PotFest In The Park 2016

Rob, Brock and I had a fun day out at Potfest at Hutton-in-the-Forest, near Penrith on Friday.

We had our usual tour of the grounds and walled garden first, before a drink at one of the cafes.

Then it was on to the competition area: the theme this year being "Bird Bath - Flight of Fancy". Here were my favourites:-

 Bath Time - Christine Hester Smith

 Bird Bath - Chiu-I Wu

Sea Bird Bath - Julian Jardine

We bought two more dinner plates to add to our collection of Sigi & Charlotte Boehmer's work:-

Afterwards, it was off to the nearby UpFront Gallery for a delicious lunch of ploughman's for me; homity pie for Rob; cakes and drinks. Brock was allowed to sit with us at an outside table. The coffee shop was extremely busy, with many reserved tables, so we were glad we got there early.

Spring Plum Blossom and a Frog

The wild plum trees in our garden are just coming into blossom - a welcome sign of Spring.

Our morning walk was at Bessie's Hill Fort in Eskdalemuir. We found a puddle with three lots of frogspawn in it and later in the walk came across this little fellow.

Afterwards, we had coffee at Samye Ling and the two ponds there had dozens of froggy heads peeping out of the water, croaking at each other. Our own little pond has not got any spawn yet, but fingers crossed!

Moth Caterpillars

On our walk today we came across several caterpillars. Rob took photos of two of them:-

 Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar

White Ermine Moth Caterpillar

These both turn into beautiful moths that we had no idea were living in the area. The Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar feeds on willow herbs (of which we have plenty in the area) and the White Ermine Moth Caterpillar feeds on a variety of herbaceous plants.

Blossom, Wildflowers and Other Plants

Here are some of the plants, blossom and wildflowers in our garden today. We have encouraged lots of wildflowers to set up home and we make a few small areas to grow fruit and veg in the wildness.

(Please click on the collage to see a full-size version.)

Brock

Here is a recent photo that Rob took of Brock in our garden. What a little angel!

Purple Mangetout

I tried out a new variety of mangetout this year, called 'Mangetout Shiraz' from Thompson & Morgan. I sowed them outside in our small, raised bed, in May or June, and we have been harvesting them daily for the last couple of weeks. The colour of the flowers and pods is beautiful and makes them easy to spot amongst the green leaves.

The purple colour becomes a dark green mixed with purple when they are cooked. We have eaten them blanched, cooled and added to salad; steamed as a side vegetable with butter; and added to pasta for the last 2 - 3 minutes of cooking and served with pesto: delicious! They would also be great in stir fries.

Garlic Harvest

I harvested our garlic crop this afternoon, and was pleased with the quantity and quality, despite the adverse weather conditions this year.

It seems to be one of the easiest vegetables to grow. I plant the single cloves in late September and harvest in June or July. That's it!

This amount was grown in two small 4 feet square beds and should keep us going for the best part of a year.

Barnkirk Point Walk

Rob, Brock and I did the walk from Annan to Newbie and Barnkirk Point this morning. It was surprisingly busy with walkers and the odd cyclist and lots of dogs (which pleased Brock immensely!).

View of the railway bridge over the River Annan.

Rob and Brock.

Hawthorn berries.

Hazy view of the Cumbrian coast.

Master Brock.

Criffel seen from the shore section of the walk.

Chilli Harvest

I picked about a third of our chilli harvest today. (All taken from three plants of the variety Cheyenne.) The chillies are green to begin with and ripen to orange.

We bought three small plants from Tescos earlier in the year and potted them on into larger pots. Since then they have been regularly watered, and fed with a tomato feed once a week.

The chillies have a medium heat and we have eaten them fresh from the plant in soup, vegetarian chilli, vegetable curries and gaucamole. Very tasty!

 

I decided to pick a bowlful to dry in the kitchen. The chillies are threaded onto thick thread using a needle passing through the thick part of the stem. They can then be suspended from a drawing pin or strung like fairy lights along a high part of the room to dry. Once dry, they can be crumbled into a jar or left whole and stored in an air-tight container.

Baby Rabbits

It seems to have been a good year for rabbits. We have had loads of them coming into our garden. Here are a couple of photos:-

Making Silage

Rob and I were doing the washing up tonight, when we saw this view from our kitchen window. The farmer has just cut this field for silage and it looked quite interesting with the black bags dotted all over it.

Our raised beds on the patio have just started to produce some tasty salad plants. This one has rocket, mustard greens, spinach, land cress and a few veg coming on. The beds are about 3' square and the same deep. We plant a bit of everything in them and keep filling up the gaps as they appear.