The Conversation

Hello, May I speak to Sabena please
Sabena Speaking
This is Mrs Milly for the local allotments,   I know this is probably silly, but I have received a letter from you inviting me to a prize giving evening for the allotments
Oh yes - are you from Plot 95?
Yes I am!  I'm phoning as I am sure there has been a mistake - you see mine is a new allotment plot, I've only had it since May
Do you have a little green shed and lots of painted signs on your plot?
Yes that's my plot. 
 Oh well it's right then!  The judges saw your plot when it was very overgrown when they started the judging - When they were walking round for the next judging they couldn't believe the difference and were really impressed!  And yes it is right - the award is for you!!
Oh that is brilliant - thank you very much!  I wanted to phone as I was sure there was a mistake
No there is no mistake - you won - you do sound very surprised!!

Gobsmacked would probably the better description!!   How brilliant is that - it's is confirmed - I'm the winner for our site!! 

May 2011



August 2011



Bok Boking

There has been plenty of Bok Boking to be heard in our garden recently.   Yesterday we decided it was time to sort out the chicken area and begin the preparations for the winter.    We have 2 chicken houses and runs,  one for the the Posh Girls and a smaller one for the ex battery hens.

Chicken World

Mr Milly started raking up the leaves and woodchips from the main garden area, whilst I started removing the wood chips from the house end of the Posh Girls area.  4 little faces followed me with pleading little eyes - chickens do have that effect on you, they really are the funniest things.   As we have had such a problem with foxes this year  I won't let them in the garden unless we are there to supervise,  so yesterday they were out for the day.

Gillian having a cuddle,  she sat there for such a long time I was
worried there was something wrong with her!  Gillian  likes a cuddle!

Flora on bug patrol

6 chickens raced to the pile of woodchips, weeds and leaves Mr Milly had put in lovely neat piles ready to be bagged up, 6 beady eyes and 6 pairs of legs scratching away to see what goodies they could uncover. So began the race - could we the humans bag up the piles before the chicks scattered them once again!    It was certainly entertaining!   Every spade full that was lifted had to be dodged around a chicken or two,  constant raking to bring the piles back together again and having to watch our every move as chickens were underfoot!  They were on a mission for bugs, worms and other chicken goodies!

Stella, Hettie and Nando having a rest.

Luna posing for the camera, and Flora investigating their new dust bath.

It took all day, but both houses have been emptied, scrubbed, dusted with anti bug powder and  filled with lovely new bedding.  One run moved and filled with new woodchip,  the other run emptied, refilled, cleaned and tidied.   6 happy chicks Bok Boking as they explore and re-arrange their homes.

Rainy Sunday

I know rain is good for the Lottie - but I am sure this much rain is too much!  It has rained almost solidly for 3 days - how very annoying over a bank holiday weekend.  

My Girl managed to call home yesterday and again today,  which is a relief and good to hear from her.  She is enjoying the farm animals dotted around and the views from the site are stunning.  The mobile reception is very poor where she is, so contact with her is going to be a bit hit and miss for a while.   Maybe the old fashioned way of snail mail might be rekindled - a bit of a novelty nowadays but I think it could be fun!  Her first letter from home will have some stamps in it - you never know she might get the hint and send a letter back!

I have told My Girl she can't bring one home!

Beautiful Welsh Countryside

As we knew we were going to be away for most of the weekend, we hadn't made any plans for the Lottie this weekend,  we popped there this morning and came home with;-

A harvest perfect for two!

A Cabbage - probably a bit early to be picked but it was a perfect size for 2 of us
Green Beans
Runner Beans
Apples

We bought a couple of  Pork chops  and some potatoes and the rest of this evening's meal came from the Lottie!  

The chicks don't seem to be put off by the rain and lots of lovely eggs are still being laid.  Some were put to good use today for an apple cake.  The recipe can be found  here Apple Cake and on my recipe page here Favourite Recipes

Yummy Apple Cake!

I am really hoping for a dry day tomorrow as the chicken run needs   re-arranging with new bark to be laid - I can hear my Welly boots calling!!  With a bit of luck I will be able to squeeze in a little time at the Lottie - its time to tackle the weeds again!

