 Corfe Castle 9 - 12 July 2025 (Wednesday to Saturday) Wednesday morning, and we were up early as we were off to spend a few days in Swanage with Vivi (of Vivi's Kitchen Garden) at her Cottage by the Sea. Again, a trip seemed to be coinciding with another heat wave over the days that we were to be away, so I was down at the plot to do some really early morning watering; I thought it sensible to get as much deeply watered as possible. After breakfast, and packing our bags and making a few snacks for the journey, we got into Fenella and after a quick pit stop at our local garage to check tyre pressures, we were on our way, soon wending our way down the M3 and onwards through Surrey, Hampshire and into Dorset. We had a necessary (for me) toilet break at Winchester services, where on the way out I couldn't resist a Greggs vegan sausage roll which we ate in the car; neither roll was as warm as we’d wanted it to be but the taste was rather lovely. Post stuffing our faces, a beautiful butterfly landed on Richard's bracelet as he was sitting in the car with the door open; it just stayed on his bracelet licking his skin, possibly taking either moisture or salts. Even with some gentle blowing encouragement the butterfly didn't want to move, so eventually Richard got out of the car and moved to an area of trees where there was lots of shade, and the butterfly decided it was time to move on… just as we then did, continuing our journey down to Swanage. After much motorway and many country roads, we were greeted at Vivi’s front door with many hugs. Happy Huggy Days!! It was time to unpack Fenella, ensuring she had nothing remaining visible to curious passersby, then we drove up the hill a little bit further and parked in free parking a few streets away. Back at Vivi's Cottage by the Sea and after a cup of tea and much chat, we had lunch which Vivi had already prepared which was a fantastic Greek salad which we had with bread and dips of my hummus which Vivi’d made and also an edamame hummus which was new to me and absolutely delicious - I got the recipe from Vivi straight away, and as it’s just a few swap outs of my own is another easy one to do. Lots of table chatting and garden talk, and then at the end of the afternoon, we popped down to walk along the seafront, had an ice cream and sat down and watched people enjoying themselves, sitting quietly as the Swanage world went on around us. As we sat, I was somewhat surprised to hear some rousing Chairman Mao style music, with a host of voices singing along to galvanising Chinese music… it took me half an hour to realise it was actually British sea shanties emanating from the pirate and Jurassic Park themed Sante-Fe Fun Park behind us, landside of the main promenade road! How our mind plays tricks with us… In the evening, we had one of Vivi’s delicious mild curries outside in Vivi's fabulous cottage garden. The growth rate of the garden since our last visit in May has been phenomenal, with tomatoes way way higher than my own at the plot and growth on plants that I’d given Vivi much stronger than I have at the plot myself. I think the soil must be really good, though also, and MOST importantly, all the genuine hard graft that Vivi’s put in turning a tired overgrown back garden space into a flourishing veg patch with lots of flowers and LOTS of wildlife. Sitting at her wonderful table, the hard graft has to be admired and applauded. When Vivi says she's going to do something she certainly gets on and does it, and with her garden, or rather her producing garden I should say, the effort is really paying off, and in so many ways. We sat out chatting and laughing until the light had gone, and even after this Vivi brought candles out, so chats and star-gazing continued. At the very end of the evening we went in and sat down in Vivi's living room for half an hour or so before getting off to bed… and of course, a few pages of my book.  After the first swim in the sea... Thursday saw me up early, and at the kitchen table having a cup of tea. I didn’t have the knack for the back door, though Richard was up soon after and then Vivi joined us and we sat out at her garden table chatting away, and Richard and myself having a breakfast of All Bran. After breakfast, it was down to the beach again, this time walking farther than we'd walked before, right across the promenade and in front of the beach huts, and then over the groynes which are there to reduce the impact of the waves on the beach huts and cliff, and then to a space on the sand where the nearest person was 200 meters away. It had been very hot on our walk, and I decided immediately to do something that I hadn't really expected to do, and that was to