches! I have photographed it next to a five pence piece for comparisson.

Or... do you know of a larger one?

Pickle! Thats original!

Ok ok, I know, but what else is there to do when its raining... you've cleaned the house... bathed the dog.... done the washing.....got it! Lets make some pickle using all those surplus veggies. God I do hate to waste them! Also they have been sat in brine for slightly longer than I intended. I was going to do it yesterday, but... my daughter went into labour! She rang me at about 11.00o'clock in the morning to tell me that she had been having labour pains since 5 that morning...... I was instructed that they would ring me when they were ready to go into hospital, so all afternoon I was on tenderhooks waiting... the call came at just gone 3 O'clock just as I had walked up the school to get my son! I knew I should have taken the wagon, but I have a dreadful fear off turning into one of those lazy mums who only live a short distance from the school, but still insist on driving! So we hot-footed it back home, with me nearly having a coronary on the way! I am soo unfit! I dropped the mum to be and partner at the local maternity unit, and went home with my grand-daughter to wait......... At just gone 7pm the call came, all had gone very well and Baby Rowe was now well and truly here! All 8lbs 13.5ozs of him! So after all the excitement of yesterday, I thought I would have a "lazy" day.

Baby Rowe
Homemade sweet pickle One clean sweet smelling dog.

Guilty!!

I've been feeling rather guilty of late because I cant think of anything original to blog about!! I've been busy, but not been busy about anything original! Decorating... working... harvesting....so sorry if this isn't particulary inspiring, but today we had a very brief spell of sunshine that drew me out into the garden. While I was there I.....

was well impressed with the size of my lone courgette,

dead excited at finding loads of potatoes as a result of my potato tub experiment....

more than happy with the progress of my lemon grass grown from seed this year

enthusiastic about the prospect of lots of lovely ripe tomatoes....

thrilled by the sudden surge in my carrots...........

eager to find lovely recipes that needs Jalapenos.................

and ripe tomatoes.........

and chillis'

puzzled as to what can be eating my strawberries......

annoyed at the bloody caterpillars that have left me with no lettuce..............
and finally... reminded at how lucky we are to be able to grow anything at all........