 Enviromesh and Mushroom Crates to discourage Brush from rummaging! 3 August 2025 (Sunday) It's Sunday afternoon, and I finally feel as though I've got a little bit of time to myself to sit down and put some words to paper or combat as I've said before, fingers to keys... though in reality much of what I write I actually dictate into my phone first, and then sit down at my keyboard at my desk and check through and amend, and hopefully make better. Some of you have said in your responses and comments to my writing that it feels as if we’re sitting in a room together and chatting away, and maybe this is why it feels that way because much of what I do right is either dictated or comes from my head in terms of how I usually talk. Anyway… The week has been another busy one, though it's also being productive in very many ways; when editing A Week at the Plot I was really surprised by just how much had gotten done at the plot, on top of all that happened elsewhere... Towards the end of the week, and particularly on Friday morning I was really feeling that my mojo for the plot was beginning to escape from me. I think it's down to the fact that our lives are actually rather busy, and also that a good chunk of my head space is elsewhere; 40 miles away in Surrey at For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn. I might only visit once a week or once a fortnight, though my job is to ensure that things always go smoothly for both organisations, and there's an awful lot that falls on my shoulders which is absolutely fine because that is what I’m paid by Vanessa to do.
This week, having had a day on Monday of doing stuff at the plot, and particularly in harvesting Anya first early potatoes (albeit I was harvesting them rather late!), which I couldn't remember the name of, and Tuesday being very very much a desk day as Monday morning was for me, I was down at For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn on Wednesday to do what I normally do. Any day down there is always full on, as there’s always a lot to get through, and this week, despite the rather relentless and never ending roadworks of the A3 and M25, turned out to be a pretty positive and productive day. A person who used to volunteer in the shop quite a few years ago has recently moved, with his wife, to the house next door to For Earth’s Sake and they’ve decided that they’d like to both volunteer time in the shop. It's been mutually agreed that they’ll do Wednesday, which is a particularly busy day in the shop, not necessarily because of customers but because it's the first day of the week the shop is open, and much stock arrives on Tuesday and Wednesday and that all needs to be checked and put out into the shop on Wednesday morning. Also, the organic fruit and veg, usually ordered on a Monday or Tuesday, will also arrive on Wednesday morning so that all needs to be checked, sorted and then put on display. With dispensable items, if stock’s been low and we have a delivery of 20Kg of this or 12.67Kg of that, then the big dispensers need to be checked, and topped up - and some of these bags can be quite heavy and not easily manhandled! Now the stock is basically controlled both visually and online, with me doing the online bit. We’ve only been keep stock levels electronically for the past six months… which I know sounds a bit odd, but time did not allow previously. As we get deliveries, I check online to ensure that what’s arrived is what we’ve ordered, doing so from the supplier’s online docket for the delivery, and I add to the stock level accordingly. When we started doing this many dispensers already had the produce in them, so we had to guess the weight - as time’s gone by the online stock check is getting more and more accurate as if we run out of an item completely, and then by 20 kilos of it, we know that we have 20 kilos of stock. As things get scanned through the till, the weight of dispensable items is taken off the amount of stock that we have, so basically our online stock is pretty accurate now… which is a boon! Anyway, we now have two additional volunteers on a Wednesday, and that will help an awful lot. It was also lovely to meet the two of them, one of whom I had met once before… and I have to say that both were excellent and by the end of the day the shop was in an even better condition than it was at the beginning of sales at 9:30! In the afternoon, with the shop and its customers being taken care of, Vanessa and I were able to sit down and plan things for events happening at the Great Green Barn, particularly the theatre and shows and crafting that we are presenting ourselves, and we also talked to Nik about the work that’s planned to be done during the two-week break that For Earth’s Sake has coming up. The three of us then went over to look at the parking area outside of the shop - it acts as parking for both the shop and the barn, and it can often look rather untidy. Plans and timelines have now been set to determine better use of the space and more ‘hidden’ storage options, as we have a hope that by next year we’ll have a dedicated area next to the shop that will be a really lovely area to sit down and have coffee, tea and cake and possibly some hot snacks as well. The thing with For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn is that there's always new ideas coming along, and