Parsnips 21st, The Ofsted man cometh and a very pleasant evening indeed

Now its been a couple of weeks since I was last here, so get a coffee and a comfy chair because its a post of substantial, though not epic proportion.

Parsnip blowing out her candles

Did I mention Kirsty 'Parsnip' Southwellski was 21 a couple of weeks back? No? I'm sure I did, or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

We had a brill day, Nanny Southwellski went shopping for the day with Parsnip Southwellski in Norwich; and Coco and I had to 'babysit' Little Nanny Mero and Uncle Luke. All in all they behaved very well and did what they were told most of the time. Coco and I made a chocolate birthday cake and put candles and icing flowers on top.

We decided that we would all go to Pedro's in Chapelfields, Norwich; a Mexican restaurant and a lovely time we had too. 

Little Nanny Mero was very excited, 'Was Pedro really Mexican?' 'Could Pedro speak Spanish like Little Nany Mero?' 'Was Pedro in the kitchen at that very moment?' It was nearly too much!

Now we all know that moment when someone close to us is about to ask a question that we know can only end in embarrassment for one and all. Little Nany Mero's eyes widened as the hapless waitress wandered foolishly close to her, too close!

" Is Pedro working today?" The words were out, the question asked.

" There is no Pedro, it's owned by someone in Great Yarmouth" She replied.

One of two things was going to happen, Little Nanny Mero, illusion shattered, was going to point out that if there was no Pedro it shouldn't be called 'Pedro's'. Or she was going to collapse into hysterical laughter.

It was ten minutes before she stopped laughing! Coco had finally mastered the art of sucking through a straw by the end.

Even Parsnip became affected/infected.

Now I know Mother In Laws get bad press but I really do have one in a million, we share jokes, books and an interest in world war two.

We put the world to rights on the journeys home and have brilliant ideas that will save mankind, well Parsnip (Kirsty) and Percy (Luke) anyway.

Kirsty had a lovely time she said, I know we did and it was good to see her laughing and with her family again. We love you Parsnip, very muchly.

Some of you will know that Nanny Southwellski and I run a business called ZFL (Zone For Learning, and yes HSBC we are one and the same you muppets!) where we teach among many other things such as how to assimilate a severed finger without actually doing so, magic tricks and Carpentry and Joinery and Decorating.

New visitors to our website www.zoneforlearning.co.uk will see that we now offer much more, go on have a look, I'll wait.

Ah good, you're back, Nanny Southwellski did a good job with the website didn't she? Just in time for the nice Ofsted man on Monday. Now the more observant of you will notice a new addition to the teaching team in the form of a handsome, suave (or is it swarthy?) dashing, silver-fox-type figure with the title of Horticulture tutor.

DO NOT GET EXCITED!

I said at the start of this blog it is not the place to visit should you want pearls of wisdom about all things green and growing,

NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!!

You want gardening tips and advice, go check out Alan Titchmarsh's website or better still check out Cottage Smallholders blog. This is Fiona and Danny's blog. Nanny Southwellski got wind of a get together of some of the people who visit the blog and wangled an invitation for us to go along. Good move Nanny.

We visited an idyllic smallholding tucked away behind a beautiful cottage in a lovely village. The garden is filled with traditional plants; rhubarb big enough to build fences with or certainly make coshes from; hidden corners which secreted carvings and benches; and a bunch of genuinely lovely people!

Coco met some good people, which in my mind is fantastic. We are trying to avoid getting into the whole "every stranger is a danger" club. Yes of course we realise you have to be careful, but there is care and there is paranoia. If we are there with her and she is okay sitting with someone we feel okay about, where is the risk? Coco doesn't just rub noses with anyone but Paul(?) obviously had the right type of nose and clearly spoke her language fluently.

Now Nanny Southwellski will tell you that I am not the best at meeting people in new situations for the first time, but I felt right at home from the very start. I don't like going to clubs or gatherings of people who share the same interests as me in case they are the type of people who take the enjoyment out of it, or they know more than me.

For example. I am not a bad cricketer, if I say so myself, in fact Andrew Strauss ran me out at Lords in an international a few weeks back. Okay, so it was a dream, but Mr Strauss I am STILL VERY ANGRY!!!! I have played for some good cricket teams but hated it when they have held post mortem's, analysing every ball and where people went wrong - and that was when we won! Nah, not for me.

Anyway, as usual, I digress, there was a spread of food fit for royalty; ample drink; and the best cup of tea outside of Nanny Southwellski's kitchen! There was fresh mackerel being filleted and smoked; smoked mushrooms; and roasted garlic which Coco had shredded by the time we got to the car. We all have a strong aroma of garlic so no hassle from vampires at Broadlands tonight.

Nanny Southwellski has been very busy in the kitchen of late and we now have jars of Cherry Jam; Cherries in Brandy; Cherries in Syrup; Gooseberry and Ginger Jam; Pickled Eggs; and Pickled Beetroot lining the shelves of our larder.

The Jams are to die for! It was our first attempt at preserving and all the jars sealed as they should, the colours are amazing and I can't wait for the bought stuff to be used up.

On the garden front everything is growing madly, especially the weeds. Who said weeds are just misplaced plants? Well fret no more my friend, I know where your 'misplaced plants' are so come and get them as soon as you like!

Coco has continued to provide her authoritative and discerning quality control processes to the crops.

Carrots were the last to get the 'Coco Seal of Approval'.

This takes the form of every item of fruit and veg we harvest being stamped with four tiny teeth marks. 'If it ain't been ate it don't reach the plate!'

Our pumpkins are looking impressive now, I took this about three days ago, its amazing how much it grows each day.

We have about 12 pumpkins developing nicely at the moment and more are expected.

