A reasonable trade off

   The plants seem to be making up for lost time from the late spring. The fruit bushes in the back garden are bent low with fruit. It is hard to get tired of eating Raspberry and Blackcurrants straight off the bush. The Apples seem to be getting bigger as you look at them.

  I am happy to report that honey bees are still around. I left some wet comb [honey comb with a some honey left on it] in the wax extractor in the greenhouse. I though the combination of the extractor inside the greenhouse might render the wax for me. No such luck. However the the bees have found it. The other day there must have been fifty honey bees and a dozen of more bumblebees in there robbing the honey. They had to pay the price by bumping off the greenhouse glass roof until they found their way out.

   All the doors and windows in the house are open so we can enjoy the beautiful weather. We get more unexpected visitors. The garage has been adopted by two very big and very active common Toads. There are a few Toads in the garden and H keeps bumping into them as she harvests the fruit bushes. The dining room has a new fixture, although I think it will only be a temporary arrangement, A Magpie Moth is spending the day with us. The picture below does not do it justice. Click HERE for some proper information on the Magpie moth. Having read up on the moth I find the caterpillars of this moth like Currant and Hawthorn plants as hosts. We have both in the garden. A few leaves for a pretty visitor seems like a reasonable trade off.

 

paaaand a bowl

I have been off work this week. I have to use up my holiday entitlement or loose it. Tuesday H and I went to Melton Mowbray to the Livestock market. There is a general market on that day as well. You can buy, at auction, anything from a Hereford Bull to a Matchbox toy car by way of; Pigs, Sheep, work clothes, animal foodstuffs, feeders of every kind and every sundry item that could be needed. There is a general market to where there is all manner of delights. It is like a massive car boot sale but more professional. Then there is the "Fur and Feather" auction. There is game such as Hare, Rabbit, Pheasant, Partridge and Quail. Live ferrets, fancy birds [budgies, finches and parrots to name to ones I recognised], and all kinds of fowl, chickens, ducks and geese. It is an assault on the senses but a great morning out. We had a wonder round the town as well. Market day there too. We found a super little cafe over looking the market. A quintessentially English Tea room, Tea served on a China service, two tier cake stands, waitresses in black and white livery and service with a smile. No wonder it was voted the best Tea room in Leicestershire for 2011.

Yesterday H and I went to Oakham. Malc & Penny bought us a afternoon Tea as an anniversary present so we decided yesterday would be the day. But first we went to Barnsdale. Barnsdale is five miles the far side of Oakham so having got up at a reasonable hour and had a nice breakfast we trundled over to Barnsdale. Geoff Hamilton was a TV presenter of Gardener's World from 1979. Click HERE for his obituary. In a change to TV production the BBC made Geoff the main presenter. Geoff used his garden at Barnsdale to show the TV audience how to set out gardens and how to do all manner of garden related tasks. The gardens are still there and that is what we went to see. Not the best time of year to see garden...never mind, we had the place to ourselves, more or less. I don't know if it was the weather or time of year but the gardens had a quite sad feeling. It was like a memorial to Geoff. Still, he gave us gardening TV as we know it. Gardener's World remains a firm favorite with many people. Geoff cottoned on the a more natural way of gardening, we call it organic. Geoff was an early promoter of the idea. After we had had a look round the nursery we came inside for a brew in the very nice cafe. Geoff's DVD were playing on the TV. It was a bit surreal. Still, worth a trip.

Afternoon Tea was booked for 3.30 at The Whipper Inn, Oakham. We got to Oakham a couple of hours early and took a spin round the town. It a splendid little town. THe market was on in Butter market right in the middle of town as it has always been. There were good stalls. The great fish stall but all I wanted was the brown shrimp. If had been able to find some quality butter I would have bought the shrimp and made potted shrimp. It would not be as good as Morecombe Bay potted shrimp but I am sure it would serve. I got a turned wooden wedge for a quid. H got a loaf from the baker's stall. The veg man was having a hard time, " paaaand a bowl", any offers, paaand a bowl". In Leicestershire vegetable stalls have a system were they have shallow stainless steel bowls and in the bowls is produce. The bowl has a price for whatever is in the bowl but all the bowls are the same price. Oakham market the bowls had fruit or veg or what I call stew mix ups, any combination of carrot, parsnip, potato, swede. There is enough for a good stew from the contents of the bowl. On Oakham stalls a bowl was a "paaand" [one pound]. The previous day in Melton the bowl has all the same things as Oakham but also bowls of Strawberries, another of mushrooms and so on. Melton bowls were two quid. Same stuff just different price. That is the perfect market for you.

