in the garden

I took these photos last Saturday, after we arrived back from a week away, and in pretty much the last bit of sunshine before a week of rain when I have hardly been out in the garden at all !

Flowers are blooming. The tulips out the front are doing great this year. There seem to be about three times as many as last year and I didn't do anything with them at all. Forget-me-nots are looking pretty too.

 All my plants survived the week. I had them inside by our patio doors in washing up bowls about half full of water. I think they looked healthier when I got back than when I left. I have far too many tomato and cabbage plants for my small garden - time to start giving them away.

I put an ad on freegle for large pots and hanging baskets and got loads of offers, including this enormous pot which used to have a tree in it, and which will be used for potatoes just as soon as I get hold of some more soil from somewhere.

 The mint and oregano are doing well. The oregano just grows happily at the edge of the lawn.

Poking through the ground we have Jerusalem artichoke and a broad bean. I have some other broad beans in pots waiting to be planted out.

 And I rediscovered some rhubarb. I knew I had planted three crowns last year, but had only found one and couldn't remember where the others were. I think one of them may have been lost for good when I dumped a load of compost on part of the border. Or maybe it'll come through and surprise me next year,

And just as soon as this rain stops I have plans for transplanting cabbages, tomatoes in hanging baskets, more lettuce and carrots and getting the potatoes started......Monday might just be sunny according to the weather forecast - fingers crossed !

yarn along

joining in with Ginny's yarn along

Knitting is going very slowly but I have been enjoying knitting a doll's top, making it up as I go along. 

I found two really good books in the library. The first is World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown. It has vege recipes from eleven different areas of the world. The ones I've made so far have all used easily sourced ingredients and been simple to cook. We've had pastel de choclo, maple-roasted mushroom burgers, spatzle and masala dosa and there are loads more I want to try

The other book is French children don't throw food by Pamela Druckerman. I heard a discussion about this on the radio and thought it would be some lightweight reading about why French kids are better (or not) than British ones, but it's actually a really thought provoking and interesting read. The author is from the US (New York I think) but is living and bringing up 3 small kids in Paris. She observes the differences in behaviour of French (well at least middle class Parisian) children compared with those in New York and sets out to investigate what aspects of parenting bring these about. It really made me think about how some of our parenting rules are so ingrained that we don't even realise we have them. And also that maybe what really matters (at least up to a point) is not whether we have lots of or few household rules but whether we educate our children gently and respectfully about what they are