June

“And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,

You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden.”
Rudyard Kipling

I’ve loved being in the cottage garden this month - busy planting bedding plants into pots and planters and, in the sunshine and showers, watching the flowers and vegetables growing as fast as the lawn and the field grass on the bankings. Of course, The Glory Of The Garden in full bloom can be an enormous pleasure as well as a real pain, as Kipling knew, especially when I put myself out of action for a few days after hurting my back lifting a batch of compost. Ouch!

I’ve lots of photos to share this month. Some of the plants I’m showing you have been established at the cottage for many years, like the red-hot-poker plant (Kniphofia) and the blue Lupins (Lupinus angustifolius) and some, like those in the flower border, were only planted out last year but are already giving us a colourful mid-summer display.

Red-Hot Poker

Blue Lupins

The Flower Border

Oriental Poppy

Leafy Hosta

Weigela

Ruby in The Blue Lupins

In the vegetable garden, the early Pentland Javelin potatoes are coming along nicely and their foliage is now filling the raised bed. I’ll be watching out for flowering soon, which will signal the onset of a bountiful and tasty harvest. The tomato plants in the greenhouse are at various stages of growth and I also have pepper and pumpkin to nurse to fruition. In the herb garden, I now have more coriander and basil than I have use for, and so intend to try to dry and/or freeze some of it, for later in the year.

There's plenty happening in the new greenhouse

And I have a old sink full of Coriander...

The hens are currently enjoying long lazy days out in the field. So much so, one of them caused me a little concern this month. Hens , you see, cannot see in the dark and so go to roost at dusk - but this month - it has been well after ten thirty when they have toddled back to the hen house to be shut in for the night. It was around the time of the longest day, when Kylie was not to be found sitting safely on her perch with Britney and Beyonce and I feared she had been taken by a fox. The whole family went out looking for her with torches, calling her name, (yes, she normally does reply when spoken to!) to no avail. Thankfully, as I had hoped, having not made it back to the henhouse in time for nightfall, she had sensibly found herself a place to hide and sleep until daybreak – which was at three thirty am - when she woke everyone by making an awful lot of noise outside the kitchen door. The chicken version of Mummy I’m Home!

This month, I’m thrilled to announce that my novel When We First Love, which was first published in 2004 but has since been out of print, is available once more both at on-line and from high street booksellers.

Available on-line or from highstreet booksellers

RECEIPE OF THE MONTH - Spinach Quiche with Bacon and Cheese.
This month’s recipe is inspired by the success of the spinach-beet growing in the old butler’s sink outside the kitchen door. It’s a hearty summertime lunch dish which I like to serve up with a tossed salad and slices of bread and butter. My Aga is off for the summer and so I cooked it in my stand-by electric fan oven. Hence it's a bit browner on one side. Never mind, it tasted good!
Ingredients:
A savoury short crust pastry to line your dish, part baked.
Bacon chopped and fried with 2-3 spring onions. I used smoked back bacon.
A good handful of spinach-beet or spinach leaves.
A helping of cheese, grated. Use whatever you have including soft cheeses like ricotta or feta.
Eggs, beaten. I used 8 – but you use however many you need to ¾ fill your pastry case.
Method:
Add the spinach to the pan when the bacon and onion are cooked.
Sweat down for one minute. Add to the base of your pastry case.
Beat together as many eggs as you need with a splash of milk.
Grate the cheese into the egg, bacon, onion and spinach mixture.
Cook in a medium-hot oven of around 200 degrees/Gas 6.

That's about it for June. Oh, I've played around with the blog settings again, after folk emailing to say they had tried but given up on leaving a comment. This time, I really think I done away with the complications - so please do feel free to leave a comment or a suggestion. I'd love to hear from you and I promise to reply.

See you at the end of July....?

Janice

April

Who ate my Easter egg..?

You know, Easter used to be all about hard-boiling eggs and sitting at the kitchen table to decorate them with paint and glitter-glue, so that on Sunday we could all climb the nearest hill and roll them. It used to be about a giant bunny with a basket who would hop invisibly to our doorstep and leave his chocolate treasures for the children to find. It was about lazy days lounging in the garden after an alfresco lunch. Now, it’s about number one son arriving back from university with all his washing, using every electrical socket in the house to recharge his phone, his iPod, his laptop, and every other mode of necessary communication. Number two son being around all weekend means that the cottage rocks to ‘house music’ through his giant speakers, mixer desks, and turntables. Vinyl records, apparently, are the new old thing to come back in – a bit like me wearing the new Spring hippy look - only louder. Number three son, prefers sport and the outdoors, so it’s likely that he and his dad will be practicing axe-throwing (the latter being a Scottish Champion, no less) at the target in the middle of the lawn all weekend. So from the safety of the hen house – a belated happy Easter everyone!

