Well the big news here is that George and Tom have been down for a visit, Toms on a whirlwind, non-stop tour of England, and he seems to be pretty impressed with it so far, Kent to Devon and Cornwall via the Isle of Wight what’s not to like? He also reckons the food and drink is good, well he ate all of my and Yvonne’s cooking, and he laughed at all my jokes – well most of them, OK a few.

When they got here we had roast Gammon, done in Orange Juice and Honey,

with a mixture of roasted root veg 

 gravy made from the roasting juice and veg stock and home made apple sauce

 (More bottled apples, I’m running out now but they have kept since September).

For the next day, Yvonne had made quiche which we had with salad, including leaves from the garden, the first lot this year.

We also sampled last years Elderflower wine and of course the Vin D’Orange (liquid sunshine) that I made with Seville Oranges back in February.

Yvonne has done so much in the garden, it’s that time of year when everything needs doing at once, I let her get on with the flowers and concentrate on vegetables, at the local nursery they had pepper plants and some black tomato plants, also Norma has given me Courgettes and I have runner beans up, all have been put in my new Plastic Greenhouse (£14, a real class bit of kit!) now that its starting to warm up a bit.

Tomatoes and Peppers

Courgette Plants

Runner Beans

Also all my Potato plants are up now, in their bags, and looking good.

On my return from work, I bottled the Elderflower Champagne, that’s the second lot, the first is clearing nicely, I’ve got them all in a plastic crate I blagged from a building site,

 I’ve had to release the pressure in the first lot twice so far, to avoid explosions. I also set the second lot of wine in a demi-john to finish fermenting, that’s 18 litres of wine in production now, and I have no more room in the airing cupboard for any more!

But I’m still making the Champagne as I have loads of plastic bottles. They are a lot safer than glass for this very fizzy drink, as long as you release the pressure regularly before they swell into some amazing shapes. At least they don’t explode and shower the room with glass.

Yvonne has done sausages with Garlic mashed potato and Onion gravy

for our evening meal, together with Chocolate and Beetroot cake and Clotted Cream,

 I cant wait. The fried potato peelings made some nice garnish for our lunch time sandwich as well.

Here’s another one of Yvonne’s home made cards,

and some of the results of her garden endeavours. The tulips and Tree Peony are looking so much better than the pictures show.

I have also acquired a Peach Tree, which will hopefully fruit next year.

I’m still looking forward to the Bread course, only 3 days to go now!