Author Archives: pennygj

Out of the Blue

Today I find myself popping out to the garden to gaze up into the perfect, blemish free, china blue of the sky in amazement. Only last week when Higgins and I were out on a walk I had remarked on the fact that over our rural part of Norfolk there must have been 30 to 40 vapour trails in various stages of decay. The Icelandic volcano is causing all sorts of havoc to so many people, so it’s good to record a positive aspect.

The vegetable garden is still a battle ground, and I am losing. I have a sneaky black and tan garden pest, and a second sowing of salad greens with no labels and scraped up rows. I really thought the polytunnel would be a deterent but for a small animal of the low slung persuasion it seems not…

I ‘ve managed to protect the peas and beans with a cobbled together barrier of chicken wire and bamboo which has worked so far so we’ll see…

Things are growing fast. I photographed the rhubarb and the lovage a week apart…

The lovage is at it’s best when young and tender, by the time it reaches its full height of over 6 feet high the leaves are a little tough. I can’t wait for the rhubarb, I love rhubarb and orange crumble…

I’m plodding on in the studio. I have shelves waiting for Tim’s return next week and that will make a huge difference as I can then shift so much bulk. I’m slowly sorting, sorting…so much has got SO muddled, but it’s nice finding old friends and things I had forgotten about.

I’m still finding time to be a bit creative, bearing in mind the ‘Twenty Minuter’ message. I’ve needle-felted a couple more little birds…

…but when I tried to make a pale pink one it stubbornly insisted on being a pig…

My Tabby Cat and Goldfish now have a shelf to sit on…

Henry and friends donated the whiskers, otherwise he’s solid Merino wool…as is the Blue-haired Lady.

Just as well I’ve recorded the positive side of grounding all aircraft, Tim’s trip back from the ‘office’ next week involves a helicopter so who knows when he’ll get back…

Comfort Eating

It might be sunny but it’s cold, so I’m sitting here at the laptop with a weather eye (and nose) on what is going in the kitchen. Something warming is called for, Leek and Potato soup and the only man to ask is Mr Slater. The Kitchen Diaries is a lovely book for people who grow their own veggies (or aspire to like me) It doesn’t really have set recipes, Nigel tends to wander into the kitchen with a handful of ingredients and say ‘What am I going to do with this lot?’ and I often cook this way anyway, so I’m not too fazed by not having exactly the same ingredients.

I have 2 leeks not three, no butter so a glug of olive oil to soften them for twenty minutes. I’ve just added three peeled and diced potatoes to cook for five minutes before adding about three quartes of a litre of chicken stock, salt and ground black pepper and the magic ingredient, a Parmesan rind to simmer for 40 minutes. Now, Nigel Slater has multiple Parmesan rinds lurking in his fridge and I only generate them one at a time but even that is enough to add a gorgeous richness and depth to the end result. At the end, remove the rind and scrape any gooey melted cheese into the soup, blend till smooth (Nigel throws in chopped fresh parsley at this stage but I don’t have any…hmm, maybe I’ll try sorrel?) check the seasoning, reheat and serve with grated Parmesan.

Oh dear, just checked the timer, another twenty minutes to go and I’m starving…but eventually…

I used a few leaves of lovage in the end, not much as it has quite a strong celery flavour but really added to the depth of flavour. I just added a chunk of homemade sunflower seed bread and feel nicely replete …

And now, the washing up…

Mixed Greens

A short post, typed through gritted teeth…can you type through gritted teeth? When I was young, and naughty (which of course was a very rare occurrence) my mother would say despairingly “I could give you away with half a pound of tea!”

So, puppy, anyone? Very nice tea, Clipper, organic. Very naughty dog though. No-one with any sense would want him, however good the tea.

The crime? Well it’s gardening related. Over at Purple Podded Peas Celia has some excellent staff, Undergardeners par excellence. Weeding, hoeing, pest clearance, manure…they are the business!

Here? Well, the Head Gardener is happy to put in an appearance…

…but is pretty laid back these days.

The Undergardener?

Over enthusiastic and won’t take instruction. Has been given a verbal warning.

After two afternoons spent tidying and clearing the vegetable garden and hoiking the weeds out of the raised beds out came the seed packets to see what I could get going in the one bed I’d had the cover on for a couple of weeks to warm up the soil. I sowed half a bed, salad leaves, chives, spring onions, red spring onions, radishes, carrots…and in pots sowed basil, dill and coriander. Tired by then,and thirsty, I popped in for a well deserved cuppa and came out to…chaos…

The Undergardener had heaved himself on his stumpy little legs over the sleeper which formed the bed, and into the nice, soft, fluffy compost and it’s neat rows of seeds and, well, I don’t know…disco dancing? mining? fossil hunting?

