Tag Archives: cauliflower

Tuesday 22nd April 2014 – SO WHAT’S HAPPENING …

fire pionsat 22 april 2014 puy de dome france … over there tben? There’s quite a fire burning for some reason or other and I wonder what’s going on.

I couldn’t hear the pompiers or any amulance or anything and so I don’t know how urgent that might be, but it certainly looks most unwelcome.

However, it’s not likely to burn for very long because we’ve had something of a torrential downpour this evening. There’s been the odd shower or two and we had a thunderstorm pass over at about 15:00 but it really meant business this evening.

Still, the first real rain for a couple of weeks and so we can’t complain too much.

The rain is my fault too, for I’ve been out gardening today. And I noticed that the three surviving strawberry plants have flowers now. But that’s by the way.

First job was to plant the Brussels Sprouts that I bought on Saturday. So I gave that bed a good hoeing over first, and carried on to weed a few more as well while I was at it. Then I planted the sprouts, followed by the 12 lettuce that I bought. 6 of them went in between the sprouts, and the other 6 went in between the cabbage that I planted the other week.

After lunch I sowed the new potatoes, and then I turned my attention to the seeds. Seems that I have some lettuce coming up, and there’s signs of life in the leeks too. But still nothing much coming up anywhere else.

Now though, I have some sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower seeds sown, as well as some organo and basli seeds. Tomorrow, though, i’ll need to push on.

At 17:45 I came to a halt as I had to go round to Cécile’s to show some househunters around – that was what I was on my way back from doing when I noticed the fire.

I made another mega-curry tonight. This one is a mushroom and green pepper one, and that will keep me going for a few days too.

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Monday 2nd July 2012 – What do you think …

creeping plant growing up kwikstage scaffolding puy de dome france… about my nice environmentally-friendly scaffolding? I’ve no idea what that plant is that has decided to grow up it, but it has heart-shaped leaves and small green berries and it’s growing like crazy.

Yes, you’ll notice that I’ve lowered the scaffolding. The roof is finished and, seeing as how I finished the rendering off around the front this afternoon, I’ve started to paint the woodwork with the LIDL wood treatment. That means that I have to lower the scaffolding. I’m only doing the outside now – the inside can wait until the weather is bad.

Once the woodwork is painted, then I need to paint the rendering off around the front of the lean-to so that it matches the house. For that, I need to move a pile of stuff that’s around the front, although I’ve not worked out where I’m going to put it yet. Still, It’ll All Work Out in Boomland, so they say.

Once all that is done, then I can start on my secret project, to put Krys out of her misery, or else I can carry on rebuilding the wall that you can see in the photo and then put the guttering on. Probably guttering is a good idea as Thursday I’m hoping to have the water butts for there. That’ll mean that Krys will still be in suspense for another couple of weeks.

So that was this afternoon. This morning I was on the website again, and then I was outside in the garden. Apart from tbe usual weeding, I planted another row of carrots and some more beetroot and then spent a pleasant hour thinning the cabbage and cauliflower. The sprouts need thinning too but I’m not sure where to put the ones that I pull out.

But this is all progress, isn’t it? I’ve never ever reached the thinning stage with the brassica. Usually this time of year I’m hunting for the survivors but there aren’t half some impressive plants – and all grown from seed too. 

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Monday 23rd April 2012 – I’m blogging early tonight

And for two reasons too. Firstly, seeing as how this is my last night here for a while, I’m going to have an early one. And secondly, I had tea early. And that was because I was round at Bill’s for a while setting him up as he is going to be doing the communication for the Anglo-Français Group while I’m not here, and by the time I was back from Bill’s it wasn’t worth coming up here to relax for half an hour.

Tea was nice as well – I used up all of the leftovers. So it was two large spuds, an onion, some garlic, some mixed veg and some mushrooms. And while the spuds were boiling, the rest was frying and then it was all fried together and covered with mixed gravy and spices. and I’ll eat that again.

While I’m away, Liz says that she will keep an eye on the garden once or twice in exchange for the thinnings, and so I thought that I had better do a map of the garden so that she will know where everything is, now that it’s all finished.

There’s just one empty bed and that’s for the leeks that are hopefully growing in a seed tray. Mind you, the leeks that I planted in the open soil have taken, and they are coming up now.

In fact some of the stuff is doing really well while the rest is taking its time, although I seem to remember that this is what always happens.

