Not Yet Autumn in Our Garden

After a couple of hot months, this cooler weather has fooled some of us into thinking that it's Autumn, but Summer is not quite over yet, not in our garden anyway. I love this rose:

And these two-tone gladioli are amazing:

The tomatoes in Mr A's greenhouse will be ripening for another month or so yet:

We're already getting a steady supply of them, plus a few raspberries which you can see tucked into the front of the bowl:

And there's enough root vegetables to keep us well fed:

You can't beat 'growing your own'. If I had to choose my favourite crop it would be peas. I love them so much that they rarely make the journey from the garden into the kitchen intact! What's your favourite crop?

The Freshest Pea and Mint Soup Ever

I'm struggling to keep up with our garden's production of vegetables this year. We did plan to sew seeds in succession but I suspect we forgot to tell the seeds. This morning we tried to ignore the rows of fattening French beans and the perfectly formed mange tout. Instead, Mr A harvested the last of the peas.

Some of them had gone over but here are the very last ones for 2013.

Next I searched the Internet and found a recipe for Pea and Mint Soup. You have to simmer spring onions (from the garden), cubed potatoes and garlic in vegetable stock for 15 minutes. You then add the peas and simmer for five minutes. Add chopped fresh mint (again from the garden), a squeeze or two of fresh lemon, a sprinkle of sugar and season to taste. 

At this point I have to admit, it didn't look too appetising but...

...a quick wizz it in the food processor and...

*roll of drums*

Two bowls of soup! Healthy, tasty and undeniably fresh. Most of it was still growing a few hours ago! 

Our conservatory table set for Mr A and his loving wife (that's me!) to enjoy the fruits of our labour

You'll never guess what happened on 30 May...

So it’s the May Bank Holiday and I’m sitting up in bed sipping a mug of tea (made for me by my lovely Rod.)

I’ve got Charlie on my lap 

(sitting on a silk scarf because I don’t like cat fur on the quilt) 

and Mabel sitting under the dressing table 

(because she doesn’t do laps). 

BBC Radio 2 with Miranda Hart and Jon Holmes is making me laugh and then they run a feature on this day in history and...

“Yessss!” I say. Charlie opens one eye in a moderately disinterested way. “That’s what I’ll blog about today!”

And this is it... except that I’ve done a bit of research and discovered some different events so that the BBC can’t complain about me ‘stealing’ their script (assuming that the BBC even know I exist.)

Did you know that on 30^th May...

• In 542 King Arthur died following a battle with Modred (assuming that either men actually existed!)

• In 1431 Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake in the market place at Rouen, France. (She was only a young girl of 19. Humans can be so cruel.)

• In 1536 Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. She had been the lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn who had been beheaded just 11 days earlier. (Like I say, humans are cruel.)

• In 1821 James Boyd patented the rubber fire hose. (Not amazingly interesting but the only item from the Radio 2 programme that was verifiable!)

• In 1842 John Francis tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. (How different the history of our monarchy would have been if he’d succeeded.)

• In 1939 the Labour Party had their first General Election win. (In those days many people despised working class men and thought they wouldn’t be able to rule the country. Haven’t we moved on.... erm... have we moved on?)

• In 1989 Cliff Richard released his 100^th single record called ‘The Best of Me’. (No, I’ve never heard of it either but you can see an ever-youthful Cliff singing it on the You Tube link below.)

• And in 2011 in Leicester UK it poured with rain (which means that Rod’s vegetables are coming on a treat. The broad bean flowers are almost ready to turn into yummy pods. I may even blog about our first home-grown meal of the year.)

   

Looking forward to a better harvest

The vegetables that Rod planted last year were ready for harvesting when he was in hospital. He was too ill to eat any of them.

This year he’s in the garden most days, gaining in strength and putting on weight as he digs the earth and plants his seedlings. His peas are coming along nicely. I have to admit they rarely reach the saucepan. We eat them as we pick them but last year, after Rod’s stem cell transplant, raw vegetables were a definite ‘no-no’.

His broad beans are already flowering and there’s nothing creamier than young home-grown beans, but last year he couldn’t face them.

And the potatoes have settled in now that we’ve had a bit of rain. Last year they tasted amazing but everything to do with potatoes made Rod sick.

I must admit my preferred form of gardening is to wander round smelling the flowers. I couldn’t resist sharing with you a red rose that I photographed a few minutes ago. When I was a kid I had my own patch of garden. Dad planted a red rose bush in it for me. Red roses always remind me of Dad.

Rod’s biggest harvesting regret last year were his strawberries. It was a bumper crop but soft fruit was definitely not allowed with his lowered resistance and I hate strawberries so they were left for the birds. This year I reckon he’ll have the bowl and cream all ready and waiting. Roll on harvest time.