go for a swim in the sea… even though I wasn’t prepared for one! As Vivi was getting her dress off, bending over to undo her shoes, she looked to the side and saw that I was already down to my knickers and vest and pacing off towards the lapping water. Very soon Vivi followed in her bathing costume, and in we both went… cautiously at first, just feeling the temperature of the water on our toes and ankles and shins and knees and thighs and, well, other bits… Once I was up to my waist, and with my face turned towards Vivi in the shallower waters and Richard sitting on the beach, I let myself lean back and fall into the water… and then immediately started swimming as it felt rather chilly… After a few moments, my brain began to realise quite how delicious this whole experience was… and a few metres away there was our Vivi, fully in too and we were both swimming, each finding warm patches, or making our own… We stayed in swimming and chatting and laughing and in my case crying for about half an hour or so. The last time I'd even seriously paddled in water was 10 years ago with mum at Rocquaine in Guernsey, a few days after dad had died… memorable in so many ways, especially it being my 50th birthday. Mum was in her bathing costume and I was up to my thighs in water and we were just walking along the shoreline looking out at the fabulous view of the sea, and then looking back at the fabulous view of Guernsey. It was a moment to reflect, and a moment to treasure. Now, a decade on, and with mum now gone, I was having my first time in seawater since that moment, so not surprisingly emotions rose to the surface… just like my blubber-filled body did as I quietly laid back, floating on the surface of the silently whooshing waves. I hadn't really come prepared to swim, as I hadn't hugely expected to be swimming, but Vivi had come prepared and she and I sat on a towel she’d brought, drying off in the warm breeze and sunshine, chatting away with Richard. We sat there for half an hour or more, with the sun beating down and the salt crystals forming on our skins, and then we packed our things up and started walking our way back to Vivi’s Cottage by the Sea. For both Vivi and myself, this first swim had been special and emotional and essential in so many ways… and we had done it together… which was bloody marvelous! Happy Days indeed!! Back home (note the use of the word home - as it already feels like a home away from home), and still flushed with the joy of having swum, it was time for lunch and Vivi heated up some of her delicious Courgette & Potato Soup, added some grated cheddar, and we had leftover dips and bread with spread for lunch, again sitting at her table out in Vivi's lovely cottage garden, chatting and watching the wildlife fly by… butterflies and hummingbird moths, and bees and wasps and hoverflies, and then of course seagulls and town pigeons and country pigeons and doves and so much else, all with the occasional backdrop of a hoot and a chuff chuff from the railway line, and tinkly chiming bells of the local church striking the hour and half hour. Bliss! In the evening, we decided we’d go out and have chips so we went to Vivi’s favoured chippie, ordered a portion of chips for Vivi, cod and chips for Richard, and haddock and chips for me. With wrapped paper bags filled with goodies in our hands, we made our way along the front to a short pier, which is actually called Stone Quay as it's where local small ferries dock. A bench was free, so we sat down to eat our seaside suppers, with seagulls keeping an eye, and one dive bombing my chips though not quite getting away with one… it's only when a seagull is close up to you and literally flying over your lap and have a wing bashing your shoulder as it passes, that you suddenly realise quite how big, how strong and how heavy a seagull can be!  A labrador helping out at the seaside... Photo courtesy of Vivi of 'What Vivi did next' and 'Vivi's Kitchen Garden'. After our fish supper (a very rare thing for Richard and myself now as we only ever have when we’re at the seaside, as fish never features in any shopping basket) and chippie supper for Vivi (Vivi eats no fish), we watched all around us, enjoying the water, and the sun and the sumptuous air that only a seaside town like Swanage can do; suntanned kids jumping off piers into deep water, others on inflatable paddle boards being dragged out of the water by a tugging labrador, and water lapping calmly and endlessly against any surface it wants. A little walk along the front to Banjo Pier, and then it was back home and back to the table in Vivi's cottage garden at her Cottage by the Sea, and time for a few rounds of Yahtzee. Happy Days!!
