 Heather Alexander as Miss Havisham. Photo courtesy of Peter Mould. 2 July 2025 (Wednesday) Up early, and it was definitely feeling cooler… and what was that? The pitter patter of rain dripping from the unconnected roof guttering! Well, at least it was raining! Up early and our walk will have to wait… as it's too wet, so after a cuppa it's to my desk for a work work morning, and then lunch… Richard’s Quick Roasted Courgettes with a herb crumble… delish!! We had the rest of my Bulgur Pesto Salad too. Off to the plot, and I checked on whether anything needed watering, despite the rain this morning. It was regular and medium-weight rain for a good few hours and most things looked fine, though I gave the squash extra water… and the courgettes. Back home, and I was waiting to hear from Vanessa as we were due to see a show at Jermyn Street Theatre this evening, and I didn’t know whether she wanted to meet before, or just at the start of the show… eventually I found out, and thankfully had had a bath earlier as I needed to leave virtually immediately to meet her around 6.30pm… though in the end the traffic was terrible for her getting in, so we met outside the theatre at about 7.20pm, 10 mins before curtain up! Now, the show… It’s called Havisham, and is a show I’ve wanted to see for some years. The show's director, Dominique Garrard, I know from my Bush Theatre days of two decades ago, and on Facebook I’ve been following (not stalking!) Dominique for ages. Havisham’s about…. Miss Havisham of Great Expectations… It’s a truly fabulous imagining of how she got to be the woman we know… sitting at a dusky, dark dust-ridden wedding feast table in an old house right out on the edge of the marshes. Still dressed in her wedding finery, now all soiled and grimy and stained, having been jilted at the altar many years ago to never recover. But who was she, and how did she get her, and why is that bitter hate so sharp and dangerous? Well, this imaging is truly excellent, and fully engaged me throughout.
The writing is so well crafted, with a totally believable back story that made me want to reread Great Expectations, now ‘knowing’ so more of a pivotal character that we ‘knew’ so little about before. The copy (blurb) reads “This is the story that Dickens left out…” and I have to say, old Charlie boy should have put it in! Next time I see Gerald Dickens, which won’t be too long, I’ll have to ask him if he’s seen Havisham - as if not, he must! Heather Alexander was just superb in the part, taking us through the early years of a lonesome girl, through her challenges with men, and life, and abandonment, into happier times… and then betrayal… though not one of us expected how such a betrayal would come about! Utterly gripping throughout. And what I haven’t said is that Heather wrote the piece too, so beautifully multi-talented. I now want to see her other show ROOM. Havisham’s whole production was superb, and Dominique’s direction, of course fabulous. Both Vanessa and I could see how the show would work at the Great Green Barn, and are both sure it’s one for next year, if Heather and Dominique can fit us in! After a quick meet with Heather post-show (I’m sure she and I have met before - yet I’m not sure how… I don’t think at Kenwrights, though Ray Cooney springs to mind), and it was time for us to all wend our ways back home. If you see the show near you, or within travelling distance, do go and see it, as it is so worth it!!! A quick sideline - I see Heather is doing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year with Becoming Maverick, inspired by the character of Mrs Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca - another of my favourite books! This will definitely be worth a ticket!!.. Of course I also LOVED seeing the lovely, fabulous and talented Dominique after so long, and we had a brief catch-up. She’s still doing work at Questors Theatre in Ealing Broadway, so we WILL have a coffee and a further catch-up soon!! My journey in and back was adventurously unadventurous… the Elizabeth Line makes much of journeying into London pretty easy now, and swift, despite this journey time being the same as it would have been without this regal line. As I stepped off the train at Hanwell station, with a darkened summer sky and a cool breeze, the heatwave of just a few days ago seemed miles away. A home, a cup of TV, a catch-up with Richard, and then it was time to get to bed and read a chapter of my new book. Happy Days! Weather: Rain first thing for several hours, then warming, though definitely cooler. Around 25°. Breakfast: All Bran and oat milk Lunch: Richard’s Quick Roasted Courgettes and leftover Bulgur Pasta Salad Supper: Rice crackers, yeast extract and peanut butter
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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  A dry, sunny, hot weekend with a drying breeze meant lots of watering following a few days up north. 27 to 30 June 2025 (Friday to Monday)
