My carrots and beetroot won't be ready for another month, but my gardening guru advised me to thin out my carrots once they were established to give the ones left behind a chance of growing well, so I watered them, then pulled one out to see what it looked like, and this is it!
I must say (as I always do) I'm very impressed. It's an actual carrot! The wonder of it never ceases to amaze me. After the carrot's photo shoot, I washed and ate it and it was extremely delicious. I've since decided not to thin them out after all as I think they'll be fine.
It is the teeniest, tiniest carrot in the world.
I then decided to pull up my potatoes as all the stalks had long-since died off. It wasn't such a good crop as last year, about a third I'd say, but I'm sure they'll be very tasty nonetheless.
In other news: I had an accident on Monday whereby I twisted one foot as I stepped outside my front door, and scalded my other foot as I collapsed to the ground! I had been on my way to the coal bunker with freshly boiled water in the kettle to kill some ants that have nested there. As I was dropping to the ground in agony from the twist I had that slow motion thing kick in where I was suddenly aware of pouring the boiling water on my other foot and could do nothing to stop it happening. I was wearing crocs, which offered no protection and were probably partly responsible for me falling in the first place. My feet slide around in them. Anyway I've been house-bound for five days now. My twisted foot has almost healed, just little niggles if I stand on it the wrong way, and my burned foot looks much better than it did, but still has a large blister and deeply reddened and slightly blackened skin approximately 3 inches by 5 inches. I was so glad Hagos was at home at the time and got my foot under cold running water and went to the chemist for advice on how to treat it. I still can't get shoes on without them rubbing the blister, but tonight Hagos and I are going out for a Mexican so I will bandage it up and put on some slipper-shoes I just found in my shoe cupboard that I forgot I had. I'm so looking forward to going out. I miss out!
We went up to Edinburgh last week for four days as a little holiday during Hagos's break from work. We stayed with our friends and their children, and managed to persuade Pete to take Friday off work to go adventuring.
We all like exploring ruined castles so Dirleton Castle was a great place to go. It was a wee bit hairy when the kids raced ahead through the maze of ruined rooms - keeping up with them, and making sure they didn't go over the edge! The grounds of the castle were vast and beautiful though, and the kids enjoyed running free round them.
This photo was taken in the dovecot. Very funny trying to get the kids to stand still long enough to be in the shot!
On Saturday we went to Peter's Yard for brunch. It's a Swedish place, very lovely, Scandinavian, great bread and fresh food. 
The whole four days were great fun. It's so good to be with friends who enjoy adventure and fun, and there were a few times we all laughed till we ached. My little friend J and I above. He is the sweetest little person. Both kids have a good sense of humour. The holiday did me a lot of good. 
On Sunday Hagos had a gig at Jimmy's Farm. He was doing sound for Tunng. It's the first time I've seen them live, though I love their music. I really enjoyed being at a little festival. It was a combined food and music festival. The food was all hog roast type stuff. I was bewildered by the crowd though. They all seemed to have brought their own foldaway chairs. At first I thought the organisers must have put them out for people to sit on, a bit like deck chairs, because there was a sea of them in front of the stage. Everyone seemed to have one. Then I saw people carrying them over their shoulders as they walked around and realised they had all brought their own! A rather particular bunch of festival-goers. I've been to many, many festivals all over the world and have never seen anything like it. I wandered about by myself while Hagos and the band were getting ready for the show. I used to tour with Hagos about 15 years ago, and I really love that inbetween time, before the show. It's really good space-and-thinking time. A good day. And Tunng were all lovely people.
I am Preserving Queen at the moment! My friend Sophie gave me a bag of plums from her tree and I turned them into Plum and Apple Jam. I could look at the deep red colour all day. It really is gorgeous. The jam tastes delicious too. I used Mrs Beeton's recipe.