This month, I noticed that one of three hens is behaving a little strangely, but I’m not quite sure which one? When I open the henhouse in the morning, I have come to expect our usual quota of three eggs, laid by Kylie, Britney, and Beyonce, but on occasion over the past few weeks, I have been presented with either two eggs only, or two normal sized eggs and one enormous double-yoker, or two normal sized and one teeny-tiny one. Or incredibly – a wobbly egg without a shell around it at all! What’s happening here…?

Perhaps the lambs playing in the field behind the cottage, who sometimes find their way through the fence and the hen’s pop-hole, are worrying our feathered slacker? Although, as you can see, they seem to get on fine with each other otherwise.

The weather has been so good here during the whole of April and I have managed to get out in the garden quite a bit. I did some much needed clearing up in the herbaceous border and have mowed the lawn a couple of times too. I planted out my ‘Pentland Javelin’ potatoes in the raised bed. I also sowed some spinach and spring onion seeds directly into the soil, and in my new herb garden sink, I sowed basil and coriander seeds. I also potted up some basil seeds for the kitchen window ledge, as I think it might have to wait awhile for the outdoor plants to appear. Everything else will have to wait for May, when the threat of night time frost might be over.

Last month, I mentioned I was on the look out for a greenhouse. I wanted to buy second hand rather than new and I scoured eBay and the local newspapers for a bargain. Then, a dear friend pointed me in the direction of our local Freecycle group. Freecycle groups match people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them. The goal is to keep usable items out of landfills. By using what we already have on this earth, we reduce consumerism, manufacture fewer goods, and lessen the impact on the earth. Another benefit of using Freecycle is that it encourages us to get rid of junk that we no longer need and promote community involvement in the process. Everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages. When you want to OFFER something - whether it's a chair, fax machine, piano or an old door, simply send an email to your group. Maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself? Post a WANTED message and a group member may just have what you're looking for. Alert the group with a follow-up RECEIVED email. After that it is up to the giver to decide who receives the gift from the responses only they receive and to set up a collection time, and finally post an item TAKEN message. What a FANTASTIC scheme - so why don’t you subscribe to your local group? In just one week I had an OFFER email from someone in the same region who has an old 8’ x 6’ greenhouse frame that they don’t need anymore. I’m collecting my new-to-me greenhouse at the weekend – so more about that next month!

http://www.uk.freecycle.org/

Some very dear friends of ours have a lovely cottage next to a riverbank and, during mid-April, they invited us to a barbeque night. The very first of the season. It was a clear and star-filled night at the bottom of their garden and wild garlic infused the air as we all sat round a huge bonfire to eat some fantastic food and drink lots of delicious wine. It was a fabulous night – I do hope we all do it again soon!

Before we go onto this month’s recipe, I’d like to tell you that today, the last day of April, is darling Polly’s 5th birthday.

Polly is 5 today

Recipe for April.
I waited right to the end of this deliciously warm month in the hope of seeing some locally produced Food Of The Gods available and I wasn’t disappointed. Asparagus is one of my favourite of all things and I like it served simply or extravagantly. This week, I have eaten it for breakfast, steamed and dipped into a poached egg, I have eaten it for lunch in a creamed soup, and I have had it for dinner in a quiche with ricotta cheese. This recipe is the best of all ways to serve early spring asparagus and it is simply delicious.

Oven Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan.
Ingredients:
A bunch of the seasons best asparagus spears.
Olive oil.
Shaved or grated Parmesan Cheese.
Salt and Pepper.

Method:
Wash and snap the hard ends off your asparagus storks. Put them aside to make a soup.

Dry the spears with a clean tea towel and place in a metal oven dish.
Sprinkle with olive oil, shaved or grated parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper and toss together. Place in a hot oven (at least 200 degrees or gas 6) for 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your spears. You don’t want to overcook them.
Toss with extra shaved parmesan and serve with hollandaise sauce. Enjoy.

Next month, in May, I’m hoping to blog from my new-to-me greenhouse where I will be sowing tomatoes and peppers (hopefully!) - so why don’t you join me? Meanwhile, please do leave a comment. I’d love to know your thoughts on the things I’ve blogged about this month or to answer any questions. It’s easier now to leave a comment than it was before – so what are you waiting for?

