Sunday 27 April 2008

rhubarb, rhubarb


Cor blimey, what a scorcher!!

Well for one day at least and at least it occurred on the weekend which meant all hands to the fork and spade and start digging. Bloody weeds, the thing is they are very cunning in their tactics for survival, either they make sure they get very up close and personal with the plants you want to keep making their extraction almost a medical procedure or another option is to have a root system so complex and far reaching I need a sat nav to negotiate them or the third option is to disguise themselves as some pretty flower making me feel bad about wrenching them from the soil, but I am becoming hardened to their ploys and will take no prisoners. Slugs also fall into this category, but they have made no effort to disguise themselves maybe by wearing a wig and moustache, their only ploy is to come out when your back is turned. As no effort is made with a cunning disguise I have no sympathy so resort to using the slug pellets in a liberal fashion to protect my property.

On a more positive front in the garden the first crop of rhubard has been harvested, I think the humble rhubarb is the most self sufficient of fruit and veg you can have in the garden, every year without fail and with minimum fuss and attention my rhubard supplies me with more rhubarb than I can poke a stick at and its uses are endless. Are your pots and pans a bit stained and limescaled, boil up some rhubarb in them and come up sparkling!

On that note I'm off to make some rhubarb crumble and get my pans sparkling!

Saturday 5 April 2008

over the garden fence


What the ......... is going on. Mid week I was sat outside having lunch, wearing a T-SHIRT! This weekend back to triple layering and wearing a wooly hat, not quite what I had in mind for our balmy summer days, hoping it's a temporary blip.

Looking out over the allotments, which earlier this week were a hive of activity with preparation of vegetable plots, gave me a cunning idea to extract some expert tips on all things fruit and vegetable, will share them when this occurs.

Keep warm!

Tuesday 1 April 2008

spring has sprung

So far so good, marked the occasion by mowing the lawn, this was made all the more remarkable by the fact the the lawn mower started first time, it's never done this since the day I bought it!

Usually spend half an hour pulling shoulder out of its socket, try kicking the mower, a try and tested engineering technique, then checking there is fuel in it to discover there isn't, filling it, getting hopeful that I have solved the problem. By now a small group has gathered over the garden fence, garden backs on to a healthy and active allotment. Helpful suggestions are offered, "have you checked the fuel?", yes, "you'll have a problem with the diaphram" , this was news to me, being unawares of the anatomy of a lawnmower. After a few more "helpful" suggestions the final one is "try giving it a kick". Genius...still no response.

Trade it in for a more reliable model, never, that would be far too simple a solution!

Anyone for a cup of tea!