Periwinkle Mud!First bluebells beginning to flower Blackthorn Twenty toads?High water level Turning around to show from where we’ve come Cowslip
A batch of photos too nice not to share, I decided!
7 miles of walking yesterday, oohing and ahhing at the first new wildflowers; bluebells, cowslips and periwinkles…
This was a route we walked at the beginning of Lockdown, and occasionally throughout that strange period. We kept remembering how we would get the sanitiser out of the backpack for the other who would open the iron clasp on gates, or pull jacket cuffs over hands, or in colder weather even pull on a glove. It’s not that we don’t carry sanitiser anymore, but the nervousness and general jumpiness as has now long passed.
Back via the local shop, dry roasted peanuts as a post-walk treat for Someone. I didn’t fancy any snacks, or felt that I needed them. Of course when we got back it was a different matter and I ended up eating half the packet of nuts! He tried hard not to sigh too loudly, but I think I heard a little one.
Later Nigella’s Chicken & Pea traybake from At my Table for dinner with steamed baby potatoes and spinach. I adapted the recipe into two separate elements, with the vegetables covered until the last five minutes to keep in the moisture, while the chicken roasted at the top of the oven. The recipe timings didn’t seem work at all. I’ve googled and found I was not the only one with dried up, nearly burnt vegetables and chicken which could have been more golden and crispy. The second time of making was much more of a success. Fresh dill, garlic and a drop of spirit is tasty with leek and peas. It would be a great side dish to bung into the oven with plain roasted chicken or whatever you fancy. I’ve made the carrot and ginger cake for Mothering Sunday. It’s one I’ve made before, I can’t recommend it enough. Delicious! A few more recipes to make and then a new book pick soon.
Has spring sprung in your area? Any new recipes being made?
MAKING Still crocheting my coastal colours cowl. I haven’t done a lot of anything crafty recently, April was ‘a bit of a month’ to use typical British understatement! I’m focusing on it now, and then will try to finish the Coast blanket next
LIKING Sitting in a holiday cottage crocheting and watching the lead up to the Coronation from 9:30am, just for a little while before going out. Then, it absolutely poured on and off all morning and so plans to walk, or go anywhere were shelved until the afternoon. Crochet, tea and the whole of the Coronation service (though not the balcony and fly-past) followed. I really enjoyed it all
COOKING Tray bake fish with olives, lemons & cherry tomatoes. I swap the fish, sometimes using haddock, or cod and last week it was salmon. I eat the cooked lemon too. See John Torode’s recipe
BAKING Sourdough rosemary focaccia. Woah! This is so good, it’s left to prove in the fridge in the tin overnight so develops an amazing texture. So good I made it twice in as many weeks
SIPPING I did Dry Lent once again and since then haven’t really drunk much alcohol at all, unless you count last Friday night’s spiced rums? No, we probably don’t count those, as it was holiday refreshments
READING A novel I saw recommended in Good Housekeeping magazine. I’m not entirely sure about it at the moment as it’s quite chick-litty, not my usual genre really. It’s One Moment by Becky Hunter
LOOKING A bit funny? Woolly slippers, no socks, joggers and one of my favourite bright pink patterned tees. Open windows and a rather cool day, but too lazy to go fetch a hoodie
Cowslips are everywhere, we’ve recently walked alongside a field full
LISTENING to Weightless by Elbow, on my liked songs playlist on Spotify
WISHING for free train travel for a year, including the sleepers. I’ve wanted this for ages, since someone once said they get it through their job working for a rail company
BAKING Sourdough pitta bread regularly now. I have now stopped buying any and freeze half of each batch. It’s always handy to have emergency bread in the freezer. You can defrost them in the toaster then warm them. I can’t recommend them enough. So much tastier with the sourdough flavour, than the supermarket equivalent
Part of the first batch, now I make them half them the size, weighing the dough for accuracy still
ENJOYING Warmer weather, it’s very on and off at the moment but my flowers have doubled in size in the garden
Parsley seeds are growing well on my sunny windowsil
BUYING A variety of seeds, plant labels, the May issue of Gardeners World magazine mainly for the 2-for-1 Garden Card, a sprouter (actually this was with the last of a birthday garden voucher), pots, bottle top waterers, propagators, compost, top soil, plug plants … it’s that time of year again
The Cotswold Sculpture Park has reopened, hurrah! GW mag 2-for-1 card still accepted. ‘Despair’, the detail on this is incredible
OBSESSING Over seeds and sprouts and microgreens. I’ll show you a few pics, but if you’re interested keep an eye on stories for progress pics on my Instagram
Look at the roots on these microgreens! Grown in a hydroponic sprouter, they have replicated the pattern on the base of the section in which they sat Mung beans in a soup mug covered with muslin, after 8 hours soaking. I think we’ll eat them before the roots grow so long this time. When they looked like tiny tadpoles they were at their crunchiest and sweetest, that might be the time to add a few to salads
APPRECIATING Salads for lunch again with home sprouted beansprouts! Delicious with this dressing and toasted pumpkin seeds
MANAGING To produce mouldy and rotten peas, instead of pea-shoots, in the new sprouter. So I’ve gone back to growing in soil, I’m not sure about hydroponics for those. I have put my first lot of lentils (puy) in it today though, we’ll see how they do
WONDERING If you know that sprouted lentils are meant to be good for chickens too?!
