Purple PawPaw

Its been a busy month and lots of exciting things have happened, all of which merited a blog post in their own right and none of which got one!

The allotment has been exceptionally fruitful (or should that be vegetable full?). We seem to have eaten quantities of the world biggest marrows, our potatoes all got blight  (except three plants which I am still nurturing), but we were able to eat baby ones, our tomatoes are triffid like, our broad beans were a success and we will grow more next year,  horrific memories of hard broad beans skins are now banished for all time. In the garden we have had more lettuce than anyone should have…I somewhat over planted…but the chickens are very happy. We have had french beans and peas are about to spring forth. It has most definitely been our the greatest gardening success ever for the Henderson’s.

The house is nearly all purple now, except for one gable end which can’t be seen from the house – our decorator has been taking a well earned rest ion the sun – so that should be finished soon. We still have the scaffolding up at the back though as Gordon is putting in a solar panel. It’s a tricky little blighter – not helped by the grim weather – which somehow makes clambering about on the roof unappealing!

We have been canoeing down the Wye. Followers of the blog will know that we attempted this last year but got rained out and had to abandon it. This year we completed – and in a most elegant fashion – as we decided to B and B rather than camp. We had a canoeing lesson at the start of July on a warm evening after work (that seems so long ago) and learned lots of things that Gordon seemed to know and I had no idea about. It meant that canoeing was a very different experience this year. Not sure I have entirely masted the art – which G finds frustrating – but I do have a jolly time. We even purchased our own canoe. A blow uppable thing – which has an amazing wow factor when you are by the side of the canal with a box one minute and a boat the next. The first one proved to be a bit leaky – but it has now been replaced – however we have not yet had the time or weather to launch The Ark Mark 2.

Dad is 70 this year and as his birthday present he asked for a number of experiences. These we gave him in the form of a sort of cryptic cheque book. A couple of weekends ago all of us, Miriam, Michael, Mum, Dad, Emilie, Gordon and I went to Bewdley where we stayed for the weekend in the most tremendous B and B, Kateshill House, which I would recommend to anyone. It was truly posh and yet very comfortable to be in at the same time, lucky really a none of us do posh exceptionally well. We spent the Saturday at the Black Country Museum. This is a living museum on the edge of the Black Country and we had a marvellous time in old shops, down the mine, watching steam engines, riding on the trams etc. A great day out – and as the birthday boy said – he remembered most of it before it became museum fodder!

Since then it has been back with noses to the grindstone, although the excitement of new doorbells, clothes airers and the start of the blackberry season keeps life fun.

On bank holiday monday we went for a ‘Wild Food Walk’. This was organised by a group that we are part of called Buck the Trend (BTT) that is aiming to get people to think about living more kindly on the earth, looking at alternative energy, transport, cutting costs and food related things. This has included looking for some land, talking with people from different groups about how they have accquired land for planting, meeting with people doing fantastic and amazing things in terms of living more simply and small holding and now eating from the hedgerows.

The walk was led by Fiona Campbell who largely feeds her family from the wild. We were encouraged to try things and were also shown poisonous plants which should not be tried at all. We came back with a basket of goodies which formed our dinner for the evening – and with some BBQ meat (foraged from the butcher) and a little light dressing it was lovely. We have said we would collect more food this way, as yet we haven’t made time, but I look forward to another salad sometime soon.

We’ve been to the Devon Show for the past two years and decided to go again. The weather held and we bumped into a number of friends making us feel that Devon really is home. Managed to do some research on bee keeping, clay ovens and pigs as well as having to sample many of  Devon’s exceptional culinary delights.

Below are some photos of the exciting day we had….

Apparently this is the wooden anniversary – but as we have lots of wood already – see ‘Neighbours’ – we decided to celebrate mostly by eating!

We went to Cornwall where we ate Friday lunch at Restauraunt Nathan Outlaw and quite honestly wanted to spend the day discussing what an amazing meal it had been. Highly recommended – and although I am not entirely an expert in this area from what I can see well worth the rising 2 star Michelin rating!

Onto Boscastle where we stayed at a fabulous B and B – The Old Parsonage - where we were well cared for. A lovely walk across the Stitches into the village in the evening.

Following morning we were again well fed at The Old Parsonage and onto Padstow where Rick Stein has his empire.

More food – this time at St Petroc’s Bistro. It was great – informal, large quantities, well cooked – but even I was beginning to think I may have overdone it a bit as was probably not as appreciative as I would have been had I not had Nathan and Margaret and Morag already having cooked us fabulous food.

Great weekend and a lovely anniversary treat – but its good to come home for a rest!