Month: November 2020

Cooking and eating from the gardenLeave a comment

Apple and walnut scones

Reclaiming Paradise

I had a baking urge last night, just in from visiting my mother and with an hour or so to go before settling down to watch His Dark Materials* so rustled up a batch of scones. I was still using up the apples, collected from a neighbour’s box on the street a couple of weeks ago. I reckoned there was just time to make the scones. I adapted a recipe from one my trusted recipe books. Apple and Walnut Scones 250g flour (I used a mixture of wholemeal and white) 4tsp baking powder 1/2tsp salt 50 g margarine or butter … Continue reading Apple and walnut scones

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden7 Comments

26 vegetables – update

Reclaiming Paradise

Seven months ago I used the fundraiser “26 challenge” to see if I could find 26 fruit and vegetable plants in the garden. See the results here and an update at midsummer here . I though you might like to see how my 26 vegetables got on as winter sets in. Here as they were in April and at their harvest peak. Apples Howgate Wonder have been wondrous as always – about 14 apples I think, which is not the biggest crop but they’ve been just as big as usual. 2. Apples Red Falstaff have been quite prolific – the … Continue reading 26 vegetables – update

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers11 Comments

Winter

Reclaiming Paradise

Winter arrived this morning, with the temperature down to 3 degrees in the seed palace. In anticipation I brought the last of the Howgate Wonder apples in yesterday. Here, with a tennis ball for scale to show their wondrousness I nipped along to the allotment this afternoon to catch some daylight and to see what was going on there. The sprouts have been one of this year’s runaway successes. There are far too many for Christmas dinner (especially if we are reduced to minimum numbers around the table) so I reckoned we’d better make a start on them now. Here’s … Continue reading Winter

Cooking and eating from the gardenLeave a comment

Apples

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve not got out in the garden or the allotment much this week again. These short dark November days are eating up all my garden time so there’s not much to blog about. However, I did get out on Saturday morning to look for something for the the #SixonSaturday twitter hashtag. Everything in my garden is rather overgrown, weedy and a bit dilapidated but I found these little touches of joy. A few Benjamin Britten pink roses still flowering, nasturtiums on the shed still full of colour, the sweet peas still blooming, fuchsias all pink and purple, my lovely Howgate … Continue reading Apples

Why I garden6 Comments

Rainy Day

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s been pouring with rain today but we went out for a cycle ride in the morning anyway. Our destination was Starbank Park a nearby community park, which I’ve been following on twitter and on here for a while but had never visited. The cycle run, mostly along off-road cycle paths, was very bracing and it was still pouring with rain when we arrived at the park, just in time to catch the ‘glorious views’ across the sea: It wasn’t the park’s fault that everything was so grey and in the park itself there was all sorts of beauty: The … Continue reading Rainy Day

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers9 Comments

October joys

Reclaiming Paradise

On this grim November day, here is something to cheer you. I brought in the last of the tomatoes from the seed palace to ripen inside. Aren’t they beautiful? Here are some more of the colourful things that were happening in my garden as October came to a close: Apples, rowan berries, nasturtiums and pyracantha berries, all looking very orange for Halloween. October is apple month and birthday month in this house. What with local lockdowns in Scotland we couldn’t really celebrate the birthdays properly though I did manage to deliver cakes, pumpkins (well squashes) and apples to my birthday … Continue reading October joys