Friday saw a muggy start to the day, though as we were going away for the weekend I got to the plot and gave EVERYTHING a REALLY good water, and things in trays were filled up with about an inch of water too, which would hopefully be enough to keep them all alive for our time away… then back home, a quick rest and some instant packing, and we were on our way in Fenella. The day was warm, certainly around 24° though the end of the weekend and beginning of next week was forecast to touch 34° or even 35° down south - very toasty - so most probably a good thing we were driving north to slightly cooler climes for a family and friends weekend, with Richard’s (and therefore my…) Aunty Maureen’s 85th Birthday celebration on the Saturday. We’d booked into the Macclesfield South Premier Inn, and as usual on our arrival, and in fact anytime throughout the weekend we came in the doors, a welcome was waiting with a smile and a chat. There’s always a friendly greeting, and though the rooms and building itself are feeling a little rough around the edges and in need of a little TLC, the rooms are ALWAYS clean, and you know the sheets and towels have been laundered and are fresh… I know this sounds odd to have to say, though I’ve been in a few places in my time where I’ve wondered if the sheets had been slept in before… and NOT been washed since. Anyway, after a quick freshen up we were off to an evening with Richard’s middle sister, middle of the three of them I mean, there being another younger sister. We had a takeaway - a chargrilled pizza, amazingly flavourful though just about warm and rather expensive (or am I just begrudging of paying a fair amount for decently average food?). Lots of chat, and laughs, and a late night, though not too late to not read a chapter or two of my book before lights out! Saturday we were up early, showered and down to the all-in breakfast at the inn - always a good spread, and the breakfasts are certainly decent value for money. Though as per usual with a hotel breakfast, the thing that let’s it down was the toaster! I’m not sure what it is, though it does seem that every hotel one stays in, unless paying really big, BIG bucks, the toaster raison d'etre is a marginal nod to toasting bread… in most cases with a cursory warming of the slices rather than any sign of even the remotest browning. Now, I understand Health & Safety and all of that, and the need to not have smoke billowing from a toaster, but surely someone somewhere can invent a toaster that actually toasts bread… to an acceptable level… and with a decently short waiting time. So often, one go through a hotel toaster leaves a slice of bread with no colour and slightly dry, as if the slice of bread has been left out in the sun for an hour or so, drying but not toasting. A slightly warm and dried bit of bread then always needs another go through the toaster… Two goes through and there’s some mottled browning, though not enough… and three goes through and it’s Towering Inferno time, with bells ringing and most likely men in uniform with big helmets and hoses will start turning up… so maybe three goes through the toaster is about right! Anywho, as the lovely Greta of Greta’s Garden says. The rest of Saturday was family and fun - seeing everyone we’d not seen in a while - and catching up… lovely. Supper was a curry cooked by our niece Sophie of Sophie Stock Art… delish, though just a small portion for me as we were eating a tad late and I didn’t want to flare by Barretts. Same routine Sunday morning as Saturday at the hotel, a check around the room to make sure we’d not left anything, and then time to get to Fenella, bags in the car, windows open and on our way to… Macclesfield’s Treacle Market, where there are loads of artisan stalls, including Sophie’s pet portrait painting stall, though she does much more too. Do check her out! We had a good walk around, though the heat was building - and there were loads of people which, as you know, is neither Richard’s nor my favourite thing…. We try to avoid crowds where we can, though we did want to see Sophie and her stall, and I think she was very pleased we did turn up. After a chat back at Richard’s sister, it was off to see friends in Nantwich, and another overnight stay this time with them. Lots of chat, good food, some wine, and a decent night’s sleep despite the warmth. After having some real toast in the morning, perfectly browned and toasted and warm, and all made from a homemade loaf, we were back in Fenella and on our way south… taking it easy as the day was to be hot, and getting hotter the further south we travelled. Now, however good it is to get away for a few days, it’s always also a delight to get home, and the coolness of our house hit us as