Tag: Apples

Cooking and eating from the garden, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers4 Comments

A very purple SixOnSaturday

Reclaiming Paradise

Astonishingly I’ve managed a #Sixon Saturday today – here we go – First of all in the pic above is a bunch of flowers from the garden for my Mum, all blues and purples and whites: lavender (still flowering), a deep purple salvia, white cosmos, blue phacelia. (that’s all the purples though) The sun is still reaching the back of the garden and these Shropshire Lad roses are just gorgeous. They smell as good as they look. The roses in the front garden are also still doing well. The one above is a Gertrude Jekyll. Also in the sun in … Continue reading A very purple SixOnSaturday

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden2 Comments

Halloween in the garden

Reclaiming Paradise

Halloween comes round again and the clocks go back and the dark returns, with little glimmers of light to get us through the winter. Here’s a cheery little squash, and it is very little, with a tiny birthday candle to bring us light. Just to see how tiny this is, here is it is beside some of my apples. Oh it’s not that small you say. Well how about compared to this one: A monster Howgate Wonder of course. Here are all three together, alongside a sensibly sized Sunset apple Left to Right – Monster Howgate Wonder, average sized Sunset, … Continue reading Halloween in the garden

Why I garden5 Comments

Autumn flowers and fruits

Reclaiming Paradise

What with being away last weekend and a very busy time at work just now, along with the usual family stuff, I’m falling behind a lot in the garden and allotment. Still, I got out for a wee while on Saturday morning to do a bit of tidying up and snap some pictures for Six on Saturday (but not enough time to actual do a SoS post). I was struck by all the flowers still in bloom and so collected up a bunch of miscellaneous beauties to stick in a vase and take over on my weekly visit to my … Continue reading Autumn flowers and fruits

Books I like, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers2 Comments

More autumn wonders

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve been away on a trip to Higland Perthshire – a birthday treat for my husband to traipse around various historic sights and take in some autumn mountain air. As well as history and landscape there were plants. We visited the Fortingall yew tree: 5000 years old but with tiny signs of new growth and full of tweeting birds. We went to the Loch Tay Crannog Centre, recently damaged by fire but with a vibrant visitor centre and information about prehistoric vegetables, of which there were very few it seems. Nearly everything seems to have been introduced by the Romans … Continue reading More autumn wonders

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden6 Comments

Autumn delights

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s been a glorious autumn day, with a slight nip in the air but lovely sunshine and leaves beginning to fall from the trees. As I cycled to the allotment this afternoon, leaves blew in my face and conkers fell from trees. It felt a little scary but also quite exciting. I dread the end of summer but when autumn really comes, it brings its own joys. One of these joys is planning next year’s crop. At the allotment, I got down on my hands and knees and hauled strings of couch grass from the soil. We’ve had a bit … Continue reading Autumn delights

Cooking and eating from the garden, Why I garden8 Comments

Apples and raspberries

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s October which means apple season. The apples are in full flow – pictured here a couple of giant Howgate Wonders, with a sensibly sized Sunset for scale October is also birthday season at Reclaiming Paradise which means the apples are put to good use in a variety of cakes. My mother’s is the first birthday of the month, so I used these monsters to make a chocolate apple cake – recipe here . Since she was 85, candles seemed excessive, but I wanted to decorate it with something special. This handful of raspberries, fresh from the garden, seemed the … Continue reading Apples and raspberries

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden5 Comments

Weighed down with apples

Reclaiming Paradise

The apple trees in the garden are collapsing with the weight of fruit – it looks like it’s going to be a good apple year. Well most years are but this one looks exceptional. The Howgate Wonder is looking particularly impressive. I had to prop it up with some sticks and remove a few apples to prevent the whole thing collapsing. The Red Falstaff is also looking quite prolific though not very red yet. And the Sunsets are having a good year too. The plums are coming along rather nicely, though not so overladen as the apple trees. I harvested … Continue reading Weighed down with apples

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife7 Comments

Six on Tuesday

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s all go in the garden just now and somehow I’ve forgotten to blog about it. I missed SixonSaturday so here’s a wee update of sixish on Tuesday. These gorgeous self-seeded wallflowers are flowering in funny little corners of the front garden: 2. I got along to the allotment last week and used some spare bits of wood to create a sort of terrace for one of the beds which was threatening to overflow down the hill. Here it is in all its glory. Please excuse the weeds and note the almost complete lack of broad beans in this bed, … Continue reading Six on Tuesday

Why I garden2 Comments

Chatting about the blog

Reclaiming Paradise

I recently talked about the blog on a podcast – link here, recorded by musicians Besingende Gedálland for their Wordlende series. Wordlende is a ‘chance to talk, commune and conspire with individuals who involve environmental practices in their day to day life’. Other podcasts in the series tell you about music, foraging and the wonders of nature. You’ll find me talking mainly about vegetables, but also about growing up in Shetland, the joy of seedlings, sharing tomatoes and spiky cucumbers, the wonder of apples, making weed pesto, environmental issues and how a song by Joni Mitchell inspired the name for … Continue reading Chatting about the blog

Why I garden8 Comments

A frosty Six on Saturday

Reclaiming Paradise

A rather late and rather quick contribution to #SixonSaturday. Despite waking up horribly early this morning it has taken until late evening to write this. The tiny advantage of waking up at 5.30am was that I got to see the garden emerging from the dark, listen to the dawn chorus and with still a sprinkle of frost everywhere. So here’s my six: Frost covered snakeshead fritillary – beautiful flower at the best of times, enhanced by frost 2. A slightly frosty daffodil – they are looking their very best at the moment 3. Another daffodil – I’m afraid I don’t … Continue reading A frosty Six on Saturday