Sowing, Reaping, Harvesting and Saying Thank You.X

I was always taught not to speak with my mouth full, and so I won't, and you'll just have to wait until I've finished....................................................................................................................................

How do you even begin to describe how gorgeous life is at home with a mouthful of homemade crumble with Physalis, Plums, Bramleys, and Greengages in? And that not being gorgeous enough, to go and stick a goodly dollop of custard on top.
Honestly, forget Nigella and Sophie, respectfully, The Pope would be wise to stop off at The Funny Farm this week, and no word of a lie.


Not wishing to dis Trousers in any way, shape or form......but since we moved into The Funny Farm, he has caused me no end of disarray Children? Sometimes He gets out there himself and takes the pictures, but a lot of the time I do, because I'm here more, and kind of notice things more as they happen..... The Cat never does, and nor should she, because she should indeed ask for our permission before she borrows the camera, obviously....

But this time, Trousers has posted the photos up in a hugely sensible order for me to talk about, because it's kind of all about Reaping and Harvesting, and quality time spent, and just properly appreciating the gorgeousness of what you've been allowed to enjoy.



After such a hard Winter, it was brilliant to be able to get out into the Kitchen Garden, and try and make some kind of sense out of the chaos of trying to 'settle in' last year and define paths and borders and compost heaps, and what the livestock would 'half-inch', given half the chance..... And so it has been beautiful to just allow ourselves the occasional snatched moment of pleasure, and sometimes, in the form of a simple photograph for the blog that we then appreciate more than any of you watching from afar, if that makes any sense.



Trousers is spending now much more quality time doing just what he adores, metal detecting, albeit away from home sometimes, but with like-minded souls,....but surely, that's the nature of the game, because afterall, if you're in your own back yard, on your tod all of the time, that would become a tad tedious after a while, no? And I'm having a lovely time now meeting his new buddies when they come to visit, cooking a nice lunch for them, or my speciality Cheesy Sheep Biscuits for him to take to one of his 'Take Something From The Wife, But Don't Bring Her With You Buffet In A Field Somewhere'?!

Which suitably brings me onto the subject of Don Juan here, this Big Bloke in the field of very girly sheeps outside of our kitchen window.....

Momentarily he's just resting, until he's identified his 'Today Girlfriends'...

The other morning, he was completely prostrate on the grass and we had to go check that he was still alive, but thankfully, he was just resting again..... Personally, Trousers being a Painter and Decorator, tried to 'gloss over' what Don Juan may or may not have been up to during the dark hours. You can't pull the wool over Wellies eyes, and I'm expecting there to be many bouncing baby baa lambs before the spring is out next year, and no mistake.

Concentrate now Wellie? Where was I......Oh yes....

I've been harvesting that much produce from the Kitchen Garden and greenhouses, that I
decided to finalise my plans of turning the Conservatory into a proper working Summer Kitchen, at completely nil expense, and with Trousers superbly collecting me odds'n'sods that he finds at work in this or that skip, it's enabled me to organise myself there for ripening possible 'Blighty Tommies', drying beans, sunflower seeds, bringing in pots of fresh garden herbs, etc. etc

Don't get me wrong, the Funny Farmhouse Kitchen works brilliantly for me, but out here in the Conservatory at this gorgeous time of the year, when the light is bright, but there's a nip in the air, I still feel like I'm right out there in the garden itself, and that's what I set out to achieve when I planned it, so Thank You Angels....X.

And whilst the boiler isn't switched on in this corner of the conservatory, the undercover and sunny quarters are helping to ripen what I hope will be our winter wonderland of produce for the kitchen table at a much later date.

I've never grown Summer Raspberries, so I'm of the Autumn Bliss Prince 'Raspberry Beret' Brigade, and I kinda like it that way actually.... because they have the potential to be bigger and better, and being much later, you have more available time to squirrel them away in whatever shape or form you choose to.

On a daily basis now, I'm picking between 55 and 75 raspberries.

I only know that, because I count them into my little basket, and it's a very silly game that I play with myself, because depending on how you position them, that's how many you can fit into a 500ml bottling kilner with sugar syrup, if you're dead gentle with them.

I rest my case?

No point in telling Trousers, because he laughs at the merest thought of me in a pair of Onion Goggle Glasses at forty paces, let alone with a pinny on and counting raspberries in and out of a weeny trug tied to my pinny strings.

With the fruits that don't make the grade, as it were, I freeze them every day, and when I've got enough to do something sensible with, I either make jam or juice them. The idea is largely to get anything that doesn't NEED to be in the freezer OUT of the freezer, to make room for shed-loads of homemade chilli, moussaka, lasagne, curries, stews, casseroles, a huge array of inventive homemade sauces/pestos....

..... sometimes I wonder how Trousers would cope living with a boring person?

I need him to multi-task when he's out Detecting now Boys if you're reading this, because I now have room in my freezer for a woodcock, a partridge or two, pigeon breasts, a brace of peasants, a Wild Boar or a whole collection of conjoined Venison Joints.

And I know how to cook them to perfection.

With just six weeks until I disgracefully turn 50 years of age, I can't quite decide how I would like to spend that special space......

For now, thank you for being here.X