soon as we walked in the door. And then of course, back at home, it was time for that first lovely cup of tea… which is always very welcome. With the heat and high sun over the weekend, I had to pop down to the plot and check on it all. I’d asked a few people to water in the days we were away, though I know two had had issues and with the sun blaring, the heat rising and the constant breeze being a really drying one, everything needed a really good water… so a really good water it had. A few things I think are past their best, especially the greenhouse cucumbers, though maybe I have time to sow some more… after all, we are only just about to turn into July. Back at home, and we had Richard’s Sundried Tomato & Walnut Pesto, a portion taken out of the freezer, and a chunky salad of yellow courgettes, radish, olives and basil leaves, in a light dressing. No TV in the evening - I just finished my book, Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In, which is well worth a read. Before light out, it was time to start my next book, Peter James’ I Follow You, which rather bizarrely is set in Jersey! Weather: In London the days were very warm Friday, and building Saturday and Sunday to a high of 34° on Monday. Very dry, despite some rain overnight Thursday / Friday, and a VERY drying breeze  26 June 2025 (Thursday)
Another early start and a walk, though not as early as previous days… but we got up, had a cuppa, did our walk, and then the day continued… Trying to get ahead of the game as we have a busy weekend, plus there was quite a lot to do for the Great Green Barn in getting fitness class socials out to hopefully sell for the week after next… rather too late to put an event on sale in my opinion, though Vanessa is keen to get some fitness going, so… fingers crossed! For lunch I did Butterbean Smash, all wrapped up in a wholewheat wrap from Lidl. Delish!! The afternoon was a chat with Vanessa, as we need to do Monday’s ordering today as she wants a few days off - so she goes through what we need and I make a note and do the ordering. Then I’m down to the plot, and doing watering, and adding cordial bottles to the Cheeky Prince squash I planted out a few days ago from their modules - they needed to go in, so in they went. I also took down two watering cans that I’d bought to replace my favourite one; it is near the end of its life and the plastic is cracking all over. As I’m keen not to add plastic and particularly microplastics to the soil it was time to ditch it and replace it. Now, I've bought various watering cans over the years, both metal and plastic, though this Ebert one was my favourite BY FAR! In the end, with a Google I found one VERY similar, and bought two! The rose, the spraying bit on the end looked similar, and in use is similar, which I am really glad about as the drenching ability of my favourite really needed to be replicated, and now it is - more on this and watering cans in next week’s A Week at the Plot! Happy Watering Can Days!! Butterbean Smash Drained can of butter beans, half a red onion diced finely, two sticks of celery diced quiet small though still to give a good bite, a teaspoon or two of miso paste, two teaspoons of dijon mustard, one tablespoon mayo, one tablespoon of yeast flakes, about ten torn up basil leaves, and some halved olives. You can have this to put on crackers, or with a big salad, on toast would be delish, though we had wrapped up in a wholewheat wrap from Lidl. Weather: Overcast though warming; around 28°. Breakfast: Bran Flakes, oat milk and a banana Lunch: Butterbean Smash wraps Supper: Broad Bean & Basil Pesto with wholewheat spaghetti and grated cheddar  Lettuce seedlings of Lollo Bionda and our own saved-seed replacing bolted salad rocket 25 June 2025 (Wednesday) Up early again, and another early morning walk up the canal, though this time it was not raining so we remained dry, if a tad sweaty! A normal Wednesday morning of work work, this time creating a page on the Great Green Barn website for two fitness taster sessions we have in two weeks time - a Yoga session and a High-Intensity Interval Training session. These are part of a new programme we are calling Head, Heart & Health at the Great Green Barn. When new events get added, we always need full information from those involved, and any imagery they have - sometimes the imagery is poor so we have to create what we can ourselves. In this instance the yoga imagery was not of a high enough resolution to use, so I had to create an image for this. Most of the imagery we create, if more than one image is created using Canva, which is an online design package, which I find works better for me than the Adobe version. One of the most annoying issues with Adobe is you can call a new project something, and if it has been a version of something before it will download it as a generic version of