And the sun came out

After days and days and days of rain, the sun came out yesterday evening. After supper, we walked over to the Stowupland allotments, mostly to take a picture of a quilt. We did end up with some good quilt pics (to be blogged shortly), but were distracted by the incredible vegetables.

Those two courgettes were each about a foot long and about as thick as my arm. Zoinks. 

And these? We were shown around one of the allotments by a very proud long-time allotmenter. We were admiring his red onions. "Oh, no," he corrected. "Those are shallots!" HOLY MOLY. They were huge. Apparently he feeds himself and his wife, along with his two children and their families almost exclusively on vegetables grown himself. My own-grown food so far this year totals several handfuls of rosemary, a reasonable amount of mint (idiot-proof), and 12 raspberries.

Despite not enjoying runner beans as a food, they sure are pretty when they're growing.

(NOT) Sweet Peas

How is it that Spotify has been available in the UK for, um, years, but that it has taken my American peeps to be super-excited about it (thanks, Em) for me to actually download it? I realised that I even had a login - I put my email address in and it welcomed me back. Oops?


Taylor Swift, embarrassingly, you rock my world. Sorry, cool police. Google+ is also creeping in to my life - if you're on, shout!

And here comes a public service announcement: did you know that the peas on sweet pea plants (pictured above) are toxic? Um, I didn't. A bell-ringing friend gave us some sweet pea seedlings back in the spring, which I planted outside the kitchen door. They started to make peapods, so I announced that I would put them in some dinner…maybe a curry. The Husband's reaction? "NOOO! They're poisonous!" Oh, really? (Checks internet…) "Why yes, they are." Then why the heck would they name them something like sweet peas? C'mon guys, give me a fighting chance. I hereby suggest a new name: "Very Pretty But For Pete's Sake Don't Eat The Peas!" Thoughts?


Here's my attempt at bokeh, through the plant on the windowsill. I have some work to do, I think.

This is what our table on the back porch looks like. Yes, I know we need the rain. But does it have to rain every day, for hours? And can it be a little warmer than 15C? I don't really want to wear trousers and slippers and a hoodie IN JULY. Thanks.

Garden update (January).

Garden watch! My hellebores are starting to think about flowering. YAY!

And, my Witch Hazel is enthusiastically spitting out little lemon-zest looking flowers. It has brightened up the whole garden.

A suggestion for my hydrangea

Dear hydrangea plant,

I love you very much. You are very sweet and green in the back yard. However, despite my best efforts, you refuse to flower. At all. I've added a picture below, from Helmingham Hall (not far away, so it's not the climate), of the general direction you should be aiming in.

Thanks.

Love,

 Kate

P.S. I think Grandma has been making jam and not telling us. Mmmmmm best jam in the world....

Notes from the garden

I'm not sure what happened with my seeds this year. I meant to plant 2 courgette plants and 2 sunflowers, and somehow ended up with 4 sunflowers and no courgettes. So here is one of the happy sunflowers, living in my vegetable patch. There's a bee on it (we have a very bee-friendly garden), which is good. Not as good as if there were courgettes on it, though.

The rest of the veggies are coming along - we have a ton of tomato plants that are all full of green tomatoes. A little hot weather and they'll be ready. YUM. And yes, those are more sunflowers.

To continue the flower theme, this is my new favorite necklace. I bought it with Andrea at Surya Satya [ed: I got the Yoga words mixed up and the websites look deceptively similar!] down near Christopher Street. It hits at just the right place on my neck and is really pretty.

Non-horizontal horizons

We've been letting James take pictures with our SLR. He has his own camera (my trusty Canon Elph), but he doesn't always have it with him.

He has a really good eye for composition, and he's always coming up with really unlikely angles to shoot from, but we've found that about 80% of his pictures list ever so slightly to the right. As if the pressure of pushing down the shutter button tilts the camera. Teehee.

Here are two. I'm an evil stepmother and have left them "au naturel" (i.e. a little slonchwise):

These were both taken at Snape Maltings, after we fled Aldeburgh on Monday. (Aldeburgh? On the May Bank Holiday Monday? With scattered showers? WHAT WERE WE THINKING??)