Friday morning, and we’d already planned to drive back up the valley to visit Corfe Castle, which you cannot NOT see as you pass by on your way to and out of Swanage. Imposing… ruined… majestic. Richard had wanted to visit it on our first trip to Vivi's Swanage, though there just wasn't time, so this time we made time. So, after breakfast we walked up the remainder of Cardiac Hill that Vivi lives on, across and then up Cardio Hill, which is even steeper. Fenella was patiently waiting a short distance away on the next crossroad, and we piled into her and began our short journey to Corfe Castle. Now, Richard and I are members of the National Trust though we’d forgotten that Corfe Castle was a National Trust property… and also forgotten our membership cards! Despite this, we decided that if we couldn't get in with our membership numbers it was worth the cost just to have a walk around this magnificent castle with so much history. Parking up, and going into the Welcome Centre, I asked about parking and membership and the lovely lady immediately said it was not a problem and that our membership could be looked up at the Ticket Office, which was a 10 to 15 minute walk away. She also gave me a slip of paper with the date of our visit specified, so back to Fenella I popped to put the gifted slip on Fenella’s windscreen, to ensure that we wouldn't get charged the penalty fee for not paying for parking. Delighted, I walked back to the Welcome Centre, met up with Vivi and Rochard again… and in the short time I’d been away Vivi had been scouring the shelves of secondhand books for sale… so back off I went to Fenella to fill her boot with Vivi’s wordy gems. Crossing the road carefully, we made our way along the incredibly white chalk path, glistening with sunshine and shadows, over a brook and then wound our way up around the castle battlements to the Ticket Office. Sure enough, they were able to look up our membership and give us tokens which would give us free entry to the castle… technology can be a boon! The walk was pretty rough underfoot, and the castle always were too, though we had such a fantastic time; sometimes walking and chatting the three of us, sometimes in twos, and sometimes just individually wandering around taking pictures and video and watching the train coming in or leaving Corfe Castle station. Also, there are peregrines nesting at the top of the battered battlements which seems so apt, and two of them were happy to show themselves during the time we were there, both looking down on us and occasionally making the noises that are now so familiar over my allotment. I think we must have spent about an hour and a half wandering the castle, and then meandered back down through the huge gateway and into the cafe garden, where we ordered a cream tea, a savoury cream tea and Vivi had a quiche of some sort, I think it had red onion marmalade in it which also came with the savoury cream tea. We hoped that we'd be able to sit in the garden, in the shade, though there was a Wasp Alert on which was signalled on signs and that we were told about at the time of ordering… so once we had sat down and the jam for the cream tea was noted by the wasps, we decided to move inside and have our food and drink in the cafe rather than in the wonderful garden… even so, a wasp followed us in and stayed with us, flying and feasting on a little bit of jam that had somehow made its way onto Richard’s bag. After our little repaste we had a wander of the little village of Corfe Castle, window shopping, visiting the little museum, then crossing over and visiting the rather fabulous railway station. The station itself is a throwback to yesteryear and I think manned completely by volunteers. The train that goes through is powered by steam and goes down to Swanage and up the other way a stop or two. It always amazes me how the time and generosity of a few individuals has ensured that these historic railways and stations and railway lines remain intact, something I think we often forget, sadly. Walking back along the chalk path to Fenella, who was quietly waiting in the car park, we then drove back to Vivi’s for further chats and laughs and games and fabulous food (Vivi's delicious Fassolada) and an evening outside, at her table, in her cottage garden of her Cottage by the Sea, with candles burning and under the crisp starry sky… listening to various jazz sessions glistening over Swanage as part of its annual Jazz Festival at the start of the British summer holiday season.  Swanage Bay Saturday was another planned day in many ways, mainly as it was the day that we were going to be leaving and driving back to a rather hot and sticky London. However, we’d decided that we’d go for another swim, so after some bran flakes we all got ready, which for Vivi meant putting on her bathing costume and for me and Richard meant just dressing like we normally do… no, I’d not bought any swimming shorts yet as I hadn't seen any that I really fancied… though to be fair, I hadn't really looked either!