that rather than downloading the file with the name you have given that project - very annoying! How a company so huge can have such a glaring error is beyond me! Anyway, webpages were created, including the one for people to buy tickets which is on a separate system, as we use TicketTailor for the majority of our bookings - for non-profits it has really good deals! With all signed off by the yoga teacher and fitness instructor, I could put all live - and tomorrow I will do the socials as I needed to get to the plot to film another segment of A Week at the Plot. It’s a busy week this week with a full weekend, so best get things done as soon as possible. I planted out various rather large seedlings of lettuce we had - Lollo Bionda and our own saved-seed variety; some went in the poly, replacing bolting lettuce I removed to the compost bin, and others went into the bed where we have lettuce, coriander, parsley and some salad rocket, replacing the salad rocket which also was bolting. With the module trays empty I was then able to reuse them, fill them with compost and prick out our seedlings of Morton’s Magic Mix lettuce from Real Seeds. I had sown these on 6 June, they had germinated and grown on well outside, and now were ready for individual pots. They were actually a bit bigger than usual, and could have been planted out, though I am finding it’s better to plant out stronger plants with the slugs that are about, despite the hot and dry weather!
Back at home Richard had made a salad for support, and I had taken a Lidl quiche out of the freezer; it was discounted when I went shopping, so I bought two and froze them both. I find, like batch-cooking, having something in the freezer you can take out and cook swiftly is an absolute boon! We watched a film - Out of Time, a lower budget film than the Denzel Washington one of two decades ago, and a very different story, as is about time travel, one of our favourite topics!. It held us both, so worth a watch - it’s on Prime. Weather: Overcast initially, and a cooling breeze, though still warm. Breakfast: Two Ryvita, ProActiv spread, and yeast extract Lunch: Cottage Cheese, a little cream cheese, tomatoes, olives, radish, cucumber and Ryvita Supper: Lidl Red Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Quiche and Richard’s Grated Carrot, Apple & Walnut Summer Salad  Ratatouille with Quorn Cocktail Sausages, olive, brown rice and grated cheddar. 24 June 2025 (Tuesday) I wake up to a patter… not of tiny feet, but of light raindrops. The windows are slightly open and I can clearly hear rain, then Richard comes up with a cuppa and lets me know it's raining… at 5.30am. I immediately wonder if it will be enough for the ground, or whether I’ll have to water… I’ll have to see how the rain goes. After a tea, we’re up and out, and there is a distinct chill in the air. We leave the house with rain having ended - in fact it’s ended a few times, and started again, lightly. As we get to the first lock there’s a few spatters of rain in the air, and by the time we’re making our way up the slope to the second, it’s heavy light rain, if that makes sense - not huge droplets, though small and constant. After a minute or so it eases off, and after another few minutes the rain eases back in… it does this several times until passing over completely for the day as we get back to the bottom of our road. At my desk by 7.15, with work and work work… and my head’s trying regularly to work out what day it is. I think having been down to Vanessa twice last week, including the weekend for Midsummer Revels has really messed me up knowing what day it is… not an issue, though good to have one’s mind in its right time and place. Down at the plot in the afternoon and I sort out an initial staking of our tomatoes… I’m still not sure yet whether I should build a frame to string them up - which is my preferred method - or just add bigger canes when they grow. It seems time is racing and the days are full, and when I say full I do mean there is some relaxation time, as it’s important to build that in - if we don’t do this burnout is never too far away. The sun is bright, and it’s breezy, then the sun’s behind a cloud, then it’s out again and belting, then that breeze goes so it gets even hotter, then a cloud comes along… that is the nature of the day at the plot which I’m sure will show in the footage, which may be an issue to edit… Back home, and Richard’s not looking at making moves to do a recipe video, so I’m glad I grabbed out of the freezer a few portions of a ratatouille I made at the weekend. We have it with some Quorn cocktail sausages (Richard seems to end up with most!) and very well reheated brown rice. We watch the last episode of that London series we’ve been watching on Prime, and with an early start it’s an early bed for me, and a chapter of my book before I sleep.