that's fine and dandy by me. I do find that a day down at Vanessa is very tiring - early morning start, longish drive down, full on long day of working, longish drive back - and the following day I'm usually feeling a little exhausted and lacklustre. However, this week it also fed into me being a little down about the work that was needed at the plot… and when I went down on Thursday afternoon to do things, the humidity was so high that I just felt exhausted and came back home, determined to go down on Friday and really get my act together. However, on Friday morning I just didn't feel like doing anything, and when I say I didn't feel like doing anything I don't mean that there was nothing to do and I didn't do anything, what I mean is I didn't feel like doing the extra things that I needed to do at the plot… but down I went, and with a good bit of seed sowing and a few harvests under my belt, by the end of two or three hours down there I felt that I’d draw my mojo back in… Yay!! Saturday saw me down at the plot again, having recorded Sunday Chat in the morning. I was determined to sow two types of carrot in a raised bed where I’d harvested the potatoes earlier in the week. The bed had been well forked over in the proceeding days, and raked level, though Brush, our resident fox who I've only actually seen once this year, always likes a fresh made bed and he’d obviously decided to give it a little bit of a grubbing up - divots in two areas and paw prints all over - maybe he had been dancing with a lady friend under the moonlit sky?  Cinquefoil - or Potentilla reptans, though my common name 'Pain in the Arse' is more apt! So, this meant that my first job Saturday afternoon was to use my rake to level things off again before I could put in the drills and sow the seeds of the Amsterdam Forcing and Autumn King carrots. I knew that I'd have to tackle the Cinquefoil, the bain of my life on the plot, though with a storm on the way, Storm Floris, I thought I'd get on with this job next week rather than this weekend… though when I got down this morning, Sunday, I started on the Cinquefoil. It really is such a pernicious weed, and I would MUCH rather have bindweed or couch grass any day. It's a relation to the strawberry, being a Potentilla, and it sends out a significant number of runners which can root at every single node. Its botanical name is Potentilla reptans, and despite having a lovely flower the common name I have for it is ‘Pain in the Arse’. On my kneeler, with fork in hand and obviously gloves on, over a two-hour period I pulled out 16 kilograms of this pernicious weed; plant, deep roots and runners. All came home with me in a black sack and was emptied into our green waste bin which will be collected tomorrow morning by the council - and good riddance to that lot… only about another tonne to go! Back home and Richard was making lunch - our first home-grown (well, allotment grown!) Cheese & Tomato on toast… OMG… it was delicious!!! It will be a little segment in Richard’s vlog so please look out for that as the lusciouness was eaten rather swiftly, with no photo by me or Richard taken - though Richard did do a little video! It’s now mid-afternoon on Sunday, and I'm looking over the books that I've read over the past few weeks and the one that I've just started yesterday. I've just finished Felicity Cloake’s One More Croissant for the Road which the fabulous Vivi gave me well over a year ago. It's a book that is broken up into chapters of the different legs of Felicity’s cycling journey through France, tasting the gastronomy as she went village by village, town by town and city by city. Because of this, it's been a book which has been on my bedside for quite a while, and when I finish one of my thriller or murder mystery books, I then pick it up and read a few chapters before diving into a new book of my usual genre… and then picking it up again once I finish that book, and on and on… Now, with Felicity Cloake over the line and back in Paris, the book is finished. I have to say I’ve rather enjoyed reading it. I'm not a great fan of all travelogues, though I do like ones that grab me. Having read further investigations by The Observer I remember that The Salt Path did so when I started reading it, though after maybe 20, or 30, or 40 pages, maybe even 50 pages I began to feel that it was a bit too victim-based for me. In my life, when times have been tough, I've often found that people have been extremely helpful and welcoming and happy to give advice and assistance where needed or asked for… with Raynor and Moth, they seemed to have a very different journey… Anyway, I do highly recommend Felicity Cloake’s One More Croissant for the Road as it's informative, fun, and talks a lot about food, AND has recipes - what’s not to like!!! My new book’s by Lucy Foley, of which I've read three of her other books. This one’s called The Midnight Feast, and so far I'm only a few chapters in… and absolutely loving it!!
Weather: It feels as though summer’s come to an end… Today there are a few sunny spells though it’s largely overcast, a few light rainshowers, and quite a breeze. Storm Floris is on its way!! Breakfast: All Bran, Yogurt and a little oat milk Lunch: Cheese & Allotment Grown Tomatoes on Toast - YUM!!! Supper: Microwave Tomato Sauce with Penne & Salad - recipe to come!!!
