News from the allotment

Not much really!   The pigeons have eaten all the tiny little purple sprouting broccoli plants (all 4 of them that actually germinated!).   There are some tiny green shoots that will be everlasting spinach, bok choi and chard if the foxes and the pigeons give them a chance.  There appear to be about 5 beetroot plants - just enough for one salad.  However the courgettes and doing well.  Not to the point of actually producing a courgette, but on the cusp!  On the cusp!

The good news is that Gill has discovered the tap for the standpipe near the vegetable plot, hidden deep in the leaf mould that has raised the level of the path over the years, so now it isn't so far to carry the water.

I'm going to try and plant some seeds in my newly erected cold frame and try to beat the vermin by putting in some decent sized plants.  We will not be beaten!

Hot, hot hot!

Amazing weather for well over a week.  Really hot by our standards and high humidity.  Lethargy inducing!  I have been suffering from a combition of swollen ankles (heat and medication side effects) and nasty insect bites...despite regular spraying with Oh So Soft the Avon product that miraculously protects against bites....most of the time!  What an attractive description!

Never mind.  It's been a great weekend.  A barbecue on Thursday at Wood Hall, the Vice-Chancellor's official residence just outside Norwich, to celebrate graduation and a chance to meet some of the honorary graduands including Ian Collins of whom more later.  Apparently, seated at the table I decided not to sit at,  was Anne Enright the author of a book I greatly admired and enjoyed (The Gathering) despite the general thumbs down from the rest of the book group.  What a wasted opportunity.  She was inches from me!   I sat with Ian Collins and Joachim Jacobs.  Ian writes about art and in addition to being an arts journalist is also the author of several books on art and artists and is a great friend of our neighbours Keith and Nicky.  Joachim is a landscape architect.  Both of them are good party throwers...or should that be Keith and Nicky who are the good party throwers??  Anyway, on Friday there was an excellent gathering to celebrate Ian's honorary degree with much drink, fabulous food and speeches.  Also a piper (that's on the bagpipes) to pay homage to a Scottish artist who has just completed some windows for the cathedral in Norwich and who also happens to have a flat in the same block as us at the Barbican!  Small world etc.  Also in attendance some renowned authors whose books I haven't read so I hesitated to get into conversation with them!

Lunch in the garden

Norfolk cheese

On Saturday we had a very enjoyable visit from a young couple who have a blog about their Edwardian house which they are gradually doing up.  They bought a piece of Liss Bros Ltd furniture, which is how we got in touch.  Long story, but all this googling around produces some interesting connections.  Anyway, they had been nearby on holiday for a week and dropped in to see us and have lunch.  We talked houses and much else...they served the soup and cut the bread and it felt as though we had known them forever!  He's a radio journalist (news) and she is a jazz singer and also has a job in London to which she commutes from Luton. 

In addition to tomato soup we had a plate of Norfolk cheeses.

On Saturday afternoon I helped a friend open an account for online grocery shopping but completely failed to get her TV logged on to the internet. It took an 18 year old to manage that!

And then on Sunday, as if we hadn't done enough, we had our monthly cinema club outing to see Chinatown...that great classic with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunnaway.  An excellent film...and then eight of us went back to Keith and Nicky's and helped them shift some more of the party left overs, which was no hardship at all.   And then to bed!!!!

Kitchen saga continues!

Of course, the kitchen renovation was never going to go to plan.  What fun would there be in that? The new worktops are in, the sink is plumbed and the new induction hob is fabulous!  The cooker hood works so well that no one with a wig should cook here and lightweight sausages are likely to be sucked up into the fan! I have a new pull out basked arrangement for spices.  The very pleasant workmen did not always coordinate effectively so one man made the exit hole for the fan and the fan fitter pronounced it in the wrong place.   The last job for this particular crew will be to brick in the spare hole in the outside wall.   It's over run by about a week, but I've cleaned out the cupboards and got most things back in place and taken the opportunity to have a good clear out.

The flooring people say they are starting on Wednesday.  Bets anyone?

Kitchen make-over

Work tops in...

A modest make-over is in progress in the kitchen.  I thought I might devote a whole blog to the process but the company and the ex-boat builder, Paul,  who is doing most of the work are making such a good job of it that there isn't anything to complain about! No dramas to recount!  Paul tidies up as he goes along and leaves everything packed away at the end of the day. 

Just enough room to swing a cat!  Only joking!

The new work tops (iroko) are in place and have had their first of three coats of oil.  The new electrics are in place.  Next week the wall tiles go on and the new hob (induction) and cooker hood go in.  Then I might be able to cook again.  In the meantime we have all the essentials packed into the scullery (aka utility) but it's a bit cramped!  So, we are going out, being invited out and having take-aways.  What a hard life!

