TARRAGON & THYME

Jobs to do for a better weather day; I am hoping that tomorrow is such a day as the blackberries are turning here locally and I want to take advantage of them.  So the plan is: Go foraging the blackberries are starting to turn quite a few of them ready to be picked.  I intend to go tomorrow first thing and collect some of them and I believe where I go there are a load of Rowan berries.  Autumn is starting to slip in and I also need to see what else I can find on the foraging side.  At the weekend when we went to the Butcher's Blade in the Fen the elderberries are already deep purple.  There is a lot to do and I want to get quite a bit under my belt on the preserving side.  Yesterday I found some yellow cherry plums and left them in the van by accident.  I had eaten one and they were lovely.  OH seems to have eaten the rest in the interim.  I am hoping to find some more as it would be lovely to put some of these up on the pantry shel...

Of late my household organising has totally gone to pot and I am aiming to try and restore  peace, sanity and organisation to the household especially where the fridges are concerned.  Possibly because I have not done as much as I usually do but with having the storage items in the house and lots of other tasks on top of that it has made it difficult to get things sorted and I am now making a concerted effort in order to reclaim said chaos. I am hoping that when the floorboards go down in the loft that a lot of the angst, and not being able to find things will square up a lot of the issues I currently have by removing stuff out of the dining room where the fridges are stored.  Notably in the first instance all the Christmas decorations (and there are a lot of them) are to have their permanent home in the loft as it is stuff that only comes out once a year.  The fridges need stripping out and cleaning in any event which is all part and parcel of the kitchen dee...

My memory is not what it was and I am forgetting to do things. I am therefore, for the time being going to post up a few items a day that I need to get done more as an aide memoire than anything else Do washing up. Done Put on washing   Done Get clothes dry.   Done Get clothes ironed and aired.   Ironing and airing completed until next time. Go to town need some more tray inserts. Done Need two clothes props/pins. Prick out seeds into new trays a time consuming task.  I have sprinkled a little too many - next time I will know better.   Did some.  Still more to do.   Did some more today still a load more to go. Sort out kitchen bin and get it functional again in the kitchen.  I have after a long time found the bin liners I needed.  Up to now, local shop had not sourced - now do, and I had previously forgotten to bring them home when I did see them. Done. Pot up some more plants.   A couple of more plants done today j...

Well on a positive note that is the watering up all done.  We have had lots of heavy rain overnight and it has not let up.  At one point we thought we would not be able to get out of the back gate but it seems to have sorted itself out. So the rain although welcome on the gardening front has kind of put everything else I wanted to do on hold so I think it is going to have to be something household orientated that I have to do today.  I have a lot to do just am not quite sure what I am going to tackle. Got OHs work clothing all sorted out yesterday as he needed clean for overtime today.  He starts early at 6am and so I was up and got everything sorted out for him first thing.  After he left for work I slipped back to bed for a delayed lay in.  Glad I did as I feel a bit brighter than I did then. I have some more washing to do in any event so that will be on doing its thing whilst I do something else. I do need to go to the shop to get some light...

Today started a little later than usual - OH is normally out of bed for 6am and out the house for 7am. This morning he had a bit of a lay in before actually going in to work to do some overtime.  He chose not to walk Missy and asked me to deal with her routine.  Dog in a massive sulk and I had intended having another half an hour lay in but that was not to be.  In the end I got up and let her out and then started pottering in the garden and have potted some more plants up including tomatoes and cucumber both grown from seed.  So pretty pleased about that. OH had asked that I be ready to go out at 12:30pm as he wanted to try out a new Butchers in Sawtry called the Butchers Blade as he could get Fruit Pig black pudding from there.  There is a story here in that my step son and his wife and sister and children went to Hunstanton for a week and whilst there came across produce from a local Butcher which he said was absolutely delicious.  He bought OH some ...

No doubt it has been too hot for you too but when it is this hot it makes me feel physically ill and I retreat into the house. There has been a lot of sowing going on in this heat and two days ago I set the next tranche of seeds and nearly all of them are through already.  I am possibly too late for some of the veggies but nothing ventured nothing gained.  So we will see how we go on. My first tranche of seeds look like young adults compared to the tiny sprouting seedlings that are coming through.  I am going to have a lot of pricking out to do over the next few days or so. My potting up is also going well and all the plants I retrieved from the undergrowth of the jungle are now starting to thrive and are looking a lot healthier.  I have been hand watering up until now with jugs and buckets but OH has sorted out the hosepipe for me so I am hoping to put that into action tomorrow. We have also unleashed the barbecue and have had our first barbecue of ...

This gardening lark is taking its toll on me.  I have been outside for the past fortnight in a pair of crocks and bare footed.  Trouble is at night I end up belonging to the Black Foot Tribe.  Bearing in mind that I had to be strapped up the other day after the issue with the piece of glass I have been aiming to keep my feet as clean as I can but I seem to be doing rather badly at it.  So liberal bowls of boiling water cooled down to bearable temperature and a good shot of Dettol has been the order of the day armed of course with my nail brush.  One cannot be too careful with cuts and what not especially where thorns are involved. I was up early at 6:00am this morning.  We had a good breeze then and it was not so warm but up I got and out into the fresh air to continue on with trying to sort the garden. We had a garden inspection this afternoon by the Landlord's Agent.  That is why I have been concentrating on the garden this past fortnight....