Ratatouille I sauteed some red onion and chunks of aubergine in olive oil until soft. Removing them from the pan and putting aside, I added more oil to the pan and gently fried circles of courgettes, picked at the plot this afternoon. When they were all lightly browned I took them out to the same pan as the onion and aubergine, and added a tiny bit more olive oil to the pan. I then fried a finely chopped red onion, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and then after a minute or two of cooking added a can of tomatoes, and washed the can out with water - filling the can to about half. I then brought to a simmer and let the plain tomato sauce simmer for ten minutes, added some fresh herbs, and two rounded teaspoons of bouillon, and then simmered for another twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. I then added the bowl of cooked onion, aubergine and courgette to the pan, stirred through, and then turned off the pan. When It was cool I portioned up and froze for future use - one of those being supper today! As you can see from the top picture, I did add some olives to the sauce, and also topped off with grated cheddar. Weather: Overcast, but warm though with a rather chilly breeze! Breakfast: Bran Flakes and oat milk Lunch: Cottage Cheese, tomatoes, olives, radish, cucumber and Ryvita Supper: Ratatouille with Quorn Cocktail Sausages and brown rice  Broad Bean & Basil Pesto with wholewheat spaghetti - with some added cream cheese. 23 June 2025 (Monday) Despite a long day yesterday, we got up very early, around 5.30am, had a cup of heated-up tea and then went out the door for a walk up the canal. Despite the sunshine, there was quite a cooling breeze, and at some points I felt as though I should have another layer on, though we were only going to Three Bridges and back, so I knew I’d be fine. Back home, a warm cuppa, and then off to Lidl for me - Richard stayed at home. Back from Lidl I put all of our groceries away. With Richard now doing more cooking I tend to find things he uses in different places to where he initially got them from, and that includes with all of our plastic-ware and Tupperware too… first world problems, and all that. Work work at my desk, and just catching up on work and desk housekeeping tasks. I did editing of the footage taken last week for this coming week’s A Week at the Plot, for which I will need to do a voiceover for each. At the plot in the afternoon it was watering duty, though I forgot what day it was so I didn't feed anything, so I’ll have to catch up with that tomorrow or the day after. Whilst down, I gave some lettuce seedlings to a fellow plotter, the one that often gives us some of their excess harvests, and had a good catch-up chat. They’d been away for a few weeks in Turkey, and even though their 18-year old nephew was keeping an eye on things on their plot and doing the watering, I’d popped down three or four times to water, which the plants were glad of! I think the nephew had the house to himself and other things than w
The courgettes are getting on fine, well, four of the six. Two are looking less happy than the rest, and still to produce anything of a decent size - not quite sure why two fall behind whilst four rush ahead, though I'm also not sure how we ended up with one plant delivering green courgettes whilst all the others are obviously delivering yellow ones... and of course, all the seed was from the same packet of yellow courgettes. Anyway, I picked about six today, and three went to others even before I left the plot - one only likes the green ones, so I was glad to be able to give her the one I had. Back home and supper, then the third part of a London documentary we’ve been watching each evening on Prime, and then shortly after to bed, and another chapter or two of Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In. Weather: Warm, though definitely cooler than the end of last week. About 24°. Breakfast: Two Ryvita, ProActiv spread, yeast extract and peanut butter Lunch: Egg Mayonnaise, baguette, cucumber and tomato Supper: Broad Bean & Basil Pesto with wholewheat spaghetti - added some cream cheese in too, and a chopped salad of tomato, olives, yellow courgette and basil  22 June 2025 (Sunday)