No more neat rows…no more labels…even the labels in the pots had been taken out and chewed…I won’t know if it’s basil, or dill, or coriander until they’ve grown big enough to taste…

So that’s why Higgins is lying in his bed looking worried about the packet of tea. But do you know? In the end my Mum didn’t give me away either….

…and BREATHE…

I feel as if I’ve been holding my breath for months, waiting for this moment. Waiting to open the doors and windows, to let in the sun and fresh air, to wander in and out without a coat…and here we are at last. I don’t want a ‘barbecue summer’, well, not one that will barbecue me, but pleasant warmth, sunshine and light, and just enough rain for the garden (only falling at night please, if we’re having a fantasy lets get it right).

I’m scuttling about a bit at the moment. A little bit of gardening, a little bit of sorting fabrics and yarns, some sewing, some knitting, symptoms of a butterfly brain. So excuse me if this post is a bit like that, I’ll settle down soon.

Firstly, the garden. You’ll excuse me if I don’t take you round the vegetable patch just yet. It needs a little more attention before I show it to visitors. Too many old bean canes and dead flowerpots. I do have lovely raised beds which I talked about in this post, and I have extravagantly enlisted the help of a gardening guru to make it look good enough for a photo shoot.

The wild plum is just bursting into bloom and I love the ‘spottiness’ of the buds just before they open. We started on the last of the wild plum jam on Sunday on warm scones.

In a couple of days it will just be a froth of blossom.

The forsythia is doing it’s thing, quite a bit later this year. Every summer I look at this unprepossessing nondescript shrub filling up the border and nearly give it it’s marching orders, and every spring I forgive it.

There are assorted daffodils…

…and other, less assertive, little lovelies hiding their light under the bushes…

Meanwhile, back in the studio, there is a very different tree…

The little red bird is feeling a trifle lonely now that his pink friend has flown off to live with Elizabeth, I must get felting again.

…and then there is the knitting…

Quite big knitting as Higgins will demonstrate…

The ball has a history – which I’ll tell you about another time – but it’s just had a colour revamp before going off to our local Farmers Market tomorrow where the Knit and Stitch group are hoping to spread the knitting bug, (whilst spoiling ourselves with coffee and and the delicious, and very naughty, bacon rolls.

So, before that happens I must don my wellies and gardening gloves and head back out to the vegetable garden and absorb a little sunshine…

And the winner is…

…a scary thing to do fairly, but I think got it right with a numbered list,

Anne@andamento
Geraldine
Magic Cochin
Thomas
Jen
Aimee
Greedy Nan
Gina
Toffee
Elizabeth Burton
Jacqueline
Hilary
Rachel Fenton
Jane
Eva SB
Vanessa
Jenni
Kate

and the use of a random number generator.

And it’s Elizabeth Burton! Congratulations, Elizabeth, once I have contact details the little bird will be winging it’s way to you as soon as possible.

The next event coming up will be my 100th post so if you were disapointed this time I will be giving away another Planet Penny creation to mark that milestone as well, and if you REALLY can’t wait that long I can link you to a gorgeous giveaway at Silver Pebble. I’ve got my eye on it, so I don’t know really why I’m lengthening the odds this way…

Emma made a special necklace for my daughter’s birthday which was beautiful. No photo alas, but if you visit Emma you will see all the lovely things she makes.

Happy Easter…

Have you eaten enough chocolate yet? I must admit to not having many family Easter traditions in place here on Planet Penny because as a one parent family when the children were small, they would have Christmas with me and Easter with their other family and an Easter egg Hunt for one is a little boring (and also very fattening!) But this Easter just happened to coincide with my daughter’s birthday so an excuse for chocolate and champagne!

A request was made for a very special chocolate cake, as seen on the cover of this month’s Sainsbury’s magazine.

Much agonising from me as I have rather lost my cake baking confidence. Cake and I cannot safely exist in the same space, one of us has to go, and it’s always the cake. I’m afraid all the pep talking from my Weight Watchers guru has not brain washed me into portion control and point counting in these circumstances so I find it easier to confine my baking to those occasions when I have several mouths to feed.

It involves a lot of chocolate and cream and eggs and sugar and melting and cooling and more chocolate (and scraping and licking) oh! and raspberries – now they’re healthy…and in the end there was this…

…which I think worked rather well and was transformed with candles into this…

…and was voted the best chocolate cake ever.

Higgins had an Easter present too, all the way from Korea and very beautifully packed.

Inside was this…

He wasn’t very grateful.

And went to bed to get over it. He was eventually persuaded to get out of bed when he realised he didn’t have to actually have to go out for a walk in it…