Lots of it.  I don't know what it is but I seem to have a fatalistic attraction to not only water but glass as well.  Such it was today.  I was busy still tidying the garden when my foot suddenly felt uncomfortable and something was stuck in my foot.  When I checked a shard of glass had gone straight through the sole of my Crocs and straight into my foot.  There was for a small cut blood everywhere and I had to shout for assistance from Nurse M (my OH).  I knew he had a First Aid kit in the car as the other day he had cut himself and I had to play nurse! For such a small cut there was a lot of blood, but very worryingly it seemed to have clotted in the bottom of my Croc quite quickly.  I have to go to the Doctors for a check up on my Arthritis in any event so I shall ask a couple of questions then. Anyway Nurse M did his bit although he kept me on one leg for far too long and I had trouble with my hip.  He eventually put two plasters on b...

As have been back out in the garden again.  I have found several plants which I thought I had lost whilst clearing the jungle. I have found two pear trees, two quince trees, two crab apple trees, my two fig trees, five blackcurrants, a passion fruit vine, some nepeta, ivy, lavender, mint and a hanging strawberry plant.  All of them will need repotting, a good feed and a little TLC. I also have to pot up my tomatoes into hanging baskets and also my nasturtiums. I have also started two cone baskets that I had off with four sprays of trailing ivy in them.  I hope that they take  and that I can add some pansies to the top of the basket to give a bit of colour later on. Some more seeds have also been sown. I have four Tayberry plants to pot up, and a load of herbs.  So I think it is going to be an early start in the morning to get a lot of these plants into the soil whilst it is quiet. There is still a lot of rubbish and weeds to remove.  Th...

We that is OH and myself since he came home from work and I got home from my patchwork class have been in the garden working away trying to get rid of more rubbish and loading up the front garden again ready to go to the tip tomorrow.  It has been hard work and we have had to nip in a couple of times because of torrential rain.  This last time round we had decided to take Missy for her constitutional. WE had just pulled up to start the walk when the heavens opened up (that was about an hour ago) and since then the rain and thunderclaps have been continuing to circle.  It is starting to brighten up again so I am hoping that is the last of the rain for the time being and we will go out again in the garden to do more shortly.  However we are both hungry and are about to have meat onions and potatoes for tea.  Low key so that I can get on with the garden.  I do not like thunder at the best of times and am just hoping that it clears off pretty soon. Meanwhi...

Has absolutely stopped play work today and absolutely no work in the garden has happened today. I had to go into town to the Job Centre for an appointment at 11:40pm and then met a friend for lunch at 1pm.  We put the world to rights and then I came home.  I got drenched on the walk in and on the way back with a damp squib reporting home at just after 3:30pm.   Since coming home we have had one or two breaks in the weather during which I have emptied some of the boxes in the garden which are full of Christmas decorations and bought them into the house.  They are ultimately going into the loft once floor boards are down and I am hoping that can happen next weekend as the quicker I can get things like this in the loft out the way the easier it will be for me to get the rest of the house sorted out and back into some sort of order.  I also have some decorating to do in the kitchen and the bathroom so the quicker I can get on the better all round.  Th...

A drop in that is.  Have been busy with the garden. Ever so slowly we are recovering it from the bramble patch it was.  Still a long way to go though but getting there at a snail's pace. This afternoon we have been to the tip four times to get rid of the rubbish that we had put in the front garden.  I have an equal amount lined up still to go and before I go back out into the garden again for the next round I thought I would pop in just to let you know that all is well with my world at the present apart from being up to my eyes in work with restoring the garden to a garden instead of a wild life patch.  Part of me feels very guilty about this.  I shall show photos of before and after when I get the grot out of the way. Whilst I have been working in the garden I have been accompanied by Mr and Mrs Blackbird.  I believe that they have a nest in what was once my old cherry tree as whilst I have been working I have heard the calls of the babies in the ...

I am ever keen to cut down on unnecessary packaging or indeed make my own versions of items that I use on a regular basis.  And what I tend to do is make stuff initially test drive it and if  we like it and I think that there is a use for it in Pattypan's Pantry then that item is added to my pantry shelf core ingredients.  I am at the state with this tutorial below where I am going to test drive the recipe to see whether it is one he likes and will be happy with.  OH is not keen on milk but he does not mind soy milk or almond milk.  However I do not like the prices charged in the supermarket.  I also believe that if I can source the soya beans fairly cheaply this might be a good way to make soya milk for the OH.  I am going to check out our very good Chinese shop in town tomorrow to see whether or not this is feasible.  In any event I always like to see how things are made.  I am also keen to cut down on packaging and to some degree r...

Whilst cooking up a joint of pork the other day and managing to get a good lovely crackling on the joint I mused to myself that it was about time that I made a batch of bay leaf salt and kept it just for the pork dishes. I am intending to do more meat preserves this year if I can and pennies allowing. I made a very small amount of this a few years ago and as I have a few bay leaves to hand and no doubt will have some more later in the year, I thought it was about time some more was on the shelf. In the quieter months of the year before all the new fruits and vegetables and abundance of herbs arrives what a better opportunity to do something useful for the pantry shelf that can be used on a regular basis the base ingredient which is already standing dried on my pantry shelf. Bay salt was traditionally used by Butchers (so I understand) for curing pork joints.  It will give a little more flavour to a lovely cut of meat in any event. Although predominantly I cook wit...