Allotmenty goodness

Dandelion tea, mmmmm.

So, another weekend in the allotment, the poor garden is being entirely ignored! It was a hot one though and we couldn't do a great deal of work. The hubby with his azada finished off the new bed that's the other side of the 'fennel divide' and managed to plant a few of our beans for drying out in it (butter beans, cannelini beans, borlotti beans, and kidney beans) as well as sowing some more bean seeds for a later crop and transplanting our leeks from the seed bed. I did a bit of weeding, and generally melted.

Exciting stuff:
- not only are the 3-crowns-of-asparagus-for-£1 or whatever silly price they were, growing, but also the row that we paid £1.05 for SEEDS have mostly germinated! Woot - we DO have an asparagus patch after all!
- the mangetout are arriving - and we've eaten 3 teeny ones of the plants already - absolutely lovely...nomnomnom.
- the peas are getting fat
- the redcurrants are turning red
- the potatoes are flowering
- the little gems are hearting

It's just all happening at the moment, faster than we can keep up with it, really.

In other news, hubby got some new XBox games for his birthday (Mass Effect, Bioshock), I'm knitting myself a headband before I go back to 'sensible' stuff 'cause it's soooo hot. Learning to crochet next weekend as I got 'The Happy Hooker' for my birthday last month, and on Thursday, the new 'Let's Knit' will have a beginners guide and some bamboo hooks, so I'll have no excuse. Fathers Day on Sunday as well as the Farmers Market, so that's nice, and end of the month is Miyavi gig folled by Hemsby-holiday which I'm trying to plan our activities for. So far they mostly involve pubs.

Things we're currently excited by include :
-Hugh F-W making Dandelion & burdock beer - we're growing Japanese Burdock in the allotment. Hmm. *chin-stroking, pondering*.
-Just general wine, beer, and tea making from, well, everything growing in our garden that won't poison us, basically.
-Oh and of course the River Cottage Spring 'cause we love River Cottage and it always makes us feel like we can do that too.
-Cosplay plans for October London Expo...got a few ideas, not sure where we're going with them yet, we shall see.
-and again - MIIIIIYYYYYAAAAVVVVVVIIIIIIII in a couple of weeks! eeeeeeeee! I have the tickets out on display and I keep catching 'Miyavi' out of the corner of my eye and having very squee moments.
-Ooh and talking of squee - the Moffat 2-parter in Doctor Who? Everything I hoped it would be and more. *happy sigh*.

New week

Lotus tea today, Korean, it's lovely.

We had a busy weekend (as ever) - Saturday went to shovel bag after bag of lovely old horse poo for the garden, and treated ourselves to a pub lunch afterwards (we'd worked up quite an appetite). The boy was really well behaved in the pub and it was lovely to spend time together as a family - it doesn't happen enough, really. I got tipsy on 2 pints and so we came home, looked glumly at the torrential rain turning the allotment to mud, and then watched telly and drank more cider. Fun.

Sunday, after a slightly slow start, for some reason, we spent all day in the allotment. Hubby earthed up the potatoes, manured up the squash bed, dug over the brassicas bed, swore a lot when he discovered the slugs have had half the contents of the seed bed. He planted out some of the squashes - well, a bit of everything really - turks turban, soya bean, cucumber, pumpkin, and so on...

I cut down the long grass around the raised beds, weeded most of the beds, including the bindweed that was wrapping itself around the nasturtiums, the evil thing. We planted out the sweetcorn and put up all the canes and wigwams, though we still want to add some support for the mangetout.

We tried out the new-from-last-weeks-boot fair bread maker and had a lovely loaf, so had bread, cheese and jam, sitting on a picnic rug in the garden, along with a few radishes from the allotment. It won't be long before we'll have broad beans either, so that's really exciting. We finally planted out the redcurrant bush too so that's going to be exciting as well, and I still can't quite believe we have a full row of parsnips, mmm.

After the boy went to bed, we finished watching 'A Cook on the Wild Side' at last, and I very-very-nearly finished knitting Rach's 'foxy' wristband, needed for the Expo next weekend. I should finish that tonight, as it's just sewing in ends, and then I can look into what next - birthday gifts? baby presents? something for me, or the boy? I can't wait. After doing Joe's Link gauntlets, and Jo's headband, it feels like ages since I knitted something for me...

