February 2006

1 The garden is teaming with wildlife at the moment.  Just this morning, we have seen a green woodpecker, squirrels, blackbirds, moorhens, robins, pheasant, magpie, coal tits (I think), thrush or starling (not sure), rabbits, pigeons and chickens of course!  The moorhens, blackbirds and robins are the boldest - raiding the chicken run for food.

Mmmm - freshly baked home made bread!!  Can you smell it?  Wanna see it?  
My new breadmaker booklet suggested making a plain white loaf first, so that flavouring could be judged and basic ingredients varied to taste.  But, you know me, little Miss Impatient - I went straight for something a little more interesting and tried the olive bread.  It was perfect with a slow cooked pork & vegetable casserole.

Another good purchase arrived today.  Well pleased with a small home paper shredder.

2 One of the good things about being retired is that we have time to spend with family & friends (provided they can fit us into their busy schedules, of course!).  A trip to London today for dinner with Ray's two daughters.
4 A visit to see Ray's main historic rally partner and a night out at the HRCR annual awards dinner.  Very posh do - I wore my wedding dress!  Ray & Paul picked up awards for their rallying exploits last year.  Paul was 2nd driver & Ray was 3rd navigator.  Pretty good for their first full competitive year.
6 Wren signWhen I visit Portugal, I can't resist the pottery, particularly the natural terracotta stuff.  On the recent trip, I bought four letters to make a sign for my neighbour's house.  Here it is - simple, but effective I hope.  More DIY than craft, in my terms.  I hope they'll like it.
7 Made a Banana & Pecan cake in the breadmaker today.  Not 100% satisfied with the texture, but tastes good.  Seemed to have a mixing problem as one paddle was not working like the other.  Will be in trouble tomorrow if that happens when the bread is mixing.......
Crow had a good garden maintenance day; mowing the lawns, cutting down some random sprouting tree growth and yet more leaf collection.
8 Entertaining friends at home, so just had to try to make another loaf.  Sadly, the breadmaker definitely has a faulty left paddle.  I chose to make the smallest size loaf and carefully steered all the dough to mix on the right hand paddle.  Ended up with a slightly lop-sided loaf but it didn't affect the taste.  I'm off now to test Tesco customer services - follow the full story on the breadmaker page.....
Today's menu: Salmon poached with lime & coriander, portuguese pickled carrots and sundried tomato bread followed by banana & pecan cake with whipped cream and cheese board (cheddar, emmental and cotswold double gloucester & chives). Yum yum!
10 Washed down external upvc on the conservatory & bungalow today.  Then, time to catch up on news during a lunchtime walk with my best friend from ex-work.  When I returned, Crow had started to lift the top layer of grass from the planned new vegetable patch in the paddock.  My contribution was to ferry away all the clods in the wheelbarrow.
11 More hard labour; first, removing one of the piles of earth still standing in the orchard (from the fruit tree planting).  Shouldn't have left these so long in this dry spell as they've set like a rock.  Later, more clod moving.  Both very tired and we've only scratched the surface!
12 A rainy day, so a day of rest from the garden.  I'm trying to do my planting plan, but I keep changing my mind!!
13 A mild week ahead, so apple & pear tree pruning today.
14 Yet more preparation of the new vegetable patch.  Three beds marked out now.
My valentine bought me a new computer!  Started setting it up today....
15 Computer set up completed without too much trauma, especially considering this was the first time I had really installed lots of software myself.  Data transfer from the old pc was done via a pen drive.  It's so fast that I'm definitely the slowest component now.
Tesco let me down completely regarding a replacement breadmaker, so I voted with my feet and moved to Amazon to re-order a Morphy Richards 48280 Breadmaker.
16 My rockery stones were delivered today so I made a start on converting flower garden border 3 from its current bare bed state, into my pot garden.
My valentine is really spoiling me this week, now with an iPod Shuffle.  Spent this evening loading it up with 244 of my favourite tracks.
17 My new vegetable plot now has 7 beds waiting to be dug and then planted, if the waterlogged soil ever dries out enough.  I'll probably have to wait until April at the earliest.  How wonderful it will look when it's all planted and growing!  I'm planning to use these beds for potatoes, onions, sweetcorn and courgettes.
Wow, two days after ordering, my new breadmaker arrived - better than waiting a month for Tesco to deliver.
18 More pot garden clearing and conversion, until I ran out of weed suppressant!  Then some replanting of bulbs dug up from border 3, shrub and other general tidying.
Crow has worked very hard today - clearing the remaining piles of earth from the orchard, digging in the new vegetable plot, boundary fence fixing and other garden maintenance jobs.
19 Just got to try the new breadmaker.  A very successful mixed herb bread - good texture and very tasty!
20 Finished fitting the weed suppressant for the pot garden and ordered 10mm pea gravel.
21 Two tons of pea gravel arrived and about half a ton shovelled and wheelbarrowed onto the pot garden.  Very tiring!
22 Raisin bread produced today - another success!
Remaining gravel transferred to pot garden & guess what?  Not enough - still about 4 square metres to cover.
23 Nothing going on in the garden today - having a rest after all of that gravel shifting.  Besides, it's raining and very cold.  Busy indoors completing two more Chick Originals.
24 Neighbours round for dinner tonight, so most of the day spent cleaning the house and preparing the menu:  Corn soup, followed by salmon poached with lemon & parsley, technicolour bean salad and parmesan & sundried tomato bread, followed by walnut & maple cream dessert  and cheese board (cheddar, leerdammer and dolcelatte). Yum yum!
26 More preparation in the old vegetable garden - general clearing up, digging and muck spreading.  Compared to the paddock, the soil here seems pretty good, already quite dried out - just needs to warm up a bit for seed germination.
27

New log roll & gravelled pathMore pea gravel delivered today to finish the pot garden and cover the side path where we've had a new log roll fitted. 

Reward? - Cheese & Onion bread!
28 Still digging and manuring the original vegetable garden, including the greenhouse soil.  Stopped for a break to go lunchtime walking. 
I've made a belt and you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to buy a belt buckle!  Had to resort to the charity shops to find a belt with a buckle I liked so that I could take it apart.
Started to make a super chunky jumper which will knit up in no time on 15mm needles.  Watch out for it in the next few days on Chick Originals.