Woke up and remembered what day it was… and the long day ahead! In truth, both Vanessa and myself are a tad exhausted at the moment, and Midsummer Revels at the For Earth’s Sake Orchard was always going to be a long day… so both Richard and myself were up early, well before the 7am alarm, and doing stuff - he on his phone and me at my desk. After tea, breakfast, and several loo trips we got into Fenella and started the drive down to Vanessa, leaving around 9.15am. I guess in some ways not surprisingly, but the journey was without many delays, despite the A3 north of the Wisley Junction being shut… we veritably sailed through without a hitch and were with Vanessa at For Earth’s Sake by shortly after 10.30am. We’d always known one of the team couldn’t make it today, though two others were also not now coming, having given rather short notice of this. It meant the day was down to Vanessa, myself and Richard, so, as soon as we arrived, there was stuff to do… Put up tables for Spanakopita, vegan sausage rolls and sweet treats to be sold from the orchard, check all drinks were in the fridge (nice and cold - as it was pretty warm still), get the SumUp payment link up and working from the orchard, sort a water jug with tap water, put two HUGE umbrellas over the said food tables to give shade… and then safety pin and tie them together when they decided to blow wildly around. Then a float for outside, scales and till on in the shop for sales inside - as we were keeping the drinks inside the shop in the fridge. Tidy, hoover, tidy outside including cutting back some growth on the parking area… We had fifty or so people booked, and last year the same number had turned up without booking, so we were expecting a little crowd. Hook Eagle Morris all turned up (they are the best!!!), and we were ready… and waited… and waited! By noon, with no cars showing, I got an anxious feeling I’d forgotten to change a time… You see, we were originally doing this event from 3pm, though about four or five months ago Vanessa was keen to change this to noon. At that point we had two sets of reserved tickets (this has been a free event… so far!), so I immediately contacted them before I made the changes and made sure they were aware of the time change - four months ahead! However, with anxiety running I thought I’d made a mistake and not changed the ticket reservation side of things, and maybe everyone would turn up at 3pm rather than noon… and… and… OMG!!! Heart pounding, I checked… and everything clearly said a noon start time. With huge relief, I then spied the first customers arriving in their car. The event was fabulous, and Hook Eagle Morris just superb (as always!), though sadly we think the hot weather over the past few days had turned off some customers who’d reserved tickets, as the turnout was low and nowhere near the number expected. However, those who turned up loved the event, with some asking when the Wassail would be and “You will do Midsummer Revels again next year… won’t you?”… The answer, I think, is yes, though we may charge an entrance fee next time, one that can be fully redeemed against a purchase from the shop - as most buy at least a cold drink. Our thought is that by offering this as a free event some might cry off as they’ve nothing to lose - other than a good time! However, if people have to fork out a little bit of dosh… we will think on. After clearing everything away, and with all the fabulous members of Hook Eagle Morris departed, Vanessa put the kettle on and we enjoyed a quiet cuppa just chilling out by the bench at the side of the renovated pond. And then after a little more chat in the shade of the Great Green Barn, it was time to wend our way home - thankfully, a not too difficult journey home, which I was very glad of. Weather: Definitely cooler, with generally sunny breaks through lightly overcast skies - around 27°, though the breeze did really pick up by early afternoon. Breakfast: Lidl Rye with Flora ProActiv, yeast extract and peanut butter Lunch: Spanakopita, Hummus and pitta (from The Life Goddess) Supper: Hummus (ours), plus Hummus from The Life Goddess, olives, tomato, basil, radish, cucumber and crackers  Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad 21 June 2025 (Saturday)
Woke up at 5.30am and up soon after and I needed a cuppa… and it was already warm verging on hot, though there was a breeze! Being Saturday, the morning was spent doing some desk work and then writing our list for Sunday Chat and recording it - with a good Word of the Week this week… Yay! Whilst Richard was editing and uploading, I made hummus for lunch… and a ratatouille for supper, though actually it went into the freezer. After lunch, I was down at the plot doing some seed sowing, but it was rather bloody humid, especially as I hadn’t thought ahead and was a bit stupid! I wanted to sow fennel, bulb fennel, chard and also some wild rocket, and as it was pretty sunny and warm I thought the best place to do this was in the poly, out of the bright glare of the sun, but… When I get down to the plot one of the first jobs I do, sometimes even before opening the shed, is water the poly. The beds there dry out relatively swiftly