Lara does ....my Birthday

As many of you know, it was my Birthday last Sunday (18th March). It was also Mother's Day, so our daughter Emma and her family came round to our place for lunch. Her daughter Lara is going on three years old now, and is a bundle of energy. She just loves racing around the garden, up and down between the raised beds and round and round the patio. I tried to take some photos, but it wasn't easy with such a mobile target:

Is it a bird? Is it a 'plane? No, It's Lara (a fleeting glimpse thereof) - faster than a speeding bullet!

This time she wanted to play Hide and Seek. The only trouble is, she can't stop giggling when she hides, so she is never hard to find!

Whoah! Nearly fell there....!

This is what you get when you ask Lara to "smile for the camera"!

Monkey in a cage??

Later. Daddy (Dave) helps Lara negotiate some of the challenges of the play equipment in our local park...

Lara goes mobile... (I don't think she believes that the 10mph limit applies to her!)

A quiet moment, helping Grandpa to eat his birthday chocolates.

Who would have thought that a two-year-old would be quite that keen on the Dark Chocolate Ferrero Rocher?

Lara is due to become a Big Sister next month... I wonder how she'll cope with that?!

March Miscellany

I recently found that I had lots of photos that were not in themselves sufficient to justify a blog-post of their own, so I have assembled a few of them into a miscellaneous collection for you...

This was a birthday present from Jane - a chilli-shaped wine bottle-stopper, made of glass.

Quickly put to use you will note... (Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Fairtrade Chilean Carmenere).

Willow catkin  - known sometimes as the "Pussy Willow"... Very characteristic of Spring.

Bluebell buds coming through, showing a bit of colour now.

Raindrops on the leaves of Aquilegia (Columbine)

A corner of my patio, with the recently tidied-up pot plants (mostly herbs). In the big black pots are Wallflowers
.

The husk of a Physalis fruit, left over from last year, entwined with a dead leaf.

Apple buds in head-on close-up

Cornus Alba "Kesselringii" (Dogwood)

Blueberry

You probably noticed, but these days I take photos of practically everything!

Goulash

Here is the latest offering from the Willis kitchen: beef goulash "Hungarian style" [i.e. with paprika], and "European Salad". Jane was responsible for the goulash, and I made the salad.






This post is not intended to provide a recipe - I'm sure there are already hundreds of recipes for Hungarian goulash on the internet - but instead to be another opportunity to sing the praises of the veg from Abel and Cole! In the goulash Jane made use of the really amazing Red Pepper that came in our latest Veg Box. Just look at this lovely specimen:-

Without something to compare it with, it's hard to get an impression of its huge size (it weighed over 600 grams), so here it is alongside a normal hen's egg:

My so-called "European Salad" made use of some other great ingredients from the same Veg Box, especially these beautiful tomatoes:

Although I didn't photograph everything individually, my salad selection included these things:

Witloof chicory (Belgian Endive) and red onion
Grated raw kohlrabi with parsley in a lemon-flavoured vinaigrette
Beetroot with shallots and chives
Home-grown lettuce ("All Year Round")
Tomato salad with shallots, thyme and red wine vinegar

It would be hard to exaggerate how good the vegetables from Abel and Cole are. We have been hugely impressed with the quality. Furthermore, because we are not paying for them, (the veg boxes were a prize) we have been inspired to try a few things that we don't normally buy, such as Jerusalem Artichokes and Fennel, and they have been very good. Fennel is something which I have never previously enjoyed, and when bought in our shops it is often dry and coarse. The Abel and Cole Fennel on the other hand was crisp and succulent - so good in fact that I was stealing it before it ever got onto a plate!

My home-grown veg is going to have to be good this year if it is to bear comparison with the contents of these veg boxes, but I'm going to have a try...!

