The Summer is over ( Or is it)

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

The Summer is over ( Or is it)

Living by the sea we are very much ruled by the seasons, and the school holidays. The last 6 weeks have been very busy here with lots of people coming for a day trip or a longer stay. One of the benefits for us is that the local businesses try even harder to entertain everyone. So this is sort of my apology for not blogging for quite a while. We have been having far to much fun.

This week though, marks the end of the school holidays, and as children all over the country are off back to school, wearing blazers that their mum has promised they will "grow into soon" we have our nice beach back and for the last two days we have been bathed in glorious sunshine. I therefore need to pull my finger out and sort out the garden.

Where to start? I planted lots of seeds a few weeks ago and they are almost ready to go in outside. This meant I finally had to clear the disaster area that was once my carrot bed.

Under the mesh it was in a right state. You may remember in my last blog that the carrots were rubbish so I had abandoned them .

There was however one positive moment. If only "Thats Life" was still on the telly, I could have sent them this picture of my amusing carrot.

It didnt take too long and I now have a nice empty raised bed for all this stuff.

My Kos now needed to be outside so I popped them in next to the now dangerously leaning sweet pea tower.

Elsewhere things are doing well. The Butternut Squash are doing nicely

The Broad Beans are now a decent height

And my winter potato collection has made an appearance.

I am still getting Tomato's and Strawberries as well

Now onto other things. The chickens have been eating everything in sight and are looking very healthy.

They are producing so many eggs, I am having to dream up ever more inventive things to do with them . Jim fancied some Scotch Eggs so he found me a recipe of Heston Blumenthal's at Waitrose. I decided to give it a go.

My first and only comment about the recipe, is never trust a celebrity chefs timings. He obviously has lots of people doing prep for him. He said it would take 30 minutes. It in fact took me 2 hours. Have you ever tried to peel a hot egg that has only been boiled for 1 minute 45 seconds. It was supposed to ensure the middle stayed runny. I burst 5 eggs before I peeled one. I got there in the end and they tasted great, but I wont be hurrying to make them again.

The pup has had a great time as well. He has been on all our adventures with us and seems to have enjoyed himself.

We found this fireplace in the Middle of the New Forest, whilst walking. Apparently it was in a hut that was part of a camp used by Portuguese Soldiers during the First World War. They were there to cut trees for wood to be used building the trenches.

Then, another day we had a day trip to the Isle of Wight. We took advantage of a deal and went over as foot passengers. We sailed from Lymington .

And landed at Yarmouth. Its very Pretty. We then walked along a river to Freshwater Bay on the other side of the island.

I know they have found lots of Dinosaur fossils on the island over the years but I wasn't expecting to see this in a front garden on the walk back..

Another day, another day out. This time we went to the Bournemouth Air Festival. We got there early and bagged a prime spot on the pier. We had a wonderful day and Jim took some amazing photos.

And Finally last night as an end to the holidays, we went to the beach with our neighbours, who were back at work today and had a barbecue and a bit of sea fishing.