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 1 July 2025 (Tuesday) A new month, and as Buster Poindexter (aka David Johansen) would sing, “It’s feeling HOT, HOT, HOT!” The high of 34° yesterday dissipated little overnight, and I think we started with about 27°, and it was forecast to get hotter. Richard had opened the windows to let the cooler air of the day in, though they were never going to be open that long. It was All Bran for breakfast, which felt a delight. Despite all the good or excellent food we had over the weekend, it was good to get back to normal, and get back in to our usual routine… one of which is All Bran or Bran Sticks for breakfast. They, and the rest of our diet, keep us regular, in more ways than one! It was a necessary desk morning with work work. catching up a little and also getting on with the usual routines - checking delivery notes, trade prices, our retail price, does anything need to go up, or down… and this week, sadly, it is organic apricots that needed to go up. The wholesale price for For Earth’s Sake has risen by about 80% since we last bought them, which was not a long time ago, and of course if the price we buy at goes up, the price we sell at needs to go up too! We’ve seen huge rises in various nuts over the past month or six weeks; organic Brazil nuts have doubled in price, and we’re only buying broken ones at present, as we just don’t think customers will buy whole Brazil nuts at the price that we’d now need to charge. Chocolate buttons, a high-end and high-provenance favourite have also gone up again… poor harvests and therefore higher costs of the raw product, and also maybe additional labour costs too with the rise in the side of National Insurance employees now pay since the beginning of April, following Labour’s budget changes. Small cost rises are often swallowed by SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises, i.e. companies), reducing their margins, but often now the price just needs to rise… With much done at my desk for both For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn, it was time for a cooling lunch, an hour or so more work work, then time to get to the plot… with the heat now touching 34° again. There was a breeze, which I was grateful for, though much watering was needed; some of the taller tomatoes looked as though they were suffering. Of course, with heat comes evaporation of ponds so I also needed to top up various of our ponds on the plot. Hopefully happy frogs etc will munch on more snails etc. I also finished off Monday’s segment of A Week at the Plot, as when I was filming yesterday, my phone decided it was overheating and switched itself off for safety reasons… so it was hot! With today being no different, even possibly hotter, I kept my phone, which I use to film the segments of A Week at the Plot, very much in the shade when not being used… though even in the shade it was 34°. Back home, and supper needed to be made - a ‘no cook’ meal, though maybe ‘little cook’ would be more truthful as I had to soak the coarse bulgur wheat in boiling water from the kettle, and then give it five minutes in the microwave. Richard opened the back doors as the temperature lessened, and cooling air came in, mainly due to the number of heat sheltering trees and shrubs we have in our garden - I hate to be any of our ‘plastic grass’ neighbours on days like this… or maybe any day! We read things on our phones in the evening, and I started a new book; Peter James I Follow You. I’ve read his books for decades and have usually really liked or loved them, though this one just didn’t do it for me; in fact I gave up on it after only twenty or thirty pages, I just didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. Fortunately, our subscriber Nettie had sent me a book by an author I had not read - Steve Cavanagh and the book is called Twisted. Within the first page I was engaged… I don’t think it’s the last book I’ll read by this new-to-me writer!  Bulgur Pesto Salad I soaked a cup of coarse bulgur wheat in boiling water from the kettle for an hour - ratio one bulgur to 1.5 boiling water. I covered the heat-proof bowl with a dinner plate. I then stirred it and microwaved it for 5 minutes, carefully with oven gloves, took it from the microwave, stirred it, added the plate back on and then left it to rest for ten minutes. I had made enough for two salads so after about 20 minutes of resting time I put half in a plastic container for another day, and the other half I left covered with a tea towel to cool a bit more, pushing the grains up the edge of the bowl to increase surface area (as it will cool quicker this way). After about thirty minutes I then stirred all again and popped in the fridge to chill down. After about half-an-hour, I added a chunkily chopped yellow courgette (use whatever colour you wish - or something else you like!), a few handfuls of frozen peas and one of broad beans that I’d defrosted by soaking in boiling water from the kettle for ten minutes, draining and then drying in a clean tea towel to ensure they had as little liquid as possible in them. I then popped into the bowl a few rounded dessert spoons of bought green pesto, shredded basil leaves (about twenty medium sized ones), a few teaspoons of