Today I'm looking at MoneySavingExpert.com again - it's been a while - and reading up on breadmaking and that kinda thing. I need to get back in the swing of being Old Style :) Tonight when hubby gets home we're going to go do some work in the garden, then after the boy is in bed, we're going to sit in the garden and drink some special tea - maybe pai mu Tan, or lotus. We usually go out with a glass of wine, which then becomes a few glasses of wine, and before we know it, we've spent a fortune on wine for the week...so tea instead, nice posh tea. Much healthier and cheaper in the long run...and probably more soothing.

I'm also making the hubbys birthday list - he sent me some ideas and I'm adding some to them - although it's 2 weeks away, we'll be at the London Expo all of next weekend, so it'll be good to get this off to everyone and out of the way. I need to find our complete costumes and check them as I have no idea where the boys clothes have gone...

I have unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. I've put a load of washing on (I'll hang it up after I get the boy from nursery). I've tidied the kitchen. The breadmaker is on (again). And now to get ready to pick up the boy :)

blogging options

It appears blogspot / blogger, despite my lack of love for it, is the only place I can have a blog without getting so annoyed I stop writing it. Hmmph.

Potential things to cover (otherwise known as my life activities) :

Tea. Mmmmmm, tea. Currently in the house is jasmine, green sencha, kukichi, lotus tea, oolong, pu-erh, uki uki, gunpowder, dandelion, pai mu tan, white tea with acai berry, 'normal' white tea, and a few fruit ones too. We love tea. I plan to start making home-grown blends this year too.

Knitting. I'm obsessed. Ravelry is my favourite site, I'm currently working on 4 projects, most importantly is a little wristband for a friends birthday. I like small projects as I only started last November, and I have an energetic 3 year old, interrupting me as I type, who makes it nigh impossible to knit around him.

Family. My son is 3, and I'm a stay at home mum. He is quite a character, and has a rather good sense of humour, although he's a loon. I'm also married to a man who would have been best off in life being some kind of absent-minded professor.

Allotment. Ours is about 60ft long, and as we've got the neighbours too, it's almost the same width. We're out there every chance we get at the moment. Broad beans, peas, salad leaves, sweetcorn, courgettes, leeks, tomatoes, mangetout, parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic, beetroot, fennel, lettuces, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, aubergines, artichokes, asparagus, runner beans, french beans, beans for drying, soya beans, salsify, peppers, chillies, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauliflower...and fruit. Lots of fruit. and herbs.

Japanesey stuff. Whether it be watching anime, buying kimono, or just eating japanese food, this is our other main activity. Last night we ate japanese food (thank you hubby) and two days ago we were at Oriental City spending £75 in the supermarket and having a bento lunch. I read 2 mangas I got for my birthday, and in 2 weekends time we're cosplaying at the London Expo (as Ranma, girl type for me and boy type for hubby, and P-Chan for the boy).

Foodie stuff. I'm vegetarian and hubby just loves his food. We're hoping to become self-sufficient-ish (well I am, anyway, we're not planning on having our own cattle just yet) and we often holiday based around gastropubs in the area. We perve over Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (for me, it's not *just* about the food) and love those foodie shows that are seeing different foods around the world and things like that. We don't often get to eat at restaurants (a 3 year old, and no money tend to be the main issues) but we like trying out new recipes at home.

There's a few other subjects - music, books, gigs, money-saving, being green, films, and loads of other stuff really, but nothing else is quite as huge. Those are a few of our favourite things. :)

Today : NOT cooking, 'cause today is my husband Justin's last day at work before Christmas, so I'm spending my time tidying the house and getting out the Christmas snacks When he gets home we're going to a nearby street that does an awesome amount of christmas lights (I'm hoping to take some photographs, we'll see!).

LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Justin being at home for Christmas
Seeing the Mighty Boosh live next year
IT'S CHRRRRIIIISSSSSTTTTTMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAA
AAASSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Tidying the house 'for Christmas' with a 3 year old and husband.
The crowds at the shops, if I have to go to the shops at all
Christmas ending, and life going back to normal!

Recently : dusted off my old myspace account - still like facebook more than either of the others. Finished a re-read and re-watch of all the Harry Potter films & books. Must watch 'Muppets Christmas Carol' at some point over the weekend, as it is entirely made of awesome.

