Big winners

I am considering making a living our of showing as we won three prizes in the Basingstoke and District Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society.

Two seconds and a third gave us the fantastic sum of £2.80.

I think this was a fix as our little pink ones are much more impressive than the others.







We did quite quickly realise that we were real flower display virgins as everybody else had all the equipment necessary for professional showing where we just stuck them in a bucket. Aparently, they have to be 'staged' and supported in the vase so that they face the right way. Luckily someone spotted that we were looking a bit confused and came to our help.





Anyway, back to the serious business of getting provisions in for the winter so it is bean hanging time. I have had to shuffle the garlic and onions around a bit and put a load of onions in the shed but this is the next batch which I decided to pick as we appear to be heading for an Indian summer so it will give a chance for the plants to keep growing and give another crop.

I also have three trays of beans that I have shelled already with beans drying so we should have quite a few boxes this year.


I have also cleared out the last of the beetroot. I have made 8 jars so far with about half of them and will try to get the others done this weekend.






There are also three jars of pickled red cabbage with the left over bits. I decided to make colcanon using red cabbage instead of white forgetting that the red coloured everything. Saying that, when cooked it is a bluey purple so the potato looked like the blue ones from Kent.



One final picture is the pullings from a row of carrots just in case you are used to those funny soilless supermarket things. I can't describe how wonderful these taste (once the mud is washed off and the slugs removed)