bought mayonnaise (or use thick yogurt), and about two dessert spoons of lemon juice. I stirred it all together and then chilled again in the fridge for about half an hour. As with many of our recipes, if we don’t have something we add what we do have. A red pepper would have been nice, or even a green or yellow one. Mushrooms finely sliced would be great, and sliced radish… just be mindful of how flavours fit with each other, and don't be afraid to try something out, if it doesn't work out you won't do it again, though I'm sure what you've made is still edible, and you've learned. Weather: Hot from the off, and got hotter through the day. 34° or even a degree more. Overnight was to be just shy of 30°. Breakfast: All Bran, Yogurt and a little oat milk Lunch: Egg Mayonnaise, Ryvita Dark Rye, radish, cucumber and a few olives Supper: Hummus, ‘no cook’ Bulgur Salad, lettuce and olives
8 June 2025 (Sunday)
Both up early - and overall a quiet day. I started the day finishing the edit for A Week at the Plot, then went to the plot for a few hours mid-morning - I just weeded, tidied, and checked on things. At home, Richard did a video of a Warm Chickpea & Couscous Salad (YouTube video now up!), which we had for lunch when I got home and which I was ready for - it filled a gap in a very tasty and healthy way. Whilst Richard had a nap, I did some desk work work, then put the hot water on to have a nice bath, something I have been wanting to do for ages! After his nap, Richard edited his cookery video and I read my book, Peter James Picture You Dead which I’ve found a tad long and convoluted, and got confused between a few names and characters, though I am getting through it. With the warm salad for lunch I made Butter Bean Smash Wraps for supper… Butter Bean Smash Wraps I drained a tin of butter beans, discarding the liquid (aquafaba - yes I know I COULD use it for something, though today I won’t) and put them in a flattish bowl, so that I could mash half of them. Then in went half a red onion diced, two sticks of celery diced, one dessert spoon of miso paste, and a ¼ teaspoon bouillon powder. I mixed these all together with the fork I used to mash the beans. Next, in went two two-inch long gherkins, chopped relatively finely, about a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice and the same of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (use soy sauce or whatever liquid aminos you have), and one tablespoon of yeast flakes, then mixed all together. Finally two rounded tablespoons of mayonnaise, and I gave it all a good mix. I warmed four wraps for 30 seconds in our microwave, then filled each wrap with several lettuce leaves with a quarter of the mixture heaped on top, and then rolled the wraps up, tucking one end in. Weather: Brighter than yesterday, though feeling quite chilly still, especially in the breeze. Breakfast: Rye loaf toast, Flora ProActiv. Yeast extract and peanut butter Lunch: Richard’s Warm Chickpea & Couscous Salad Supper: Butterbean Smash Wraps  27, 28, 29 & 30 May 2025 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) I'm not quite sure where the last four days have gone, and in this time I've also broken my stretch of writing something every day. My aim this year has been to write something every day in terms of creative writing, rather than writing for my work or work work. Until this week, that had happened. It might not have been many words, though as part of this blog it was some words. For some reason for the past four days I just haven't written. I could say that it's because I haven't had time, though that sort of wouldn’t be true. I could say that it was because I've been extremely busy, and even though this is true I'm sure I could have found time for a few words each day. So what is the real reason? I guess the real reason is that my head just hasn’t been in the space to do it, and free time hasn’t presented itself enough to allow my head to be in this space. There’ve been times where I've just sat and thought about things, or watched TV to unwind, or been traveling in a car where I could have made notes at a toilet break, though I didn't. Yes, the real reason is that my head just wasn't there. Tuesday was very much a day of work work, and with Gerald Dickens being at the Great Green Barn at the end of the week there were things to do again for that, which I got done. We also had a delivery from Morrison's in the afternoon, after which I went to the plot to tidy away the plants from the Gate Sale on my plot, though it started raining, so… I sowed some Cheeky Prince seeds instead. Wednesday was a work work day too, and I was up early and driving down to Vanessa. Despite it being half-term, it still took almost two hours to get down there. Of course, as per usual, it was a full, full day both with stuff to do in the shop and thinking about things for the Great Green Barn and the weekend, though we did have time to sit outside for lunch on Vanessa's new terrace and have an omelette with some toast, salad leaves and cherry tomatoes. Thursday again seemed to vanish. I was down early at the plot to water and check on things in a neighbouring plotter’s greenhouse (as she’s away and I promised I would!), and then got back home, had a meds review by phone