Exciting news!

First tomatoes!

Now - if this doesn't deserve a second post today, then I don't know what does :-)  I have just been out in the garden to check on the strawberries in their baskets and what can I tell you (drum roll): 
I discovered our very first baby tomatoes!!!  Not on the strawberry plants, obviously ;-)  I had planted one of my cherry tomato plants in the top tier of the basket tower and that one now has several little tomatoes on it!  I am pretty sure they weren't there a couple of days ago but maybe I just missed them - they are tiny after all.

After all the disappointment with the slugs, this is really exciting and I am ever so pleased!  I hope that the plants I have indoors will also fruit - will keep a very close eye on all of them, so I don't miss the first ones appearing.  I guess some people may say I need to get out more ;-) but to me this is just very, very exciting, especially since I grew these plants from seed.

More bread!

I have just realised that it has been far too long since I posted something food-related :-)  I have been trying new recipes and last night made focaccia, recipe courtesy of the River Cottage Handbook "Bread".  Now, I have always thought that this type of bread would be incredibly hard to make (not sure why) but in fact it was really easy and the result very tasty!  

I'd probably adjust the recipe slightly (e.g. adding a bit more salt to the dough) but otherwise this is definitely a winner.  I am particularly pleased that I was able to use some of the rosemary from the garden to sprinkle on top, so it feels even more homemade (if that makes sense).  I have put a few pieces in the freezer and will report back on how that worked but I have left a couple of pieces out for lunch today - I reckon toasted focaccia with pesto, feta cheese and lettuce should go down a treat! :-)



One of my next missions in the kitchen is to make strawberry jam and also some sort of chutney.  I've been looking at a number of recipes and as soon as I have made up my mind, I will get started.  There is just something about filling jars and bottles with tasty things to be enjoyed later in the year - it is almost like bottling summer for the colder months!  :-)

Progress in the garden...

Lily in our pond...

After days of storms and rain we have finally had lovely sunshine today!  It's amazing what a bit of warmth can do as there has been lots of progress in the garden in just a few hours such as the lily in the pond that has been opening up and looks absolutely stunning! Hopefully we will have a few more rays over the next days and weeks, so that the crops can ripen!  No good having lots of blueberries if there is no sunshine to sweeten them!  Which reminds me that I need to put up the fruit cage...don't want the birds to feast on our fruit when it is ready!  We also have a few strawberry plants now and have tasted the first couple of berries...yum!

I am so disappointed with the failure of both the broad beans and the lettuce but have now bought a couple of plastic cloches to cover the lettuce seeds I am due to sow.  Hopefully that way they will germinate and develop without being snaffled by the slugs.  Not sure if I with bother with broad beans again - it might even be too late to get those into the ground.  I'll have to check!

What a difference a day makes...

Unbelievable after the storms and epic downpours of the last few days...yesterday looked like this... Simply stunning!

Stormy June

It is absolutely shocking out there today with what can only be described as autumn storms...in June!  The dog was not impressed when I took him for a walk this morning - we couldn't even go to the park because trees have come down there and it is just not safe.  I dread to think what my tomato plants outside look like ... if they are still standing.  The plants indoors are doing fine - here is a picture of my pumpkin plant shortly after watering...there are quite a few more flowers on the plant that aren't showing in the picture. Very pretty!

Pumpkin in flower...

Funnily enough the ones I transferred outside don't have a single flower yet - guess it is that much warmer indoors.  I really do hope that I will get some pumpkins this year since the only one I got last time round was snuffled by the slugs :-(

Given the weather, I have been using the time indoors to do some baking - fruit buns are done (see photo) ...can't wait to try one with a hot mug of tea to go with it.  Yum!  I also prepared some bread dough, so we'll have homemade bread for the weekend!

Fruit buns...

An update

I've been away for a few days and thought it is high time I gave an update on what's going on in the garden.  The good news is that the potatoes are doing incredibly well and are growing nicely.  The same goes for the tomatoes and pumpkins - especially the ones I still have indoors as they are safe from the slug monsters.  And here we come to the not so positive news: the little monsters have munched all of my broad bean plants, even the new ones I planted under a protective cover :-(  When I checked this morning, a big fat slug was hanging upside down on one of the plants, munching any leftover leaves that had been missed during the previous feeding frenzy.  There I was dreaming of broad bean & feta salad and all I have is a great big fat slug!  Just as well we don't have to rely on my crops for survival!  I have decided to keep one pumpkin plant, the peppers and a couple of the tomato plants indoors to see if they will crop...fingers crossed!

Puffins!

Back home now after a couple of adventures...went to a family party in Germany over the weekend, then an overnight stay in Pembrokeshire at the lovely "Jabajak" (restaurant with rooms) and a trip to Skomer island - perfect!

Puffin on Skomer island...

Now, I don't know how this happened but I have always wanted to see puffins and was terribly excited about our visit to Skomer.  The island did not disappoint - what a place!  Fields of bluebells and red campion as far as the eye could see, stunning birds including the cutest of them all: the puffin!   I managed to take quite a few photos of the little fellas (see above) and we just couldn't stop watching them!  They are busy building nests at the moment and in some cases chicks have already hatched, so you can see the adults flying in from the sea with a beak full of fish.  What a treat!  Can't wait to go back again!

Simply stunning

Chives in flower...

Here is to enjoying the small things like chives in flower looking beautiful in the sunshine!  Simple pleasures are the most profound!

Jobs in the garden

This week promises to be a sunny one, so I am making a little list of jobs to do in the garden: mowing the lawn, weeding, planting out tomatoes & pumpkins, sowing lettuce seeds, earthing up 2nd lot of spuds... That should keep me busy!  And I suppose I will have to water the veggies as well, since there is no rain at all forecast for the next week or so. 

I fear my broad beans have not survived the onslaught by the slugs, so I will plant some new seeds and hope that the protective netting "cage" I bought will be enough to protect them.  Since the pumpkins are supposed to be going out into the same cage, I do really hope this works as I doubt there'll be anything left if the slugs find a way through it.

In the park this morning everything was peaceful and glorious!  I saw a blue tit flying into one of the nesting boxes, so I guess there are baby blue tits in the making there.  I wasn't fast enough to take a photo but it was nice to watch what was going on.

I did take this slightly wobbly picture though - holding the dog lead in one hand with dog pulling and trying to take a photo is not easy :-)

Oh, and on the baking front a new favourite has been added to the list: pineapple cake!  Recently, I made a pear loaf cake which was ok but not that fruity - well, I have amended the recipe using fresh pineapple instead and the cake was absolutely delicious!  Very fragrant and so yummy that by the time I thought of taking a picture, the cake had already disappeared.  Oops - maybe next time!

Of slugs and wild ponies...

It's been a few days since my last post and since then we have had lots more rain but also some glorious sunshine over the weekend.  That mixture of moisture and warmth has meant that all the plants are growing rapidly, well, apart from those that got eaten by the slugs :-(  I have only two out of my seven broad bean plants left and the Valmaine lettuce has not even made it further than germination before they got snuffled.  The only way to protect the plants and the pumpkins I am planning to plant out soon is to get a great big cloche or some netting to cover everything.  Very frustrating but not at all unexpected!  At least the spuds, onions and garlic are still going strong as are the plants growing indoors...luckily, the slugs haven't found a way yet to break into the house and let's hope they don't! ;-)

We took the dog for a lovely walk up Cefn Bryn yesterday - it's probably one of the most stunning places on earth and really not far from where we are.  The photo doesn't do the view justice but you can see that the wild ponies were enjoying it as much as we were...

Wild ponies at Cefn Bryn...