Unintelligent Design

...I'm tempted to make it to the Blitz Party's September event. Cocktails, swing bands, dancing... all sounds good to me. :)

Any London (or not-London) folk been to these before? I've been to Birmingham's Hot Ginger, which is a similar sort of thing (and generally great fun), but never made it to this one...

Possibly I'm just getting old and domesticated, but I love this time of year. Not too hot, not too cold and miserable. I can get home from work, wander into the garden and Do Stuff for hours before it gets dark.

Or, more accurately, I can Start Stuff. Later in the year, the garden becomes a maintenance project. Right now, it's not quite at that stage.

There's still time to plant things. I'm clearing flowerbeds, assembling raised beds, repotting strawberries (...all this while telling myself that this year I'll find them a permanent home, you understand...), watering the newly laid turf and occasionally grinning when I notice that crops are sprouting or fruiting.

(Things guaranteed to make me smile - potato plants appearing, artichokes sprouting and gooseberries swelling on the bush...)

In a month's time it'll all start to feel too much like work (or possibly like an unwinnable war against slugs and blight). For the moment, though, it's going ok.

It's not a bad moment.

When's a good time of year to visit? 

Looks like I'm visiting Tuscany / Siena for a weekend (possibly a long weekend) later this year.

Thanks!

...it's really rather good, isn't it?

Last year was my first serious attempt at gardening.

It wasn't entirely successful - partly because of the learning curve, partly because of the chaos and lack of access caused by my building work - but I'm hoping to do better this time.

However, I'm not going to have time or space to try everything. So some decisions need to be made - basically, do I revisit the things that worked really well last year, try to improve on some of the failures, or do something completely different...?

Some things are pretty definite, though:

• I'm growing runner beans again, 'cos they were lovely. Ditto for courgettes and/or marrows.
• I'm going to try growing peas and potatoes, which I didn't have room for last year
• The perennials - rhubarb, globe artichokes and jerusalem artichokes - will keep their places, assuming they survive the winter.
• I'm going to try turnips again. They didn't go well this year, but I think the problem was poor maintenance rather than soil.

I'm starting to learn that if I set myself targets for cooking interesting stuff, I'll just fail to meet 'em. So, this year, I'm just noting the what/when/how for each meal that seems worth a mention.

Jan 4th - roast pheasant
( Pheasant plus the usual Sunday roast trimmings... )

Jan 18th - roast guinea fowl
( Read more... )

...if you've moved in 2009 and you've got an Amazon wishlist that people may decide to use for Christmas presents, make sure it's sending things to the right address.

Well, the 'Parsnip and Pear' soup recipe from 'Soup for all occasions' seems to work pretty well. :)

I'm now wondering what to try next - 'Beetroot, Lemon and Chive', 'Celeriac and Bacon' or 'Smoked Chicken Chowder'... Hmm...

It feels as if I haven't actually done much in the way of goth - except Whitby - for Quite Some Time.

So... now planning to change that a little.

Hopefully going to the Birmingham Cruxshadows gig, the November Vagabonds and - possibly - back to Leipzig WGT next year.

I'm guessing that some of you are making similar plans - so, who's going to be where? :)