Cathy's Inescapable Chamber of Death

The cabbages in my previous post were a rare example of the successful combination of childcare and gardening. The dreaded cabbage white moth got the better of my regular inspections last week. One of the girls spotted caterpillars and, armed with a jam-jar each, they happily spent half an hour collecting them up. They think they were making a home for the little critters and carefully filled the jars with grass and leaves to eat. I haven't told them yet, but as soon as they went to bed the caterpillars were dispatched to my slug and snail solution (or "Cathy's Inescapable Chamber of Death" as it is labelled. Doesn't my husband have a nice turn of phrase?). Said chamber is a large plastic box filled with a strong solution of salt water. Salty enough to finish unwanted visitors off quickly, and without any inherent threat to other wildlife - unlike slug pellets which I will never, ever use. All topped off with a nice, tight-fitting lid to thwart any potential escapees. Sorted.

Practical as well as beautiful?

As mentioned in a previous post I have been attempting to incorporate veg in my garden at home - particularly those which benefit from more regular watering than is possible down at the plot. I have French Beans climing up a tree, and  my favourite red poppies sharing a large pot with some beautiful purple leaved Brussel Sprout plants kindly given to me by a friend.

There were some early wins and unexpected benefits from this approach. My initial attempts to grow strawberries in large pots in the back garden looked as though they were going to be disastrous when the dog developed a taste for the fruit. However, moving the pots into the front garden got over that problem and meant that the regular patrols by next door's cats kept the birds away. No need for a fruit cage there!

My garden is a reasonable size but not huge, so a regular veg plot was out of the question. It has been much more a case of thinking about what I can squeeze into the existing beds and borders - including the front garden. I hope my neighbours have been won around by my choice of cabbages in the front. I'm hopeless at marking and/or remembering exactly what I have planted but the cabbages in question have a beautiful grey-green leaf tinged with a deep pink. Delicately fringed with a row of spring onions which have done really well, and with two lovely pink roses behind (see the photo below) I think it has looked really pretty. If the neighbours still have doubts I will bring them round with gifts of the surplus cabbages which are now ready to lift.

Summer recipies for cabbage?

So keen was I to experiment with what would grow that I didn’t really stop to consider when they would mature, and what we would do with 12 enormous cabbages in the height of summer. But of course there is a limit to the amount of cabbage you want to eat in July and August. I have come up with a few summery recipies. It was lovely flash fried with olive oil then dressed with lemon juice and mint. And given the colour of this particular cabbage it makes a really pretty pink coleslaw. With two little girls what could be better? However, additional recipes for cabbage in summer would be gratefully received as I have another 10 cabbages to go!

Beautiful beans

Just look at the gorgeous scarlet flowers on these runner beans. Who cares that they were planted late. So what if there are no beans yet. They are beautiful.

Too busy to blog!

I must apologise for the recent lack of posts to this blog. I was off work last week looking after the kids and simply did not have time! Isn't that ironic. I wanted to have a fun but relaxed week with the girls, aiming for enjoyable but simple things to do that did not involve spending hours in the car. Fish and chips in the park one day was a big hit, and swimming was as popular as ever. Family bike rides and walks with the dog also featured quite heavily.  I think I did manage to get to the allotment once, but we were just too busy doing things to blog about it. Which I guess is how it should be. However, I am not SuperMum and the kids were, quite frankly, a pain in the neck at times. Is it ok to admit that? By Wednesday they had ground me down to such an extent that I was fantasising about PGL! Did you know they take children from as young as seven? Our seven year old still seems a bit young for this to be a suitable option at the moment but I certainly checked them out on-line and made a note for future years! I am pleased to report that my karma is slowly returning to normal and Him Indoors is in charge at home this week. I am back at work for a rest.

My last precious Monday for a while

The school holidays are fast approaching and with them the realisation that I have had my last precious Monday for 6 whole weeks.

Mondays are what makes my world tick. For Mondays are the days I "do not work". Mondays are for bike rides, for putting in the hours at the allotment (without feeling that I am neglecting my family) and for baking bread. They are my time, the days I Get Things Done. 

On Mondays I remember how very, very lucky I am. Lucky to live in the lovely Lincolnshire countryside and to have the time and health to enjoy it. Lucky to have an allotment and to have a family to grow and cook food for. Lucky to have direct access to a network of almost traffic-free lanes through which to cycle. And lucky to be able to choose not to work full-time (though 30 hours a week feels like plenty, thanks very much).

Mondays are for: writing my blog and walking the dog; and reading the Sunday newspaper which I often do not manage to pick up until then. They are for uploading photos and catching up with friends. They are for occasionally getting into town for a spot of nice shopping (not food shopping!). And always, always counting my blessings.

