POTTERING ABOUT

It has been a bitty sort of a day, a bit of this and a bit of that and I managed to spend some time in the garden,not enough but some. We got off to a rather late start this morning as Pa and I both felt rusty and my son was late home from work. When we did manage to collect ourselves I made lots of lemon pancakes for breakfast and then the day began in earnest.

Until I needed some lemons for the pancakes I had no idea that we had only three left, this would not do of course and so off I went to buy more, while I was at the shop I decided to buy some oranges and apples too, the boys are eating lots of fruit at the moment and keeping the fruit bowl well filled is keeping me busy. I called in at the garden centre on the way back to buy some red Nicotiana plants, they have been quite expensive but now that the sale is on they were half price so I treated to garden to a tray of these beautiful plants. In the centre of the garden is a sundial and around this grows a gorgeous cranes bill which has just finished flowering. If I cut it back now it will by mid August flower again but while it is growing in it will leave an untidy space, it is into this space that I shall plant the Nicotiana. I already have some of the lime green ones and the bees adore them so the new plants should be welcome.

On my return I went out into the vegetable garden where a good deal of work awaited me. I opened up the green house and gave the plants a good going over, taking the side shoots from the tomatoes, adding more sticks for the cucumbers and the sweet potato and pulling the few weeds that had appeared here and there. The tomatoes are doing very well. The trusses are large and promise a good harvest, and most pleasing are the large plum tomatoes which although still in the green look spectacular. Some where in the green house is a plant which has on it yellow tomatoes but I seem to have lost the labels so I can not tell which it is, time will tell of course. These yellow tomatoes are very sweet to eat and certainly brighten up the salad bowl.

Pa and I both love tomato salad so this year I have taken care to grow the basil in the green house and it has worked wonders and as soon as the red tomatoes are ripe we shall be tucking in to our favourite salad with some anti pasto and home made bread.

Tomato salad
6 large red tomatoes, not overripe
a handful of basil chopped
for tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
a good large pinch of sea salt and a few twists of black pepper.

If you want this dish for lunch make it in the morning and keep refrigerated.
Slice the tomatoes, add the basil and salt and leave for fifteen minutes before adding the black pepper and olive oil. If this mixture is allowed to stand for a couple of hours the salt will cause the juice from the tomatoes to mix with the oil to form a delicious dressing. I know some one who adds a few anchovies to the dish, I think it is guiding the lilly but each to his own.
This salad can be eaten with cooked meats of cheeses, I prefer it on its own with some fresh bakes cacciatore bread so nice for lunch of a hot day.

The containers all needed watering which took an absolute age, the sweet peas are doing well now and I pick a fresh bunch for the house every day. Pa loves sweet peas and this year I grew some pale lavender ones to suit his room, the intense fragrance from just a few of these lovely flowers is glorious and fills the whole room with sweetness. Pa loves flowers and so I grow quite a few with him in mind and as his taste resembles that of the bumble bees there is no conflict of interest.
The marigolds are just coming into flower, I grow the old fashioned calendula or pot marigold. We use the petals to flavour rice dishes and I make marigold buns which taste of sunshine and are very good to taste.
Back in the kitchen I prepared a dinner of pork steaks cooked in cider with a miriade of minutely chopped vegetables and served these with our own new potatoes white fleshed and tasting marvellous. The sauce complements the pork with our drowning the subtle flavour of the new potatoes.
Through out the day the sky has been dark and heavy with the promise of a storm to come so I have closed the green house windows this time, perhaps we shall be lucky and it will blow over, who knows?
I have enjoyed my day of pottering, some times it is pleasant not to be committed to a big task, it if quite relaxing to flit from job to job like a butterfly, that way I see more of the harden and have time to notice the tiny changes which have taken place. The peacock butterflies almost totally absent last year have returned in ;large numbers and are now gracing that lavender with their beauty, there are so many that people have been stopping take photographs of these gaudy visitors.
Today I watched a grass snake slip silently from beneath an old metal tray and into the long grass at the bottom of the orchard, I was delighted, Twiggy however was not pleased run up the apple tree at once. Poor puss she hates snakes.