It was messier to make than the Bramble Jam. I don't have a preserving pan, so use an ordinary large pot to make everything in. And the quantities, when it came to the rolling boil stage, started spilling over the sides so I quickly had to decant some of it into another pot. And then the fun at the end, once setting point was reached, of trying to fish out all the plum stones. I think I should've left it another couple of minutes boiling though. It is jammy, but rather runny jam. I'm usually good at judging setting point. And actually I could tell as I was pouring it into the jars that it could've done with a wee bit longer. Next time.
My cooker top, my kitchen table, and the sink were all COVERED in plum jam.
I'm very excited by all this growing, making, and preserving business. Sophie has asked me if I want to go to a fruit farm with her. We're thinking of making preserves as Christmas presents this year. I will need to buy some decent jars for that though. I think it would detract somewhat from the gift if it came in a Nescafe or Bisto jar. (I must just point out that I didn't buy the Nescafe, it was bought by a friend who was staying here who didn't like fresh coffee.)
I just made Tomato Relish, using tomatoes I've grown myself!
Those four tomato plants have given me a lot of fruit; we managed to eat salads every day with last weekend's crop, but this weekend there is only me and Meg at home and I can't bear to waste anything I've grown or made myself so I went searching, originally, for a Tomato Chutney recipe. I couldn't find a satisfactory one in either Mrs Beeton's or online and I was just beginning to think of making and freezing tomato sauces for pasta when I came across Mrs Beeton's Tomato Relish recipe. I immediately liked it as the first line of instructions were: 'Put everything into the pot and heat gently'. I love those kinds of recipes. My favourite chocolate cake is made in much the same way.
So, three jars of Tomato Relish for winter. I tasted the last wee bits out of the pan and it is extremely delicious and, er, rather hot. Mrs Beeton's tip says to leave the chilli seeds in if you like stuff a bit hotter, so I did. Eek. :)
If I could, I'd like to spend all day, every day, making things for my home, from clothes and meals through to furniture and wallpaper etc - everything.
For the past three years or so I've been on the lookout for a coat pattern to make, and today I finally found one! Actually I found it online last night, and bought it today during my weekly John Lewis trip.
I like the first and middle coats best and will probably make the first coat but extend it to the length of the second coat. But I think it's the kind of project for a winter's day, when Hagos is on tour, and I can shut the door, light the fire, put Pride and Prejudice on the TV and take over the whole of the living room and kitchen and spend two whole days making it.
Now I just have to source some lovely material to make it in. I really like well-made tweeds with shots of brilliant colour.
Here it is!!! My Bramble Jam. It's only taken me ten years of intending to make it to actually get round to making it.
I eventually found a really simple recipe online. Basically equal weights of brambles to sugar, with a bit of water thrown in. It only took about 20 minutes from start to finish.
I just tasted some on a piece of toast and it was definitely the best jam I've ever tasted.
I'm tempted to skirt the country lanes over the next few days to get some more brambles to make more jam. But realistically I don't actually need any more jam, I just like making it and having it.
I am very impressed by how well it set. I used sugar pectin and that obviously helped. Very happy with my jam :)
Hagos says we should call it Bramble and Maggot Jam, but only three maggots appeared when I thoroughly washed the blackberries, then put lights on them to try to drive the maggots out :)
These are the blackberries I picked today to make my (in)famous Bramble Jam.
Every year since I've lived in Norfolk I've promised to make Bramble Jam, inspired by the amount of blackberries that line the back lane near my house. And today, ten years after moving here, I finally picked enough blackberries to make what I expect will be a modest amount of jam. I'm anticipating two jars.
I picked a small bowl of blackberries from the bush at the bottom of my shared driveway. We share a driveway with our next door neighbours, and last week I saw my neighbour picking some blackberries. So this week my neighbours are on holiday and the blackberries are all mine. Unfortunately there weren't enough, but luck was on my side when I was driving back from my mechanic's today. The country lane was FULL of blackberries. I parked up and snaffled as many as would fit into my hastily-constructed paper tray.
So tomorrow I will buy sugar pectin (or jam-making sugar) and make up a small batch. I don't eat much jam anyway so a couple of jars will be plenty. Perhaps I'll give the second jar to a lucky friend or relative.