Off we went again, down the very short journey into Swanage town, and then left along the beach front to Ocean Bay and then just a bit beyond. It was still early in the morning, around 8:30 or 9 and there were already loads of people bundling onto the main beaches of this fabulous resort. However, and thankfully, where we went it was still pretty quiet; there were a few people between the groynes that we chose to swim from, and some of the beach huts were open or being opened by their owners. As with Thursday, I went in with my knickers and T-shirt and Vivi in her slinky bathing costume. At first, the water seemed a little bit cooler than on Thursday; maybe because it was early in the morning and the sun hadn't been beating down for several hours warming the top few inches or more. However, we were both soon fully in and again paddled and swam away each to our heart's content, literally as swimming is such a good exercise and gets the heart pumping. It’s only on occasions like this, filled with deep joy, I remember how much swimming was a part of my life growing up. From a very early age, as a baby mum would leave me in a pram or pushchair outside the front door of mum and dad's B&B, and if mum went back at 9:15 and I was gone she knew that she had the day to herself to get on with washing and cleaning and making dinner for all the guests that evening. A visitor or visitors would have taken me off to the beach or to town or to wherever they were going for the day. Most often, it was to the beach and for many years the beach was just an intrinsic part of my life… sand, sea, sandwiches, smiles - even then always a sanctuary too. Maybe one day it will be so again, though just now, for these precious moments of Vivi and I being in the water, it felt so right, and so good, and so joyous. Again, we sat on a towel on the sand and dried off a little bit, and then walked back along the seafront where by now the beaches and walkways were just bustling with folk, and buckets and spades and float boards and sandwich bags, and windbreakers and little shelters, and many smiles with the hope of a fun day out. Back at Vivi’s Cottage by the Sea, Richard made toast and the three of us sat at the table in Vivi's cottage garden, enjoying proper toast topped with a spoon or two of Purbeck honey from a pot that Vivi had bought specifically for our visit… it was totally delicious, and another slice or two was had by each of us. The rest of the morning was leisurely chatting and packing and washing-up and watering the plants in the garden and filling watering cans and doing 101 things, and then it was time for the final feast of this visit which was a cheese and tomato sandwich made by Richard. Sitting at the table, with the smell of salt in the air and seagulls above it once again took me back to being a kid, eating cheese and tomato sandwiches on the beach at L’Eree, almost six decades ago; a cheese and tomato sandwich when there’s salt in the air will always bring memories back off the perfect fodder for a beach. The only difference with our sandwich today was that it hadn't trundled its way down to a beach in the Tupperware and sat sweating under a towel in the shade for an hour or two, so our fabulous sandwich was cool and crisp and just the right temperature, rather than warm, and floppy, and tasty and welcomed as was often the case when we were kids on the beach. Happy Days!! It was soon time to wend our way back to London, and with lots of hugs and a little planning for our next visit, I walked up Cardiac Hill and Cardio Hill to collect Fenella, drove her down, pulled in outside of Vivi's Cottage by the Sea and then we packed our bags back in, had more hugs, and started our relatively uneventful journey back to London, where things would begin getting back to normal… including a visit to the plot in the evening to check on how things were doing and to give plants a water if needed, and recording Sunday Chat on Sunday morning… an event in itself! Weather: Sunny throughout, with a slight breeze, and very warm… though quite a few degrees less than the heatwave of 34° in London! Wednesday Breakfast: All Bran and oat milk Snack: Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll Lunch: Vivi’s Greek Salad (with Feta), hummus, edamame hummus, olives, and bread Supper: Chickpea, Cauliflower & Mushroom Curry with bread Thursday Breakfast: All Bran and toast Lunch: Courgette & Potato Soup, Edamame Hummus, Bread, Olives Supper: Haddock & Chips Friday Breakfast: Bran Flakes and All Bran and toast with cherry jam Lunch: Savoury Aft Cream Tea (Corfe Castle Tea Room) Supper: Vivi's Fassolada and bread Saturday Breakfast: Bran Flakes and toast with Purbeck honey Lunch: Cheese & Tomato Sandwich Supper: Broad Bean & Basil Pesto with wholewheat spaghetti and a tomato, cucumber and basil salad
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 6 & 7 July 2025 (Saturday & Sunday)