My garden has been coming along (to the detriment of the blog, I think). Here are some seedlings (some that I started myself and some that have been adopted - thanks, Janet!). The ones in the foreground are sunflowers, and the first one has just popped above the soil this morning.

I'm completely obsessed with Gardener's World on the BBC. Who else but the Beeb would film and air a gardening program for n00bs like me, detailing exactly what to do, when. It was their idea to plant the sunflower seeds in POTS - apparently slugs (::seething hatred::) love to munch on freshly-planted sunflower seeds. Can't get 'em up here, bitches!

Oh, and this was a "plant in a basket" that Michelle gave us back in January. It was supposed to last two weeks. Ahem. It's happy as a clam on the windowsill...

After all my evangelising about how awesome the library is, John has discovered that they have a fairly extensive art movie collection. £2 for a week, per movie. Can't beat it!

We watched The Science of Sleep (another movie featuring a naked Gael Garcia Bernal - does the boy not like to wear clothes?), which was suitably surreal but quite enjoyable.

Do I get to be a vampire now? How 'bout now?

I started Breaking Dawn on Wednesday morning, and finished it on Friday evening. AND I was out on Wedensday evening and didn't get any reading time. It's my favorite of the series - Bella really grows into herself and I loved the Jacob-Edward dynamic.

I found all four books to be quite cinematic - reading them was not so much "sitting on the couch/at my desk/on the bed reading" as "this is all just sort of happening in my head." It was kind of a bizarre sensation, and led to some abrupt transitions back to reality when I picked my head up from the book. "Wait, where'd the vampires go?" I think the last book that I really wanted to be IN was The Penderwicks, and before that, Harry Potter. Hmm...I'm trying to think of any grown-up books that I've wanted to be in. Possibly one of Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh books, but not to the same extent.

We did some weeding and general garden tidying yesterday, and I decided that the daffodils were being TOO SLOW in the front yard and we needed some color. I think these do the job! I've also put down some Blue Slug Poison Pellets of Death.

The little eco-warrior in me is v. sad about doing it, but the gardener and person who wants to actually EAT the fruits of the plants that I grow has won. The slugs were entirely evil last year, and grew to somewhat epic proportions. So, Blue Death it is...

My dad has been scanning old slides and photographs, and this is one of my favorites from the recent batch. Judging by our sizes, this picture is from the summer of 1987, taken at the Garden City pool (where my mom used to be a lifeguard).

I don't know what little Edward is plotting, but it's not good. I don't think I was plotting anything - I just look cold. And I remember that bathing suit - it went from being too big to all stretched out and droopy. It clearly traumatised 6-year-old me.

The Garden City pool was awesome - it used to have a bunch of diving boards at the deep end of the HUGE main pool, which of course have now been removed and replaced with 'safe' slides. Bah. What's fun about summer if you can't fling yourself off the 5 meter platform and be scared out of your mind (and get water up your nose)?

[Edit: I don't know what's the matter with the line spacing in these posts, but pictures seem to mess it up and I can't seem to fix it. Suggestions gladly taken.]

Garden railway

We had such a blast with the trains in the back yard last weekend that we've been plotting the best way to make them permanent. John has a great program called WinRail, where you tell it the scale and brand of your trains (and tracks) and it helps you build a to-scale plan using the tracks available. The current plan is to gravel the top of the garden (where nothing really grows well to begin with) and lay track up there. Ideally we'd also have a 'branch line' coming down the south side of the garden (along a north-facing wall that never gets any light).

Wait, why am I telling you this, when I can show it to you? Here it is, a monument to our epic computer/train geek-ness.

In exchange for the trains, John's agreed that we can also extend the patio so there's room for our chairs and table. There should still be plenty of grass in the middle of the lawn for croquet and we're planning it out so it doesn't foul the clothesline.

The grand master plan is to build a small retaining wall along the right hand side of the garden, as the lawn slopes down a bit more than the train can handle. The grand master plan is to use the dirt cleared from the top to build up the bank on the right. If we ever want to sell the house, we'll just lift the track and all of the train areas can be used for planting.

If nothing else, we're having fun dreaming about it.

Chelsworth Open Gardens

Yesterday John and I took his mom to the Chelsworth Open Gardens day, as recommended by Country Living (and found in one of the back issues that I'd given my mom).  While lovely, the gardens were all much-of-a-muchness, and there are only so many hollyhocks and roses that one can admire.