Mustard, mizuna & beetroot, they are packed with so much good stuff. You’re going to be seeing grown microgreens and sprouts for sale and I predict there will be an explosion of sites about how to grow them For sale from the shop pictured below, in Chichester. Spotted on Monday
EATING More chocolate, Easter always gives me a taste for it again. The less I eat, the less I fancy any
WAITING for my pea shoots! They’ve just starting to show. I can’t wait to eat them
WATCHING Annika. (I’ll generally watch anything Nicola Walker does, apart from the Marriage thingy with Sean Bean.) I’ve only watched the first episode on UK TV Play, it’s free with ads, and Annika breaking the fourth wall, quoting literature is refreshingly different. Have you seen it?
WATCHING Would I Lie to You? But nearly at the point where we watched the latest series, it’s the best thing after an urgh day. It makes us laugh so much. (Newer series is on the BBC Iplayer. Old ones on UK TV Play for free, with ads)
Bluebells
HOPING for sunnier days please, today we had everything: a dramatic hailstorm, torrential rain which was so heavy I had to stop the car, then weak sunshine and super fluffy white clouds in a blue sky
NOTICING A MASSIVE spider by the bed this morning. The spider pot (an old ricotta tub) and birthday card was fetched from the bathroom cupboard, along with Someone to pop it outside as I was only wearing a towel. Then I peered out anyway, as it was walking along the garage roof. I warned it not to even think about coming back in again
FOLLOWING The weather forecast
Inside The Gothic Temple at Stowe, a National Trust property. It’s a holiday let and this was an open day so visitors to see what it’s like inside Stunning. Spooky at night I would say
SORTING Seed packets. Oregano, carrots, beetroot and lettuce need to be planted soon
GETTING Teased by a friend, Lucy, for taking my beansprouts away for the weekend
West Wittering beach
COVETING Raised vegetable beds
FEELING Pressed for time. I need to add photos, change and go to take someone for their Covid Booster (and ummm collect the 34 tomato plants, including a few which look suspiciously like pepper or chilli, which were babysat for the long weekend. I thought taking a freshly baked fruit cake for a Coronation Street Party would be a fair exchange. In retrospect it went as well as I’d anticipated, haha
A choir of birdsong, a gentle breeze and the rustle of leaves overhead
Ferns gradually unfolding
Celandines
Cowslips with a background of bluebells make such a pretty picture. I always think of Uncle Silas getting merry on his homemade cowslip wine…it might be time to reread that delightful little book.
The only other people Mum and I saw in the distance yesterday were a couple with a greyhound, later there was a ferocious sounding barking match between two dogs somewhere near the boundary of the woods. We never did see the other dog, but came across the couple again. According to the owner the dog had met his brother: “It’s like that in some families, isn’t it?”
A glimpse of a field of rape flowers through the trees.
Last year’s visit, with links to previous posts in the same bluebell woods.
Not many words are needed today. I’d run out of superlatives anyway; trying to describe the beauty of this bluebell wood.
This year again we didn’t see any deer, though we did stand still several times when we heard rustling in the undergrowth.
Mum, when I first started blogging, used to say: “You’re taking so many photographs!” Now it’s: “Have a look at your blog later to see when we came here last year.” And: “Take the bluebells in front of that magnificent horse chestnut. There are such pretty celandines here with bluebells behind, the colours look lovely together. Here’s a pretty group of cowslips.” She’s right of course, so I snapped them all for you.
Here are blog posts from previous visits to the same woods, in 2014, 2015 and 2016. I think you might recognise some of the trees and paths.
Once again Mum and I went to the bluebell wood to wander. So many flowers! Bluebells of course, but also cowslips, orchids (pyramid apparently, though she was going to check this when home) crab-apple blossom, cherry blossom and little violets.
No deer thundered towards us, unlike last year although we walked quietly to the same spot in the adjacent field (planted with beans this time.) It is such a peaceful spot, the birds were singing their hearts out and we had the whole woods to ourselves; no dog walkers or snipper snappers like me.
We ate a cosy picnic in the car because the wind was pretty chill outside in the open. I was amused to see a woman with five large dogs: (eek!) a retriever, rottweiler, labrador, an-other and ditto) having to carry the sixth; a naughty greyhound, to her Range Rover because it completely refused to leave!
Cowslips with a background of bluebells make such a pretty picture. I always think of 
A glimpse of a field of rape flowers through the trees.
The Little Room of Rachell 
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