Spring flowers - Apr 2010

Heritage variety of Broadbean with red flowers

Redcurrant and Damsons flowers

Flowers in front garden - Pansy, Cellandine, Fratillary

27 March 2010 - out the back

Quicktime video showing what's been planted out and what's surviving (don't "full screen" it else it'll look really awful - it's been compressed for easy download). Since Sunday we've had very strong winds and now snow, it'll be a miracle if the French beans survive - most have got one of two leaves missing already... poly-tunnels next years, that's what's needed!

The Ice-Spider cometh...

Feb 23rd 2010, 8am: Outside temp -6C, inside conservatory ...didn't feel that much warmer inside :-)!

A spider who spins webs of ice has been on the conservatory window!!

Prawn Crackers

Not so much a Petesgarden blog as a peteskitchen blog. Created using the Nokia N95, some photos from the SLR and the Mac OSX software i-Movie. Note: the frying is all done in real-time, it really is that fast! Don't worry that the 'poster frame' is black, for some reason the way Blogger embeds video it refuses to display the first image or pre-set poster frame... such is life!


Original movie format: .mov (Quicktime) File size: 5 Mb

Audio version in stereo: (1Mb)
What I forgot to say during recording... Before you fry them the 'prawn crackers' are hard transparent disks about 20 mm in diameter. Total frying time is around 7 seconds, AND this is actually Podcast No.3, oops ^^!

Jamming on a Sunday afternoon

Too wet to go out gardening, so after a batch of Blackcurrant and Apple jam on Saturday it was time to make the more exotic Date and Lemon variety (NOT home grown tho!)



Audio Podcast 2: jamming
Recipe as mp3 file kindly read by Nina and Michael from www.readthewords.com

Audio diary No 1

Podcast No. 1 Sat 16th January, 2010 (Audio: mp3 format, Length: 2mins 09 secs)

(click on photo for enlargement)

Damsons in distress

My damson tree's never been that happy, it always gets attacked by aphids which make the leaves curl. This year for the first time I managed to harvest enough damsons (sour plums) to make Damson and Apple Jam. All the books say damsons make the best jam ever - they are SO right. They give the jam a very sharp taste without it being bitter. I only got enough for 4 jars (or was it five?). I'll sort those aphids out next year, I'm not having damsons in distress nay more, they're just too nice!