Pegged!

How bout this for a nifty tip picked up from Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4. I bought 100 wooden pegs from a pound shop to be used as plant tags. They clip on the pots securely and can be written on with biro that doesn't wash off. Neat!

School's Out

The sun is out, the tide is in, so what do the kids of Tollesbury do when school finishes?  They head for the creek or the salt pool and dive in, that's what!  Actually there were a lot more children than you can see in the photos, but I didn't want to get to close in case anyone objected to me taking photos.  They will swim until the tide goes and then they will wallow in the mud, before diving in the salt pool to clean off and head home for tea.  Of course someone else who has been melting all day in his black fur coat loved his dip with all the kids around, in fact he is sulking now because I made him come home!

National Vegetarian Week

This week is National Vegetarian Week in the UK.  For some really lovely recipes, pop over to Tinned tomatoes and have a go at something different.

And Now Stairs!

Last week a floor and this week, stairs, Pete certainly knows the way to my heart!  He found these stairs laying in someone's garden just waiting to be taken to the tip, so Pete generously offered to take them off their hands.    But as you know by now, Pete has chopped them down, tarted them up and now we have these lovely stairs, saving ourselves about £600 in to the bargain.  What a difference it makes!  Alfie is delighted that he can get up and down to his Daddy (he couldn't quite manage the ladder!) and I love just being able to go up and down, up and down, up and down just because I can!

Super Veg Pasta

I have been looking for a really good tomato sauce for pasta for some time and also something to do with fennel.  I have used fennel seeds before but not a fennel bulb.  I found this recipe for this sauce from the bbc good food website (Super Veg Pasta Recipe) and I am now hooked.  It was a fabulous sauce on spaghetti, Pete had it over pork strips and I think with a bit more stock and a whizz with the stick blender it would make a great tomato soup. I thought the taste of the fennel would be strong, but it really just sweetened the sauce.  Next time I am going to add maybe some courgettes or aubergine, but then that's me; I always end up mucking around with a recipe!!  (Oh by the way I didn't roast the peppers, just softened them with the onion, fennel and carrot!, anything for an easier life!).  As a new fan, I will definitely now be growing some fennel.

Post Post Note : Today I have had the last of this sauce, heated, with salad leaves in a wrap and it was delicious!

We have a Dance Floor

We have a floor!  And it is almost big enough to change the barge into a nightclub!  Seriously, it is lovely to be able to walk around and not balance on joists like we have for the last few months.  We can finally really see the size of the living space and where things are going to go.  Pete is now going to finish my cupboard in the pantry, so that we have some storage space.  It is amazing how much 'stuff' we appear to have accumulated whilst living on the yacht and the space hasn't grown, so something has to give!  Now on to the design, has anyone got a disco ball going spare?

Summer is Coming

The sun is shining, all the hatches are open and the washing is drying outside. We have rhubarb and cabbage from the allotment for lunch. Yep, it finally feels like summer could be coming (touch wood, fingers and toes crossed etc etc!!!)

Walkies Part Two

Ooooooooh, that's better!

Now to get on with my work - smells to check out, friends to meet etc

Come on mum, what you waiting for, a bit of mud is not going to hurt you!

Walkies?

Now mum, you are obviously not going to work, so how about a walk then?

What do you mean, it's only 7 o'clock and chucking it down with rain? What difference does that make?

Okay I'll settle down here and wait . Mind you, not for too long!!!!

Triffids!

The rain has certainly been persistent the last couple of weeks and still we are not allowed to use a hosepipe! I had to make a trip to the allotment as the kitchen waste was beginning to smell, especially as I collect everyone's waste. Some of the allotment was underwater to the extent that I am investigating hydro agriculture! The raised beds were okay and what was in them was thriving. However so were the triffids! Let's hope for a drier week so that I can get up there with the strimmer and some cardboard and carpet.