Ukrainian dancing

Driving to a 60th anniversary celebration of a Ukrainian old people's home I suddenly remembered lying in the hot sun next to a field of potatoes turning my 11 year old legs red. I was pleased with my sunburn as we were in those days till someone pointed out my white ankle socks. It was a lovely day - the home had put on free food and entertainment which was very nice of them. I wanted to show my son some of his roots. He says he is English. I waiver between envying his certainty of his identity and grief that he feels disconnected from his ancestors. Many of the people at the celebrations are bringing up their kids speaking Ukrainian(they are third generation) but I have taught my children a few words. I speak to them in Ukrainian sometimes but more to stop me losing it. I do find the whole concept of identity confusing. My son watched the concerts - he said he liked the dancing a little bit. The blokes get the best dance moves and boy did they dance well.

I loved the yellow of my son's fried egg sandwich we had at Ally Pally by the boating lake. I pedalled him around in a pedalo boat - not been in one since childhood.

Have had loads more tomatoes - so wet today did not pick them. Used the ones we picked the other day to make delicious pasta sauce.

Holiday and coming home

We have just spent three days in Dorset and have had a brilliant time. We managed to erect our tent for the first time ever with only minor arguments. The kids loved running up and down the hill we were pitched on. For some reason sleeping in tents makes me wide awake. I never have trouble normally falling asleep but put me in a tent I'm like one of those dolls without the moving eyelids. The upside of the insomnia was that I went outside late at night and the sky looked wonderful. I haven't seen so many stars in years. The light pollution in London means that hardly any stars are visible.

My son and his friend were as pleased as punch when they caught this crab. I didn't realise till my husband pointed it out that their reflections are in the bucket with the crab.

This is Durdle Door - I thought it was called doodle doo I think I may have watched too many kids programmes. The arch has been worn away naturally and is made of portland stone. I swam right under it. Until this holiday I had never swum in the sea before. It was invigorating as you can imagine - this being England.

On the way home we stopped at Stonehenge. The most I've seen of it is a glimpse out of the car window on the way back from Cornwall I think. The size of the stones was amazing. You can't get anywhere near them unfortunately. I really wanted to stand in the middle of them and watch the sun rise. They act as a calendar as well as maybe a temple or to chart the stars.

We came home to lots of tomatoes - these are the one's left after I made a pasta sauce. The courgettes at the allotment turned into marrows ARGGHH Desperately searching for recipes to use them.

I entered my beetroots at the local Show and got second place- was very pleased as it's the first time I have entered. Very nice that I one with a veg very important to my Ukrainian heritage.

Recharging my batteries

Spent five days with my family at my in-laws. Very relaxing no cooking, cleaning just relaxing. Have been back home for a few days and have managed not to run around like a headless chicken. Son seems to have warmed greatly to the allotment and is happy to spend hours digging one great big hole. Though he wasn't quite so happy today when his sister started trying to fill it. I'm glad I understand now that the role of the little sister is to irritate. Harvested loads of french beans today. I will blanche them for two minutes,drain, put cold water on them,drain again and spread them on baking trays to put in freezer. Once they are frozen I will bag them. I spread them on trays first as otherwise they end up all stuck together and difficult to use. We have loads of courgettes too so they are finding their way into all sorts of dishes. Neighbour at allotment let our kids harvest their blackberries. They had great fun getting their fingers all red and sticky and they got a fair amount of fruit too! I made a apple and blackberry crumble - yum. Harvested some more onions and garlic and have more potatoes to dig up. The potatoes - called Charlotte are delicious yellow waxy ones. The cucumbers have done well and the kids love them we have long ones and round yellow ones. I must take some photos. We've had a few tomatoes but most of them are still green though some are bright yellow. I didn't buy any yellow ones but it must have the wrong label as they don't look like they'll ever go red. Lettuce is good too as is my lone kale plant. It's a busy and happy time at the allotment.