A letter

We have just arrived home from North Wales...  I feel like I have spent 2 days driving!

On the door mat was a letter for me...............................................


Dear Allotment Holder,

2011 Allotment Prize Presentation Evening

Wednesday 28th September

Council Chambers

Drinks and Nibbles from 6.30

Award Presentations 7.00-8.00pm

Congratulations - your hard work and patience have been recognised and have been included in this year's award presentation.

The Council would like to cordially invite you and one guest to a small buffet and drinks to the above event in the Council Chambers.

Please contact on the above address or email and confirm your attendance.

Yours sincerely
Parks Strategy Officer

I think a phone call to the Parks Strategy Officer on Tuesday is in order - someone surely must have made a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Preparations



Nearly finished packing

 The last 2 days I have been in the east of the country arriving home last night in the middle of what looked like a bomb had been dropped in the house - My Girl was finishing her packing!  She is supposed to have packed lightly - those 2 massive bags don't look light to me!

Tomorrow we are taking her to the north east of the country where she will be starting her new adventure.   She may stay in the north east for the next year or she may move to the south,  we won't know for a week where she is going to end up.   So a 200 mile drive tomorrow - me and Mr Milly will be staying in a hotel for the night before visiting family on Saturday and then travelling home.   My Boy will be house and animal sitting for us.

How do I feel about My Girl leaving home? - I am trying very very hard not to think about it and my usual method to not think is to keep busy.

I finished work and popped to the Lottie,  picked some apples, loads of french beans and a couple of courgettes,  came home and collected My Girl and Mr Milly and went food shopping,  changed some PJs bought this week for My Girl,  had tea,  stewed some apples and blanched the green beans which are now all sitting in the freezer.  Now we are planning our route for tomorrow to the place of work, the hotel and then onto family.  One more hat to be finished tonight and My Girl now tells me that a trip to the Portuguese Housekeeper is needed tonight as she must pick something up - that will be me to drive then!!  I think that will be it  for today as an early start is needed in the morning.

So I'm trying to be brave and send My Girl on her way to her new adventure........ but knowing we probably won't see her until the end of November is a little tough.  And that is enough said today!

Flowering Cushion

The cushion is finished and it was fun to do!  Lots of rounds and lots of different colours,  I like crocheting bigger things with different colours,  it keeps me interested seeing the colours work together (or not as can sometimes happen).   I found a lovely button in my local wool shop and it matched the shape of the rounds perfectly - so this now happily sits in the middle of the cushion.   The back has been crocheted with matching rows of colour to mirror the front.

A slight dilemma yesterday - there isn't anywhere local to me stocking round cushion pads.  Fortunately I found some calico in my fabric stash so out with the sewing machine and a bag of stuffing and custom made cushion pad created.

Unfortunately the cushion can't live here - its a bit too pink and girlie for Mr Milly!

Me and Mr Milly spent sometime at the Lottie yesterday and again today.   The Sunflowers have been staked,  more strawberry runners planted,  lettuced thinned out and the latest waterbutt (from Freecyle) installed.  They were the fun bits!   The front quarter (ish) section of the Lottie is still to be sorted - had you noticed my tactical photos recently??  LOL!   This bit is now quite overgrown,  so this weekend I made a start on it.   A section about 8 foot by 3 foot marked out,  roots and grass removed and then dug over.   It was hard work,  but very satisfying when finished.  This section has now been covered to stop the weeds and will probably stay that way until next year.

Hedgerow harvest around the Lottie today - Greengages and apples which are growing wild behind the plot.  So tonight there are 4 lovely jars of greengage jam,  2 yummy jars of apple sauce and 2 bags of  not particularly interesting, but probably tasty stewed apples waiting to be frozen.

Waiting for the jars to cool down before labelling.

Greengage jam recipe was from here Greengage Jam   I made it without the vanilla pods and with a little less sugar than the recipe states as I like to taste the fruit and not the sugar!  Jam making is a joint effort in our house as Mr Milly is the setter tester - when I think the jam is ready Mr Milly checks the jam on a frozen saucer for wrinkling - he then decides if it is ready or not.   What he doesn't know is that it will be his fault if there is batch which doesn't set as he is the setter tester  :) 

Busy Hands

Today we are expecting visitors,  My  Dear Father-in-Law  and his wife are visiting from the Isle of Wight,  we haven't seen them for a little while and we are all looking forward to the visit.  I think we will be having a bit of a houseful for the day as friends and family pop in to say hello.