Anyway, I sowed some more carrots, parsnips, sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and beetroot, and that will be my lot. When I come back, I’ll just have to see what didn’t take and plant some of that. And the chicory in the new potato bed and that will be it apart from weeding.

I raked and hoed the two cloches today and in the small one I planted (in their pots) all of the shrubs and bushes, so that they will be ready for when I come back.

Apart from that I’ve been doing stuff off my list today. As well as the water heater the dump load will be powering 250 watts of light – 5×50 watt bulbs. This is useful because I have the potential to charge up about 700 watts on the dump load circuit and there’s already a 500-watt water heater element there. So the lights will help to complete the load. and 5 bulbs means that if one blows, then it won’t be too much of a problem. Light bulbs and water heater elements are good because the will take a graduated load – it’s not all “on and off” like, say, an electrical appliance might be and so which would not be satisfactory for this.

I’m nothing like ready really – I can’t find the spare camera battery or the charger that I take on voyages with me, and lots of other stuff. But it’s too late now. I have my tickets, passport, money, camera, dictaphone and Moose, and when I’ve recorded my rock music programme tomorrow I shall go with what I’ve got and that will be that.

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Friday 13th April 2012 – I can’t remember now …

… what it was that I did this morning. One thing that I do remember however was sleeping through the alarm clocks and waking up at 09:35, and it’s been a long time since that happened.

I did spend some time on my web site again and did some more work, but round about 11:30 I must have been distracted because I’m having one of these mental blanks.

After lunch however, the interesting stuff. I phoned up my travel agents in Belgium and told them of my holiday plans. I was on the phone for about an hour because what I’m trying to do is not easy and neither is it straightforward. The net result of it all is that they have all of the details and they’ll work something out and call me back tomorrow. Or at least I hope that they will.

After that I went outside and dug over one of the beds that I’ll be using for root vegetables. and that wasn’t straightforward either. I put a plank across the beds to stand on while I dig the beds over, but this plank broke one of the sides of the bed. That caused a halt while I went to search for a suitable plank to cut down to size to remake the bed.

But anyway, that bed is dug over and properly hoed, and I’ve put two rows of carrot seeds and one row of beetroot seeds in, in order to see what happens. I don’t have any parsnip seeds, which is a surprise. What is also a surprise is that there seems to be tons of tiny plants in the bed, which look just like seeds that have germinated quite recently. And they look too focused to be weeds. I’m trying to think what they might be. It was brassica that was in there last year – did something run to seed maybe? Anyway, I’ve pulled most of them out but I’ve also left some of them in so that I can work out what it might have been. I’ll probably come home to a bed full of dandelions or something.

I checked over a few other beds too. The new potatoes are stirring now and so are the garlic bulbs. The peas too are looking as if they might be doing things but the beans are as yet quite quiet. Pride of place though must go to the brassica – the sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower. Those seeds were planted about three weeks ago, thoroughly watered and left under a black plastic sheet to keep the moisture in place and to heat up the soil. The result of this is that they seem to have gone berserk and there is brassica everywhere in the rows that I sowed. It obviously suites them under there.

Anyway, Liz will be coming to pick the strawberries while I am away. I’ve told her to help herself to brassica too. The rows will need thinning and so the thinnings may as well go into her garden.

Anyone else want any brassica?

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Thursday 29th March 2012 – IT’S "NEW TOY" TIME AGAIN.

akai 12 volt DC DVD player television les guis virlet puy de dome franceI told you the other day that I had ordered a new DVD player – an AKAI 12-volt television, 16″ screen, with built-in DVD player.

Anyway, it turned up this morning.

First thing that I did was to cut off the cigarette lighter plug (I hate these) from the 12-volt connector lead, wired a fuseholder into the lead and then wired it up to an American plug.

Regular readers of thie rubbish will remember, but for the benefit of newer readers, I have a 12-volt electrical circuit running around the house, using American plugs and sockets.

I use them for the simple reason that they take heavier cable and I use 6mm cable for the circuit – the bigger the better to avoid voltage drop.

Anyway, the cable works and so does the DVD player. It even played one of the DVDs that wouldn’t work on the old in-car DVD, and the sound quality is exceptional.

I’m really pleased with it.

Only downside is the remote control. The keys are moulded plastic with the symbols moulded in., the same colour (light grey) as the keys. And so it’s really difficult to tell which key that you need to press, especially in the dim light.

But that’s a minor point.

