Summer put in a somewhat belated appearance last week. Trying to make up for lost time the thermometers soared.
The result of this sudden onslaught was that we spent very little time at the allotment and confined our visits later in the week to the mornings.
We decided to bring the onions home. They had been drying out on the allotment and we didn’t want them to get wet if we had a downpour. I’ve started to tidy them up ready to store over winter.
Fortunately, we don’t have a lot to water just the tomatoes in the plot greenhouse, the newly planted onions and garlic and some late brassicas. One advantage of summer arriving once most things have been harvested.
On one visit we did bring home a small harvest. The spring onions were a bonus as for several years now we have failed in our attempts to grow them.
Martyn, picked the last lot of cooking apples from the tree growing in the garden
Walks with Ruby were also confined to either the mornings or the end of the day. It was still too warm for Ruby to be chasing about after a ball which didn’t go down well. We also stayed in shady parts of Nostell as much as possible
The ducks were sunbathing …
the heron was fishing and preening ….
and the family of swans were sailing on the lake amongst the reeds.
During our walks, we noticed that there appears to be a problem with many horse chestnut trees.
Both at Nostell and Temple Newsam the leaves on the horse chestnut trees have brown patches. It isn’t that the leaves are turning autumnal as the appearance is different and it has been noticeable for some time now. I just hope that there isn’t a major problem with these trees.
Having little gardening activity to report on, I thought I would tell you a little about the structure that Nostell refers to as the obelisk. It doesn’t fulfill the modern definition of an obelisk as the meaning has changed over the years.
The obelisk was once the home of the gatekeeper and his family. It comprised two rooms accessible under the large archway.
The two doorways on either side of the archway lead to the two original rooms that made up the home. To move from one room to the other meant a trip outside.
The thing that I find incredible is that the obelisk was inhabited up until the 1950s. Someone was living in this building after I was born!
The two rooms were very similar and would each originally have a small window.
On the far left is a doorway that leads to a room that was built on at a later date. This provides facilities for cooking.
I wouldn’t have fancied trying to cook in such a confined space. Thankfully I don’t have to.
More information about the obelisk can be accessed here.
That nicely leads me on to last week’s meals.
I made a cauliflower and lentil curry that used some of the cauliflower that we had frozen, runner beans, carrot, onion and garlic. The recipe has disappeared from the Internet but to our vegetables, I added coconut milk, lemon juice and coriander
I made a frittata into which went one of our shallots and Sungold tomatoes along with some baby spinach. It was served with our carrots and potatoes,
Ingredients for a turkey pilau were our leeks, peas and broccoli from the freezer and a shallot.
Of course, a priority has been to keep Ruby cool. She is due to be groomed this week so her coat is quite thick. She has spent time on her cooling mat and I must admit our feet have sometimes joined her. She isn’t impressed that she hasn’t had much playtime. 
I wonder what this week has in store for us? Until then stay safe and well.
I am sharing our mini harvest on Harvest Monday over on Dab=ve’s Our Happy Acres blog
Those apples look magnificent! Unfortunately the horse chestnut doesn’t look as happy. So many horse chestnuts are suffering from leaf miner these days, which turns their leaves brown. Well done to Ruby for not chasing about in the hot weather. Basil is not so sensible, and got quite fed up with us when we refused to take him out for his usual lunch time run!
Hi Sarah – I just hope the trees survive the attack. Ruby wasn’t happy when we refused to play ball
Your cooking apples look excellent, in very good condition. A few trees around here have looked strangely brown lately, I wondered if it was the extremes in weather – a long hot dry period which made them suffer, followed by the cooler damp weeks. Dear Ruby, she’s so pretty. Bertie had a cool mat, but it got damaged somehow so now he has a cool coat that I soak in cold water and that evaporates.
So far so good with the cool mat CJ
You have reminded me that I need to sort out my onions which are drying out in the cold frames. I need to bring them home now, tidy them up and store in the garden shed. I have had some really big spring onions this year, normally they don’t do so well. It must be the weather .
Lots of people complain that spring onions don’t do well for them, Margaret, Maybe they have enjoyed all the rain
Oh my, such heat in Europe. My son was in Paris recently and it was 93 degrees F at 2 a.m. Gardens have had a tough time all around. Lovely apples and berries.
I think cities always suffer more when it os hot, Sue The buildings seem to act as storage heaters.
The obelisk is a beautiful structure, a work of art really. Like you there is little to water here in the garden, other than the fall greens and the sweet potatoes.
I wouldn’t have liked to live there though, Dave.