When the kitchen is finished the floor will be replaced with oak and then the kitchen will be decorated.  Getting ready to choose colours.  Always an interesting process! 

Another walk

Over the stiles

A bit longer than anticipated owing to a slight deviation from the route...by accident.  But we were not downhearted.  In fact we were borne along the country lanes and across the fields by a stiff wind.  It made for a slightly chilly lunch huddled in the crook of the church wall but it didn't rain.  That was the main thing!  I twisted my ankle about a mile from the end of the walk and by the time I got home and had had a restorative cup of tea I was ready for a lie down.  I'm not ashamed to say that I dozed off immediately! 

Into the church

Across the fields

The vegetable plot thickens!

Gill

A change of colour and style for the blog to reflect my hopes for the vegetables.  Here is the lovely Gill, who has given me space to grow some veg, standing in front of her house and here are some photos of the vegetable patch at the bottom of her garden.  Some patch!  She has been slowly clearing it after several years of neglect.  A lot of self seeded plants and weeds have already gone and there's more to do and clear away.  But, we have enough space to be going on with.   If only the foxes and pigeons will leave us alone!

The currant bushes

Looking across the plot

French beans and courgettes

A day out in Lincolnshire

Carving in the church

Church door

Went on a coach tour yesterday - must be getting old!  It was the Plantation Garden Preservation Trust annual trip to see gardens.  This year it was Lincolnshire.   We started off at Tattershall Church where we were served tea and cake and then crossed the bridge to see the castle.  Actually climbed to the top for the great views across the flat countryside.   The castle is a wonder of brickwork. 

Tattershall Castle

View from the battlements

The castle gate house

Back into the coach and off the Woodhall Spa where we had a sandwich lunch in the hotel which previously housed the bomber squadron responsible for the  bouncing bomb.   Lots of photographs and memorabilia - not a lot of lunch though!    Back into the coach again and off to Gunby Hall, a National Trust property with a splendid garden.

Herb garden

A great collection of plants

A rose arch

Another lovely bloom!

The front of Gunby Hall

The vegetable garden

Thank goodness for National Trust tea rooms...scones with jam and cream to fill a little hole left by the modest lunch!   Managed to avoid the rain showers and had a great day!

Ukraine

I've been idly checking the stats for this blog.  That's a terrible lie!  I look almost daily!  It's a sort of compulsion.  I know that I have family and friends who look to see what we've been up to (thank you) and I know they are mainly in the US and the UK.  My stats tell me the number of daily page views and country, presumably where the server being used is registered or located.  I have quite a few page views from Germany which I suspect may be someone in England with a laptop that thinks it's in Germany.   But  I am quite curious about the page views from the Ukraine, which are just about high enough not to be accidental.  Sometimes I click 'next blog' to see what other people are blogging about and how.  You pick up some interesting ideas on lay out and the array of topics is both amazing and depressing.  But what I wonder is the Ukrainian visitor interested in that makes them come back and look again?  My grandparents came from the Ukraine, so I've noticed this visitor in particular.

Off to the Royal Society Soirée...

Him

Me

A night out at the Royal Society meeting the odd 'Sir' and the odd 'Lord' and having delicious food and lots of wine.  We sat next to an interesting couple at dinner.  Her great aunt was the wife of Sir Stafford Cripps and they founded a trust which dispenses money for scientific exchanges with China. 

When we got home Peter remembered that Stafford Cripps was. among other things, a Minister for Aviation during the second world war and visited the De Haviland factory and was photographed with Peter's father who was, at the time, making mosquite aircraft.  Small world! Take note...this could be the answer to a trivia question!

After dinner we looked at the science exhibits and learnt about leaf cutter ants from which we can learn about antibiotics, ionic liquids and the Gaia orbiting satellite which is photograping stars and planets in our galaxy.   I am wearing a borrowed dress which was just right and very comfortable!

Still knitting

Not been idle on the knitting front either!  Latest offering for Abe...

Back down to earth!

Literally!  Yesterday I took up a friend's kind offer to use part of her large vegetable garden as an allotment - and she even gave me a key to the garden shed so I don't even have to take round my own tools!   It's a huge area that has been left to go wild and she is gradually taming it.  I have planted a row of beetroot, a row of purple sprouting broccoli, some dwarf French beans and 4 courgette plants.  Pictures to follow.  I hope they'll be pictures of healthy plants but there is a fox who wanders through regularly, squirrels and slugs, so who knows!