Easter

Hot cross buns

It's the Easter weekend and Good Friday at that, so what better excuse to make hot cross buns?  I did exactly that today with the help of my River Cottage Handbook Bread.  I amended the recipe slightly to increase the amount of dried fruit as last year we had to play "spot the raisin", so double the amount went in this year.  The photo shows the result - not too bad, I reckon and they taste rather lovely :-)

Vegetable nursery...

Yesterday, I potted on the tomato plants and given that they are still looking ok today, I guess I didn't do them too much damage in the process.         

I also put a few pepper and pumpkin seeds into pots and then the propagator, so hopefully they will germinate in a week or so and then grow into strong plants.  I should have enough room in the raised bed for the pumpkins as I am planning on putting the lettuce amongst the garlic and onions.  The peppers if successful at all should be best kept indoors on the window sill.  Can't wait to see how many will make it :-)

Rain at last

The plants are there...honestly!

Rain - finally!  We have only had a few light showers today, interspersed with sunshine but at least the ground is getting some much needed moisture.  It's not that I don't prefer sunshine - I have just been worried about the prospect of a hosepipe ban coming to Wales.

My raised bed and grow bags will also enjoy this weather - things are growing nicely which might not be too apparent from the photo but the plants are definitely there! :-)  I will have to check when I have to start earthing up the spuds - I can't remember what I did last year.  Garlic and onions are doing well and I think I will plant some lettuce amongst those to make best use of the somewhat limited space.

Lovely seeds...

The trip to my favourite garden centre Fforest Mill resulted in a number of small plastic pots for planting on the tomato plants and several packets of seeds ;-)  I could have easily bought so much more but I have to be realistic in terms of space available etc.  No point also in growing stuff we are not likely to eat, so I have restricted myself to buying lettuce, two types of peppers and a mini pumpkin.  I really don't know what it is with me an pumpkins but I'd just love to grow some.  Each to their own, I suppose :-))  I was saying earlier today that buying vegetable seeds gets me as excited as some women get buying shoes.  Which I guess gives you an insight into a) what is important to me and b) the state of my shoe rack.

Bloomin' marvellous...

It's been a stunning weekend full of sunshine, relaxing with friends and having good food!  We made ice cream - one was vanilla with millionaire shortbread chunks, the other was kiwi sorbet and both were very yummy indeed!  Can you think of anything better than sitting on the lawn with friends and indulging in a homemade treat? :-) 

More and more flowers and bushes are coming into bloom and the garden looks beautiful as does the park across the road.  It is supposed to be getting cooler over the next few days, so I hope the blossoms won't suffer too much.

I noticed a few days ago that the potato plants are slowly beginning to come through the soil in the grow bags, so they will need earthing up soon.  No sign yet of the broad beans germinating but apparently that takes a little while (several weeks if I am not mistaken).  Off to the garden centre tomorrow to get more seeds...lettuce and peppers if I can restrain myself from buying any others... 

The little tomato plants are coming along leaps and bounds and I will have to replant them shortly into bigger pots.  Can't believe how much growing they have done in such a short space of time!  I really do hope that they will bear some lovely tomatoes for us in a couple of months.