One of the stalls at Oakham sold hats. All kinds of hats. I ended up getting a crushable felt Trilby. I blame Nick Crane. I read his book "Clear Waters Rising". He wore a crushable felt Trilby on his travels. I got one for the same reasons, more or less. The brim keeps the sun out of my eyes and it keeps my head warm. I hope that if I should be outdoors went to rains it will shed the rain off instead of soaking it up as my wooly beeny hat does. The only thing it does not do is keep my ears warm. Perhaps if the ears are cold I should retire indoors or get out the beeny. The Whipper Inn is on the market place so it was the shortest of walks to the front door.Click HERE for there website. It is a Inn of two halves. The main entrance and main room is dark and timbered and looks like it has been there forever, which it probably has. The other room is a modern bistro. We sat in the old bit and ordered a couple of Sherries from the Hungarian waitress. We read our books for a while then tucked into our afternoon Tea. Sandwiches with crust cut off, seed cake and scones and off course Tea. It was quite nice. Thanks M & P.

MFFF

MFFF = Moira Furnace Folk Festival, click HERE for their website. At Christmas H and the neighbours got all excited about the MFFF. It was the first one last year and the neighbours hadsuch a nice time they thought they would like to do it again. The time has come round. The weather was wet on and off all week. I did the trailer run on Saturday and found the soil a bit wet for digging. I checked the lottie over, collected produce and whipped the heads off any weeds in flower.

H wanted to go to the MFFF which is held at Moira Furnace, surprise surprise, which is just down road from us. Miss L was at work so I got changed from the smeggy lottie clothes to something a bit smarter. We wandered down and having got there wandered about. It was a bit quiet meaning there were not many people about are was it that there were lots of stalls and refreshment vans. The weather must have been a factor nevertheless the two marquees had people performing with an audience in attendance. There were also events on at the local pubs, the Railway, the Woodman and the Miner's Welfare. Moira was wash with Morris men, clog dancers and folks with instrument cases wandering between venues or camped outside a watering hole.

The weather was showery with bright sunny intervals. This meant that folks went inside the pubs when it tipped down and came out with the sunshine. It was like a bizarre cuckoo clock. I traditional festival lore the grass was cutting up muddy at the furnace with the kids loved. We got ourselves a couple of drinks, had a look round a had a listen to a band or two. It was quite mellow. I had to drop Miss L over to a local village hall for an 18th party and on my return we went over to the neighbours, had a few drinks and got a taxi down to the Furnace. Our neighbours negotiated a price for the wristbands which acted as entrance tickets for the various on site venues. A few more beers and a wall to sit on we listened to the acts. They were all good performers it was just a case of whether their music was to your taste. Some were, some where not to my taste bu they were not offensive ans since the sets were only 45 minutes long so it was easy to listen to for bit and if you did not like them go for a wander over to the beer tent and back by which time they were nearing the end. We had a good night. The festival packed up at 11.30 so as to be good neighbours. I behaved as I had to pick Miss L up. We all went back to the neighbours house to catch up with Clarkie and Clare. C&C had meet us at the Furnace. They had come back to the UK for a wedding following nine months travelling in Asia and down under. It was great to see them happy, safe and well. Lucy was picked up a little after 1am which was quite a nice excuse to get away as the neighbours and their friends were getting comfy and the old whiskey was being brought out.

Sunday morning was a washout, H and Miss L were a little worse for wear. I made breakfast for them and pottered about. We had arranged to meet the neighbours and their friends at the Furnace when the events opened at 2pm. H just about made it. Miss L was left to slumber. We walked down but did not see our friends straight away. We had a look round all the stalls, bought a drink then went up to a venue, the loft. This is the top on the Furnace building. In there was gathered a bunch a people mostly performer by a few spectators like ourselves. This was a "singaround". Essentially a self ordered open mike session without a mike. This was the sort of folk music I like. Songs of soldiery and sea faring, of the land and played on traditional instruments. We stayed for an hour or more. Folks just came and went. There was some beautiful harp music, a chap singing a soulful tune for lost love and a ribald tune for 69th Foot Regiment to name the highlights.

