We did it!! - 8th September 2011

camera man in the garden

Tony joined us for a weekend BBQ as the weather was scorching last week - probably his last before he goes off for a new adventure in China. Always nice to have a photographer in da house. Scott is not the most willing photographer ...




I wanted to show him my yellow carrots - they make me smile!








happiness in a bowl








I have learnt to show some restraint and not finish everything on my plate if I want to fit into something decent in Septemer - half of these are for my pack lunch tomorrow. Fast learner...

Keeping it interesting in the garden

After last year's garden success and failures - we know we want to get a bit more experimental and plant veggies that are difficult to find / unique. We have great success with these so far...
We were so precious about pulling out these yellow carrots...they grew really well in our garden and we were originally hoping for super long and thick carrots but were tickled pink by what we pulled out instead. I did have my suspicion that the carrots may not come out 'Tesco-perfect' because carrots are fussy plant that need fairly fine soil (i.e. sieved of rocks and old roots etc) which we didnt do! But I love it !! Our first yellow carrots - we have quite a few more in the garden to keep us entertained.

We will definitely plant kohl rabi again next year - so easy and so unique in the garden. This is definately one of those vegs that you just will not get in any supermarket. We just pull them out from the garden - slice away the purple skin, grate it, drizzle a little oliver oil and - voila...yum!


Check this out! Achocha is an unusual vegetable from South America that is pretty easy to grow and does go a bit mental and a vigorious climber. Very productive and most of the fruits are still teeny tiny but we got a couple of bigger fruits. This variety is called 'fat baby' - so cute!! We don't know what to expect with this one - apparently eaten raw it tastes like cucumber, but cooked it tastes like sweet peppers!! Surreal...

eggs on toast

This is as 'live' as it has ever been for this teeny blog! Breakfast in bed served by Scott 5 minutes ago - poached egg on toast. I have obviously devoured it before I wrote this - good food should not be kept waiting

p/s: if you can see the screen, its a hint of our minimoon destination after the 'wedding' in September!

pp/s: I can never do poached eggs while Scott can do it in his sleep (don't take it so literally)...another reason to stick with him

We know it's bad...

We are well aware of the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular conditions and the side effects you may get from taking some of these treatment (hint hint lots of interesting new drugs in development for diabetes!) but do we care....? No my colleagues and I look forward to 'choc Friday' - we get our sugar fix to keep us going for the last 2 hours of work before the weekend arrives. Don't tell my dentist...

Gathering

Good company






homemde chicken satay as starter




belated birthday cheesecake - by Ross and Nat

Probably our last BBQ together in our flat before Sox and Gregor are off to Singapore, Ross and Nat away for their 8 months travel and possibly us selling the flat? who knows? Nostalgia already

Plum season

No I don't mean physically....I meant my plum trees!


Our first harvest for this year - fairly merge looking as I was only picking thoses withins arm's length for a healthy snack tomorrow. Unfortunately I do not think any would be left on the tree come September - you will have to see/taste it in jam format!

Giant harvest

Can I show you what we harvested this weekend?


1 giant courgette
1 kohlrabi (the purple globe - tasty nutty flavour sliced raw in salads)
1 mini cucumber (we got over-excited and harvest it while it's tiny)
2 giant radishes (I know they look small in the picture but trust me they are huge compared with standard radish.The reason they look small is because they are next to the giant courgette!)

So lets focus on the courgette - biggest ever harvest. Fair to say we are proud!

longer than Scott's face...


So heavy it could be used as dumbbells

Still don't believe me when I say it is huge? OK - I didn't want to do this but here goes...
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it is bigger than a cow!


Scott sorted out the garden this weekend ...


...so I made him victoria sponge cake as a thank-you. Or maybe that is a thank-you to myself for going for a run that week. I'm undecided


French doors from the bedroom to garden - One of my favourite spot. You can smell the lavender just standing there

Bergerac, France - Part 3 (we canoe-ed!)

Canoe-ing/kayak-ing down the Dordogne river is a popular sports with both the locals and tourists. The river was packed when we went for our canoe adventure. It was the first summer school holidays weekend so even the locals are out to play. Our starting point - picturesque no?


Scott was very keen to get out and start canoe-ing - we chose to do the 9km route


then there is me - intending to take it easy and get a tan. There might had been a few snappy comments to each other






do it the French way, stop halfway for some frites and cold drinks. No alcoholic drink - we advice against drink-canoeing!




strong...


so am I....


come on woman!...row!


ok!


no- do it this way!