TODAY, Wednesday 20th December, I am :
COOKING:
Chilli Bean Bake (topped with tortilla chips with melted cheese over the top, mmmm)
Vanilla Christmas cookies - some for the tree, some for gifts, and some for nibbling.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Voyage of the Damned, of course. Go Astrid
The giving and recieving of Christmas gifts - I certainly know I've bought some good ones this year. Hope the same can be said in reverse
Captain John and Captain Jack together in Torchwood. *sigh*. 'Heykids...did you miss me?' awesomeness itself.
Hubby and I treating ourselves to an X-Box 360 in the sales, if we're even slightly disappointed by any of our gifts

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Spending Christmas day with the family who aren't that bothered about seeing me any other time.
Isaac going without an afternoon nap for 3 days straight (Christmas at my mums, boxing day at mother-in-laws, and day after at father-in-laws). He WILL be hell.
The post-Christmas 'oh-mi-god-the-house-is-full-of-crap-and-we've-all-got-really-fat' routine.

TODAY I AM MOSTLY WEARING:
Stay indoors, not opening the door kind of crap. Look, I'm doing a lot of cooking, okay?

I finally got myself up and ready to cook (after getting sucked into the Great Teacher Onizuka manga I was reading - good stuff) so toddled off into the kitchen to start preparation for the chestnut and sage cobbler I'm making today - you know, the possibly-taking-as-my-veggie-Christmas one. WHY does every recipe start with cutting an onion! And every single time, My eyes get so sore and watery I have to leave the room!?! I swear the salesman that came to the door thought I was crying (worked well to get rid of him, though...).

Um, so yes, I had to come back in the lounge and of course to my coomputer. Isaac went to sleep at last, and I've been doing more weeding on flickr, some of it proper deleting of photos that I know aren't even on my hard drive (but...I have enough photographs, so will I ever miss them?) Strict decluttering!

Yesterday I didn't cook, but I did clear out the kitchen, so all was not lost. I want to sort some of the pile of death I have lingering by my computer - it mostly seems to be catalogues I'm keeping to see if I want to buy Christmas presents from them for people, but maybe I should just have a really good look NOW, working out who I need to buy for still. I always find it hard to shop for everyone like that - I'm better at buying for one person at a time - so for example looking through first for ideas for my mum, then again for ideas for Justin, then again for ideas for...you get the idea - and you probably see why I've not touched this pile, and why it is now know as the pile of death. Hopefully I'll have time to cook, tidy a bit, and still go through the pile, or at least begin to - with Isaac not sleeping for a while you feel like you have to be quiet to let him sleep and by the time you kow it, it's...uh...4.12 in the afternoon and you've not started cooking or tidying yet. Yeah, I'm pretty shit as a housewife. Just as well I'm a stay at home mum, right? I'm good at that! :D

I also want to (want may be too strong a word) change the cat litter, put some more washing on, hang some clothes up, see if I can pair any more of Justin's socks before he explodes one morning of pent up rage, sort out these three million piles of CDs & DVDs hanging obout into a serious collection of things we actually want to keep all on a few discs we can actually find. I need to make more Christmas Cards - and start deciding who I'm making them for, too. I have more presents to wrap, including some that have to be done when there's no one else here. I need to look up the garden plants & work out what needs frost protecting & how, as this garden gets frost (our last one was really sheltered, so I've never needed to know before). I need to finish clearing out the clothes piles in our room and get the suitcase away (it's still out from a wedding we went to last month). Isaac needs to tidy his room (which usually takes up more of my time than his, getting him to physically do it). I have a lot of stuff to get on Ebay but to get to that stage I need to have less crap & clutter down here as I'll have nowhere to put the ebaying stuff when I get it out. I need to sew up Isaac's sleeping bag, dye my hair red for Christmas again, compile all my torn out recipes into one recipe scrap-book I have set aside for this very task. I want to do the same with some of the cardmaking designs I've seen (as I've bought a few magazines for inspiration and I already have enough magazines scattered around the house - I'm obsessed, I tell you!). Oh yes and there's some books I'd like to read before they have to go back to the library - where did those new library books go? - and I have to go to the library tomorrow to take the Dvds back, one of which we finally saw last night (Walk the Line, at last - excellent) and one of which we may potentially watch tonight. We want to make friends with the library staff as they like the same things as us and are funny and interesting and have kids too and read the same books as us and are the same age as us and and and...