My first port of call for a recipe was Mrs Beeton's, but she only had a recipe for blackberry and apple jam. After a bit of research online I realised it's because blackberries are low in natural pectin, so adding the apples helps the jam set. Hence the need to buy sugar pectin.
PICS TO FOLLOW TOMORROW!!!
This is what I picked today from my vegetable tubs. I will definitely have to have a meal that includes tomatoes today or tomorrow.
And this is my tub of beetroot and carrots. It probably wasn't a good idea to plant them like this, but I didn't really expect them to grow! I'm hoping to get a good crop now.
Isn't this the most beautiful tomato you've ever seen? It's my first one and I was very excited about plucking and eating it.
I mean, I know vegetables grow but it seems so much more amazing to watch it happening myself. As my friend Janie said, "It almost makes you believe in God." Yup.
And I was also excited to see my first ever chilli. Given a dire attempt to grow chillis indoors last year, this is quite an achievement. Can't wait to cook with it.
My beetroot and carrots are also blossoming. More wonderful veg to follow.
Last night I went to see the film, Coco Avant Chanel at Cinema City in Norwich. I really enjoyed it, though I was hoping the film would include more about her design process. Anyway, I wish I'd taken my camera because afterwards we went to the Belgian Monk and had Dutch Coffee, which is coffee, with a tiny glass of advocat and cream, and a biscuit. It was delicious. And for some reason it didn't keep me awake all night. Must've been because I'd got up at half six in the morning to go to work. It was really nice to see Mo and Bev, and to have a half glass of wine. 
The first half of today was a bit of a non-day for me. Apart from half an hour of panic looking for the car insurance so I could renew the car tax, I didn't have any energy to do anything. I didn't even have the energy to do nothing, so I mostly mooched around in limbo. I suddenly pounced into action at half three, washed my hair, gathered my books together, and cycled to the Station, intending to sit in the cafe and read and write. But closing time at the Station on a Saturday is 4pm, so I was only able to buy a bottle of ginger beer before cycling home again.
This evening I made a few meringues. I wanted something sweet but not chocolatey. I do love the meringue recipe from Jane Brocket's book, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. It makes perfect meringues, just the right gooeyness on the inside.
Hagos is home tomorrow for four whole days!!! I'm very excited.
I woke up today feeling overwhelmingly sad, due to various converging, contributing factors. An emotional crash.
So I decided to take myself off to my favourite coffee house in Norwich, Expresso's, and take my laptop and books and get back to work.
It absolutely did the trick. I soon felt re-set and relieved to be able to work again.
Hagos left me his camera to use while he is away on this bit of his tour and I took a few photos in Expresso's, including the one above of the wallpaper. I don't like cows at all, but I like the colour of the wallpaper and I like designer wallpaper very much. 
I love this grainy black and white photo.
So, for the rest of the day I plan to: cycle, read, and write.
I've been missing Meg's company very much the last couple of weeks. Straight after breakfast she goes into my shed and sleeps on my swivel chair all day long. Yesterday I bought her a new bed for downstairs, and also a matching igloo bed for upstairs. She totally ignored both of them, until I set the igloo bed right in front of her as she was miaowing to be let out the top window last night. She climbed straight into it, lay down, and purred very deeply! I was really pleased. Today again she's shown no interest in either, and she ran away from me when I tried to take her back to bed with me this morning after the postman had been. I hope she's okay.
Due to one thing, and another, (and another), I've been thinking lately about life and death and the scan of an entire life, and genetics, inheritance, and conditioning, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
ANYWAY, after a week and a half of living life in bite-size chunks today I decided to look forward to things I am looking forward to :)
I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, and I used to live overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London, so I'm looking forward to reading Audrey Niffenegger's new book Her Fearful Symmetry (about twins who inherit a flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery).
And to Sadie Jones's new book Small Wars. (I do hate when publishers refer to previous titles on the cover of new titles though. I think book covers should be conceived and designed totally around themselves.)
And closer in time, I'm looking forward to sewing together my dress, made from material I bought at IKEA. I think the material was £3.50 a metre, which will make the dress about £5 in total :)
And every day I look forward to seeing how my tubs of potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, beetroot, and carrots are developing.