sunshine and rain

It's so exciting going to the allotment this time of year as things grow so quickly. Spring you spend time waiting for seeds to germinate then protecting the seedlings- everything seems slow then bam in the summer it all takes off. The courgettes are growing on the tails of their flowers, coming quicker than you can eat them. I have lovely cucumbers -variety Passandra that my friend recommended - they never go bitter. I picked some of the beetroot as they are growing too close together. I will boil them in their skins for an hour or two till soft and then eat them. Dug up some more potatoes and garlic too. I need to sow some more carrot as half a row did not germinate. The other row of carrots looks great but not big enough to harvest yet. I started to dig up my broad beans as between the black fly and the squirrels there's nothing left. I am going to put in some more dwarf french beans instead as I love them and that means I'll be able to harvest some later. There's loads of black fly this year (dry weather) but on the plus side less slugs. The ladybird larvae are starting to eat their way through the flies. So nice to see so many ladybirds. The rain held out while I was at the allotment then drenched me completely on the way home. Me and the plants were well watered. (I like the rain)
My friend T came over on Monday and let me take some photos on her camera and emailed them to me. What a treat! After she's gone I realised I'd taken pics of the plants but none of my child but she'd taken some.

Chilean potato climber still flowering months later along with second flush of roses.

Tomatoes yipee!!!

Cosmos

Clematis has turned into wonderful fluffy seed heads

White lavender.

Chatting with like minds

I had such a lovely day today. Saw some people I hadn't seen for years. We talked about how it's taken us decades to realise that mistakes are necessary and how much you lose when you avoid doing things for fear you'll do them wrong. One of the people is the person who started me writing poetry in a determined way. I spent six years churning out fetuses of poems and till this year could not bear to go back to them to see if they could be fully fledged poems. I now have four poems I am pretty happy with. One of the poems was born from some prose I showed to that person years ago to which she replied that it was poetic and had I tried poetry. So today I got the chance to thank her. Tina one of the other people has helped me by reading the poems and encouraging me. Her mum gave me amazing feedback too. Oh and Tina has offered to lend me a camera till the insurance gets sorted. I can't believe how much I've missed taking photos. My garden has white lavender coming into flower. I really love white flowers and I know it probably sounds really weird to not just have purple lavender but there's something so delicate about the tiny white flakes of petals. The broom has gone to seed and they rattle in their pods like a kid's toy. Baby tomatoes growing -yipee.

Poetry, digging and sunny day out

Yipppeee my poem is finally coming up on Everyday poets on the 4th June. It's called British Museum - there's a bit where people can score the poem out of five so that's going to be nerve racking.

Sunday we went to Kew Gardens. These Alium's buds look amazing and they haven't opened yet. Makes me smile to think they are in the same family as onions and leeks.







These Aliums were in the bed next door to the ones above. You can get months of flowering Aliums by choosing different types.







.This bridge is so deceptively simple and beautiful. I like the way people's shadows walk beside them along the bridge.







Me and hubby had a whole afternoon and day while my sister had the kids and we spent it at the allotment. It was hard earthing up the potaoes in the hot sun but we did it! We also built a structure for the beans to grow up - must take a photo of it. The my sickly tomatoes I repotted look great now. I think my friend was right that by overwatering I had leached all the nutriants out of the soil.

allotment

I've had to accept partial defeat with my tomatoes so I've been and bought some from my favourite local nursery. I've put some of my sickly ones in bigger pots and they do seem to have perked up but I can't risk a relapse so needed to get back up plants. I love eating tomatoes straight off the plant -they taste so delicious especially when the sun has warmed them so I don't want to end up with none. My courgettes and cucumbers are looking well - in fact I need to plant them out in the allotment soon as they are rampant. I keep the tomatoes at home as it's nice for the kids to be able to step outside and pick them whenever they fancy. Also blight often sweeps through the allotment destroying the tomatoes. It spreads between potatoes and tomatoes really easily. You can spray the potatoes to stop it. Alternatively you can twist the stem and leaves off the potato plant and burn them (or put it in the rubbish bin) and that stops the blight from travelling down the stem to the potaoes and turning them into mush. Blight travels by spores so is easily blown around. Tomorrow I will try and bring you photos of the currants forming at the allotment. We have black, red and white currants.

