Pottering

It's been nearly eighteen months since I posted about my last weekend like this. Once again, Liz had to work, which left me to get on with bits and pieces.

I've sanded down our wooden chopping boards (including the large piece of worktop cut out for the draining sink), and (re-)oiled them. They've all needed doing for a little while, but I'd not got round to it. The biggest one (the new one) is rather large, and pretty heavy, as the worktop is dense oak, but quite attractive. The two biggest will come in very helpful when chutney making, which is always demanding of space.

I made a passing attempt at fixing the light above the bathroom basin (which has been flickering, and giving a disco-esque feel to the room; strobe lighting is not ideal when shaving). I've not been entirely successful, as I think a tube or igniter is going. Still; it's improved.

I re-weeded the vegetable beds (well, some of them): the onions needed doing, although they're much better than at the end of May, and I attacked the celeriac, leeks, and salad leaf bed while I was at it. The celeriac are growing well, and I will soon need to be watching for side-shoots forming: these need to be pinched out.

The lawn needed mowing, as it's been about ten days, so I've done my bit to help fill the compost heap. On the same note, I turned all three, and watered them, as they seemed a bit dry.

The fruit beds have been a bit swamped by unexpected potatoes that have sprouted from tubers left behind last year. These are a nuisance, and can't be helping the fruit bushes, so I've cut off all the foliage. With the haulms gone, the tubers should 'set', and be ready for lifting next weekend. I think we've got enough new potatoes (the Lady Christl and Rocket are still doing fine, and we're getting an average of a kilo per plant), so doing it this way means they should store. To that end, I've left the hessian sacks soaking in a bucket of weak bleach for a couple of hours, to make sure they're sterile.

As I've now pulled up nine Lady Christl, and three Rocket, I had space to put in twelve of the Orla and Vivaldi. These two (a first and second early, respectively) have been waiting in the wings (chitting in the study) while the first planting went in at the start of April. One can purchase 'second cropping' seed potatoes for new potatoes at Christmas—the producer holds them in optimal conditions, and they get to you about now. I wanted to try it myself (not least because the tubers are twice as expensive if they're second croppers), hence the waiting period in the study. The first dozen are, then, now in the ground, and hopefully will provide us with new potatoes in a couple of months.

Another pound or two of strawberries, a bowl of mini-peas, and a few beetroot all contributed to the weekend's food. The beetroot turned into a tasty hummus (courtesy of Hugh Fearlessly Eats-it-all).

It was also time to put the elder wine into a demi-john. Now, I had hoped that this wine—a blend of elderberry and elderflower—might oblige me by being a rosé. No such luck. The anthocyanins in elderberries are obviously quite robust, and the wine is definitely red. It may, I suppose, lighten, but it's unlikely to become a rosé. Never mind: the taste will be more important.