I'm fairly confident no one else in the world will have a Sat Nav case quite like mine.
I refused to pay £20 for a shop bought one, when I can make one myself!
And what better time to make it but 11 o'clock at night, at the end of a long day and a long week, with a challenging few days ahead. No wonder my imagined case was slightly different to the real one. No matter, I just top-stitched up the sides to sew it together (I'd forgotten that tiny detail when doing all my inside-out wonders).
The material is Amy Butler, the design is kind of based on SouleMama's Gratitude Wrap (sorry, too late at night to attempt a link), and the ribbon is antique pink silk.
Not sure if it's quite what my husband had in mind when he suggested I make one.
I went to the garden centre today, and was struck by how beautiful these flowers were every time I walked past. I was pleased to discover they are dahlias, and they reminded me of one of my favourite TV series, Jeeves and Wooster. Wooster has an aunt Dahlia, and at one point they are scheming together to get Dahlia's husband Tom to give her more money for the ladies magazine she publishes. Wooster: "He'll say, 'Dahlia darling.'
He does call you Dahlia, doesn't he?"
So, along with the dahlia I bought some jalapeno peppers.
My tomato plants are bursting forth with tomatoes!!!
And today I also bought carrot seeds and beetroot seeds! I feel very out of my depth planting these. I really have no idea if I've done them correctly or not. I guess we'll see!
I've known for years that when I feel stressed or un-grounded I turn to knitting. It steadies and comforts me. And now I think I've found another steadying and comforting thing to do: gardening. I'm very small scale (a courgette plant, a potato plant and a tomato pot until today) but I really love looking after my plants, watching them grow and flower and bear fruit. And then, where appropriate, eating them!
Talking of knitting, I have a couple of things to show, but I'll leave that for another day.
It's been a hectic few days. I can barely keep up with my own, and Hagos's, schedule.
Today I got up at 7am, washed, cleaned the car, had breakfast, drove to Stansted, then sat for a few delicious moments at International Arrivals with some easy knitting and a MOCHA, waiting for Hagos and Roger to appear.
After dropping Roger in Norwich, we drove home via Halfords and picked up a proper TomTom :) and a BICYCLE BASKET!
This is me taking my basket for a test drive early this evening. I picked up the first things that came to hand to put in it: two love heart ice cube trays and my winter hat and scarf.
The next week and a half will be even more hectic for me. I'm hoping to drive to Scotland from Thursday to Sunday, and to London Monday to Tuesday, and then life should hopefully return to a more peaceful pace after that.
There are certain things I look forward to every year. In May the bush outside our kitchen window is taken over with gorgeous bees for the whole month. They hum and buzz all day long and I love watching them through the window as they go from tiny flower to tiny flower, wiggling their bums, covered in pollen.
And then there are the hollyhocks, which are giant flowers and take over the whole town. I love the range of colours, particularly one smoky tobacco clump that grows in the centre of town.
We mainly have varying shades of pink, but we have this one clump of yellow too.
I'm feeling much more energetic again. I think I had a bug last weekend. I slept for six hours on the couch on both Saturday and Sunday.
When I got home from work last night (after dropping Hagos at the airport) I heavily pruned the bee bush in front of the kitchen window (I always wait until the bees are finished with it for the year, of course) as the bush was beginning to come inside the house every time we opened the door. And when it had been raining you would be showered with raindrops, leaves and spiders. So, that is finally tidy and we can see out of the windows again. And I also, after speaking with my sister about electrical goods that go faulty (washing machines, fridge freezers etc) managed to take out and CLEAN the drawer in my washing machine where the liquids go. It was totally bunged up and took a good fifteen minutes to clean, but now it's working beautifully.
Today I watched the women's Wimbledon final - all a bit disappointing after Murray was knocked out last night. I SO wanted him to be in the final tomorrow. I really thought he would have a chance against Federer. Anyway, the Williams sisters playing each other doesn't hold any suspense for me at all. Now I'm planning to continue putting the house to rights, go for a bike ride and then settle down to watch a bit of telly later on tonight.