They had fabulous luck with the weather, and we got some good ideas and good pictures!



Here's an artichoke plant.  I think they spread a little too much for our garden, but I'm not afraid to experiment.



All of the gardens had these little signs outside - it was very cute and English country garden-y without being tacky or twee.



This was by far the most impressive garden - the owners had built two brand-new walled gardens (for the microclimate properties) and this greenhouse had some escaping geraniums. This garden also had some, er, tasteful obelisks at one end, framing a landscape view. We were so startled by the obelisks that I forgot to take a picture.

Murder most foul

We have a huge quantity of slugs in our garden. Apparently, the UK is the 'slug capitol of the world,' since the mild climate and high rainfall are great for them. Fabulous.

Last year, they ate about 2/3 of my tomatoes - I had to go out every night to harvest the few tomatoes that they hadn't eaten. This year, I got started early and have used some slug repellent powders that sit on top of the soil. They don't seem to be particularly effective - I found two slugs this morning sitting in the powder, happily munching on my zucchini plant. The little buggers have completely obliterated the eggplant plant - the poor thing looks more like a doily on a stem. This picture was taken yesterday. The eggplant (far left) was worse today. Sad. The rings around the plants are the (entirely useless) slug powder.


We are now in take-no-prisoners mode: J & I had a slug-murdering fest after dinner, and we've just ordered some 'Nemaslug.' It's apparently some kind of small wormy thing that kills the slugs and is completely non-toxic to humans/pets/birds/etc. I just hope we can stave them off until it arrives. I normally feel horrible killing 'critters,' but they are horrible nasty slimy things that can eat twice their body weight in one day. And that's my dinner they're eating. In case they do eat it all, here's what it looks like now:


I had my first lesson in raising the bell at practice on Friday night - it had been in the works for a while. I don't know if it's that I'm further along or what, but it seems like it's easier than lowering the bell - there's less rope flapping about everywhere if you don't do it exactly right. I'm getting better at lowering, too - the rope-flapping is being kept to a dull roar.

Then, yesterday, I spent the morning in Bury. I got there pretty early, so I stopped at Starbucks and got an iced coffee. I took it down to the Abbey Gardens to walk around and read my book, and stopped at the aviary to watch all the birds. Because it was still only about 8:30 (on a Saturday morning!), it was pretty much just me and the gardeners, but the birds had been up for hours and were v. busy. There were lots of nests with teeny beaks peeking over the top, and there was much chirping.

After the gardens, I went to Marks & Spencers and Next and bought some new trousers, a skirt, and some tops. All in neutral colors and all things that I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of. I was surprised - the other times I've gone to both stores I haven't found anything but I was fairly laden down yesterday. I had intended to get some clothes from Boden (with my 20% off coupon), but not only were most of the things I wanted sold out, my total for 2 pairs of pants, a skirt, and a shirt (with the 20% off) was £178. WAY too much.

After all my hard work relaxing and shopping (and because it was a warm afternoon and we needed to return a movie), we stopped at the Stowmarket wine shop on the way back from walking into town and had a glass of wine.

Very civilized. And while we were there, we picked up a flyer for Stowmarket's newest restaurant, an Italian/pizza restaurant tucked down by the river. We're going to try it out this week and I'll post a full review. We're psyched - except for Radhuni, there isn't really much to eat in Stowmarket that's not pub food or lunch/cafe/takeout places. Corrections to the previous statement gladly accepted in the comments!

Back to Reality

My Mom left on Wednesday morning to go back to NY, and things returned to normal around here. I think it's partly because hubby has been working crazy hours this week, but the house feels completely empty and really lonely. Every time I look at something, I think, "Oh, Mom and I [fill in the blank]..that was great!" I watered our plants out in the back yard and had another pang of missing her. It's weird - I'm HOME but I'm definitely more homesick than I've been in ages (and more homesick than I've been after going back to NY). I think it's because we spent the 5 days just hanging out and having a blast, which we never get to do when I'm in NY - I'm always running from place to place.

I'll take some pictures of the garden this weekend - I really want to have some good before-and-after shots for when the plants get a bit bigger.

