DRAMA, DADDY LONGLEGS, MERINGUES AND A LITTLE HARVEST

Our weather for the last few days has been ever so wet, temperatures have lowered and the mornings are chilly now. During the day it is quite mild.  It is so wet today with what is called locally, sma' rain falling, (very fine rain that wets you through, also like 'Scotch Mist') that even the Daddy Longlegs  are desperate to get to the dry side of the window.

At the weekend we drove 250 miles return trip to see a performance of Dunsinane, given by The Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, (RSC) who are taking the play on a limited tour. The cast included some well known good actors.   You could call it, I suppose, bearing in mind dramatic superstitions, 'the second Scottish Play;' the first one that actors don't usually name, is Macbeth.  Dunsinane is a story set post Macbeth, just after he has been killed.  Lady Macbeth lives on. There is an inter-regnum, a gap to be filled and warring clans have to be brought on side to make alliances where there are usually none. Macbeth's widow and her supporters are pivotal in this political scenario.  There were many evocations of the current complex situation in Syria.

On our way home,we stopped off for a bite to eat in a favourite eatery.  I was easily tempted to a dessert, the crowning glory of which was a home-made meringue.  When it arrived, other customers and me gasped at the size of the meringue with the strawberries and coulis dripping out of a thick layer of double whipped cream sandwiched between the top and bottom of it.  I didn't have a camera with me to do it artistic justice, but, I can vouch for the fact it was amazing!

Today, between showers, I pulled up two of my golden beetroots.  One of these and another one grown in a different plot. The leaves of these beetroot are edible and make for a great delicate vegetable dish, when they are briefly tossed in oil with fried onion and chopped garlic.

There's a bit more space now for the cucumber plants.  They've flowered, though, I don't think there's time for them to fruit.  The flowers are very pretty. Their tendrils encircle anything and everything. Could they have been the inspiration for The Day Of The Triffids?

 And here's a couple of demure flowers that are hiding. 

BOUNTY FROM THE KAILYARD

I felt like a factor surveying the (mini) 'estate,' as I sauntered around the garden today, checking how the plants were thriving.  And thriving they seem to be. In my kitchen garden corner  I saw my new Borage plant just about ready to burst into flower.  I am impatient to see the flowers. The sentinels either side, the 'soup' leaves, as I call them, were looking strong and fresh.  Just out of sight below these herbs, I found some self-seeded Calendula leaves sprouting.  The original plants of three years ago, have left their small legacy. The Mimulas and Pansies provide a nice splash of colour.  The bare ground you see, has nature's flower seed mix about to sprout around the border, (no, not weeds). The mix allegedly keeps away pests such as slugs. When they are stronger, my other nurtured flower seedlings are destined for the rest of the space.

In a previous post, I mentioned my psychedelic salad box containing seeds of all sorts, including cucumbers. Without, at the very least, a cold frame  to protect fragile seeds and to encourage seedlings to grow, I was a bit stuck.  Salad leaves are no problem, they grow easy peazy, once temperatures allow, as you can see. Very soon I'll have very pretty multi-coloured bowls of salad. I'll defy anyone to not be tempted.

With hubby's ingenuity, I have acquired a cold frame-cum-greenhouse. This fish box has taken on a new lease of life.

I set to, planting seeds in peat containers.  I labelled the ones from the Psychedelic box. Oh dear; I picked up the wrong pen and the names have washed off!  It's going to be guess work now.  I know that there are radishes, and some kind of cucumbers - I'll check the box for the rest of the likely crop.  

I've got more mixed salad leaves growing in the plastic pot below; they were planted later than the ones in the tub above, and with the protection of 'the  frame' they're almost the same size as the others.  In the black seed tray are flowers, including cornflowers, (I hope)  The seeds were rather old -several years - and I am very surprised and pleased to see a result. 

The plan is to pour compost into the covered fish box when some of the seedlings are ready to prick out and use it as a mini greenhouse.  Fingers crossed I choose the cucumbers, whichever leaves they are!!  

I also have pots of flowers in between pots of onion and garlic chives; parsley, curly and flat.  I have pineapple and apple mints, currently recovering from being re-potted.  The open white fish box you see peeping out of  the bottom left corner has been used for a few years for growing coriander and salad leaves.  This, then, is my developing Kailyard, (Scottish, for a kitchen garden).

At the other end of the garden, hubby dug a potato patch. A present of some unusual species prompted it.  Added to that, a young relative wanted to be part of the planting.  Junior should return soon to see how much the potatoes have grown. Harvesting them should be fun. Junior's row is at the front, not quite as far on as the others.

I have started to develop an uncared for corner.  I want it to become a country garden; you know, the kind that looks as if it all happened by itself. 

Some of my fifty bluebell bulbs have grown and they are showing flower heads.  I can see that the Crocosmia bulb which flowered Late Summer last year, has tripled in quantity. For a further splash of colour, I planted another fifty yellow Allium bulbs in one day of good weather in early Spring, and I do believe I can see some points of leaves breaking through the soil. If you peer into the picture, (bottom left) you will see my Primula Candelabra. 

This year, after not doing much previously, it is sporting five flowering branches.

 Last, today's harvest from the sea appeared.  It's time to create space in the freezer.

FISHY GIFTS

I'm lucky, in the last month, we have had a good  sea harvest of mackerel, some coal fish, and cod.  The sea fishing season, quite short where I live, is nearing its close, which means that there will be no need to concern myself for much longer, where I am going to store the excess of fish that is arriving here at home.

Late last week and again, today, various friends and neighbours have been the recipients of fishy gifts.  One, a farmer offered us eggs, which we declined.  Last Winter he regularly left vegetables from his crops, in our garden.  Today though, the farmer's wife was insistent on gifting us a large juicy cabbage.

If I do not cook fish five days a week from now on, there is a enough fish stored to keep us fish-fed till early 2011. If there are just a few more days of  fishing hauls, we will have to obtain another freezer, just a small one.  Even so, I am not sure where I would install it.

To make space for the sea food catches,  three meals in the last two weeks were not fish-centred.

I have  broiled fish with gentle spices;
I have coated fish in flour with flavourings to flash fry it;
I have baked fish in butter;
Mackerel has been BBQ'd with thyme;

I am beginning to feel I am about to sprout fins.