We found our buddies on the grass outside the main tent. We found a couple of chair and another drink and settled in the listen to the main stage. The bulk of the acts did a sort of folk rock thing but here are there was a traditional tune rendered in, more of less, a traditional way. The rain stayed away and the sun beat down. More than once I woke up to find I had been asleep. I was not the only one snoozing in the sun. The event wrapped up about 5.30. There was the usual thanks to the various folks involved in the weekend. By all accounts the performers and organisers enjoyed themselves. I am not so sure about the traders. We all strolled home. H made tea. I made the must for Strawberry wine, racked off the Rhubarb wine and checked in on the mead. Everything is looking fine.

Ooh the pain

Since the last post I have had four days in Dublin over the May Bank Holiday. In the days before I went to Dublin I planted lots of seeds and watered them in. The greenhouse was emptied again. We were promised and got plenty of rain which suited me since I was not to be stopped working and benefited from the down pours.

We stayed with our ex-neighbours who have moved to Dublin for work. We did the usual holiday things of too much to eat and too much too drink which incidentally, are my two favorite hobbies. In between eats we had a look round the countryside and the city. Top weekend out! On return from Dublin it was straight back to work. I did not get to the plot until Wednesday evening. The weed seedlings are starting to appear. My lottie buddy throught there might be a frost again as there had been one on Tuesday night so we fleeced over the tender plants and earthed up the spuds. The Ulster Prince potatoes got a dose of frost burn but I hope that will not set them back too much.

I got side tracked at home on Thursday night and we had friends over on Friday evening so no lottie those days either. In a fit of enthusiasm I accepted Tony's offer to go rock climbing the following day. Tony picked me up the 08.30 Saturday and we set off for Stanage Edge, Derbyshire.
It is ages since I climbed and although a could remember the techniques I did not have the strength or endurance for it to be an easy outing. On the third climb I stretched my forearm muscles and made it worse on the next pitch. Tony nipped off and solo'd a couple of pitches whilst I rested. But it was no good I am out of condition for that sort of exercise. Given it was only 3ish we packed or bags and went for a walk to Stanage Pole. From the Pole we took a wide right ward circular walk passed Redmire reservoirs circling back across open moor land to the car park on the Ringinglow Road behind the edge. We saw Curlew, Grouse and Snipe and at quite close quarters too as well as thick swathes of Heather and uneven tussocks of grass. It was hard going but enjoyable. We had an ice cream at the van in the car park and a well earned rest. Then it was a twenty minute walk back to the edge and down to where Tony's car was parked at it's foot. The walk turned into a hike of about six miles with all our climbing gear. It was 6pm by the time we got to the edge again. The sun had been out all day and was starting to journey toward the horizon. The edge glowed in the evening sun and since most of the climbers had left for the day it seem really quite tranquil with a gentle breeze blowing to take away the heat of the day.

Click the link for information about Stanage Edge. Movie buffs will probably know that High Neb was the location where Keira Knighly stood in the film adaptation Pride & Prejudice.
Having shimmied up Stanage Edge in the finger holds of greats such as Joe Brown and Don Whillans and stood breathless, albeit from exertion rather than emotion a la Knightly, I considered we had had a very fulfilling day which was topped off with a pint in the Little John at Hathersage.

My arm, shoulders and chest muscles were over worked so there was no point even attempting to do anything at the lottie on Sunday. After a leisurely breakfast and a potter in the garden H and I went for a walk round our locale. This walk turned into a ten mile hike. All this walking is good training for my summer holidays walking Wainwright's coast to coast.

I made an effort to go to the lottie on Monday evening mainly because I was able to finish work early. I planted out the Sweet Corn, Broad Beans to replace those scoffed by the mice, the remainder of the Leek and Parsnips. I also put in a few Marigolds. After the planting which was quite fulfilling I set about hoeing. It was tough at first but became easier as my muscles loosened up. I am happy to report that the Brassicas that I though had been attacked were in fact the victim of slugs. Since pelleting the area the damage has stopped and the plants have relished not being eaten and are grow like mad. I think the next visit will be Thursday evening if it has not rained. I might even go even if it has!