The weekend flew by… Saturday was filming Sunday Chat, though with a few late nights over the past days we were both a little jaded… though we got the job done! Yay!! With the weather being cooler, or at least feeling much cooler, and that breeze is bringing the Feels Like temperature down even further. It felt like the weather for a soup, so a soup I made - Carrot & Lentil, though I also had a courgette and some leftover courgettes from Richard’s Baked Courgettes with Sun-dried Tomato Stuffing, so these went in a made up for the fewer carrots we had in the fridge. I could have added a potato, though I didn’t… This is the thing with soups, once you get to know what goes with what, and the things to leave out making soups from whatever you have to hand… though in this case, don’t miss out the lentils!! An afternoon at the plot - getting our beetroot in having taken our brassicas out. I am mulling sowing more brassicas, and am sure I will, though will they be Dazzling Blue Kale, our own Portuguese Cabbage or the cross that came about by happenstance? I’d love to have Brussels sprouts, having had those we put in a few months ago pecked to smiterines by pigeons, though I doubt they’ll be ready for early winter, when I love having them. I will put in the cuttings of Taunton Deane that I took a few months ago; three are doing well and one doing fine. In the evening, we flipped around Prime for a while and landed on Hugh Grant’s Heretic, which is an interesting if far less challenging watch than I thought it would be; the publicity certainly bigged this element up, and needn’t have. Sunday saw me at our editing desk first thing, finalising the edit for A Week at the Plot, uploading it to YouTube, giving early access to our Ko-fi members… and then getting to the plot to do some watering, and tidying… there’s always tidying and in fact I could, and should, spend a whole afternoon doing such., though time is tight in so many ways at the moment… In the afternoon I was back at the plot briefly, and harvested three plantings of potatoes - all were seed potatoes on our communal table and all went in either spare ground or into tubs and pots with spent compost. I fed lightly with our usual organic liquid feed, and the harvest for pennies was pretty decent, in fact I’ve had far worse harvests from plants I’ve spent big bucks on and much time, energy and water! I decided that the smaller pink ones, maybe Pink Fir Apple, I'd make into a light Potato Salad, with half a red onion finely chopped, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, two capfuls of cider vinegar and a little mayonnaise, maybe a rounded dessert spoon. With our own lettuce and tomatoes, the protein element of our supper would be a Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Bean Burger, which I had been fancying for days. Delish! TV was something about UFOs, or similar… lots of American people in the know talking about how they can’t talk about what they know… NDAs and all that… Richard fell asleep, so I watched half of another episode of Endeavour… then bed, and my book. Weather: Dry on Saturday with a breeze, and rain on Sunday afternoon. Around 23-25°. Sat Breakfast: Crumpets, ProActiv spread, yeast extract and peanut butter Sat Lunch: Carrot & Lentil Soup, Pitta, Cheese and Coleslaw Sat Supper: Lidl Red Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Quiche, lettuce, cucumber and tomato Sun Breakfast: All Bran, oat milk and a banana Sun Lunch: Lidl Vegan Sausage Rolls & tinned Baked Beans Sun Supper: Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Bean Burger, Light Potato Salad, lettuce and tomatoes  A beautiful cornflower 16 June 2025 (Monday)
We had a lighter blanket overnight, though I think the time of having blankets on the bed may be coming to an end for a few months. It was to be a pretty normal Monday today, with both work and work work... though first, a quick trip to Lidl! Our local Lidl closed for refurbishment a week ago, and I've managed to scrape through on fresh food items (ie, vegetables, fruit, yogurt etc) until today as I did a 'big shop' the Friday before it closed. But now, wants (rather than needs...) prevail and BOTH of us are up early and off in Fenella before 7am to the new Lidl that opened just over a week ago in Brentford.. for some reason, I'm a little excited! It's bigger, and brighter than our local one was... though all our old favourites are there, so it's just getting used to the layout, which is remarkably similar to how our local store was... maybe this is how they all are now. Anyway, we get our shop done and then it's back home... me to my desk, and Richard's going to do a shopping haul video - which is not a turn on for us, though others love them which is grand!! Anyway, back to my morning... It was mainly spent at my desk doing stuff for For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn. We’ve Midsummer Revels coming up on Sunday and there's quite a bit that needs