Welcome to the ladies

Well...I have been pretty quiet blog-wise but busy elsewhere. I celebrated my 26th birthday a week ago (and so now over the half-way mark to 50 as my family lovingly pointed out.)

I had a fantastic time with the most wonderful fantastic Mr Butternut giving me the present of my dreams...an Eglu chicken house! It is a beautiful thing and is now being happily occupied with two new additions to our family - a partridge brown hen called Mrs Cecilia Cluckerson (or CeCe for short), and a Maran called Mrs Weasley. CeCe has already established herself as the boss I think. They don't do very much but I could watch them entranced for hours... I will post a photo as soon as I can.

Garden wise, we are drowning in cucumbers and the herbs are all looking lovely. Tomotoes have been disapointing so far - they may have blight as the greenhouse has been quite wet and there is some mould appearing. However, they are much bigger than last year so I will try again next year. I think I would space them out a bit more though and maybe try some outdoor varieties.

We have started munching on some of the most delicious carrots I have ever tasted, it's so tempting to pull them up when they're tiny but I must be patient and let the rest grow a bit bigger. I've been busy too sowing winter salads, cauliflowers and cabbage. It looks too like I've successfully created four blackcurrant bushes from tiny cuttings I took from a wild bush.

I've been constantly amazed at some of the veg that has done well in my heavy, wet, clay soil. Carrots are supposed to be a no-no in this kind of environment but they've been fantastic. I just wish I'd grown more rather than the measly two rows I thought I'd try as an experiment. The beetroot on the other hand has been extremely slow, as have the pumpkins, while other squashes are doing well.

It doesn't feel like a year since my 25th birthday when I was given my greenhouse (isn't Mr Butternut good to me?) and started on my garden adventures...

Broccoli coming out our ears

Well despite what I thought was careful planning all the broccoli I planted is ready at exactly the same time, and today there are another four massive stalks that need picking. I heard that you can lightly steam florets then plunge them in ice water, then freeze them so I might try that. Otherwise I will have 20 litres of broccoli soup in the freezer.

And never to learn, I have planted out lots of purple-sprouting broccoli seedlings where the early potoates used to be so I guess I will have the same problem last year. I shouldn't complain though cos it tastes fantastic. Mr Butternut is extremely impressed!

I've also been spending a lot of time jam-making, first blackcurrant and then endless raspberry. All this comes from the wild fruit bushes in the countryside near our house. The only thing better than raspberry jam is free raspberry jam. (Apart from the sugar...) But something odd happened with the second batch. It has set beautifully but in the jars it has separated with all the seeds at the top. Mysterious, not sure what I did wrong...

And here is a picture of my gorgeous Cosmos 'Chocomoca' plant which smells just like it sounds.