starter all over again

I'm just loving Future Radio.
The music they play is excellent and I rarely have the urge to tune off
unlike most BBC stations. Some of the DJ's are rather comical (I'm not
sure if they are meant to be) but they share some interesting info and
twitter on in rather a endearing manner. I also love the People's Playlist,
where folk like me, select 12 of their favourite tunes to be aired on
Future Radio at the weekends. One day I might get organised enough to
do that, but for today, I'm happy that I have just won a mystery CD for
texting in the correct answer to a shuffled up song. Yey!

Something I'm not so happy about is that I've finally managed to
kill my sourdough starter. I tried to revive it by feeding it chunks of
a peeled apple (I was desperate) but it refused to bubble and regain
life. In some ways I'm quite pleased I'm not having to make loaves
every week but on the other hand, I loved the process and the addiction
I had with trying to create the perfect sourdough. I also loved the
fact you can prepare a really quick meal with stale toasted sourdough,
lightly rubbed with garlic, olive oil and topped with roasted tomatoes.
I think I have just 3 remaining loaves left in the freezer before I know I will be very
tempted to start another batch of starter.

A loo with a view

I failed to capture the view on Saturday evening from this outdoor lavatory, complete with and old pine wash stand and enamel basin, but believe me, this has got to be one of the best lidded loo stops I've been too (since last year). The bright sunlight in the photo leads out to Morston marsh and looks like like this.... only it's so much better when you're there.

The reason for being in this beautiful spot, was to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. It was camping gathering with a 60's party on the Sunday night in a beautiful handcrafted geodesic dome tent. I'd not seen a geodesic tent before, this one is made from lengths of hazel fitted together in a series of triangles to form a sphere and then covered in large sheets of canvas.

See that blue sky? Where has it gone?

Spring Changes

I have become a little garden obsessed over the past few months. I hit
a bit of a miserable patch back in April where I totally lost interest
in cooking. Something in my mood was turning food sour. I couldn't cook
and I didn't want to.  I also wasn't sleeping well and my moods were,
well bloody awful but with the help of warm sunny days, Nytol, a bed time book and no internet activity after 9pm,  I feel so
much better.

We've now got an allotment and today when I visited, it was covered in the vigorous weed known at fat hen. I could not believe the density of the stuff. It had smothered my veg seedings to the point I couldn't see what I had planted. With the help of  Rosie and Matilda, we managed to pull up most of the thatch of weed with Matilda wielding what ever garden tool she could find, she also managed to destroy the few seedings I has planned on eating. Errrrgh.

We were very lucky with getting an allotment this year. I had applied to Norwich Council in Feb only to be told the waiting list was at least a year away. I then heard of a scheme called Grow Our Own - GO2, where allotments were available - but not only that, it is a scheme where seeds, seedlings, plants, manure, tools and advice are all part of the package. We've had it about 6 weeks now. We had to dig up a heap of weeds and old potato plants and then raise the beds to help deter small feet from trampling our small plants. We now have a selection of  things growing, a smaller section then I had last week due to Matilda's 'weeding' and the harsh frost a few nights back.