I think for too long our friends have been either moving to London for work / giggles, or have settled down to the degree that they never see any of 'us' any more (whatever did happen to Steve? Oh yeah he got married and had a baby...) - We are married and have a baby! surely that means you can talk to us! - OR are just those few years younger than us that makes a difference, or I guess aren't settled enough - still all about the clubs and pubs and bands and drinking. Not to say we don't like bands (we're seeing the Montain Goats next month, we saw Polysics and Guitar Wolf this year and they were fantastic) and certainly not to say we don't like drinking (though again, I have been reminded of that recent wedding...mm. Maybe I don't like drinking, after all). It's just - we did all that. We did it really, really well. We would have bought the t-shirt, except it wasn't low-cut or skintight enough, and was only available in the same boring colours as everyone else. I perseveered, I really tried, and did it for about 15 years...that's a really big part of my life there. Some of those days / nights I'll remember for years. (Some I can't even remember now). At least I can proudly hold my head high and say I did it, and scraped through, and am now a normalish human being - which none of us ever expected would happen.

The carrots are calling. *sigh*

Day two...

The Country Garden Cottage Pie was rather lovely, I had seconds for lunch today as well. Not the healthiest meal due to the volume of cheese, but pretty good without that, so next time I'll do it with less. Today I've not yet decided between ' Chestnut & Sage Cobbler' and 'Bobotie' - both one pot meals (less mess, yay). The chestnut & sage is a potential 'meal-to-take-to-someone's-house-over-Christmas-instead-of-meat' as I'm the only vegetarian in the families (at least the families we'll be seeing over Christmas that is).

We go to my mums house on Christmas day - this year is going to be the easiest 20 minute walk now we live so close - most other years we've had to go up a really steep hill & a 40 minute walk, one year we even drove 3 hours down the motorway from Stoke on Trent! Hopefully it'll mean that we can have a really good little 'just-the-three-of-us- Christmas before we go, which will be nice. At mum's is my sister and her 2 children (and my mum, of course) Joe (15) and Nathaniel (3). Joe I think is at his dad's house till mid afternoon / early evening so at least Justin can be with us rather than going upstairs to play computer games with Joe - I have to keep an eye on Isaac by myself then, which is tricky when the two younger boys are together as they are buggers :)

The day after, Boxing Day, is Pamela's birthday (that's my mother-in-law) and we go over to hers, and usually there is Karen (Justin's sister) and Darren (her boyfriend) and Marjorie (Justins Grandma) and Peter (Pamela's boyfriend). It's a birthday and Christmas celebration all in one which is nice, though it is the complete opposite of my families celebration - far more polite and well behaved!

The day after that is Colin's birthday - that's Justins' dad - my father-in-law - so we either go to his house or to his sisters house (Di) - I think now Colin has a bigger house it'll probably be there all the time, which is good in one way - very child friendly, as they have children Isaac's age and now younger - but also a shame in a way as Di's house is very traditional and is in the country and feels a bit 'old' - in the sort of 'olde' way - not all modern clean lines and so on - and we like that, it feels ever so cosy. Still, it's usually fun with so many people - Karren and Darren again, but then Colin, his wife Nicki, their 3 year old Keira, Justin's Nana Joyce, Di and her husband Peter, and sometimes people from Nicki's side now as well - her Mum or Dad usually. This year as well will be Isaac's Uncle George who is only a few months old!

I managed to get 4 cards made last night and was very pleased with them, it's something I only started doing a little while ago but, like the knitting, I find it quite relaxing, and I'm really pleased with the results. I'm starting to wonder if I might find it hard to part with them...On that note, I've also signed up to Crafts 365 - photograph something you're making every day for the next year - so I think that getting my camera out for taking three photographs will be more likely to happen than just for one. Every day! They might overlap a little as well, I would imagine. I'm trying to clear out my flickr account a little bit to make way for all these photographs that are going to be coming in, but that's about a weeks constant work by itself, as I used it for storage when I moved house / PC and so I have to open and save them all before I can delete anything. Not the quickest job!

Today Justin was working locally - his current job is in London - auditing London hospitals - but starting the last week in December (before Christmas I mean) he's going to be working in our home town! No more getting up at 6 am! This morning I was woken by the sound of the ironing board being taken out of the understairs cupboard at about quarter past 7 and it just makes *such* a difference to how I feel during the day. Mind you saying that, I haven't got any more work done in the house than usual - mainly thanks to Isaac refusing to sleep - but I have got a lot of secret things done for Christmas, so I guess it evens out a bit.

