We are now the proud owners of a Kelly Kettle
Suddenly at the Milton Keynes get together, Jean and Roy (aka Gottaknit and Seth) stepped forward and offered me a large mysterious object – wrapped in a dustbin liner with a very tight knot. “Here is a late birthday present Fiona. You’ll need this on the allotment!” The package was bulky. As I struggled to open the parcel I wondered what was inside. I could feel cardboard and something hard. Could it be metal? Some sort of feeder? Imagine my delight when I finally peeped inside the box and found a Kelly Kettle lying on a nest of twigs...
read moreThe Andrew James Halogen oven has been updated and improved: a review
We bought our Andrew James halogen oven in February 2010. Halogen oven are plug in devices that use a fraction of the electricity consumed by a large fan oven. That was the reason why we invested in one. If you can fill your conventional oven every time that you use it , fair enough. But what if you just want to bake a pie, bake some spuds or rustle up some oven chips? If you buy something that is a relatively new invention/model there are bound to be a few teething problems. Product testing probably extends to just a few months. It’s...
read moreThe Cottage Smallholder Buckinghamshire meet up
We got lost in Milton Keynes. We didn’t follow the AA instructions – so it was our fault. Danny was calm from the outset and I secretly panicked. No roundabout name matched the ones on the instructions. In Newmarket we have three major roundabouts. Milton Keynes has a few more. So I gingerly admitted the problem. Captain Danny proved to be calm at the helm. “Let’s go north. If we were supposed to be going north on the M1 we were probably meant to bypass a lot of the town.” If I’d been driving alone there would have been tears. I...
read moreFriends
As I glided over to Cambridge in The Duchess to pick up our American friends I mulled over the past five years of blogging. We met Michelle and Dan through our blog and forum. I’ve always had a soft spot for Michelle – she heroically defended me during the Great Guinea Pig Debacle. She also has a great sense of humour and a lot of down to earth common sense. But what would she be like in real life? And how about Dan – the man who loves to photograph trains? Their train was delayed and, as there is no easy parking at Cambridge station, I...
read moreRoasted Echalion shallots recipe.
I bought some rather swanky British shallots from Tesco yesterday. Hoping that I could plant them to over winter on the allotment. The were Tesco Finest Echalion shallots – the ones preferred by top chefs and foodie the world over. They are sometimes called banana shallots as they are long rather than round. The sets for slim, longer shallots are very expensive to buy compare to the round to the cottage. So I took a chance and bought 2 packs for 2 quid and chortled my way back home. I brief search on the Internet told me that round shallots...
read moreArachnids and Nid
I don’t like spiders. Although I know that they catch flies and must be super skilled to weave such superb webs. I hate their touchy feely legs. If I spot one in the bedroom I worry that it will creep across my face in the night. In the past I used to kill them on sight. But, for the past twenty years or so, I’ve tried to live alongside them. Old houses have spiders, arachnids that have bred over the years. Country houses have a vast panoply of spiders of every size from teeny tiny things to spiders so big that they could almost wear my...
read moreBusy
As I said on Twitter this afternoon, I was lucky to find a great lawn mower that cuts grass up to 30cm (12 inches) last year. It was relatively inexpensive and, being mainly built of plastic, it’s light and easy to manoeuvre. Lawn mowing is not a regular job here. We tend to mow when we are expecting visitors. Unexpected visitors are welcomed with meadows instead of rolling lawns. Their shock is gently quelled by my excuses. “This is a haven for baby frogs and of course we’re reducing our carbon footprint by only cutting every other...
read moreHow to harvest and store walnuts and cobnuts
“I’m going down to collect some walnuts. Apparently there are masses under the trees.” “Is it OK to pick them up from the ground?” “Yes. I used to collect them on the big estate when I was working there. They used to call me down from my ladder to gather them so that they could mow. The shells mucked up the mower.” We were sitting at the top of our allotment. On two ancient chairs that we inherited with the plot. We spend quite a bit of time perched on these. Looking down the hill and on to the flat area on the other side of the...
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