red red radish

these radishes from the garden were such a beautiful vivid colour i had to take dozens of photographs of them. i think i get a little bit excited when anything i have grown is ready for the table. this year everything has been excruciatingly slow but finally we have salads leaves and radishes ready to eat.



ambika x

Pink tea party

i picked up this cute pink tea set at the charity shop today. Francisco loves it and insisted we have a pink tea party in the garden. we made heart shaped scones and ate them in the sun with bramble jelly and butter. it was delicious.




ambika x

life at the cottage

Well, life at the cottage has been really hectic lately. The beautiful warm weather has made all the plants go crazy and we have finally started eating some garden produce. carrots, peas, courgettes, and of course eggs.

up until yesterday only 3 of our chickens had been laying and we were beginning to think that janice would never produce an egg, anyway she must have heard us talking because she laid one. I am very pleased to have 4 laying hens as we seem to be getting through all our eggs. I never realised that we used so many. eggs in bread, cakes, drop scones, potato farls and that's not even counting all the other stuff like omelettes. they are also becoming really lovely pets each with their own personality. chicken mania stills reigns at the cottage.

we have had a few unwanted visitors in the garden lately, my artichoke plants are covered in black fly. they have been decimating my poor plants and to top it off i nearly killed them by dousing them in soapy water. in the end we decided to fight them off naturally with ladybirds and nematodes bought online from gardening naturally. lets hope they wage a good war and the right side triumphs.


I have also found some time to make a few bit and bobs that i have been planning for ages. the elastic in my old pj's had gone and i had been walking around with my bum showing half of the time. it was not a good look. anyway i knocked up these. not a real fashion statement but the pure comfort outweighs everything else and besides who's looking really when you're just relaxing round the house.


I also made this towel poncho for francisco. it is very snug and i am quite pleased with how it has turned out, and he seems to really like it which is the main thing. i really enjoyed working with towelling and think i will do some more projects for myself. i just wish it wasn't so expensive. so far i've not managed to find it for less than £8 a metre. if anyone knows of a cheaper way to buy it please let me know.

I generally spend a lot of my time on a self-sufficiency quest. this includes trying to rid our lives of nasty chemicals. if i don't understand what an ingredient is it makes me wonder why it's there. inspired by angry chicken, my sister stopped washing her hair with shampoo a couple of months ago and has got me onto it as well. the new system involves using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar read here for more info on the method, and the reasons why conventional shampoo is not good at all. on top of this i have also been very inspired by angry chicken's blog and have used her recipe to create my own deodorant. i love it and it works! i have been using it for about 3 weeks now and am very impressed. i scented mine with geranium and lemon and made a little pot for steph scented with pettigrain and sandalwood, it is a little bit more masculine. the pot shown here is for my mum as a late birthday gift. i think she will love it too.


ambika x

the hare and the tortoise

who will win the race?

the weeds are racing ahead especially the bindweed, forever climbing higher and finding deeper corners away from my destructive reach.

or,

the vegetables which are plodding along very very slowly.


there is one last candidate in the race. the slugs..... each year i grow less patient and more barbaric with my slug disposal methods. i will not tarnish this lovely and special space with them.


so amongst all the gardening and general day to day living, we have been finding a little time to lie and relax in the hammock. the weather has been amazingly warm and i am now so excited about the prospect of the summer ahead.




before we left for spain my dear friend and i ran a craft stall at the local may fair. we had a great day selling our home made goods and got loads of really great feedback. I will be putting some of the left over stock onto my etsy shop soon, so watch this space as i hope to get it all up and running in the next week.

it feels good to be back here after such a long break.

ambika x

April fools

we had a birthday in the cottage. francisco is now 3, and as i am informed 3 years old is very old indeed. his party was a great success but after a never ending week of baking and sewing and cooking i have decided to enjoy the sunshine and take you for a stroll through my wakening garden.

light green jumper-beans

there is a definite nip in the air now, and finally after our first week without rain since may, i think winter is coming. we were out in the garden today picking the last of the beans. the ones that had previously been hiding behind foliage, now grown long knobbly and gnarled with age. despite this franc and i both enjoyed popping them open and fighting over the juicy bombs inside.


we also made this beautiful embroidered patch together.


and loved it so much i made a jumper for it to live on.


it's a little baggy around the neck but all in all we are feeling very pleased with the results. a good first effort.

rr

new flowers, the promise of fruit to come

chillies


alpine strawberries


and tomatoes.

last year all my tomato plants died, apparently it was a bad year all over for the delicate red fruit so this year i am taking no chances!

i feel inclined to talk, once again, about my ever growing garden as the other evening i attended a local food evening which we organised through my local environmental group sea. the ever looming issue of food security is right on our door step, its scary to think about it. massive centralisation of food production is, with the increasing oil prices, finally meaning that prices are going through the roof. basic commodities like milk and bread are reaching all time highs, and not since the 2nd world war has food security been at such a risk. so i reckon if you can't grow it, buy it locally and be happy with british, or australian, or american, or wherever it is you happen to live.



stick has also been getting creative this week. he has made some garden lights out of old metal radiator covers and jam jar lids. they are hanging in the Mimosa tree just above the garden table and chairs. i love them.


rr

planting out..... finally!

everything feels very late this year. i have only just planted out the vegetables in my small, but very perfectly formed new raised bed. this year we will hopefully be having potatoes, carrots, leeks, courgettes, purple sprouting broccoli, beetroot and climbing beans. i have made bean catcher dream catchers for them to grow up but so far am having a few bean disasters so we will see. the first lot didn't germinate, the second lot i planted out too early and they died in the snow, and now i have a tray just beginning to sprout on my window sill so third time lucky lets hope!


in the summer i plan to mosaic the walls of the raised bed and make it beautiful, but i am waiting for the longer, warmer evenings to kick in before i begin. the pear tree blossom has been and gone, but the apple trees are looking very pretty in pink.


my numerous salad bowls have finally sprouted and will be good to eat very soon.


and my new herb garden is beginning to establish itself. i love the way the oregano is flourishing in the cracks of the wall.



all in all i am really happy with the garden so far. i have six tomato plants sitting in the porch all looking happy and smelling only the way fresh tomatoes can. and i have a host of chilli plants on the go, i cant believe how slowly they grow but i guess the best things do come to those who wait.

rr

hello, goodbye

we sadly lost a close friend of the family last week and travelled up to oxford for the funeral. if it can be said the day was beautiful, the best it could have been. franc was a little angel and really lifted everyones mood by being very silly and funny. we arrived back, after about a week away, to find my seed trays sparkling with new life. it always fills me with a certain excitment when seeds germinate. there is always the hope that some kind of crop may follow. i made a pillow case based on the curly hazel photo posted a couple of weeks ago, it's a bit scruffy around the edges but i like it.


the sun has been shining all week and it feels like winter is almost behind us. much to our pleasure a new playground has been built in saltash, we spent most of the day there, and the rest, making yummy surprise valentines day biscuits for stick. there were more but someone kept eating them!