January 2008

1 Happy New Year!!
Just finished watching Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp, Cate Winslett, Dustin Hoffman and Julie Christie (all favourites of mine).  What a sweet film.
2 Brrrr...  very cold today and snow forecast for tomorrow.  It's not all bad as I want some snowy chick pics for next year's Xmas cards.
Harvest: leeks, cabbage, chard.
3 Well, no snow after all, and I harvested vegetables as I thought they might get snowbound.
Had a lovely lunchtime with our friends from Portugal, over here for a visit.
Harvest: beetroot (sadly, the last), my first red cabbage, brussel sprouts (the last from the first of three plants), kohl rabi (my one & only), fennel, turnip.
4 On the menu tonight: Spicy red cabbage with bacon & mashed potatoes.
5 Been out harvesting chard and spinach which is now duly blanched and frozen (5 portions, each for 2 servings), leaving behind a lovely vegetable stock for soup.
It's also the 12th day of Christmas, so time for the tree to disappear for another year.
Harvest:  swiss chard, spinach.
6 PheasantReeves PheasantBeen twitching again.  We often see "common" red faced pheasants in our paddock and garden, but lately I've been spotting a very different looking wild bird down one of the local roads on my way to the gym.  It has a very long tail and strikingly marked black and white head.

I think I've finally identified it as a Reeves Pheasant.

7 Crow's running a new internet table-top rally and this year I'm helping with the setting of routes, rather than competing.  We 're raising money for The MS Society and lots of entrants are signing up, so we might get close to £1000.  For more information see www.table-top-rallying.org.uk.  Anyone can enter - why not have a go - it's fun!
Latest crochet project completed and it's very elegant.  Will look superb over strappy evening tops.  Next item started - a chunky jumper.
8 A fond farewell to Oscar Bear today - sold from Chick Originals.  I'm sure he'll love his new home.  Anyone else got Xmas present money to spend?
The standing joke here is that our cars get washed twice a year, whether they need it or not!  Today was the day - a proper wash for the Ibiza and a rinse down for the Rav.  How boring.
9 Check out the latest recipe of the month for a tasty eggy vegetarian treat.
10 I've watched two episodes of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It and I've now got to decide whether to watch the remaining ones as I think I had nightmares about it last night.  Added to that I saw the chickens slaughtered on Hugh's Chicken Run which almost made me cry.  Just as well we don't keep chickens for meat, just for eggs.
On a more cheerful note, my chunky jumper is coming along a treat with the back and one sleeve finished.
11 We're planning a holiday which includes a cross country ski, so serious training started in the gym today with 1.5km on the cross trainer.  Not ladylike I know but I haven't perspired so much for a long, long time.  The aim is to get close to 3km at the highest intensity I can manage.
12 Been belatedly celebrating Sue's 50th birthday with a day out in London to see the Tutankhamen exhibition, followed by a fabulous Thai meal.  We both had a very lovely day.
13 We spent a few hours chatting with friends who popped in to deliver late Xmas presents.  Mine was a cookery book - James Martin's Desserts - so lots of yummy treats to come this year.
14 I've obviously got the culture bug as I booked tickets for the Terracotta Army exhibition.
15 The Essex 100 Rally which we are organising already has 5 of the required 12 entries.
16 I still assisting with preparation of route cards for the table-top rally and I'm up to the roll neck on my chunky jumper.
17 There's new growth in the front garden with the day lilies starting to sprout and spring bulbs pushing through.
18 Never mind new growth, I found a fully opened mini iris flower today.  Not a prime specimen but no wonder this early in the year?  There's a picture on the flower garden page.
19 Crow's out doing a rally and I'm in having a great girly day with his navigator's wife.  We might have ventured out if it hadn't rained persistently all day.  So instead, we chatted, read, watched the latest Fairytale - Cinderella with James Nesbitt - and I did some knitting, of course.  In fact, I finished my chunky jumper.  It's lovely, but a bit big for me.
20 I did the first two jobs of my new gardening year, with Crow's assistance.  I planted a Tayberry bush and pruned my raspberry canes.  I've got another Tayberry to plant and four new rhubarb crowns - all bargains from Woolworth's.
Crow's asked me to make some beanie hats for his rally buddies, so I started one this evening.
21 My free holly plant arrived this morning, so it got potted in place of a plant that had died.  Looks a bit pathetic and may do so for some time as I think it will be slow growing.  However, it hopefully won't be attractive to rabbits or chickens!
22 I forgot to mention that I finished the first chunky beanie hat last night and it's very warm and snug.
23 The Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum beckoned today and you really should go if you get the chance!  I found it absolutely fascinating and even more interesting than Tutankhamen.
24 I'm still sweating over maps for the table-top rally but were raising lots of money for charity so it's well worth it.
25 Harvest: lots of leeks, one turnip and two celeriac.
26 The plumber's been again, fitting our new bath taps this time and believe it or not, one of the cold taps just fitted before Christmas is already dripping.  Not sure if he's fixed that yet - need to wait to see if it still drips in the morning.
I've spent most of the day plotting and checking table-top routes - just one and a half to go now!
Fabulous deep red band of sky just after sunset this evening which I tried to photograph, but not very successfully.
27 Georgeous day, dry, sunny and about 12 C.  Just perfect for a bit of gardening, so we were both very busy.  Crow laid the first 5 slabs around the fruit cage whilst I attended to my strawberry pots, tidying & replanting.  I potted my second tayberry, in a modest pot for resettling later and put this in the greenhouse.  Finally, I planted my four new rhubarb crowns around the greenhouse, next to the current rhubarb.
Harvest:  3 turnips, four portions of brussel sprouts.
28 At last, my table top work is finished.
Now - tulip diagrams for Essex 100....... I've installed PaintPro7 for this exercise and I'm now having to learn a lot more about it to get the necessary sharp resolution for these diagrams.  "What is a tulip?" I hear you non-navigators ask.  Well, it's a representation of a road junction, like this one which means "Give way and turn right at triangle T junction" -->
29 Another beautiful spring(!?!) day and we both spent 5 hours outside with Ron, who started laying my tunnel path.  Crow finished the paving slabs in and around the fruit cage whilst I played general gofer, made lunch and coffees, harvested my remaining jerusalem artichokes, did a little veg garden digging and tended to the chickens.
Tulips found satisfactory resolution, designed eleven.
30 The tulip count is up to 20 which covers all the basics.  I now need to wait until an actual part of the route is available to find out which other junction representations are required.
31 Visited mum-in-law after the gym.  Not my usual gym day, so I just swam - a record (for me) 60 lengths, then wallowed for a short while in the jacuzzi - wonderful!  Beanie number 2 started and finished.