On A Cold Winter Night...

The other half is off into the countryside tomorrow to do some recording with his band so we decided on a quiet night in. We made the best Thai Green Curry, which is my new favourite meal. It got me thinking about what vegetables I want to grow next year. I'm a terrible cook but am trying to learn. I have been a vegetarian for about four years now, so we eat a lot of vegetables!

During the summer we eat salads most nights with a few cheeky chips or home made garlic bread. Aside from the obvious salad crops and stir fry staples I want to grow more things for curries and soups too. Salad, carrots and spring onions in pots on the patio for quick pickings. Beans and Peas in the first raised bed. Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts and Leeks in the second raised bed and Potatoes in the third.

When we went to France earlier in the year on our little garden tour it was interesting to see how the kitchen gardens were laid out.

There are lots of beautiful plants in our garden which we were so lucky to inherit but I would like to create more of a formal kitchen garden in the beds near the house.

I'm very much looking forward to changing the garden slowly to suit our needs. Seeming as the garden is so long and on a steep slope I like the idea of a series of rooms.

I want to grow more beneficial plants for insects and espalier some fruit trees across the patio walls too.

We visited Rudyard Kipling's house in the Spring and there was the most beautiful Mulberry tree in the garden. There is also another beautiful specimen at Scotney Castle too. If I had a huge garden a Mulberry tree would be a must.

We have a pear tree which we decided to give a drastic pruning. I'm rather worried we may have killed it but it wasn't doing too great as it was smothered in a clematis and we didn't get much fruit this year.

A week after cutting back the Pear I picked up an espalier pear tree from Freecycle so we will hopefully still get some pears next year.

Mmmm, Apple, Pear and Blackberry Crumble.

I love Rhubarb too although it seems a little difficult for a novice like me to grow.

Our neighbour has a Blackcurrant Bush that hangs over into our garden and we very much enjoyed sitting on the bench underneath it having a secret feast!

We have some Plum Trees on our street which also provided a rather nice feast too. I was picking some plums from it one day when a neighbour came out to pick some too and told me that she has lived on this road for fifteen years and always makes a plum pudding every year from that tree!

I want to learn more about foraging too. I picked up a little book about edible mushrooms from a charity shop but I would be too scared to trust myself to pick the right mushroom. Especially after watching Into The Wild the other night. Such a good film.

I noticed in the local paper that there was a wild foraging and mushroom identification course but we were in France when it was held. Hopefully they will do another one.

Apologies for talking about food mainly.

I do love flowers too.

I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and I found the plant meanings really interesting.

My friend is getting married next year so we consulted the dictionary to see what her favourite flowers meant. I think she wants a wildflower theme to her flowers which is lovely.

I got the Christmas decorations down from the attic today and plan to festive up the house tomorrow while the other half is away.

Looking forward to seeing his face when he returns to tinsel and fairy lights everywhere.

Below is a picture of the kind of thing I do instead of a Christmas Tree. Not only do we not have room for a tree, I feel awful when it's time to drag them to the recycling point along with all the other dead trees. Our council apparently turns them all into mulch for the parks which is good. Nothing spells the end of Christmas than seeing a family dragging their tree down the road with bit's of tinsel following along...

Good Night.