Sprouting Seeds

We have just set our second set of seeds for sprouting, we had a batch of Mung Beans the other night in a stir fry, and we have a nice tub of sprouted Rocket and sprouted Red Cabbage to add to sandwiches through the week, This second lot we have on the go is again a tray of Mung Beans, a tray of Rocket and Red Cabbage mixed as they take about the same time and a tray of Cress as I found a packet in my seed box a few years old so don't know if they are still viable.

Its the time of year when everything is on the go in the greenhouses and hubby has cornered the market in Okra me thinks, he has got a bit carried away with them, I sure we can do some swaps with, them, we are also having ago with Mushroom Spawn again, so we have mixed some with well rotted horse manure in some wooden troughs hubby made, and I have sterilising straw with boiling water so I can try some Oyster Mushrooms, we have had successful crops of Oyster Mushrooms before so fingers crossed for this time.

The chickens are still laying for Britain, and the Bees are busy busy, I have just treated Hubby to a new air rifle so hopefully we can make a demise in the wood pigeon population that seems to be on the rampage at the moment in the garden, I have high hopes for some pigeon pie, his old air rifle he has had for 30 years and just isn't up to the job, so he is like a little boy with all his Christmases come at once, the carcasses from the pigeons we hope to use for bait cray fishing as its crayfish time again, so lots going on.

We have booked a cottage and are off to S. wales start of June to have a look around and make a start getting to know the area, in readiness for our move, we hope to spend what ever time we can there over the next coming year, its so exciting to think our dream is almost within or grasp, in anticipation of this I am having a good clear out, and getting stuff on e-bay, I have two knitting machines to get listed, (I am keeping the other two,) a box of dressmaking patterns and two boxes of knitting machine magazines, stuff is being sent to charity shops and lastly hubby has being making trips to the tip, did have a clear out of the shed this morning although there wasn't much rubbish, I do try to keep the shed organised. Time to get dinner started will be back again soon.

Changing Plans

You know what they say all the best laid plans and that, well it was always our plan dream or whatever to buy a small holding in Dorset and do it all for ourselves, we worked hard and had goals reached them postponed the moved another 3 years to 2013 when the housing market fell making it not viable to sell the house we are in, so next year was to be the big year, now we are not going, we have been watching what is happening in Dorset very closely, and it seems to us that the world and its wife seems to be heading there, city family's have been buying up any little small holding that has come along, stripped them bear turned them into equestrians so little Suzie can have a pony, this has resulting in pricing it completely out of our bracket, so Dorset is off the agenda, I don't want to live surrounded with the pony set who commute to work in the big city's and complain if they so much as hear a cockerel crow in the countryside, so having made the decision to abandon Dorset but not the dream, we are now considering South Wales, similar climate to Dorset perhaps a bit wetter, still within easy reach of the sea, plenty of unspoilt countryside on the plus side its nearer to mountains which Hubby loves, we can get a lot more for our money and its affordable, for example , in Pembroke shire you can get a 3/4 bedroom house with approx 10 acres of land for about £280,000 in Dorset the same money would get a 1/2 bed house with about 1 acre if you were lucky, we are now checking out the various areas of South Wales doing our research and going for visits and plan is back on track for a move we hope next year, 2013. We will keep you updated.

This year didn't get off to a brilliant start, Spud our adopted Guinea Pig curled up his toes and went off to meet his maker, he was getting on his year and we know he was happy living out his years free roaming the garden.

Then Hubby was rushed into hospital and had to have an emergency operation, he is fine now 2 months on but it has taken him a while and is now ready to start building up his fitness, he has though taken a great interest in the growing of vegetables and is starting to call my greenhouse his, a bit of a cause for concern there me thinks, he also has started cooking more so perhaps the trip to hospital was a good thing .

Good Friday we went to N Wales and spent the day ambling around, ended up on Holyhead Beach and went foraging for winkles cockles mussels and limpets that we cooked up into a seafood chowder with sea beet and very nice it was too.

Today has been spent cycling to the garden center for some more pea seeds, also hubby picked up some sprouting seed mixes, so we dusted off the old seed sprouter and have got them all started, we have been potting up in the greenhouse, toms and chills etc coming along a treat, made some lemonade from some unwaxed lemons that where hanging about really easy to make as well, tonight's dinner will consist of, smoked salmon from the freezer (trying hard to clear the freezer out) baked potatoes, salad leaves from the greenhouse and a couple of hard boiled eggs (swamped with eggs at the moment) and some home made bread that is just about to go in the oven, will be back again soon in the meantime hear is the

Lemonade recipe.

3-4 unwaxed lemons, 140g caster sugar, 1 litre of cold water, chop up lemons skins and all roughly throw into the food processor with the sugar and about quarter of the water, blitz it, pour through sieve and squeeze out as much juice as possible add remaining water, stir and serve and enjoy.