A Better View 🌄

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning Fortune! 

Skilful dressmaking!

I just happened to notice in the newspaper review online that one of the Sunday newspapers has recipes by Hugh Furry-wotsit on the 30-plants a week eating plan.  Unfortunately, it may well be a newspaper that folk are unwilling to purchase (DailyFail), but I just thought i would mention it.  Presumably HF-W has jumped on the bandwagon and there is a new TV prog/Book/promo tour in the offing..... 😉 so maybe the recipes (which may or may not be any use anyway), will appear elsewhere. There is a mov for B00ts no 7 in the same paper too (according to the pic of the front cover anyway - I've not been to the newsagents to confirm 🤣) just in case that is of use to anyone too.

***EDIT*** - ah yes, just found HF-W is plugging a new book.  Think I'll wait until it comes in at the library 😉

Greying X

Fortune_Smiles

themadvix said:

That's beautiful Fortune - you are so talented!

If you grow mixed salad leaves, you'll be closer than you might think to 30 plants a week. That was a key takeaway for me from a podcast with Tim Spector - eat 'mixed' things - mixed seeds, mixed veg, mixed leaves - and you'll get there quickly!

Of course MV!  I didn't think of 'mixed' things for the veg patch.  Mixed salad leaves duly planted 😇

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou said:

Top is lovely. 

Cheery_Daff said:

Ooh, that's beautiful Fortune! 😊 You're almost inspiring me to dust off my sewing machine 😊

Thanks guys 😘  I'm eagerly waiting the next season of SEwing B££ for more inspiration.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Morning Fortune! 

Skilful dressmaking!

I just happened to notice in the newspaper review online that one of the Sunday newspapers has recipes by Hugh Furry-wotsit on the 30-plants a week eating plan.  Unfortunately, it may well be a newspaper that folk are unwilling to purchase (DailyFail), but I just thought i would mention it.  Presumably HF-W has jumped on the bandwagon and there is a new TV prog/Book/promo tour in the offing..... 😉 so maybe the recipes (which may or may not be any use anyway), will appear elsewhere. There is a mov for B00ts no 7 in the same paper too (according to the pic of the front cover anyway - I've not been to the newsagents to confirm 🤣) just in case that is of use to anyone too.

***EDIT*** - ah yes, just found HF-W is plugging a new book.  Think I'll wait until it comes in at the library 😉

Greying X

Thanks Greying 😘  I will look out for the book.  Hopefully there'll be some useful tips in it.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Good Day Sunshine ☀

What a marvellous day it's been - dawn to dusk sunshine 🌞

Mr F and I have spent most of the day in the veg patch trying to make up some lost time.  We have now cleared and prepared four beds including the biggest.  We've direct sewn spinach, chard, bunching onions, leeks, mixed salad leaves, lambs lettuce and radishes.  And planted courgettes, green beans and broad beans in pots in the cold frame.  Tomorrow I'll put in red and white onions.  It feels very late to be getting started but it's been so wet and cold up untll now.  Fingers crossed we get something for our efforts.

The pigeons have devastated our plum, greengage and cherry trees.  They've eaten most of the blossom and any green shoots they could find.  We've had to net the cherry trees as they are so damaged.  The blighters have also been having a go at the cherry plum and wild cherry in our edible hedge.  I am very tempted to put them in a pie 😆

We had Cauliflower, Paneer & Pea Curry for lunch with wholegrain rice (leftover from yesterday's supper).  We were shattered after all our gardening so supper was a pizza from the freezer with some tuna and sweetcorn added.  But, whilst in the veg patch, I realised that our rhubarb had turned into a triffid overnight 🌳  So I picked a few stalks and made a Rhubarb & Soured Cream Cake with Ginger Syrup for dessert.

A few other household chores were squeezed in too so it's been a very productive day.