and did work work at my desk. After lunch, and a chat with Vanessa, I got down to the plot again and sorted and tidied most of the plants on my plot leftover from the Gate Sale, and cleared the bed that had had chard and beetroot this year. I'd let this bed get completely overgrown, which was against my plan this year of not letting too much nature take hold. However, with a good bit of effort that bed of flowering chard and one beetroot, a self-seeded mallow and a chicory that was about to flower is now cleared, and so something can go into it. Friday again was busy, and an early start, this time at my desk. Each time we have an event at the Great Green Barn we send each person that’s booked details of where to park and how they walk across to the theatre space. It also has details of what time doors open, the bar serving wine and soft drinks and some nibbles available before the show and at the interval, and what time the event is likely to end. Each of these is personalised and I’ve not worked out how to do a mail merge on Outlook. I've used Outlook for decades now, and I've still not worked out how to do a mail merge. When we're sending out newsletters, they go out via MailChimp, though I don't think I can do this without segmenting the list or adding them as separate list, which I don't think I can do without paying more. So, on Outlook it's currently a bit of a copy and paste job, though it doesn't take too long. As we’ve a busy weekend ahead, we'd decided to record Sunday Chat today rather than tomorrow, though Richard also wants to try a recipe - a Puttanesca sauce - this morning and film it, and I've got stuff to do at my desk first thing and then an important job to get done at the Post Office Almost a week’s gone by from our Gate Sale, and the donations have been rolling in for the leftover plants that have been by our communal shed. I've waited until now to pay in the cash taken; I’ll pay it into our allotment association's high street bank account via the Post Office as I did last year - though I also seem to remember that there was an issue last year in doing this, though I can’t think what it was… Anyway, I pop off up the road to the Post Office with all of the cash counted out, the paying-in-book written up and the card that we have for the allotment association's bank account. I hand the money over, which is now well over £700, to the usual lady at the Post Office who’s always extremely chatty and smiley and helpful. When I pop in the card for our bank account, for whatever reason it doesn't allow whatever needs to happen to happen for the money to be automatically paid in. For some reason, the Post Office system also can't find our account. So, I decided that it’s best to pay the cash into my own account… although I've left my own bank card at home, I have to go back home to get the card, to go back to the Post Office and put my card into the machine so that the Post Office lady can pay the money into my account. As I do this, I remember we had to do the same last year… Back at home, I transfer the sum that's just been paid into my account into the account of our allotment association. I then log on at my desk to make sure that the sum has arrived in the account, and also notice that the credit card payments that we’d taken have gone into the account, less the percentage transaction that gets taken by the card company. I then sent a WhatsApp message to the chair of the allotment association and also to another of the committee members, just to let them know that money has been paid into the account, how it's been paid in, and what the total take for the Gate Sale is, which is now over £810. I know that there's about £5 of loose change in the commonal shed jar, and by the time I get to the plot in the afternoon, checking the jar on the way, I notice a £10 note in there which I take out. Any money that now comes in I'll just transfer across from my own bank account, and keep the cash at home; it's unlikely to be more than another £20 or so. At the plot, I carry on weeding. Today, weeding is of the long bed that’s going to have the tomato plants, and also a bed by the poly. I also check on the wheels of a pull along trolley that we have, taking the code number from the side of the tyre, which I think is size and diameter or something like that. Two of the wheels have been broken for quite a while and it's well past the date to replace them. As I don't know much about wheels on trolleys, I put a message on our WhatsApp group define out whether the wheels need to come off or whether the inner tube and tyre can be added without the wheel being removed, and another plotter comes back with the answer that I need to ensure all can be fitted correctly. Back at home, Richard did a Live at 6pm, and as it was nearing the hour mark I put the oven on as we were going to have a quick supper of smoked tofu and red kidney bean burgos from the freezer, frozen oven chips and salad. The evening was a bit of a chilling out session with several old episodes of Top of the Pops, and then an average episode of Have I Got News For You. Early to bed as it's a full day tomorrow, and a couple of chapters of my book, which at the moment is Peter James's Picture You Dead. Tuesday 27 May Weather: Wet start, middle and end, and very breezy. Around 15°, though feeling cooler. