Welcome!

This is the latest tjalk to join our little community. Dave and Tina bought her in last night and we provided some help with the ropes and a welcoming beer. She is such a pretty boat and I can just see the flower boxes on her deck and seating areas for next years summer!! Sorry about the quality of the picture but it was getting dark when they got here.

What Shall We Have For Dinner?

Here is my latest haul from the allotment. Any ideas what we can have for dinner?

Also here is a picture of my Stevia bush that I have very carefully grown from seed. I have now moved it in to the greenhouse, should I do anything else to it?

Swinging!!!

That got your attention!! I may not have walls, ceilings, toilet etc but I do have a chandelier to swing on! Someone on a job that Pete was working on was throwing this out, so he rescued it. It is solid brass and I think it is beautiful. More money saved and a bit more done for the environment.

Vegan Soda Bread

Most of you will know that I am a vegetarian, but recently I have been following a vegan diet. I am having great fun discovering new tastes and trying to find great tasting vegan substitutes for things like cheese (Vegusto is winning that competition by a mile!!). I love soda bread but my old recipe included buttermilk, obviously not vegan! So today I tried a vegan recipe, which basically substituted soy milk and lemon juice. Although the loaf looks a little anaemic as it was cooked in the combination microwave oven, it tastes wonderful and is lovely and light.

I mixed 1tsp of lemon juice with 2 cups of soy milk, left it for five minutes and then gently whisked together. Meantime I mixed 4 cups of plain flour with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp of salt. I slowly added the liquid to the dry ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon. When it reached a dough like consistency, I kneaded it a couple of times and put on to a lightly greased baking sheet. I then baked it for 45 mins at 190C, until a knife stuck in it came out clean. It smelled lovely and when I took it out of the oven, I had to take Alfie for a walk to pass away the time until it cooled down enough to eat!!!!

Update

Hi everyone, sorry for such a long absence but I've had the usual Internet difficulties! I've had a couple of days off work to get the allotment back up to scratch. As you can see from the pictures, we have now carpeted between the beds, which hopefully should keep the weeds down. There is also the added bonus that when I weed the beds it is very comfortable on my knees! I've not done too well this year with veggies, so I am hoping that the weather will hold out long enough for me to get a reasonable crop of winter squash. I have just planted some kale and spring greens and sorted out a bed to plant some garlic shortly. The beds that are going to be put to bed for the winter will be newspapered and mulched in an effort to keep the weeds down next year. We have had a good crop of garlic this year, so that is two years running we have been self sufficient in garlic. Let's hope for a better summer next year!!!