Carrot cake was made yesterday and this morning a lemon cake will be going in the oven.  Carrot cake takes a while to make and bake,  the lemon cake is incredibly quick and easy,  but both are really tasty and everyone seems to enjoy them!!

I found the recipe for the carrot cake here Aunt Mary's Carrot Cake,   And if you fancy having a go - here is the recipe;-


Ingredients

Serves: 12

• 275g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 4 eggs
• 400g caster sugar
• 350ml vegetable oil
• 375g grated carrots
• 125g chopped walnuts (optional)
• 200g sultanas (optional)

Preparation method

Prep:30  mins | Cook:45  mins

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / gas 3. Lightly grease and flour a 20cm cake tin.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
3. In a large mixing bowl cream together eggs and sugar. Add oil.
4. Slowly add dry ingredients and blend together well. Add carrots, walnuts and sultanas.
5. Pour into cake tin and bake for 35-45 minutes. Check after the first 35 minutes, to see if a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If not, continue to cook, checking every 5 minutes. (I find this will take at least 1 hour to cook)
6. Top with a cream cheese icing and enjoy

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients for the topping

• 200g (7oz) Full Fat cream cheese
• 56g (2oz) softened unsalted butter
• 56g (2oz) sifted icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the topping, mix cream cheese, softened unsalted butter, sifted icing sugar and vanilla essence, until smooth. Allow the cake to cool and then add the topping.  It is important to use full fat cream cheese - anything else and the icing will be runny, the full fat version makes a thicker icing.  This cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container. That is, if you can resist it that long!

I have had my crochet hooks out this week.  My Girl will be going away next week and some new hats are required.  I found the most amazing wool with sparkly bits running through it,  the hat is made and out in the sunlight it sparkles!

Whilst visiting Blogland yesterday I came across this Blooming Flower Cushion,  I really did want to have a go,  I rummaged through my wool stash to find the colours I wanted to use and made a start.   It has grown quicker than I thought it would,  so I think it will be finished in a day or two!  It is supposed to be for My Girl's bedroom, but I have a feeling it will end up in her suitcase as she packs next week!

Paper Potter

I am now beginning to plan my planting for next year - I know its early but now is the time to be buying seeds as most places are reducing the price of this year's stock and lots of bargains can be found.  There is a garden centre local to us where re-cycled pots can be picked up for free,  so I have gathered several of these.  To fit in with our freecycling, recycling, Eco efforts I have purchased a Paper Potter which arrived today.,

With the aid of the lovely My Girl - a short demonstration of my new toy;-

You will need;-   A tape measure,  a sheet of newspaper,  a paper potter



Cut a strip approx 8cm by 57cm



Roll the newspaper  strip loosely round the potter

Roughly fold up the bottom of the paper

Push onto the base of the potter and twist

Ta-dah ---  a little paper pot is made

When seedlings are ready - plant straight into the ground. 
No root disturbance and the paper will bio-degrade -  Eco Friendly too!

Guess what we are doing this evening?????????

Thank you for my gifts

I had some lovely gifts from my family for my birthday;-

My Girl surprised me with the pretty pink birthday cake - she said I always make the birthday cakes so it was my turn to have one made for me!  She had also sat at the sewing machine for a few hours and the result was a beautiful top - I look forward to wearing it!



About 25 rows of shirring to achieve the stretchy bodice of the top.

 Mr Milly made me a happy Mrs Milly with a brand new shiny red camera.  I love it and so far the pictures have been great!

My Boy was next - in typical My Boy style dropped by in the morning and then went out again without even saying hello!  He wanted to give me a gift for my birthday but didn't know what I would like.  He was hoping he could pop in and  talk to his dad for a bit of inspiration without me noticing!    Ok, I work in my office upstairs, but it is at the front of the house with a window overlooking the road and he does drive a truck - he really is difficult to miss!  But he did well - I now have a lovely new bottle of my favourite perfume.