organising for that still. I'm down with Vanessa tomorrow, so there are various things that I’ll leave until then. With the weather being dry, and looking as though it's going to remain dry for quite some time I was down this afternoon watering, and also feeding all that needed to be fed. It's mainly the squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, though maybe every other week I give everything else vegetable-wise that we’ve got growing a little boost too, and I'm also beginning to give some feed to the flowers we've got - I’m sure they’ll appreciate it! And on flowers, I did spy this little cornflower, which despite its size is big and bold and one of my old favourites; never grown by me before, though hopefully will self-seed and become prolific. Of course, it had a little feed, and I’m sure with grateful thanks will throw up further blooms soon. Someone asked what feed I use. Well, I use an organic general fertiliser with added seaweed. I bought it two years or so ago as quite a big chunky 10 litres, and I'm almost all the way through it now. I also make my own nettle fertiliser and comfrey fertiliser, and I sometimes combine the two. I find that these two home-brewed ones are good for general feeding throughout the year, though comfrey feed is particularly good to encourage flowers and fruits, whilst nettle feed promotes general growth and is good for leafy greens, such as brassicas, chard, spinach etc. After a light supper, as lunch was quite big, it was time for a bit of TV, and then to bed… and a chapter or two of my book. Weather: Warm… and getting warmer. Sunny in the main. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana Lunch: Lentil soup (tinned and thinned a little), hummus, crackers, cucumber, radish and tomato Supper: Cream cheese, a rice cake, tomato, radish, cucumber and olives  Richard made my Hummus recipe for a video, and I made the salad 9 June 2025 (Monday) Awake at 6am and up soon after, though a tea in bed from Richard first. At my desk by 6.30am doing the usual Monday work work routine, and also the usual work routine which is adding the upload of A Week at the Plot that will be live at noonish today to my own website (the Richard & Paul website links to it), and also various other housekeeping tasks, like scanning in any documents that arrived over the past half week, as I keep 99% of anything important we receive by post as scanned documents. Vanessa’s off for a check-up on the eye procedure she had about a month ago, so before she does we’re chatting over WhatsApp and doing the ordering that we need to do. There’s also a get-in today as Man in the Moon is performing this week with the show Winnie-the-Pooh, adapted from AA Milne’s books by Vanessa’s husband Glynn Robbins who sadly died a decade or so ago. Once Vanessa and I are done, I do more work work at my desk, and then take a break - though not from work, as I just shift to our other computer, the Richard & Paul one (ie not my work work computer), and look at what segments of this week’s upload of A Week at the Plot I can use for a short, and decide I’ll do the planting of tomatoes, including the preparation of the bed prior to the planting; I do one version as landscape and the other as a portrait, specifically how they are wanted as Shorts. It’s all more work, though hopefully worthwhile! Richard’s took my recipe for hummus - which is unbelievably simple, and does that as a video, so not surprisingly that’s one meal sorted today! Yay!! After lunch - which was a delicious concoction of leftovers - it’s back to my desk, and then off to the plot for an hour or so… just pottering…though I do end up having our first indoor cucumber and outdoor courgette as a harvest, which go into supper!  A lunch of leftovers - curry sauce, cooked rice, and a tin of drained butter beans Supper’s hummus and salad and pitta - rather simple and rather nice. This evening Richard Cumming’s travelling up through the Grand Union Canal with his Canal Boat Diaries and passing our stretch, going through Hanwell Locks… so of course, we watch, as we watch each episode. It’s somewhat strange watching someone experience for the first time an area that you know so well… maybe Vivi felt this when we went on our walks of Swanage a few weeks back. Weather: Bright start, though seemed to have rained overnight. Grey through the day then bright with sun late afternoon - though still feeling chilly. