nothing much, really

nothing much to blog about this week, except that I have joined a blog roll (click here to find out more details), seems like a good idea, I follow you, you follow me, we all follow each other, and so on and so forth. give it a go, you never know.
I have spent the last couple of days cleaning the house from top to bottom, with only the utility room left to do, which will have to wait until tomorrow now. the dust on everything was almost as much as is drifting southeast from iceland, but as most of it was there more than a week ago, I can only blame my indolence rather than the volcano.
some good news at least, we have one builders quote, and the second has promised to get back to us within the week. so here is a sneak preview of the outbuilding, which will soon be transformed into two very swish and swanky work areas for rog and me.


in front of it you can see my rather small temporary vegetable plot, with 21st century bird scarers in position.
its only a small plot this year so as to be out of the way of builders when they work on the outbuilding, next year it will be larger and will take up most of the space you can see around it. I already have potatoes showing, and a few radishes, which always come up ahead of anything else. the runner beans are still indoors, but are sprouting and will go out soon, likewise the tomatoes, standard and cherry. also sown and not yet showing are lettuce, leeks, chard, beetroot, carrots, parsnips, swede and spring onions. obviously with such a tiny space we wont have much of each, but a useful tasting anyhow. I have grown runner beans every single year for as far back as I can remember, even last year, our first season here in the new house, I put some in a flower bed outside the back door. nothing is quite as magical as home grown, freshly picked and lightly cooked runner beans (something for you to work on nimlet).
back soon