Saturday morning I spent some time in the kitchen and I made 6 lbs of gooseberry jam with some of our homegrown berries.
I baked a coffee cake and topped it with chocolate drops. It has nearly all gone already!
In the afternoon, we popped back to St Swithin's as it was open for a flower festival. A beautiful little church with a lot of history. I like to visit village churches and we discovered this one recently whilst Geocaching.
We then drove a short distance to Up Nately for another Geocache. This is Brick Kiln Bridge, an English listed building, over part of the Basingstoke Canal.
As well as the cache, we found Up Nately Nature Reserve, near the above-mentioned bridge. On a thistle we were lucky enough to see a Psithyrus Rupestis - a rare Cuckoo Bee. The Coots had their young with them and were making quite a noise. The Wild Clematis (Clematis Vitalba), also known as Old Man's Beard/Traveller's Joy and Nettle-leaved Bellflower (Campanula Trachelium) were in bloom.
Also in bloom - my new Birkenstocks! So comfortable!
Sunday we spent a lot of time up the allotment, planting out new seedlings that I had grown in the greenhouse. We harvested these beans and Cavalo Nero for lunch.
We also harvested new potatoes, onions, garlic, more lavender, rhubarb, courgettes and summer squash.
Late afternoon we took a peek at the new allotments. These ones are in our village and we have been successful in acquiring one of the larger plots, approx 95m sq. The soil is very heavy clay so we plan to made raised beds on this allotment.
I think we are going to be very busy! ;)
4 comments:
What a lovely post full of all the things I love seeing -home baking and preserving, the countryside and garden produce. I love your Birkenstocks, I've never had any but so many people seem to love them that I think I shall have to give them a try.
Hi Rowan, lovely to hear from you. I recommend Birkenstocks - so comfortable. I buy mine half price in TK Maxx. Best wishes, Pj x
Oooh, yum, those beans look so good :) Will you have two allotments or phase out the first one over time? For the clay allotment, I can't recommend manure enough.
I must look up that little bee, as we have so many different types at our field.
Thanks for dropping by and for your kind words.x
Hi Yarrow, lovely to hear from you. The new allotment will be divided into raised beds, because of the clay and as it is quite small we plan to keep the existing allotment for larger crops such as potatoes, pumpkins etc. Our fruitcage will stay at the old allotment. We're going to be busy! :) Best wishes, Pj x
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