While we're on the subject of food, I thought you might like to hear about our recent "Ristorante a Casa" pop-up Italian restaurant experience, which Jane has described on her blog The Competition Grapevine

Pruning

Whilst I was quite happy to take on the pruning of the Dogwoods the other day, the big trees also needed pruning, so recognising that his was a job beyond my capabilities, I called in the experts. Trusting to luck I chose a firm out of the Yellow Pages (Trade telephone directory). Not always the best way to arrive at a successful conclusion I admit, but on this occasion I have been very pleased with the work done by D and D Miles Landscaping, based in nearby Farnborough. They have been very efficient, reliable, tidy, and good value for money. I have had them trim the Leylandii hedge that separates my drive from the road, and then prune both the Crab Apple and the Bronze Maple trees. All three tasks were done to my complete satisfaction - which is pretty close to a miracle when you consider the shoddy service you get from some tradesmen!


How about this for precision hedge-trimming? Regular readers will understand why I was so pleased!

Here's the Crab Apple - much neater than before, and with lots of the smaller branches removed to let in some light and air. It will flower next month, so I wanted this pruning done well before then.

And finally, the Bronze Maple. I have had it reduced in size by about 25%, and several of the lower branches removed, so that it doesn't shade the veg patch so much.

The low morning sun will now shine underneath the branches of this tree. The trouble is, I can now see how straggly the next-door Cherry and Philadelphus trees look. They're next...

Post Mortem

Hmmm, a post about Post Mortems?  Sounds a bit grim... Some of you may remember that a couple of weeks ago one of my beloved Purple Sprouting Broccoli plants sadly passed away very suddenly, struck down by what I named SBDS (Sudden Brassica Death Syndrome!).

Well, the autopsy has been carried out, and the report is in... I dug up the plant and this is what I found:

The root system seemed much sparser than normal. Certainly not as exuberant as I would normally associate with a plant of this size. The roots definitely looked as if they had been comprehensively nibbled, and in amongst them was a small number of white worms, which I assumed to be the culprits. I thought perhaps they had nibbled away so much of the roots that the plant was unable to hydrate itself.

So, what are these worms? They are definitely worms, not like the the maggots of Cabbage Root Fly. My first thought was that they were Wireworms, which many references list as a common garden pest, but consulting my books about such things, they did not fit the description. Then searching on the Internet for the term "white worm" I found that there is a thing called the White Worm aka Potworm, and the images for them matched the ones I had found. Reading on, I found that the Potworm is harmless to humans, plants and other worms - so perhaps in this case we have to exonerate them. Something else must have been responsible for the demise of my PSB, but I cannot establish what. [The coroner gardener duly recorded a "Death by Misadventure".]

In retrospect, I now understand that my garden compost is always teeming with these beneficial Potworms, and I had just assumed that they were immature earthworms or compost worms (Brandlings).

On a slightly more optimistic note, I wish to record that the PSB plant that began producing spears in November (about 3 months early) is STILL producing. Although it is now little more than a tatty old stalk, every so often it has another flurry of activity, and another few spears are produced.

In normal times I would have dug it up long ago, but since my other plants are definitely on the small side this year, I am very glad of its productivity. I think maybe my use of the sturdy 6-foot stakes was a bit over-optimistic though, don't you?

Spotlight on Polyanthus

The other day I bought a tray of six Polyanthus plants from my local Garden Centre, in an attempt to add some instant colour to my rather drab End-of-Winter garden. They have served this purpose admirably, so I thought I would repay them by putting them in the spotlight for a day, on my blog.

The Polyanthus is in the Primula family, closely related to the Primrose. But whereas the Primrose has one flower per delicate stem, the flowers of Polyanthus are borne in clusters at the end of a much thicker stem. (You would guess this if you knew that "Poly" means "many" in Greek).

Primrose:

Polyanthus:

Whilst I have to say that I prefer the understated elegance of the cream-coloured species Primrose, there is no doubting that the brash exuberance of the Polyanthus will brighten up any dull spot in the garden. Here in England they are often used - very effectively - en masse, by local Councils to bring colour to municipal parks, traffic islands, roundabouts etc.

In theory, the Primula family prefers dappled shade / partial sunlight, but they seem to me to be pretty tolerant of most soil and sun conditions.

My six plants were in a mixture of colours. One of them has yet to flower, but the other five are all different. Here are some photos of them:

I think I like best the dark red one. Which is your favourite?