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and some mixed nuts Lunch: Richard's Easy Vegetable Curry with Brown Rice Supper: Scrambled eggs, tinned baked beans and a slice of rye bread  Richard's Easy Vegetable Curry Wednesday 28 May Weather: Wet first thing though drying later with a strong breeze, and temps around 17/°. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and banana Lunch: Vanessa Omelette, cherry tomatoes, salad leaves and toast Supper: Richard's Easy Vegetable Curry with Brown Rice Thursday 29 May Weather: Rooves damp at the beginning of the day, though no rain and a drying breeze. Temps around 20°. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and banana Lunch: Egg Mayonnaise, crackers, cucumber, radish and some olives Supper: Richard's Puttanesca Sauce with wholewheat spaghetti and grated Cheddar
Friday 30 May
Weather: Grey with sunny spells, yet still breezy. Around 22°. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and banana Lunch: Cheddar wraps with lettuce and homemade coleslaw Supper: Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Beans Burgers from the freezer, oven chips, lettuce, cucumber, radish and some olives.  26 April 2025 (Saturday)
We were both up early; me at my desk very early to edit together yesterday's A Week at the Plot footage and upload to Planet Vegetaria. Sunday Chat filming day, and whilst Richard started editing it together I made lunch of homemade hummus - a staple in our house which freezes REALLY well! I’ve popped my recipe below. It’s also so easy, and you can use your own cooked chickpeas instead of a tin, just ensure if they’ve been frozen they are well defrosted. After lunch, I was at the plot doing the usual watering, checking on germination, tidying and weeding… at the end of my work there, sitting on my wooden chair outside the shed and mulling wending my way home, I checked the time on my phone… 5:03pm. My eye wandered to my left, spying the overgrown flower border bed… Into the shed I went, and grabbing my kneeler, putting my gloves back on, and laying my hands on a big 30l tub, I got to work. Half an hour later the bed looked very much better - at least I can now see the plants for the weeds! LOTS of weeds still to pull, and especially sturdy roots of tufted grasses and that pernicious Cinquefoil, though I can take my time doing some each week. It will never be perfect, though in reality very, very few things ever are! Whilst cooking supper I read another chapter or two of The Beautiful Mystery. I’m now at that stage where I’m keen to finish it, though don’t want to as I’ve enjoyed reading it so much - a bit like when you meet a friend irregularly and after hours of chat you know you need to leave and make your way home, though at the same time you want to stay and chat for just that little bit longer. If youi don't know the Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, I highly recommend them! Supper was followed by some TV, and we stayed up late, both fully engaged watching a fab series called 40 Hidden Music Treasures at the BBC… we watched volume two and there's volume three too, so two others to watch! Happy Days!! My Hummus Recipe I drained two cans of chickpeas very well, and added them to our food processor (keep a few tablespoons of the liquid - aquafaba - for if you want to use any later) and four cloves of garlic, roughly chopped. I actually used a block of garlic from the freezer - I heated it through in the microwave to bring it to a steam, just because I don’t like eating vegetables from the freezer without cooking them. In next, one tablespoon of Marigold bouillon powder (use a teaspoon of salt if you prefer) and five tablespoons of lemon juice (love fresh lemons, though I always have a large bottle of bought lemon juice in the fridge, which I use for this). If you like your hummus less lemony use only four, and if you like it extra lemony use six! Blitz this all up in the processor, or mash with a fork if you are doing by hand - doing this by hand you can keep this as chunky as you wish, or not, though it will never be smooth like you get in the shops. I’ve not used a stick blender for this, though I would be interested to know how it works so please let me know, or I’ll give it a go myself at some point. The fridge always has a large tub of tahini, which is sesame paste, and four generous tablespoons goes in, and I blitz again (or carry on mixing and mashing if doing by hand). Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl to ensure all is incorporated, and blitz till smooth, or until you have the texture you wish. If you like your hummus thinner, add some more lemon juice or a tablespoon or two of the drained aquafaba from the can. I portion this up into plastic Tupperware or similar and freeze; I do 150g servings for two. It will keep in the fridge happily for several days, and in the freezer for several months. In the summer if I take out a tub at breakfast it's defrosted by lunch, and I give it a good stir. In the winter it might need a quick wizz on Defrost in a microwave, or bring it out the day before and pop in the fridge to fully defrost. I don't have a photo - though when I find one or make the next batch I will add! Weather: Overcast start to the day, and remained so much of the day with the afternoon being bright and much warmer. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt and sultanas Lunch: Homemade Hummus, Pitta, carrot batons, cucumber slices and a little leftover coleslaw Supper: Lidl Vegan Cumberland Sausage, roasted carrot, parsnips, onion and potato wedges with an instant onion gravy  19 February (Wednesday)
