Stopping to smell the flowers, March 30

First flowering of my grown-from-seed violas, sowed in autumn and nursed through winter. Delightfully set off by next-door's washing line :-/


These are a traditional herb, not just a colourful bedding plant, under the apt name of heartsease. They have such cheery little faces that I like being able to "look them in the eye" by showing them off in these fence-mounted pots

Stay pretty

On the Perils of the Demon Wine

It's rather easy, after a glass of red, to get a bit carried away with online seed/plant/shoe ordering.

Which is why it's even better that I have acquired second lottie. Since after the weekend's digging, and planting of three potato trenches I realised that that if we still had only Allotment No.1 we'd be eating nothing but spuds til June. Now I'm proud of my Irish ancestors, but a potato only diet?

Three trenches equaled 2 trays of seed potatoes in New Lottie. Now I've just got to find time to plant the remaining 5 trays(!), which is going to fill the workable area, before the rain starts again next week.




Oh, and get some green stuff going on Lottie No.1

And find a home for 3 black currant bushes. And dig out nettles....

Stay muddy

Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb

Now prettiness in cakes is something I aspire to (and pin - a lot) but rarely achieve. Tasty yes, photogenic? Not so much.
so I'm ridiculously over-proud of the rhubarb cupcakes made from this recipe http://www.coconutandlime.com/2008/02/baby-loves-rhubarb-cupcakes.html?m=1

New Lottie is awash with rhubarb (proving what a tough beast this plant is) and I picked a bunch of stalks in joyous celebration the day I heard she was ours.





Not only are the results delicious, but mastering meringue icing (yes, it really is easy) made for much inner smugness.

I ended up whisking by hand in sitting room as Mr M had gone to bed directly above the mixer (which sounds like he sleeps in the kitchen cupboard!) and it still worked.

As with all things of beauty, they had a short but glorious life before my colleagues devoured them.

Cupcake photo by the Lovely Linda




Stay sweet

So far, so good...

30 man-hours of digging and we have something that vaguely resembles a lottie!




Stay muddy

So it begins again

Work on new allotment starts today. 4 years older and muddier I should be feeling raring to go. But while I'm still excited, there's also more pressure (from myself!) to get it productive straightway.

From weeds to feeds in 4 months?

Wish me luck!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone