Monday 24 October 2016

Getting chilli


Did you see what I did there, chilli instead of chilly? I have to admit it's well and truly autumn now. I spent Sunday clearing away most of the tomato plants from my greenhouse. These are the very last ones along with the first of the chilli peppers. It's years since I had a greenhouse and I confess I'd forgotton what a long growing season they need! The plants are still in the greenhouse, I'm hopeful I will get some more.

I was late sowing everything earlier in the year. With the amount of time we spent with my parents whilst my dad was so ill, gardening got little time assigned to it. 


I've also left the three Marmande plants in the hope that the tomatoes may still ripen, they're looking promising! 


Another thing that lost me time this year was stopping the blimmin' pigeons that kept pulling up seedlings and shredding leaves. I rigged up a complicated protection cage with plastic pots on the ends of canes and netting attached to the sides of the raised beds. It looked a mess and took so long to remove and replace it, I really lost heart with weeding and sowing in the vegetable plot and just got on with the landscaping of the rest of the garden.

As a solution to the pigeons MTM has made me these really great wire mesh cloches to protect my crops. They just lift on and off .... simples! The one above is finished, and is protecting a double row of newly sown broad beans (Aquadulce). The other three below are just awaiting the mesh to be added which I can do myself do next weekend.


I am rather nifty with a stapler gun, must be all those years I spent working in offices! 

Monday 17 October 2016

First pomegranite of the season!


I had my first pomegranite this year while we were on holiday last week. The village where we stayed (Bamburgh in Northumberland) has an excellent greengrocers and they had my favourite small variety. The ones that are later in the year that the supermarkets do are bigger and not nearly so nice.

We had mixed weather. It was really nice the day the first time we went to reaquaint ourselves with the white stag on White Rock.


Beautiful reflection.

Watching the waves, so peaceful


In the best company (of course!) 


We both got new boots before we went away.



MTM discovered that the security tag was still on his and he'd been walking around all day with it attached to him. Anyone seeing it must've thought we were shoplifters!



Sun was going down when we left the beach.


The moon was even out!


Missy always has a short walk before bedtime. The castle was all lit up! 


It looks quite spooky! 


Ghostly figure on the castle wall




I got a new camera for Christmas, I'm still getting to grips with it ... what does this button do?!!


Another lovely day, walk that started at the Ship Inn. Newton by the Sea


En route to Dustanburgh Castle. 


Stopped and ate our picnic lunch in this nice little suntrap. Missy is hunting crumbs from Mr Carter's steak pies


MTM is just chillin' in the sun.


It's a lovely spot overlooking Dustanburgh Castle ruins.


Clouding over a bit at this stage of the day ...


But by the time we got back to the car, we had well and truly been rained on! Missy was drenched, bless her! 


She didn't seem to mind too much, as long as there was a doggy treat for her in my pocket.


Another nice day, this time starting at Newton by the Sea but going towards Football Hole and Beadnell. 









On Wednesday, we went to Warkworth. It was dry when we set off ...


When the rain started pelting down, we took refuge in the boatman's shelter by the jetty. Can you see the tiny birds' nest in this pic?


We'll sit it out .... I spy with my little eye, something beginning with R ....


Aha! It's stopped :-)


Um no, it hasn't! Time to retreat into the Fenwick Gallery for a look-see.


This is some rendering at the bottom of Bamburgh Castle, they appear to have just gone over the rock probably to stabilise it and stop it deteriorating any further.


The shapes are so organic, we imagined they were faces of all the people thrown in the dungeons of the castle, their souls are trying to get free ...(very creepy thought!)  more spooky stuff at the Castle!





Another rainy day on Thursday so went to Alnwick to do a spot of shopping. Can't pass a yarn shop when you're a crochet and knitting nut can you?! I'd taken my Sue Pinner Carousel Crochet-A-Long project on holiday to do but somehow I left Raspberry behind at home. I was so pleased to find they stocked Stylecraft Batik because I got two more balls from the Wool Shop.


This was the main reason for our visit to Alnwick. We can spend hours in Barter Books, one of the largest second hand bookshops in Europe. Missy is so well behaved, despite it being quite a boring place for her. Here she is thinking "Is dad going to pick up every single book in the place with an aeroplane in it?!"



And here she is, having resigned herself to the fact that the answer to that question is "Yes!"


Seahouses harbour. Looking for the seafood shop to buy some shellfish for dinner.



A new piece of driftwood has appeared on Bamburgh beach since we were last here. A huge piece of tree root



Up to Stag Rock again.




Bamburgh Castle looking very atmostpheric.




Watching the waves again. There were also five cormorants fishing for their dinner. Could've watched them for hours (in fact we did!) They're just little black dots on the pics, really should've taken some long lenses to get some close ups.


This picture is to remind us that when we buy our touring VW camper van, this is the maximum height we can go to stop in the car parks at Bamburgh! 


So that's it for another year, we had a lovely holiday. See you in 2017, Bamburgh!