One of the staff at For Earth's Sake who regularly does a few days each week, always including Wednesday, is now travelling through India for 3 months or so. This means Vanessa's covering in the shop more than usual; the impact of this is that she and I need to discuss things and get a morning's work done or at least planned before the she needs to go over the road, put out the newly delivered fruit and veg and open the shop, ergo, I'm up early and at my desk, getting on with work work. I'm definitely still feeling under the weather, and even though I was hoping to get down to the plot this afternoon to continue with the soft fruit bed I accidentally started doing yesterday, even early on I'm not sure that it’s actually going to happen. A full morning at my desk, sending out loads of emails, setting about planning socials, and also much other work including pricing, stock checks, blah, blah, blah. We've also decided to up the ante on our socials for both For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn. Of course, Richard’s now more free generally than he was so what we're going to do is plan mini videos for him to film... of Vanessa and the shop and the barn. We can then have these in the can (so to speak) and schedule a couple of regular socials each week for the next month or so. It seems to make sense that we do this and utilise Richard's skills and time. He’ll come down and do a full day with me and then spend two further days editing and getting things ready to go on to socials. We've decided on a day for next week, so we'll see how it goes. In the afternoon, with a very full day's work work already done in the morning, I decide to take some unread library books I have back at the same time as I take some due books back. I'm in a funny time at the moment where I'm reading regularly - a few chapters before bed and on a Sunday. However, it is a fact that many books that I’ve reserved to read have all become available at once, or at least this month. Clearly, in my view at least, it's unfair to hang on to books and just renew them and renew them; if I'm five or six or seven or even eight weeks off of reading a book why hang on to it, or take away a new one that's arrived? I'm sure other people don't feel the same way and will hang on and renew books until the date they cannot renew them further, eventually returning them unread - raised eyebrows! Of course, this is simply selfish and denies others the opportunity to read them in the time they've been hung on to! Now, as the library is in the same area as Lidl, I decide to do a full round and go to the library, then popping into Lidl to do a small but not minor shop on the way back. I don't take Fenella to Lidl. 95% of the time choosing to walk there with my backpack to do the shopping. However, by the time I was walking back with a heavy-ish rucksack and another bag in my hand I was definitely feeling exhausted, and it dawned on me yet again that I need to pace myself and think about balance... and how I'd really overdone that soft fruit bed work at the plot yesterday. The rest of the afternoon I spent catching up on things with Vivi by phone and seeing where she is on her home move. I also made further notes, planning more work work at my desk, getting a few emails off in between times, and further thinking of those FES and GGB socials. Oh, and about twenty minutes ago as I was typing this I got an email from our local library to say that another book I’d reserved had arrived and was ready for collection… Weather: It’s around 6°. The sun’s out quite a bit today, though still it feels cold. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt and a banana Lunch: Leftover Red Cabbage Coleslaw, pitta, hummus and a tinned if soup mixed with some leftover soup from a day or so ago Supper: Linda McCartney Burger (I thought they were the mozzarella ones, though they weren't), Red Cabbage Coleslaw and a slice of Lidl pumpernickel loaf. Early start at my desk despite being a bit blurry eyed…
Spent half an hour at the end of my work work day finishing off Louise Penny's A Trick of the Light - she is such a great writer of community, place and murderous twists. Weather: Cold, though that blanket has lifted a tad and we have sun breaking through a watery sky from mid-morning. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, Yogurt, Banana Lunch: Squash & Red Lentil Soup, Lidl Wrap, Quorn Ham, remains of last night’s grated salad with some mayo. Supper: Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Bean Burger (again, recipe to follow after a tweak), Red Cabbage Coleslaw, Lidl German Bread slice |
Paul SavidentFollowing on from A Guernsey Gardener in London, I've decided to try and write a regular blog, and we'll see how it AND 2025 go! Archives
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