And Breathe!

Today is the first day of my summer holidays.  Thank goodness!  I am planning a quiet few weeks at home with my family and hope to fit in lots of crafting.  We will be spending a few days with my parents in Norfolk and I am going to Fibre East at the weekend, but apart from that we have no fixed plans.  Just relaxing at home, with the odd day trip, will suit me fine after a hectic month or two.  I have lots of catching up to do here as it has been nearly a month since my last post!
To save this post from being mega long I am going to do a series of smaller posts, splitting up June and July into subjects.  This post is a quick catch up on what has been happening in the garden, allotments and kitchen.
The June garden was very pretty; full of foxgloves, clematis, poppies and of course roses.

On the patio the hanging baskets are filling out.

I've even have a couple of chrysanthemums in bloom!

I bought some sempervivums 

to plant in a frost damaged pot.

The tomatoes have started to ripen in the greenhouse and we have been harvesting the cornichons.

There has also been some growing going on in the kitchen.

I recently bought a microgreens growing kit.

It has been fun watching the seeds sprouting and the roots growing in the water.  We have harvested our first crop and I will set the next crop going after our visit to Norfolk.

We have had some very warm weather, which has meant that the BBQ has been out each weekend and the candles have been lit.

Everything has grown at the allotment.

We have been picking lots of fruit.  First the rhubarb was ready to be harvested and I made some rhubarb crumble ice cream.

June is the month that the strawberries ripen and we had so many this year.  We ate most of them fresh and I made Eton Mess a few times.

I also teamed them with the elderflower syrup that I made

 and baked an upside down pudding.

I also use the syrup to flavour the cream to accompany the strawberries; my version of Chantilly cream.

We have been picking tayberries, raspberries and gooseberries too.

We have had so many blackcurrants this year on our two bushes!

I adapted the rhubarb crumble ice cream recipe to become a blackcurrant and meringue ice cream.

We have finished picking the broad beans, but there are still a few peas growing.

I made curried broad bean falafels one night

and for another meal herby pea falafels.

The dwarf bean and courgette plants have started producing.

I made a vegetable and goat's cheese galette with some courgette.

We have grown some lovely onions this year.

My husband has dug up our early potatoes - Duke of York.

The harvesting has also included some lavender.

So I have baked lots of lavender cakes:-

Lavender Madeira Loaf

Lavender Shortbread

Lavender Sponge

I even made some lavender sugar

which I used to flavour a yogurt cake.

And they've nearly eaten all of that too!  Back into the kitchen I go! ;)