Tag Archives: tarragon

Thursday 28th June 2012 – ONE OF THE REASONS …

… and there are many of them, to be sure, as to why I keep a blog is that I can refer back to it and find out when I did something.

I forget all too easily these days what I’ve been up to and when I was up to it – and just remember, before you start laughing, that you will be as old as me too one of these days too.

So I looked back and found that it was exactly a week ago today that I planted the courgette, cucumber, gherkin etc seeds, and sowed some lettuce seed in pots.

And while I was sorting out the herb buckets (those nice heaps of oregano and tarragon have gone – cut down now and hanging up to dry in my attic) I happened to notice that the lettuce were growing.

Blimey! That was quick!

So they had a really good watering, and they need it too in this heat.

And so, out of curiosity, I went to look at the beds where I had planted the courgette etc seeds.

And guess what?

Absolutely! They are rearing their pretty little heads too.

There’s even some beetroot from what I planted a week earlier, but the carrots are once again doing nothing at all.

Anyway, it seems to be all go in the garden again.

I didn’t manage an early start today, unfortunately. It was so hot that at 03:00 I was still up and about and I would probably still be flat out on my back right now if a hornet hadn’t come in at about 08:45 and chased me around the bedroom.

Still, makes a change from Percy Penguin, who doesn’t feature in these pages half as much as she deserves, chasing me around the bedroom.

This afternoon I started to draw up the plans for the next stage of construction work, and began to make a list of the bits that I need. Right on cue, Rosemary rang me up and asked if I would be interested in going to the Brico Depot in Montlucon.

Seeing as how it won’t be very easy getting all of this wood onto Caliburn’s roof rack all on my own, and it’s no skin off my nose whether I go tomorrow or Saturday.

And when I heard that half a day’s gardening was the reward on offer, then that was it, mercenary that I am. It’s a good job I emptied out Caliburn yesterday, wasn’t it?

In between the surveying I dragged out the tabletop washing machine and did a load of washing seeing as I had a pile to do, it was gorgeous and warm, and the water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load for the surplus solar energy was at 60.5°C.

To finish off the day I treated myself to yet another solar shower seeing the temperature of the water in the black plastic solar hearing box had reached 41.5°C. And that was gorgeous too

It’s all go here right now, isn’t it?

    

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Tuesday 19th June 2012 – WE’RE BACK …

… in winter again§

Yes, folks. it’s been raining for most of the day. And quite heavily too at times. To such an extent that sod the shelving! I’m going to build myself an ark!

But not so heavy that I couldn’t nip down the garden and see what was happening in the vegetable plots.

indian corn sweetcorn les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd here’s a complete surprise.

If you look very closely at this photo you will see a pile of light green shoots rearing their ugly heads – or rather their very pretty heads – through the soil.

Yes indeed, the Indian corn that I had brought back from Canada and for which I paid just 33 cents for a packet, has burst into life in a major way and this is so impressive.

I planted them very closely together thinking that I would be lucky to have half a dozen but it seems that almost all of them have come to life. This is so impressive.

Even more bizarrely, the bean plants that grew this year, all … errr … four of them, all of which looked a short while ago like they would be struggling to survive, have burst into life as well.

They seem to be throwing tentacles everywhere too. Not has-beans by any means!

In fact later this morning after I had finished on the laptop, I went to gather some wood to make a climbing frame for them, but I was beaten back by the rain. That will have to wait for another day

After lunch, seeing as it wasn’t possible to work outside, I mixed a pile of polyfilla and sealed all of the joints and screws on the plasterboard walls of my little cupboard. I want to crack on with that.

The plan is next to sand it all down again, add another layer of polyfilla, sand that down, paint the walls with some of that cheap pinky-orange indoor crepi stuff that I bought ages ago, lay the flooring, and then build some shelves in there.

That will give me a place to put everything and hopefully tidy up a pile of stuff out of the way so that I can continue in the bedroom and the shower room.

I hadn’t finished either.

dried herbs mint lemon balm tarragon rosemary tansy les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou may remember that last summer I cut down a pile of herbs and hung them up to dry in the attic, where they have been simmering away for the last 10 or 11 months.

Today I decided to pot them all.

The chives didn’t work. That was just like dry grass, but the mint, lemon balm, tarragon, rosemary and tansy worked fine and now they are all in jars.

The lemon balm smells gorgeous, it really does. I just wish I knew what to do with it now Maybe sprinkle some of it on a salad – I dunno.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to Rosemary’s. She needs help tidying out her barn and seeing as my house door will be living there for a while it seemed only fair enough that I should help her make the space.

In exchange she’s offered to come round for an afternoon next week and help me weed my garden.

That should be fun. I often lack motivation when I’m on my own. Two of us doing it should accelerate things quite nicely.

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Wednesday 13th June 2012 – BLIMEY!

This is early!

But I’ve finished everything that I need to do and I’m not sure now how to go about killing time until later. I might even go and have an early night just for a change.

And I’m not sure what’s going on either, because if anyone were to ask me what is it that I’ve done today, the response would effectively be “badger all”!

It all started to go wrong when the alarm clocks rang this morning. “Just another 5 minutes” I said to myself, and the next thing that I knew was that it was 09:40.

Mind you, the weather was gorgeous at that time of the morning and so I profited by having a leisurely breakfast – interrupted by a knock on the door. That was Liz, who had brought back the rest of the washing that I had left there on Monday.

As a reward, she departed with some oregano and tarragon, because all of that is going berserk at the moment.

But that reminded me – the washing that I did on Monday was still in a plastic bag in Caliburn and so seeing as it was a lovely day, I hung that out to finish off drying.

And wasn’t that a big mistake? Cue the big black rain cloud and that was that.

And while I was discussing the washing situation with myself the phone rang. Rosemary – “they can’t fix the wheel on my car today and seeing as I’m at a loose end I’ll come round and help you do some weeding”.

That led to a hasty tidying up and so on around here. Must exhibit some dignity and pride.

But of course when Rosemary arrived she brought with her a few more rain clouds and so we sat around drinking coffee and chatting for most of the afternoon. And she also departed with some oregano and tarragon.

I have a great deal of work to do and I cant really spare the time to lounge around but nevertheless time spent with friends is never wasted. I’ll just have to work twice as hard tomorrow, won’t I?

And thanks, Joy, for your little note about the spray bottles for the vinegar mix. I’ll give that a go when (if ever) the weather dries up. It’s too wet for anything right now.

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