I was hoping to finish the dress I'm making yesterday.  However, some flaws in the pattern meant I've hit pause while I decide next steps.  When I attached the neck band to the dress, I discovered that the neckline was too low... I mean below my bra band too low 😲  It's a common complaint from other makers of this pattern.  So, I took 3 inches off the top of each side of the neck band to raised the neckline.  However, by doing that I also raised the hem on the neck band which runs down the full front of the dress.  Which means it's now much shorter than the skirt hem 🙄  So I'm debating whether to re-cut the neck band making it shorter at the top but adding some length to the bottom to compensate.  Or just reducing the skirt length thereby making my maxi a midi 🤔  Decisions, decisions 🤔  I'm not in any hurry to get it finished and I'd rather end up with something I'm happy wearing.

Hope the sun has been shining on you all too ☀

Fortune x

themadvix

I think you’ll be fine with your late sowings Fortune - everything should catch up if we get warmer weather from now on. I’ve only just got courgette and squash coming up (sowed last weekend).

Fortune_Smiles

themadvix said:

I think you’ll be fine with your late sowings Fortune - everything should catch up if we get warmer weather from now on. I’ve only just got courgette and squash coming up (sowed last weekend).

Thanks MV.  We've always been a little late with everything in the garden.  But, this year, we thought we'd be on top of it because Mr F is at home more.  The weather has thwarted us!

Fortune x

themadvix

I think there’s a lot of peer pressure with gardening - it’s very odd. Leaving it until May is really fine for a lot of tender stuff, otherwise you have over leggy plants before it’s planting out time! My allotment neighbour was offering me beans 3 weeks ago…. I sowed mine yesterday!

Fortune_Smiles

themadvix said:

I think there’s a lot of peer pressure with gardening - it’s very odd. Leaving it until May is really fine for a lot of tender stuff, otherwise you have over leggy plants before it’s planting out time! My allotment neighbour was offering me beans 3 weeks ago…. I sowed mine yesterday!

That's very reassuring MV - thank you.  It's not so much peer pressure as seed packet pressure 😆  We never seem to plant in the time window they recommend.  However, that hasn't stopped us from having stuff to harvest in the past... maybe the onions could have been bigger though 😊🧅

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Garden Progress 🧅

The onions are in! 🥳  Although the potatoes are ready to plant now and the beds aren't prepared yet.  Mr F has a lot of work on (too much I think 🤔) and has some post viral fatigue to contend with (he may have had Covid).  So we are thinking of getting some help with digging the beds.  There won't be enough space for all the seed potatoes we have so I'll donate some to a friend who I know could use them.

There's been lots of housework to do and a little business admin but I've achieved everything I wanted to so far this week.  We are out at the dentist tomorrow and the new boiler is being fitted Thursday and Friday so the rest of the week is likely to be a little disrupted.  Thank goodness they are coming soon.  The diverter valve has failed and every time the hot water comes on, the heating comes on too 😲  And we certainly don't need that at the moment.

Lunch yesterday was Warm Halloumi with Radish, Apple & Pecan Salad and supper was Roasted Asparagus, Pancetta & Cherry Tomato Pasta.  We've had the same today but in reverse order 😆  The Rhubarb Cake has been making a nice mid-morning treat.  We've lots of rhubarb still in the veg patch so I've been researching new recipes to use it up... watch this space 🥧

I stocked up on dog food and treats today and bought Mr F some more books.  He's reading the first five in a series right now and has almost got to the last one.

i thought of you this morning @Greying_Pilgrim.  I have the M£rlin app on my phone which, amongst other things, identifies birds through their songs.  FDawg and I heard 16 different birds on our walk around the meadow this morning including a Blackcap, a Goldcrest and a Linnet.  I didn't see them but it was lovely to know they were there.  i thought how delighted you and LG would have been to catch a glimpse.  Like you, we spotted our first swallows a couple of weeks ago.  It seems they may be our resident pair returning.  They tried to nest in our porch last year but the nest failed - not enough mud or the right type of mud available at the time I think.  We've put up a couple of terracotta nests to help them out but the one at the site they choose last year has a squatter 😲  A wren was roosting in it over winter and has now built its nest there.  You snooze, you loose 😂

Fortune x