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and sultanas (banana’s still too green…) Lunch: Soup made from leftover Curry Sauce, two portions of rice, a drained tin of butter beans and some added water - a lovely risotto-style dish Supper: Hummus, pitta, mixed salad of red onion, tomato, cucumber, olives and basil  The alarm went off at 6.00am, and after a bit of yawning and rubbing of eyes I was up to start the day. It was to be a Vanessa day today, for both Richard and myself, and I was hoping that since it’s now Easter break for schools the roads would be a tad less crowded than usual… but no… As we arrived, Vanessa was coming out of Small Barn where she's living at the moment, holding the pans of her airfryer. Wanting to give us a hug, she accidentally dropped one of them and it transpired that this dented it - hopefully one of her craftsmen will be able to un-dent the dent, as one pan no longer fits into where it's supposed so that she can do her cooking. Currently being a one person band, Vanessa uses the air fryer quite a bit as it's obviously a very handy kitchen appliance for a single person. I think, having watched The Secret Genius of Modern Life (BBC2) and its episode on air fryers, it's something that we’ll look at for the future in our next home. By ‘our next home’ time I think things will have developed so they're more roomy inside while still being small. It was a rather gorgeous day at Vanessa, where both of us had expected it to be grey and overcast as it was when we left London. In the end it turned out to be rather sunny with gorgeous blue skies, The Simpsons' clouds and lots of blossoms looking fabulous.  The master photographer at work in the young FES heritage orchard. During the day I did the things that I needed to do in the shop, whilst Richard got on with taking photographs of the dell area of the gardens and also of the heritage orchard, though mainly focusing on the Great Green Barn. We've had a number of events there and photos have been taken at many, and of course we had the Sustainable Wedding photoshoot back in February, though we've had no decent photographs of a bare barn so it was important to get these done as it shows how versatile the space is. Also, interestingly, none of the photos taken so far show the actual footprint of the barn which is a bit of a T shape. It sort of lends itself perfectly to celebrant and wedding ceremonies with a main area between the great doors and a nave leading off from this.
It was a nine hour day at Vanessa, it often is, and I was wrong again about cars on the road - the journey home took LONGER than it usually does… Weather: A grey start to the day, and a little chilly despite it being about 6°. Light rain in the morning gave way to sun, blue skies and fluffy clouds. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, stewed rhubarb, sultanas Lunch: Greek Lemon & Chickpea Soup (recipe to come at some point!), and toast with mashed avocado and Isle of Wight tomatoes Supper: Crackers, cream cheese, carrot batons and cucumber  New Year's Day It’s early on 1 January 2025, a Wednesday, around 7.05am, UK time.
Outside is still dark, and only five windows of the hundreds I can see from the top of the house have some visible life behind them - the lights are on though the curtains are almost fully drawn. All others in their households are likely lying in it being the morning after the night before, or away elsewhere having celebrated with friends or family. A Wednesday start to the year means it will be at least next Monday before things really start to get back to normal and the usual working week-on-week routines resume. I’ve known for a long time that some cultures believe lentils and black eyed beans eaten today are bearers of good fortune for the year ahead, though this is the first year I’m knowingly cooking a dish with this in mind. Being vegetarians, lentils and beans in their various guises are a regular part of a meal, and I’m sure have often been cooked on the first day of the year without any thought to relevance. Today, however, for the year ahead, it feels apt to actively do something, however small, that is believed by many to bring good fortune; so many of us need and want good fortune this year as wars of words and weapons rage across the globe, so split red lentils it will be. A few weeks back on our Facebook group Planet Vegetaria Isabelle of The Natural Choice posted a recipe of Lebanese Lemon Lentil Soup; I made a note to make it. Over the past few days I’ve had a hankering to make it today, so make it I did. Lebanese Lemon Lentil Soup is made with red lentils, which in some cultures are thought to bring good fortune for the year ahead if eaten today - reminiscent as they are of small gold coins. For me, this bitingly lemony soft soup of lentils started the year well, and might even bring some good health and wellness too… fingers crossed! Recipe & Method: ‘United Tastes’ on Facebook Changes made: I used brown rice rather than white, and added an extra 250ml of water. Will I do it again? Definitely Weather: Cold and very windy and gusty to begin with, then mellowing but rain coming in early afternoon and staying. Breakfast: Christmas Loaf, toasted with Flora Pro-Activ Buttery Lunch: Lebanese Lemon Lentil Soup & leftover Lidl Sourdough Supper: White Bean & Celery Lasagne & Grated Salad |
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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