Apart from that, then besides another couple of hours on the computer, I was outside in the garden for much of the day.

Another bed has been dug over and the remainder of the onion sets were planted and a few lines of leeks were sown.

After that I did a little hoeing and planted the beans that I had soaking, some cabbage, sprouts and cauliflower seeds.

I’ve also planted all of the raspberry plants that Liz kindly gave me in exchange for the lettuce from the other week.

All in all, it’s been another busy day today.

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Wednesday 21st March 2012 – I WAS GARDENING …

… this afternoon

High time I had another session in the garden now that spring has sprung and the grass is riz.

And having been meithered by the guy at the football, who chats to me quite a lot about gardening and who has been telling me for about four weeks to plant my peas, I put the first row of them in this afternoon.

That involved digging over one of the plots that had spuds in last year and pulling out the weeds that had grown since I did it a week or 10 days ago, hoeing it to break up the lumps of clay, raking it over, adding some wood ash and hoeing that well in, and then putting in the first row of seeds.

I bought a new packet this year because with all of the seeds from last year being out in the lean-to at -16°C and even colder over the winter, I’m not sure how they might have survived.

Anyway, I put a new seed and a last-year’s seed in the same seed hole to make sure that something might happen. I can always pull up any excess.

I’ve put one of my black bin-liner covers over the raised bed – to keep any frost out and to attract the heat of the sun. When I go for row 2 in a fortnight’s time, I can check on the germination of the peas that I did today.

After that, I dug one of the raised beds that had had the peas and beans in last year. That was pretty much overgrown and it took some clearing. It looks quite good now.

But I’ll do it again tomorrow before I attack the bed next to it. It’s in these two beds that the brassica – cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts – will be planted this year. Some of that can go in now and so I’ll do a couple of rows tomorrow.

Normally I would plant these seeds in small pots and let them grow in there but that’s very time-consuming and I’m struggling for time. I’ll just go for planting right from the beginning in the raised beds and let them take their chance.

I’ve also been clearing up around those raised beds – piles of thistles, brambles and nettles underneath the old grey Ford Cortina and so I raked them out as well as much as I could. Now I’m back with the tingling hands again.

I really must wear gloves when i’m ripping up nettles.

So that was this afternoon. This morning I had a pile of stuff to do on the computer but what with winding down after my efforts of the last few days I didn’t do very much. I really need to get weaving as the stuff is piling up.

And talking about the efforts of the last few days, I had a letter from the Post Office at Pionsat. It was the receipt for the sending of my paperwork yesterday.

And they did indeed manage to send it off in time if the datestamp is anything to go by. But not that it will do much good with some of the important stuff missing.

GRRRRRRRR!

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Monday 18th April 2011 – I’ve been gardening today.

Well, after all it is the full moon. Before lunch I planted all of the main crop potatoes – I put 64 into two of the raised beds – the last two that I installed the other week. I’ve had to be careful how I planted them because the baby lettuce that I bought the other week – they are in one of those beds and I’ve had to fit the spuds all around them.

After lunch I planted this week’s seeds – things like cauliflowers, broccoli, carrots, courgettes, beans, peas and so on – they all went outside and into place. In the smaller cloche I planted into small pots some more peppers, chilis, cucumber and gherkins. And there are already some of those sprouting up from a fortnight ago. I’ve also weeded out the strawberry patch in the mega-cloche. That’s doing really well in there and it’s a mass of flowers, looking like there might be a bumper crop, and quite early too. But then again, this magnificent spring has a lot to do with that.

But there is a down-side to this magnificent spring. When I finished weeding and planting, I gave everything a thorough watering. And with no rain for 14 days, all of the casual water, that in buckets and bins and tubs about the place, that’s all gone. All that’s left is my rainwater for household use and there’s just about 150 litres or so of that remaining. I’m drying up and this could make things difficult here. I shall have to start a rain dance if it carries on like this.

But there’s still some water for a shower and at 36.5°C I had one as well. And then off to St Eloy and the Anglo-French Group where I set everyone an exercise – I’d found some old notes that I had made, with useful French phrases that are used in everyday life. And so I set everyone to translate them from French to English, to keep them out of mischief.

And so apart from working on the Newfoundland web pages this morning, that was my lot. Tomorrow we are in the studio at Radio Tartasse again. Don’t the months come round quickly?