so a quick water is always on the cards, followed by another after half-an-hour or so allowing the water to then really soak down to the roots. On Saturday, I did exactly this - getting down to the plot, into the poly and giving all a good water… It was only then that I realised that doing this would drastically increase the humidity of the poly, in which I was expecting to sow three types of seeds!! Well, suffice to say I was melting in the poly whilst sowing seeds; I think I was doing a grand impersonation of the baddy German guy in Indiana Jones who has his face melted off when the Holy Grail is opened. My face was dripping… from my nose, from my brows, from my chin, ears, cheeks, with rivulets of salty sweat torrenting down my face and doing its own great impersonation of Niagara Falls! I wondered whether I actually needed to water the seeds once I’d sown them as there was so much liquid flying around inside the poly, though of course I did… fresh water will do them far more good than my sweaty offerings. Anywho, as Greta says, the seed sowing was done and it’s fair to say once back home a change of clothes and a little cooling off was much needed… and a good drink of water, or two! I then made supper; Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad. Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad I’d cooked some rice earlier in the day, and take two portions, added some Bragg’s liquid aminos, half a red onion finely diced, two handfuls each of frozen peas and broad beans (brought to boiling in a pan and simmered for three minutes, then drained, plunged into cold water and then drained well after a few minutes), one rounded tablespoon of mayonnaise, a diced red pepper, some sliced radish and lots of torn up basil leaves. I then placed it in the fridge, covered, to chill. For the tofu I marinated a well-pressed defrosted firm tofu that had been cubed in some liquid aminos, yeast flakes and garlic for half an hour, and then fried the cubes on each side for a few minutes. In a bowl I put about a tablespoon of maple syrup, two of lemon juice, and another of liquid aminos, added some garlic, and made up a slurry in a separate bowl of teaspoon of cornflour and a tablespoon of water. Removing the cooked tofu from the pan, I added the first liquid mix into the pan and stirred, cooking it through, and then after a minute added the cornflour slurry, which thickened the mix. After a minute I then added the tofu back in, coated it all and then placed it on top of the rice salad which I had previously portioned into two bowls. It was rather nice, though next time I would use a little less maple syrup, as I found it a tad too sweet! Richard rather liked it, which is unusual as he's not a fan of tangy dishes like this. Weather: Hot, though also slightly overcast. Despite the clouds it gets to 32° or 33°. Breakfast: Lidl Rye with Flora ProActiv, yeast extract and peanut butter Lunch: Hummus, pitta, tomatoes, cucumber and radish Supper: Lemony Tofu on a Rice Salad  A cooling simple supper 20 June 2025 (Friday) We're up early again, in fact Richard was up about 4:30, opening windows to let the cooler air of the morning in. However, the cooler air is only cool compared to yesterday's daytime temperature and how the rest of the day will be, so it's still pretty warm. The good thing is, there’s a bit of a breeze today so that’s helping with the temperature feel at least. There's an amber warning for heat, which means that there's a threat to life, particularly for those with underlying health conditions. The reality is, human-induced climate warming is here to stay; it's not going to go away. As long as the world carries on burning fossil fuels at the rate that we are, we’ll continue missing all the revised targets that we’ve been missing since the Paris Treaty years and years ago (2015). Also, people will still keep on having more and more kids which is adding to the population, which in turn adds to the draws on the natural resources of this planet, which are all finite. Hey, ho… rant over… Richard’s trying another recipe for lunch today, and it's another salad, this time made with red quinoa - a seed rather than a grain, though still classed as a grain by many. Now quinoa is something that we both rather like, though in the past we’ve found that it tends to overcook pretty swiftly; one moment it's just under done and needs a little more time… the next second it's glooping at the base of the pan as a thick unwelcome slush. Anyway, Richard's got his way now of cooking it al dente, which gives the salad a nice crunch and texture. Of course, he's done a video of it and that will be up next Tuesday and I'll link to it here when it is. There's been