My favourite perfume, my favorite colour and in the most adorable little bottle

Charlotte the Lottie scarecrow was my gift from My Bro and his family and flowers arrived today from My Sister in Law and her family.   So all in all  I think I was spoilt!

Thank you one and all for my lovely gifts  and beautiful cards x x x

Happy Birthday...................

......... to me!

A Few changes

Freecyle has been kind this weekend and I have acquired 2 carry bags of empty egg boxes - they are really handy as we give so many eggs away!  And another compost bin came our way.   Now I have never been overly happy with the compost bins we built from pallets - they just looked way too big,   took up an enormous amount of space and no proper door and they just look so very untidy.  So with the acquisition of a second 'dalek' type compost bin I have decided to do away with the pallet compost bins, and regain the space. 


Old Compost bins



New (new to me!) Compost Bins

I am now on the lookout for another 2 compost bins,  4 will be plenty for rotating the compost and storing some manure too.  So the back of the plot has been worked on today.  Wooden bins deconstructed and a tidy looking pallet fence now edges the side of the plot.   This particular side has a lot of brambles both to the side and behind it.   The fence should hide these and as they grow through the fence it should be relative easy to keep them in check.   

The space that previously housed the bins has been dug over with compost and a purchased bag of manure - its is now covered to stop any weeds growing through and in a couple of weeks it will be ready for the rhubarb to be planted - a permanent rhubarb bed has been created.  For the 2 daleks I have dug under them and loosened the soil for the wormies to get in and do their stuff and these are now sited in their permanent home and await a couple of companions.    This all feels like a much better use of the space, which did feel a little wasted and hopefully great rhubarb and compost will result!


Nice and neat and tidy.  The wood chip is a bit sparse - its only to cover the bed
for a little while and and then it will be moved.  





Charlotte the Lottie scarecrow admiring the new fence and rhubarb bed. 
So much better with green grass rather than weedy bare earth



So Freecyle has been kind and Ebay was too - a push mower came up,  not too far from home and listed as a brand new one.   I put a tentative reasonable bid on it and won!  Much less than half the price of a new one and it is new!   Mr Milly and me collected it this morning - took it to the plot, the cutting blades were set to the lowest setting, far too short for my new grass and no spanner with us to adjust it!  How annoying - I wanted to play with my new toy!   So instead of my Lottie having a cut all the pathways around the Lottie are now lovely neat and short!

My new toy

All in all a good weekend - I hope you had a good one too.x x

Another picture of Charlotte - just because I like her!

Gifts

Its been a week of gifts this week.   Clive from the Lottie plot opposite ours left some onions for us,  Barney gave us some spinach, and a courgette was given by another neighbour.  My Girl and Mr Milly had fun stringing the onions.

And today my Lovely Brother and My Eldest Niece - affectionately know as DJ,  popped over to see me and another gift was received......  Thank you for my gift - I love her!!

My delightful scarecrow, garding the grass seedlings

I thought she might be a little lonely on the plot so found these lovely little flower windmills to keep her company!



How cute!



The Grass is growing

Ickle tiny little shoots have started to appear - thats good  as I was just about to give up hope for the seeds!  Mr Milly is not impressed - as I've used 2 different grass seed he tells me the grass will be different colours!  I did remind him it is an allotment and not a garden and really does it matter if the grass is different colours - it is all going to be green LOL!

You can just see the grass growing - and it is GREEN

We took Star to the allotment with us today, which was entertaining, she had great fun walking over all of my beds - I was NOT happy!   Then I picked another meal of runner beans and a few french beans,  my very peculiar dog has a liking for runner beans - is that normal for a dog?  One minute there was enough runners for a meal and then next there was one left - she had nicked and eaten them one at a time without us noticing!

Anyway Star liked the fresh and long grass that is now growing on the plot and took to lying on it and having a roll around - a couple of nice little pics of her.

Star enjoying the GREEN grass

Having a snooze after eating all the runner beans!

My camera has now been sent back so today we are off to hunt for a new one.  I think probably it will be one of these;

Hmmmm...... which colour to choose!!???