Author: niffer

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First Tasting

Acton market has just has it's third week. We were there and pleased with how it went. People came back looking for some more produce and we even found out that the jam and cakes I make can be sold there. This is great news because some regions don't allow that. It will be exciting when we have the "cool" vegetables like peas, beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I wish I had got the peas and beans in sooner. We at least have peas starting.  We ate our first cucumber over the weekend. It is a Japanese Climbing cuke. It has a lovely tang to it that is very refreshing. The lettuce is just about done and our first bed of cabbage has succumbed to insects.We didn't cover it with row-cover at the beginning of the year leaving it open to all the brassica bugs. We have another bed in the front garden that is covered growing well for market, and us. After growing this cabbage we may never grow a head cabbage again. Leaf cabbage is wonderful and it can be eaten really quickly. No season long investment in a head only to see it eaten by something. Of course the stars of the season are the tomatoes. Although it isn't a great tomato season so far we do have some coming along. The Tigerella in the kitchen garden is doing well. Others are coming along in other parts of the garden. Below is one of our yellow cucumbers. We didn't do to well with these last yer, they were Lemon cucumbers. This year is a different variety called Bothby's Blonde. They are supposed to be very good.

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Growing Up

It has been extremely busy around here lately. Everything is growing up. Lintilla is becoming brave and more active by the hour. We had our first cock-a-doodle-doo from the cockerel the other day and the lambs are bigger than their Mums. The garden is having the biggest change this time of year. Despite the cool weather and sporadic rain things are growing. The cucumbers are growing well and we even have some tomatoes. Many others have peas already, but ours went in late so we only have flowers. but the volunteer pumpkin has baby pumpkins and flowers on them. Even the apples are looking good. Our heritage Tennis Ball Lettuce is doing wonderfully. These little guys didn't start off too well and I didn't know what to expect. Now they are healthy and delicious! This past weekend was the final seedling planting weekend. It should have been done weeks earlier but it never became a priority. Now our sunflowers and tomato leftovers are in. The poor plants were producing flowers to try and grow and Tim just didn't have the heart to compost them. They had done so well in such poor conditions. the upside to this is that if we do get fruit we are going to save the seeds.I wonder if a new hardy tomato can be developed? It is nice to know that they are at least growing. We also managed to get some herbs in. We had bought them a couple of weekends ago but hadn't the time to plant them right away. We had really wanted to do a herb garden so it was a bit more work than five minutes. Luckily the herbs hung on and they are now happily in their herb spiral. The herbs are planted according to how dry they like it and how sunny. The chervil is on the north side lower down because this is the conditions they prefer. It isn't perfect as which herbs were bought was impulsive, not planned for a spiral. Like the rest of this place we will see what happens!

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New Kitten

It has been just over a week now since we have had a new addition. The other Sunday we were driving home from a shopping trip. Now I have a knack for seeing animals at the side of the road and this time I saw a tiny kitten sitting in the driveway of Royal City Park. It was just sitting there looking very out of place. I turned the car around and pulled into the park. Both Tim and I got out and the kitten ran away. We turned the car around and proceeded to wait. It the kitten had a Mum, home, or was feral it would have gone there. If it was lost it would come back. Inside I was really hoping it would go home. It was so tiny and out of place. About ten minuted later the little kit returned. This time I got out and tim stayed in the car. I slowly approached the kitten, crouching down and making high sounds. It didn't run away but hide in the bushes but I could still see it. I managed to get close enough to reach out and touch it is I wanted, but didn't for fear of scaring it. I started to meow and it meowed back and came closer. I then purred and it came up to me. I picked it up and it purred like mad. I heard no other meows coming from the woods. The kitten was just starving. It was a bonerack without even a belly, you know the big potbelly that most kitens have. I took it over to the car and we started home. In the car I  noticed I had some blood on my t-shirt. I then noticed that there way a black bit on the kitten's paw. I tried to get it off, thinking it was dirt. It turned out thatthe kitten's paws were bleeding. I turned her over and was shocked to see her poor little bloody feet. I just about cried. How could anyone hurt this little thing? It seemed it had been thrown from the car in the park. Well she now has a home and is on the road to recovery. The vet said she was four or five weeks old and generally okay if not skinny. She purrs like a Mack Truck and is now playing like a regular kitten. Her name is Lintilla, or Tillywinks when playing.