One Summer Day

The birds were singing, the sky was blue. The day started, as usual, with a visit from Henry, followed by Ferret. We sat on our bench with our coffee and toast watching a giant garden white butterfly flutter by, trying to decide, just like the vultures from Jungle Book - 'so what are we going to do?' But things have a funny way of taking care of themselves....


A Simple Twist of Fate.. or direction. We meant to go to Mitchell's for a fancy sandwich but went straight over the traffic lights instead and ended up at...

First Stop, Farm Shop.
The last few days, not being able to find anything to put in the Annual Show because we thought that nothing we had was good enough, big enough, heavy enough or straight enough,we had considered quitting. Today, however, we had a revelation. We went to a well known local farm shop to find the sorriest looking vegetables at such high prices that we realised why we are growing our own. The one's we have thrown away looked better than theirs and we're not good at it. The cauli Reg gave us was nothing less than spectacular compared to the floret missing, yellowing head excuse for a vegetable that they were selling. The beetroot, carrots and courgettes were no better, what nerve! And the jam at £2.97 a jar could have run out of the shop by itself it was so not set. We wish now we had entered the Show with at least one offering as our produce and preserves no longer seems to be that bad.

The Curious Case of the Crown.
Us being us, we turned out of the farm shop road the wrong way (what a surprise) but what a nice surprise as there was a sign to Elford,The lovely little village we had visited just before Christmas with Terry atd Yvonne. We promised ourselves we would return and visit its one pub which looked so inviting as we passed,The Crown, and today, by chance, turned out to be the day. We are always up for an adventure! We went in and asked if they did food to which we were told by the landlord it could only be sandwiches today as they were preparing for their annual pig roast and cider night tonight. We settled on a turkey sandwich and when it arrived, what a sandwich it was! Stuffed full of turkey, lovely!
When he brought the drinks out to our table in the wonderful sunshine, we asked how old the inn was. He told us it was built in 1100 and something and the top floor of the building used to be a court house. Once, there was a case of an eight year old boy who was hung at what is now the top of the carpark for stealing an apple. He now haunts the restaurant and who can blame him? There are three cells behind the bar which are now used to store the beer in and a further cell in one of the front rooms which still has the bars on it. Also there is a document in one of the rooms downstairs dating from 1734 which appeared to us, when we had a look, to be marriage banns been announced. He showed us a small flag on the wall behind which there is wattle and daub . Nothing in this inn has lost its true history in any way. The atmosphere is still there from earlier times and the landlord is always happy, it seems, to tell a tale or two. This happy landlord also plays guitar to diners in the restaurant most nights. What a great place to visit. We wished that Terry and Yvonne had been with us, they'd have loved it but they are off on their own adventure visiting puffin island.

The Return of the Humble.

On the way back we discussed how we probably weren't so terrible at growing our own as we thought we were so we decided to call in at our much loved plot and collect some veg for tonights tea. We picked a lettuce, beans, peas, potatoes, courgettes, raspberries and, what we had intended entering in tomorrow's Show, which was going to be our giant marrow. But, when we bumped into Jason in the week and discussed the said marrow, decided between us that it was really a giant courgette and there is no category for that so no point in entering it. We were well pleased with our harvest and it made for a tasty tea and reminded us why we spend hours sowing and planting and not to look for perfection in everything all the time.While we were digging up the Anyas, a giant pale green fat frog jumped out of our potato sack and gave us a right surprise.We were really pleased to see him though because he was so big he must have eaten a lot of our slugs.


Attack of the Killer Courgette.

As we said, we brought home our giant courgette and thought we might as well weigh it so we popped it on the grass outside while we fetched the scales. When we went back outside, we had to grab the camera because there was Molly circling the said courgette and jumping backwards as if it was going to attack her at any second. There has been no pacifying her since she obviously thinks it's some kind of mammal with a tail as the pictures below will show. Our neighbours thought it was a killer!


The funny thing is, even when we brought it in, she still is suspicious and has watched it closely all night in case it moves. We have tried covering it with a cloth but to no avail.We shall be glad when we have cooked it. Incidentally, Bri weighed him self at the same time, cussed and called himself a fat pig until I told him to put down the marrow from under his arm!
P.S. our courgette/marrow weighs 12-13 pounds.



All's Well That Ends Well

As the sun sets on our one summer day (we say one summer because it will probably rain tomorrow) we have made pancakes to wrap round our warm raspberries and poured over them maple syrup with ice cream on the side and are grateful for our bounty and our fun day. Our last call tonight will be from Henry and Ferret as always and we know all is well...