Love,
Janice

March

I LOVE March. It means longer days, and even though the weather here in Scotland can still be on the shivery side, there are daffodils flowering and lambs are being born all around us. In the field behind the cottage, this ewe and her newborn lamb are just out from the birthing shed and into the brisk March air – but junior, you will see, if you take a close look – has a little plastic coat on to protect him from the elements. Bless!

The beginning of the month heralds my birthday, and this year, as usual, I have been spoiled rotten by family and friends. First, I enjoyed a few luxurious and romantic days away with my darling husband and then I was treated to a party organised by our dear friends, with a cake and candles and dancing and Margaritas. Okay, so you might think girls in the countryside don’t DO cocktails - but you’d be wrong – we can be very cosmopolitan!


In mid-March, and in anticipation of Springtime in the garden, we put a new fence and gate around the vegetable garden and lined it with chicken wire. This is primarily to protect the raised beds from the pesky puppy but it also defines the ‘working patch’ from the rest of the garden. I can’t wait to start growing our own vegetables and salads again but, unfortunately, it’s still far to cold up here in the hills to begin work outside. To compensate, I have my ‘Pentland Javelin’ early potatoes ‘chitting’ inside on a kitchen windowsill.

A very generous friend gave me two old butlers sinks and I have sited these outside the kitchen door. They are just waiting for the herbs I hope to grow from seed!


You’ll be sad to hear that this month we lost one of our hens. By lost, you know I don’t mean that she took a stroll and forgot to come home, don’t you? Our poor feathered friend met a violent end, I’m afraid, but I take some comfort in knowing that her short life was a happy one. R.I.P. Madonna. I miss you.

The dogs have been to get their springtime haircuts, and now that the puppy has lost her puppy-fluff and has grown so much, I can hardly tell Polly and Ruby apart in looks - although in personalities - they are still SO different!


The month end was very special as I launched my recently published romance novel entitled ‘Beneath Apricot Skies’. The event took place at a fabulous village venue called Thomas Tosh. It’s a bookshop, an antiques centre, an art gallery, and an absolute treasure in Dumfries and Galloway. Courtesy of owners Paul and David, we had apricot themed nibbles and drank pink bubbly, while I signed and sold lots of books. It was a fabulous event and my heartfelt thanks go out to all of those who supported it and made it a very special, and for me a never to be forgotten, occasion.

Available to order online and from all highstreet bookshops

Recipe of the month:
My recipe this month is a warming spicy parsnip soup. I can’t take all the credit for it because a friend made this soup for a supper dish recently - and we loved it – so much so that I experimented in the kitchen the following day until I had managed to recreate the exact exquisite blend of flavours. Parsnips are so much sweeter and tastier after the frosts of January and February have bitten them - and if, like me, you don’t have any parsnips still tucked up in your vegetable beds – you’ll notice that the shops are selling them at very good prices just now.

Spicy Parsnip Soup.
6 Parsnips, peeled and chopped.
2 carrots, peeled and chopped,
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped.
1 leek, washed and chopped.
1 small onion, peeled and chopped.
Dash of olive oil/butter.
2pts/approx 1 litre of chicken stock (I use stock made with Knorr Stock Cubes).
1 teaspoon of curry powder.
1 teaspoon of curry paste (I used Madras as I like it hot!).
1 tablespoon of tomato puree.
Good handful of fresh coriander (the secret ingredient!)

Method:
Wash peel and chop the vegetables into small pieces. Add to a large pot with the olive oil/butter. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Prepare the chicken stock cubes (2 or 3) by adding 2pts/ 1 litre of boiling water and then adding the curry powder, curry paste, and tomato puree, to the stock. This gives the soup a lovely colour as well as a lots of flavour. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Puree the soup with a hand blender or in smaller quantities using a food processor until smooth. Wash a good handful of fresh coriander leaves, chop, and stir into the soup. Bring back to a simmer. Serve up with your favourite crusty bread.

Next month, in April, I’m on the lookout for a greenhouse as I suddenly have a longing to grow chillies and other peppers and to protect my precious crop of summertime tomatoes. I am also looking forward to warmer weather, particularly over the Easter weekend, when our eldest son is home from university and lots of family are coming to stay. We will be rolling decorated hard-boiled eggs down the hill behind the cottage – an annual and traditional event. I can’t wait..!

Janice


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