Talking of expecting we thought we had our first broody hen a couple of days ago; not any more, it seems she just thought the nest box was a bit lumpy.

Anyway, before I go just a little phrase for someone in particular.

'The eyes are the window to your soul. Not only have you opened your windows, you have taken down the nets and the curtains and the locals are staring in!'

Once again, thank you to everyone at the Cottage Smallholder gathering for making us so welcome.

All things bright and beautiful

Coco and I were up at 6.00am this morning and as always we did our chores, letting the chooks out, feeding the cats and letting the dogs out before we had our breakfast.  And, as I tell Coco each and every morning, we can get our own food but the animals can't so we have to look after them first.

Monty

Blossom

It's not all one sided though in return we get fresh eggs every day, the cats keep the mice and rats from our veggies and foodstuff and the dogs guard us and make us laugh.

Seeing to them first is a very small inconvenience in comparison to what we receive in return and all in all I think its pretty fair.

Mmmmmmmmm!

 Anyway, onto more things bright and beautiful.  We have a very old cherry tree in our garden.  I believe it was planted around the time that Broadlands was built about 60 years ago.  We missed the cherries last year as they were ready just before we moved in.

This year though we have a bumper crop of delicious bright red cherries.  We are busy picking, pitting and preserving them and I think a batch of cherry wine may be in order too.

Nanny Southwellski took a stunning picture of the cherries (not this one, Uncle Robin took this one) and this can be found on her Flickr page under 'Southwellski'.

Our veggies are doing very nicely thank you, and we may even have enough carrots for a meal.  Coco is very partial to a freshly pulled carrot first thing in the morning, rinsed under the hose with the top still on. She is also very partial to freshly picked cherries, gooseberries, peas and some of the herbs we are growing as well.

 Our flowers are doing brilliantly, this is a short stemmed lily (right) we grew this year. How vivid is that orange, it makes me smile every time I see it.

Our sunflowers are doing very well despite being uprooted twice by the mole, attacked by the chooks and getting hit by the frost.

Having done all thing bright and beautiful it seems only right to move onto all creature great and small and here is a bit of both.

The butterfly on the sunflower (left) is, I think the first one Coco has seen that she actually took notice of and it warranted a point with a chubby finger and an 'Oooooh!'



Coco seems to have a real interest in things that fly be they planes, birds, butterflies or bugs. She can pick a plane out of the sky long before I can.

Female Ghost Moth

We also had a visit from a Female Ghost Moth which I initially thought was a leaf.

It gets its name because it used to be associated with the grassy areas in churchyards and the male moths have a funny courtship flight where they flutter above the grass - looking like little white ghosts.

Impressed with my Moth knowledge?  I cannot take credit for this.  Tony Pritchard from the Suffolk Moth Group  identified this for me in a matter of seconds!

You can contact him at: Countyrecorder@suffolkmothgroup.org.uk

Another visitor was this little hairy legged chappie/chappette who appeared in the bathroom last night.  If he/she gets rid of the mossie that was buzzing round our bedroom last night them they are most welcome.

Finally I will leave you with the sunset we were blessed with two nights ago - enjoy

Sunset over Feltwell

Its been a long time.......

since I was last here, Mr B dying has hit us all really hard and still we have a few moments where its still too sad for words. 

But in the garden life has continued be it plants or weeds and they are all growing at an alarming pace, especially now we have had some rain. Its odd that as a gardener I can irrigate my plot yet in some parts of Norfolk farmers aren't allowed to take water from the rivers and drains and yet we still use clean, drinking quality water to flush toilets.

We have had the best of the strawberries on the plot although the plants in the forest garden seem to be a bit behind and are just fruiting. We have noticed that in the forest garden the strawberry plants have grown taller and the fruit is larger than those in the cultivated plot.
 

Jarvis keeping watch

So much so that they have become a target for the blackbirds, I don't like to use a lot of netting in the garden in case the brids get tangled up in it although I do use it around the peas to give support and protect them.

Luckily we have our own security patrols, see left, in the shape of Jarvis and KC our two cats. They tend to be a better deterrent than netting or any of the flappy things I tie across the plot.

Brutus - as handsome as ever!

Brutus is doing well, his flock now numbers 8 since we lost a couple of hens to natural causes.

The eggs are still coming, but predicting how many we will get each day is a bit like picking the lottery numbers.  There were three today so the chooks have had a stern warning and been told if production doesn't go up there will be redundancies!

We have given the chooks a much larger run, they can wander about quite freely and in perfect safety.  I think this may be the reason the eggs production has dropped.  They get nosing about their run and forget why they are there!

Gooseberries

Cherries

Our fruit trees and bushes are looking good,
we have loads of cherries on the old tree and gooseberries on the old bush in the main garden.

The new gooseberry bushes are a little choked up by grass at the moment but its on my list.

White grapevine

We also have 4 grape vines planted in the plot and these have taken really well and throwing out lots of new growth so posts and wires will be needed pretty soon. 

We have two red grapes and two white so we will have to see how productive they are before we launch 'Chateau Southwellsi' on the wine loving public. 

Peas - the first pods!

Our peas that we started in the potting shed way back in March are now producing their first pods, we have planted some more seeds and these are now peeping through and will hopefully continue the crop for a few weeks.

We will plant another set of seeds in about three to four weeks time.

We have done repeated sowings with a number of crops by way of an experiment to see if we can gauge when we have stuff ready so that we don't get it all at once.

Radish

We learnt from experience with the lettuces not to sow too many at once as we had a whole row go to waste (although the chooks would disagree) because we couldn't eat them fast enough.

The same thing with the radishes.  I am the only one who really likes them but I just can't eat that many and I was pleased to give some away tonight to friends who visited.

I hope to get into the plot tomorrow and do some serious weeding and thinning out but we'll see what the weather has planned first.