Poorly tomatoes

Tragedy -the tomatoes aren't looking too good. I don't know what's wrong with them! Husband thinks I have overwatered them - which is a first for me as I usually forget to water stuff. There is moss growing on compost which is an indicator of too much water(isn't it??). My courgettes and cucumbers seem ok as i keep forgetting to water them.

I entered a writing competition a while ago on the net and was rather disappointed to find I had not won. I got to the first round - which is better than I've ever done before but I do feel rather deflated as I was convinced this was the one. Oh well back to the blank page. Happy writing and gardening everyone!

seed sowing

Yesterday I washed loads of pots and sterilised them in dishwasher ready for some serious seed sowing. Then I sowed some tumbling tomatoes in a modular tray. The try comes with a plastic roof which keeps the seeds warm and helps them germinate. I then filled some 3 inch pots with multipurpose compost and sowed one cucumber seed in each pot. They say to do two seeds in each and after they grow into seedlings pull out the weedier looking one but I find it really hard to do that. So I am just gonna try one in each. I did two types of cucumber - the first one is called Crystal Apple and they are lovely - my friend introduced me to them years ago and I keep growing them. They are weird looking as they are yellow and round. You have to harvest them when they are the size of duck eggs(yeah I didn't know how big that was but evidently they are a bit bigger than hen eggs) and before they turn orange coz they taste horrid then. The Crystal Apple cucumber is so nice that my friend who hates cucumbers loved it - almost like melon it tastes. I also sowed cucumber Pasandra (more like your regular cucumber)as they are never bitter my friend said. Last year I grew Cucumber masterpiece and was not impressed with the taste as bitter - someone said it's coz of the sex of the flowers but unfortunately I can't remember what they said to do to avoid them being bitter so i have just avoided that particular cucumber instead. I labelled the pots - unusual for me to be that organised but i did get a load of labels and pen for my birthday so decided to be good. Parsley seedlings still alive!!!! Hoorah - am managing to keep them moist not drowned. Through the post I got a five pound thompson and morgan seeds voucher - very pleased with that so I ordered some mixed lettuces and green dwarf beans as only seem to have purple ones and some chocolate coloured cornflowers. I seem to have a slight obsession with chocolate flowers. It started with some chocolate cosmos flowers i bought a few years back. They smell like chocolate and are a gorgeous dark dark crimson in sunlight and chocolate colour when it's cloudy. They are so beautiful but are not hardy. I never have the heart to dig them up while they are still flowering so the frost ends up killing them, so I end up buying new ones each year. I should put them in a pot really so that I can easily move them out of the cold.

Tomatoes in the Big Issue

For those of you reading in Britain the Big Issue (a magazine sold by and to help homeless people) has a guide on growing tomato seeds this week so buy it if you get a chance. It also has a fascinating piece on people who plant veg and fruit in public places so anyone can benefit from them.

I have had some pea casualties. I planted them out before the snows and put them under plastic tubs which were too flimsy as let cold in. I have put some pea seeds in existing pots of shrubs and will see if they germinate.

Here's my hexagon of herbs. The long stick things are the bronze fennel that has died back. I like chewing the seeds - they are anaseed flavoured- good for stomach upsets. The bay is in the middle and golden marjoram behind it. The golden margoram is low at the moment but will bush back up lovely and goldy limey coloured. Lemon balm on left needs cutting back and it spreads like made but the bees love it so good for encouraging insects in to pollonate the plants. You can't see the purple sage but it's they - lovely colour when it gets going.

Lavender on left - I love it. Some people use it with lamb instead of rosemary. On right of lavender is the rosemary - lovely with lamb and in stews.