We’re currently feeling the might of Tempest Hervé which is primarily over Corsica and our garden. Or so it feels. Or maybe it’s the Tramontane. We have had gusts of around 104k/h almost all day.
The potager shed
The potager shed
We’re currently feeling the might of Tempest Hervé which is primarily over Corsica and our garden. Or so it feels. Or maybe it’s the Tramontane. We have had gusts of around 104k/h almost all day.
Just before Christmas we flew to Australia for our nephew’s wedding. In three weeks we took eight flights and covered many thousands of miles.
Can there be anything much more delicious than early spring peas with a generous knob of salty butter? I think all vegetables are my favourites when I haven’t tasted them for nine months.
It was -2.5C in the vegetable garden last night, but no evidence of a frost. Most strange. The only reason I noticed was that there was no water coming from the hose to fill the hens’ bowl.
..that’s it, the 2020 growing season has begun. Over the past couple of days we’ve repaired all the holes in the greenhouse.
Despite being the biggest of the three hens when we bought them last September, Brighton the Sussex hen, unlike the other two, did not lay.
It’s been a while since we had a frost, however this morning it was a nippy -4.7C in the potager.
A friend dropped me a message yesterday to ask if I’d like three compost bins. I rarely say no to offers of free stuff for the garden so I said I could go to pick them up today.
While we were in Melbourne we had the most delicious watermelon at a family barbecue, the like of which I hadn’t seen before. It was citrussy, with more flavour than a standard red watermelon.
There is something deeply satisfying about making a dish using as many ingredients from the garden as possible. Here I used cauliflower, butternut squash and onions from the garden and served it with home-made mango chutney.
I’ve been away on my holidays in Australia since mid-December so the garden has had to look after itself. I’m happy to say that an hour’s tidying up and a bit of light hoeing had it all back in shape.
5:30am. Yep, that’s what time this creature woke me up with a very loud and repetitive call. It seemed right outside the window so I searched around for a recording app on my iPhone which isn’t easy when you’ve taken your contact lenses out.
Image: Getty Images
Last night the hens didn’t want to go in their henhouse, but I wrangled them in against their will.
You know how it is. You go to the asian supermarket and buy a bunch of lemongrass when all your recipe calls for is one stalk. Here’s what to do with the rest.
Morning mists after overnight rain lift from the hills each day. Today looks set for more rain with heavy skies and an eery calm. The forecast is for a tornado to rip though during the day carried by 100kph winds.
Ever since I was a child I’ve found it impossible to eat curry without mango chutney. We have curry often as my four drawers of spices attest.
On Wednesday 23 October we had the heaviest rainfall ever recorded here in Occitanie. 260 litres per square metre fell in ten hours.
Yesterday was pond clearing day. It’s not a job I relish since it involves waiting until all the wasps and bees have departed, then standing in very chilly water for an hour or so.
It’s Sunday 13 October 2019. We are soaked in low cloud after many months of drought, so I and the garden are beyond happy.
