We have a large polytunnel and green house behind the house – a legacy of the previous owners who had a flower growing business here. They are both about 14′ wide by 17′ long – so a pretty substantial size and I am hoping to be able to create some good crops. The idea is […]
Two unexpected (though not necessarily unwelcome) visitors today. Firstly, a heron which we used to see down at the bridge over the river just outside our garden seems to have decided to take over our pond. It stood motionless by the edge of the pool for over an hour this morning – it is out […]
For the last week the Bing Weather app on my phone has been saying that it would snow on Tuesday. On Monday we had two tons of topsoil delivered to populate the new raised beds in the polytunnel. Of course the lorry it arrived in was an 18 ton monster because the delivery firm hadn’t […]
Every lunchtime I make soup. Note I said ‘I’ because cooking isn’t something R does. For the cost of one carton from the chill cabinet in the supermarket you can make an enormous pot which will do at least three sets of lunches for the two of us. Really easy to make and combined with […]
The mobile phone coverage in Scotland really really sucks. When we moved house I had to move from my old provider – 3 to Vodafone because there is literally no 3 coverage within about 20 miles of the house. In fact to actually get my PAC code to move my number we had to drive […]
We went to the Garden Centre the other day and selected a load of different seeds (a mix of vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit). It is amazing to think what we will be able to be eating in six months time for such a small financial investment – assuming of course that I am able […]
I was looking at some of our Webcam footage late last night and nearly fell out of my chair. We have a large nut feeder over the fence, and at 10pm (while we would have been sitting in the lounge), a cat sized creature with a pointed muzzle, long tail and white breast emerged from […]
I made preserved lemons today for the first time with all the lemons left over from Christmas. Basically you sterilize a large jar, and then slice as many spare lemons as you have vertically into six to eight pieces each. Put a layer of salt into the jar and then put in the lemons a […]
I had an interesting (well perhaps) thought the other day. It was related to what in the tech line I would carry about with me if (for example) I was going away on a two day trip – business or pleasure – and how this has changed over the years. So 1992 – I am […]
I was reading more on Pine Martens the other night. One fact I didn’t know is that although they eat red squirrels, their presence deters the spread of greys because they are better at catching them than they are the reds. Another fact I didn’t know is that they have distinctive faeces which are black […]