work today and also work work, with various challenges on the work work front; it seems that as we get closer to Midsummer Revels on Sunday, the overwhelm for some is increasing. I have to say, I'll be glad when Sunday is over, as we then have a little respite over the next couple of months with only small Head, Heart & Health sessions going on at the Great Green Barn and gardens, and no major events or shows. Despite the overcast nature of the day, it’s again pretty hot and one of my fellow plotters is still away so I’m watering her plot. She's asked me to keep an eye on her beans and her tomatoes, and a cucumber, and a few other things, though in reality with the heat that we're having and the sun blazing down her whole plot needs a really good water, so I'm backwards and forwards with my watering can about 20 times… and then I need to water my own plot too! I have to say that with the heat, I'm not really feeling in the mood of getting on and doing work and would much rather just grab a pint at the pub and sit on the plot and enjoy the heat. However, if I don't actually get on and do things then things just don't get done, so I got on with tomatoes. We've got a bit of a busy weekend next weekend, so I decided to film this and then I'll refer back to it in next week's A Week at the Plot. Basically though, the first thing that I did was give the bed a little weed of any perennial weeds that are coming through, which in the case of this bed is always mainly bindweed, then cinquefoil. I then looked at any side shoots that were pretty large, and took them off and put them into a glass jar which had some water in it. I'll look at them more closely tomorrow, though with some beds empty and with the brassicas being mullered by pigeons at the moment I think it might be sensible to root some of the side shoots to put into a bed for a later crop of tomatoes. I then got on and took all of the remaining smaller side shoots off, using my fingers, though in doing that I noticed that a few of the plants had already split into two growing tips, and as both tips are pretty established I let them be.
I'm still pondering on how to stake the tomatoes this year. I'd love to do a frame and string them up; I think it’s the best way to stake tomatoes, though it seems quite a few of these tomatoes aren’t going to reach a great height so I pondered whether that’s just overkill. The other option is to put a bamboo cane next to each of the plants and then tie each tomato into the cane. As I was mulling this, a fellow plotter came along with a pint of Amstel from The Fox, and I looked at it lovingly. We had a chat and as we talked about our growing year and the heat of the moment, we also discussed staking of tomatoes, and I sort of made up my mind there and then that I'm going to initially put a bamboo cane in and tie them in. Also, with the heat that we have at the moment, I didn't fancy building a huge frame which would take me half a day under this glaring sun. If needs must at a later date, I’ll build the frame.
Once my fellow plotter had moved on to walk to his own plot, I got on with removing the lower leaves of the tomatoes - doing this with a knife as I find any wound heels more swiftly. Just with side shoots taking energy from the main growing stem, having too many lower leaves on a tomato means that that tomato needs to take up more water to feed that leaf. By taking the lower leaves off, and the unnecessary side shoots (if it's indeterminate, do NOT take too many off if it's a bushing variety), the plant can hopefully put all its energy into growing taller and producing fruit. With the sun beating down, I decided that staking of the tomatoes would wait for another day, though I was pleased that I’d at least got this tomato cares job started. Back at home, I found an old birthday card in the bowl on the coffee table of our middle room and wafted myself with it. Apart from also getting a big drink of Vimto, it was the only thing to do at that moment to cool myself down a little. Richard had had a nap whilst I'd been at the plot, and woke up to get ready to do his live at 6pm, which all went fine. Supper was made up of leftover salads, a quick homemade coleslaw and cottage cheese, and then it was time for some TV and bed. Weather: Hot at 30°, though more overcast and a breeze so feels JUST a little cooler than yesterday. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana Lunch: Quinoa & Cucumber Salad with Halloumi Supper: Leftover Bulgur Wheat Summer Salad & Quinoa & Cucumber Salad, homemade coleslaw, and cottage cheese with two Ryvita rye crispbreads |
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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