I hope this does not sound smug. It isn't intended to and in fact Mondays are also days when I work bloody hard. Bringing things back down to earth, it is not unusual for me to get three loads of washing done on a Monday in-between everything else, and I am frequently hobbling around in need of a massage or some physio after over-doing the digging at the lottie. So it isn't all sunshine and roses, but my Mondays are always special.

Whilst I will be taking some holiday from work during the summer that will be family time. I am planning some lovely things to do and will also make sure the girls get some pure and simple chill-out time. But there is unlikely to be any such luxury for me since as we all know, keeping children happy becomes a fulltime job in itself.

I will be fine, of course. And we will all have lots of fun. But I know how very much I will miss my Mondays and how much I will be looking forward to September 5th.

Charting the passage of time at Belton House

I love the National Trust's wonderful Belton House. We are lucky to live close enough to visit many times a year, and visit we do. We have never been to any of the big events which are hosted there, even though they must feature amongst the highlights of Lincolnshire's events.

We've also never bothered all that much with the actual house - as stunning as it is -  except on the odd occasion when we have been caught out in wet weather. If anything, there never seems to be time left once we have done all the other essentials of each visit - for me the gardens, for the kids the adventure playground, and a picnic. And don't forget the shop (especially now they have the garden and plant centre) and a walk around the lake if anyone has any energy left.

No - for us Belton House is simply a fantastic Day Out.

There are some aspects which the girls love but which I don't tend to let them do every time. This includes the miniature train ride and an ice-cream stop. Don't I sound like a mean old misery! It's just that we seem to cram enough calories and expenditure into each visit without doing these aswell.

They also love the Discovery Centre, which I must admit makes my heart sink (although that is entirely a result of my limitations and not the fault of the Discovery Centre which most children really seem to enjoy). I have come to accept that there are aspects of parenting and creativity which I enjoy and do well (such as cooking with my children and feeding them well, nurturing their love of reading with visits to the library and story-telling sessions) and there are others at which I am completely useless. Top of the latter list is Art & Craft. I am officially Not Interested and would much rather leave that to someone else so we can spend our precious time together doing things which we all enjoy.

If I get the chance I love to have a potter around the gardens on my own. The lavender inspires me every time. We were there under a rather heavy, grey sky on our most recent visit but it still looked beautiful.

This summer the adventure playground makes me all too aware of how quickly the girls are growing up. When I first started taking them there they were 2 and 3 years old and they needed lots of help with things. The big slides were a particularly scary adventure needing Mum's helping hand to steady them. This gave me an excuse to go on aswell, of course. I used to have great fun (and a bit of a work out too as I helped them over and under things)! Now, at 6 and 7 there is nothing that they need any assistance with and I am starting to feel a bit redundant. I suppose this is a taste of things to come: useful preparation for their increasing sense of independance. I just didn't expect it to start this soon.

To pea or not to pea? I know it's corny but that is the question...

When I took on my allotment I was very clear that I would only be growing the vegetables which I enjoy eating. Top of that list (as it has been since my childhood) is the humble pea. Nothing, I thought, would persuade me otherwise.

The Old Guard at the lottie - the older men who have been gardening for years - grunted non-commitally at this or raised their eyebrows whilst muttering about the many and varied challenges of pea-husbandry. One fellow grower Jeff (who has since proved himself to be a useful advisor on many aspects of veg growing) went further, citing the need to feed them, keep them well watered, net them to keep the birds off, and pick regularly to prevent running to seed, concluding: "Seems alot of bother to me, just to put a few peas on your plate".

Not to be detered I ploughed on, not yet realising the value of Jeff's words of wisdom! In that first season peas were amongst the first seeds I bought, and they were allocated the first ground to be cleared. They were sowed and germinated. And then they disappeared. So I re-sowed and they germinated and eventually some plants got going. But boy did they struggle! I think in the end I only actually managed to pick about half-a-dozen pods and I have never bothered since.

This year, though, like many other growers before me I have decided that mange-tout or sugar-snap peas are the next best thing. (Thanks, Mum, for the tip!) I am growing them in pots in the garden. They are hooked up to an automatic watering system (no such luxuries available at the lottie...) so are getting regular, even, measured irrigation and they are loving it.

As ever, I have made mistakes - principally not giving them tall enough canes to support them. So the plants have had an almightly collapse which Him Indoors is non-too-impressed with (he does like a tidy garden - it is surprising that we get on at all!). But they have provided a plentiful supply of lovely, sweet, crisp pods as well as pea-shoots which taste even more like fresh peas than the real thing. We have enjoyed the pods raw in salads or just on their own as a snack, as well as in stir-fries and noodle dishes.

The kids think they are great and are almost as happy with a handful of these as they are with crisps and sweets. In their next menu appearance the pods will be a base for a fragrant South Indian style coconut curry flavoured with ginger, cardomom, cumin and corriander - perhaps a large enough batch to save some for the freezer. Imagine what a treat it would be to eat the flavours of high summer in the depths of winter. Sounds good to me!