Todays plans? Cook soon, moar cards!! and we really *have* to watch a film tonight, as I've got to take them back in two days time. I can knit while I watch too. Dofus would be good but hmm, I doubt it :( Apart from that? My house is filled with STUFF. Stuff where it doesn't need to be. Why is there a spanner on my kitchen worksurface, and a book of poetry, and a ukelele? I need to have such a little amount of stuff that when things don't get put away after use, I still have a house underneath, rather than a dump.

So : I've been trying out Live Journal, but didn't get on with it. There seemed to be too many things you should or shouldn't do, and I'm not really very good at that sort of thing. I think you might have to be a bit clever to be able to make the most of it, and of course sociable as well.

I considered facebook notes, but probably not adjustable enough for my tastes, and I know nobody would ever read them. Somehow, that doesn't matter on here - but on a place where I'm connected to coming up to 100 people, I feel that would be kind of disappointing. Also, I don't want to think to myself that people *are* reading, else I'll get self conscious and start writing to an audience, whereas this isn't to be about that at all. (Not to say that you can't comment at all, or anything, as indeed that would be most welcome).

Oh and I know there's others - I'm on so many sites dotted around the web - I'm thinly stretched over all of them but without enough free time to be active on any of them. So just use the few I like and understand. Flickr for mass photos, deviantart for cosplay event photos and the better photos (maybe some of my old peoms up there too now I no longer use allpoetry). Facebook for friend connecting, as I never use myspace anymore anyway and besides, there's barely any difference between them now, thanks to myspaces status updates and facebook applications. Plus, you know, I'm 30, so that waves goodbye to a whole load of others (bebo, orkut etc - well and myspace to be honest). I'll stick with money saving expert for my life advice, along with hot uk deals and zen habits for my proper life changing stuuff (you know, like becoming vegetarian mainly thanks to that blog, for example. It's wonderful).

Back to this old blog it is then. First on blogger, I had Isaac's diary - from before he was born, up to he was about a year old. It just became way to hard to look after him and keep up with writing about his life in that way. I've still got the 'photography blog' where I just posted my best photographs...not that I ever update that either. Then this blog started as *my* diary (effectively). I got bored and forgot, so I changed it to an allotment diary for a while when we moved earlier this year. Then that fell behind too...

I posted on my livejournal a while back about starting anew (and no, I'm not posting the link, as there's only about 3 things on there). It didn't happen, as I wasn't happy with the format. To be honest, I'm not that happy with the layout of this one, but at least I know I can change that...something outdoorsy, I should think...

I'm signing up to the Project 365, uh, project, and the Kids 365 project. (These are 1) taking & posting at least one photograph a day and b) taking a photograph of Isaac every day - both for a year. I'm not doing the self portrait version, but I'll try and appear in a daily once a month or so, for recording purposes only! Isaac is three now, and starting nursery after Christmas (hmm, if I
ever fill in that form). Before I know it, he'll be off to school, loving his teachers more than me, untucking his shirt, slouching, and then leaving home (well, I hope...wonder what house prices will be like by *then*?). He's so very, very photogenic and it seems a shame not to record at least just a little bit of his daily life, especially as it's going to change so much soon. The joy of this place is that I can send my daily photographs here from flickr and vice versa.

So my friends moving to Belgium can keep up with my allotment news (if she starts using the internet more, anyway). Isaac's auntie can read up on how he is from up in Bedford. I can keep track of what I'm making in my weekly meal plans and what we've tried & not tried, and what we've planted in the allotment and how it's going...So - it'll be a bit of evertthing, and
probably not every day, but hopefully every couple of days. If not, someone prod me on
facebook. I'll be starting the photographs on December 1st, but I'm going to try and start
regular blogging again before then...in fact...

So, I'm making 'Country Garden Cottage Pie' today with ingredients from the weekends
farmers market. I want to make a few more Christmas cards later this evening, as I got my printer rigged up at last yesterday and have run through a whole colour catridge already printing assorted background papers out. (Only £9 a cartridge! Might need to get a different printer...). I want to knit some more of Justin's scarf (and the speedy rate of about 5 rows a day before I fall asleep, it's going to take me till *next* Christmas at this rate). We do have a couple of dvds we need to watch before Friday - Walk The Line and Grave of the Fireflies (at last we have relented... we know it will be sad) - when we need to return them to the library. I would also like to spend some time on Dofus, do some tidying up, and catch up on lolcats. Any questions?
Good.