Oh, and this article about blogging and oversharing in the New York Times was fascinating. I've always been an oversharer, and I guess this is just another place to do it. I don't have hundreds of readers, though...

Mom's here!

This has been a busy week! We went to Birmingham on Thursday to get my Indefinite Leave To Remain for the UK. I'm now officially allowed to come and go as I please, stay as long as I want, and even go on welfare. Woohoo! There were a lot of steps (tests, other visas, PILES of paperwork, and we're £950 lighter), but it's such a relief to be here and have the happy little piece of paper in my passport that says 'indefinite leave to remain'.

Then, Friday morning, my mom arrived for a 5-day whirlwind trip. We've been having a fantastic time - lots of gardening and touristing and eating curries and cream teas and fish & chips and pub food.

The original purpose of the trip was to come to the Bury Bach Choir's concert on Saturday night - we performed the Verdi Requiem to a packed house in the Bury Cathedral (over 700 people - we sold out!). The concert was the best we've done - I was so glad that both mom and John were there.

Here's Aldeburgh, where we went yesterday.

On the way home, we went to Helmingham Hall again - we loved the gardens so much we had to show them to Mom. She's a fan now, too. I loved these dwarf irises - so pretty.


She's here for two more days - I think we're going to go on a countryside guided walk today and do some more planting in the garden. We've mentally redesigned our garden about 400 times - we're having so much fun with it. It'll eventually settle (and we'll actually purchase the plants and put them in)!

This drop of water was caught in the leaves at the garden center we found nearby. The plants all looked really healthy and they were so much cheaper than the chain stores. Granted, the place is pretty well hidden away, but we'll be going back for more!

Gardens & more gardens

We've had a very outdoorsy weekend - Saturday morning we dug out some grass from the borders of the garden and around the compost bin and completely wore ourselves out by midday! The tomatoes and courgettes are quite happy to be in dirt as opposed to the too-hot greenhouse.

John got called into work yesterday afternoon, so James and I had a rip-roaring game of Risk. He won, in about 2 hours. I was pretty impressed - all of a sudden he had Europe and Africa and I had a tenuous grip on Australia, South America, and part of North America. Hmm.

Here's my lone soldier on an entirely gray (with some auxiliary blue because he ran out of gray men) board.



We then went to Earl Stonham for our first lawn-bowling lesson with some bell friends of mine. It was really fun and I could see all three of us getting addicted to it. I took some pictures of James but they're on my phone and refuse to make their way to the computer. Bah.

Today we finished off the gardening, had the in-laws for lunch, and then made our way to the open garden day at Helmingham Hall, which John found on the web somewhere. It was about half an hour away but seemed like it was on a different planet. The gardens were spectacular.




I loved this tennis court - it was surrounded by a meadow and had these great trellises around the netting supports. Exactly as I will have it if I ever own a stately home!

Loooong weekend

We've had a long weekend and it's been super-relaxing. It's been warm and sunny, and we even fired up the grill!

Saturday, we went to Bury in the morning and picked up some foam seat cushion forms for our new garden chairs (thanks Mom & Dad!). The woman at the market stall was funny - she'd obviously seen what she thought was 'my type' before.

"Now, luv, if you run in to any trouble or need any help, just bring the foam and your fabric back next weekend and we'll make up the cushions for you."

Not THIS crafter. I spread out the fabric, used the foam inserts (that had already been cut to size) as my patterns, and off I went. AND I put zippers in. Granted, the zippers aren't going to win any prizes, but I think the cushions look really good. They also make our pre-existing hand-me-down garden chairs look like they're part of the v. posh new set.


Here they are, in action, this afternoon (with the two spare cushions on the table). I'm going to make a tablecloth and some napkins with the rest of the fabric, and perhaps a shirt for John if there's any leftover. :)

Sunday we went to Rougham Airfield for the Large Model Aircraft show. They were incredible - they are remote-control aircraft that seem to be oblivious to the laws of physics.

This wasn't a crash landing - it had skidded to a halt and then just...tipped...over.



We stopped on the way back at a nursery near Thurston, where we bought some plants for our hanging basket. Here they are, in situ.
Today was v.chill - I put together the rest of the paperwork for my next visa application and then sat in the garden and read my book. Civilized.

And one more picture...here's our zucchini, in flower: