Sunday Car Boot

Paul is now a fully paid up member of the village carpet bowls club; they play at the village hall on Tuesday and Friday evenings.  He is on the look out now for a set of bowling balls so we had this in mind when we visited the local car boot and market this morning.  It was a big affair but we didn’t have any luck finding any balls for Paul.  However, I did spot some glass demi-johns and bought six for a grand total of three pounds. Bargain!  Just what I needed for my wine making.

I spotted this book at the car boot - whatever happened to the Hattatts?

It’s a warm and sunny day here so I’m having a lazy day pottering around the garden.  The vegetable plot is producing well and we have our usual glut of courgettes.  Last night Paul cooked a delicious vegetable risotto.  He found a recipe from that Italian chef, Gennaro Contaldo, using broad beans, courgettes and French beans. It was a really nice, alternative way to use our fresh vegetables.

Paul's garlic drying, keeps the vampires away I suppose

the bumble bees are loving the honeysuckle

Cottage Garden

On Tuesday we took advantage of the sunshine and cycled a 24 mile circuit, passing through pretty villages and along quiet lanes with fields of wheat and barley either side.  The Tour de France starts this weekend so Paul was getting into the mood of things and keen to break a few records.  He nearly broke me, that’s for sure.

This morning we saw Mrs Malcolm working in her garden as we walked back from the village hall.  She is the lady who used to walk her old black Labrador, Malcolm, in the mornings with Rick.  Alas, Malcolm is no more so we stopped to offer our condolences. I commented on her wonderful display of potted geraniums and she invited us in to give us a tour of her garden.  It was the most beautiful, quintessential cottage garden.  Little pathways leading to hidden corners, no straight lines, roses, honeysuckle, ferns, hostas, daisies, lilies - so many different plants.  There was even a pond complete with a moorhen sitting on her nest. It was quite enchanting.  I now have garden envy!

A Measure of Refinement

Sophistication - a measure of refinement

Last night was an evening of indulgence.  An empty glass just wasn’t right to watch my favourite television programme – Killing Eve.  I had to refill my wine glass and dive into a bag of cheesy Doritos.  Not exactly sophisticated entertainment but I enjoyed my evening.

I made another attempt at making pesto today, this time I left out the plastic bottle cap.  We ate it with spaghetti and baby broad beans for lunch.  Accompanied by a chilled white wine it was a simple but sophisticated lunch.

 Posh ain't I?

New Toy

Yesterday morning we drove to the sorting office in Market Rasen to collect a parcel.  It contained my new phone – an iPhone7 – all the way from Australia!  It’s not exactly new, just over a year old with one careful owner.  I always get my family’s cast off phones and this was a present from my daughter Sarah, complete with a brand new cover.  Leopard print was out of stock so it is a tasteful turquoise.  The package had taken over two weeks to get here via Aus Post; I think customs may have been a bit suspicious as Sarah had included several packets of cinnamon flavoured gum for sister Kat.

This morning I took it outside in the garden to try out the camera.  It has all sorts of clever functions but it’s going to take me a bit of time to get used to it.

Summer

Southern and central Europe is sweltering but the weather in Lincolnshire is quite delightful at the moment.  We are making the most of it and spending nearly all day outside in the garden.  Long, leisurely lunches on the terrace - this is everything I love about the summer.

"Are you sure you can eat that much potato with your poached egg?"  What a silly question.

Paul has been harvesting some of the elephant garlic that he planted earlier in the year.  It has to 'cure' for a couple of weeks before eating so he has hung it from an old vegetable rack.   It's not easy finding big garlic in the local shops so we're hoping this is going to be a success.

elephant garlic

Fish and Freesias

I like cooking filleted fish, it’s so quick and easy.  Tonight we had smoked basa fillets.  Usually I like to poach smoked fish in milk and then make a creamy sauce by adding crème fraiche and butter.  This evening I was serving it with vegetables from the garden - French beans, baby broad beans and new potatoes so didn’t feel like a rich sauce.  Instead I put the fish on foil, added some butter, a slice of lemon, parsley and a slurp of white wine, sealed the foil into parcels and baked for about 12 minutes. It was delicious and the fish came with their own puddles of ready made sauce.

The new potatoes were particularly good because I managed to snaffle some potatoes that Paul had rejected as being too small.  We always argue about this. He likes to wait until they are a reasonable size.  But to me they don’t taste like proper new potatoes unless they are really small.

I picked some freesias from the garden.  I only grow them for the scent.  Always takes me back to being a five year old bridesmaid with a posy of freesias.