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Tuesday 12th April 2011 – There’s going to be a row …

… in the Post Office at Pionsat very very soon. On the 30th of March I sent four letters, by handing them in over the counter. Two of them Involve money, and the other two had a dependant time limit. And by today, not a single one of them has been received. I need to post another letter quite soon, so when I take that one to the Post Office I shall have a little discussion with the clerk about my missing four letters.

And so after finishing work on the computer this morning, I had to spend an hour or so catching up on this work that was lost, the most important of the four letters, and sending it and all the attachments by e-mail. And at least I know that that has been received as I asked for an acknowledgement. But it isn’t half getting on my wick, all of this.

For a pleasant afternoon I went round to Bill’s and changed a driveshaft on his Rover for him. I’ve never done that on a Rover before and so it was a case of learning as I went along. And it brings back all kinds of happy memories about me being on my back underneath a car with a spanner in my hand. I can’t wait to set up my workshop here.

For tea though I had a really nice and pleasant change. I bought a cauliflower at the weekend – special offer reduced to 99 centimes, and I cooked it, put half in the fridge, and ate the other half with some spuds, peas carrots and some white sauce flavoured with a huge handful of my vegan cheese. And it was delicious. Furthermore, I have the other half to eat tomorrow. I’ll be looking forward to that.

Tomorrow I might even manage a day at home all alone and on my own. I need to catch up with the gardening. Nothing at all of the seeds that I planted the other week is rearing its ugly head at the moment. 

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Monday 7th June 2010 – I had another gardening day today.

bean frame raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see in the photo that I’ve rediscovered my bean and pea frame, so seeing as I now have three pea plants and four bean plants ( and isn’t that disappointing?) I put it up so that they will have something to cling to. When I saw the lack of beans and peas this year then I needed something to cling to for support, but I hadn’t recovered the frame then.

The radishes I planted a couple of weeks ago are going berserk and the spinach is now coming up. maybe things are putting in a late burst.

I’ve sown another row of carrots in place too, and transplanted the first showing of cauliflower and the second showing of broccoli. The cucumber plants I planted in the small cloche and to do that I had to take out the trays of herbs. They are on the window ledge of the house for now.

herb garden verandah planters les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou might recall that I brought my herbs back from Brussels and planted them in a trough. I had some more in small pots and so I made up another trough and those herbs have gone into there. I’m putting them in troughs so that in winter I can take them indoors.

The mint I left in a pot and planted the pot in the trough for the simple reason that mint goes berserk and spreads everywhere if you don’t contain it.

The soil in the trough by the way is 50% compost from LIDL, 50% soil from when I dug out the earth beichstuhl and a dusting of wood ashes to give it all some potash.

So that was the afternoon. In the morning I was computing and before lunch I did a load of washing – the first for ages down here but you might recall that I did a few loads in Brussels when I was there and Liz kindly did a few loads for me while I was helping Terry.

This evening was the Anglo-French Group. Mark prepared a good game for us and we had some fun. We were somewhat divided into two groups though – some of us working upstairs and the others talking and smoking downstairs.

So tomorrow now that the garden is done for this week I’ll carry on moving stuff from the side of the barn. I want to get all of that stuff moved as soon as possible.

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Monday 10th May 2010 – I was working this afternoon …

space blanket insulation counter battens bedroom wall les guis virlet puy de dome france… in the bedroom. I’ve put the first layer of battens on the left-hand wall, added another strip of insulation (the last I have as it happens so I need to buy some more) and put all of the counter-battens on the back wall.

Tomorrow I’ll be putting some on the side wall and then starting to put the polystyrene insulation on top.

You’re probably thinking that it’s due to the weather that I was working inside, but ohhhh no. It’s true that when I first woke up it was raining heavily but by the time I had woken up definitively there was a beautiful blue sky and for much of the day it stayed like that.

This morning after working on the computer I planted out the first sprout plants, put the beetroot out to harden off and did some more sowing. I also noticed that the cauliflower are now starting to show themselves. And with the damp conditions in the greenhouse for the last few days followed by the heat today I’m hoping that a few more might take off.

After lunch it was working in the bedroom. I might have to go back to Brussels in a couple of months or so and I’ll be bringing a pile of domestic stuff back with me. I’ve nowhere to keep it as yet so getting the bedroom ready might come in handy so that I can use it as a storage space for now.

This evening we had just a couple of little showers and a thunderstorm as a weather front moved across from the East. But I hope this weather keeps up for a while – we need it.

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