Meg has been a bit more sociable today. She has been almost entirely living in my shed for the past week. I open the door for her in the morning and she either sleeps on my swivel chair, or on a blanket on my desk. It makes working in there a wee bit difficult because if I make a noise or move around too much she lifts her head and LOOKS at me. And I get the full meaning of the look. Wee gorgeous.
The almost-finished tank top I knitted for my nephew's baby. It's a Debbie Bliss pattern and wool. Very nice to work with. I had to re-do the neck cast off and one armhole cast off but apart from that it was very simple. I thought I'd have enough wool to knit matching socks so I began knitting and this happened:
I ran out of wool about 12 rows from the end. I'm sure I knitted a cardigan for Nate a few years ago with the same wool but I've trawled my wool stash and can't find it. So I'll probably buy another ball! It really is very annoying. Or I could possibly unknit the toe on the first sock and re-knit both toes in a different colour. For most people I'd do that and I know they wouldn't mind, but my nephew's fiance is very fussy and that's the kind of thing that would put her off using them.
My energy has been very strange recently. I've been feeling wiped out, which isn't too surprising as I've been exercising a lot and limiting my calorie intake. Anyway, I took Friday off work this week as Hagos was going away again at the weekend and I wanted to help him to get ready, and I'm so glad I did because I felt as though I couldn't process any more information or demands. Even very small requests from friends felt like an added weight on my shoulders.
So Friday was a nice day at home with Hagos, getting his stuff ready, going for a bike ride, having dinner and watching All About Eve, which was great. I love those types of films. And yesterday I went into town early, after Hagos left for Europe, and got some new clothes and food for the weekend, then I came home and SLEPT all afternoon. I had to sleep on the couch as Meg's favourite place to hang out all day is my shed, and my bike was in there so I couldn't leave the shed open and go to bed. Then I woke up around tea time, read my book, knitted a few rows of sock, and watched Wimbledon.
This was me in my shed on Friday. The classic Wimbledon match features in something I'm writing just now.
Today I have super-energy, so I'm planning to do quite a lot, most of it to do with cleaning and sorting the house. I expect I'll suddenly keel over and have to sit down with a cup of tea mid-afternoon.
This is my new song! I was very excited when I picked it up. So far I have the intro :) but even though it sounds quite simple when Lou plays it, the song actually has three key changes (I'm reliably informed) and is smattered with flats and double flat symbols!
I've played most of it through very slowly, and it does sound lovely. I'm looking forward to being able to play and sing at the same time!
I loved Perfect Day when I was teenager. Slight shame the BBC used it a few years ago to advertise something. And I love Lou Reed.
My carrots and beetroot won't be ready for another month, but my gardening guru advised me to thin out my carrots once they were established to give the ones left behind a chance of growing well, so I watered them, then pulled one out to see what it looked like, and this is it!
It is the teeniest, tiniest carrot in the world.
In other news: I had an accident on Monday whereby I twisted one foot as I stepped outside my front door, and scalded my other foot as I collapsed to the ground! I had been on my way to the coal bunker with freshly boiled water in the kettle to kill some ants that have nested there. As I was dropping to the ground in agony from the twist I had that slow motion thing kick in where I was suddenly aware of pouring the boiling water on my other foot and could do nothing to stop it happening. I was wearing crocs, which offered no protection and were probably partly responsible for me falling in the first place. My feet slide around in them. Anyway I've been house-bound for five days now. My twisted foot has almost healed, just little niggles if I stand on it the wrong way, and my burned foot looks much better than it did, but still has a large blister and deeply reddened and slightly blackened skin approximately 3 inches by 5 inches. I was so glad Hagos was at home at the time and got my foot under cold running water and went to the chemist for advice on how to treat it. I still can't get shoes on without them rubbing the blister, but tonight Hagos and I are going out for a Mexican so I will bandage it up and put on some slipper-shoes I just found in my shoe cupboard that I forgot I had. I'm so looking forward to going out. I miss out!
