We had a light snowfall last week. It was wet snow and didn’t hang around. Most snow arrived after dark, and then turned to rain. By morning any signs that it had been had more or less disappeared.
Ruby wasn’t impressed as it meant that she missed out on her afternoon at Nostell
She didn’t understand what the fuss was about but as we didn’t know how much snow would fall we decided to stay home and not risk getting stuck.
The only drifts of white the following day were the patches of snowdrops.
The beck that flows through the park testifies to the fact that we had plenty of precipitation. Not only was the water high but the flow was fast.
Everywhere in the garden is dripping wet. I planted some new tubs last autumn and had forgotten the type of bulbs that I had planted so it was a lovely surprise when we spotted some iris reticulata flowers. There looks to be some hyacinths but I wonder what else will emerge. I think I planted some mini daffodils, crocuses and small alliums.
One of our camellias is loaded with fat buds which are beginning to burst open and even produce an early flower.
The mahonia flowers have escaped the attention of the birds.
We popped to the allotment at the weekend but everywhere was so muddy and squelchy that it was apparent that we couldn’t do much other than dig a few parsnips and leeks out of the mud.
The parsnips hadn’t appreciated sitting in boggy soil and were starting to spoil. Hopefully, we should manage to cut off the damaged areas and be left with some usable cooking material.
The early clumps of rhubarb are growing despite the awful weather.
In 2020, we bought an amaryllis bulb – or hippeastrum if you prefer. It has produced at least one flower stem every year since then. Last week we spotted a new bud emerging so hopefully we will have a flower this year too. We’ll have to be more careful this year as last year the flower head became too heavy and the plant fell over and the stem broke.
On to last week’s meals. I used some of our broad beans, onion, garlic and frozen red pepper in a bean and vegetable stew.
Another meal that used an onion. and garlic along with peas, runner beans and sweetcorn from the freezer was a chicken and orzo type of risotto.
I also made a turkey ‘shepherd’s pie’ using our onion, garlic, green chilli pepper, potato and peas from the freezer. This recipe has disappeared from the internet. The topping was a layer of potato topped with sweet potato. To the turkey mince I also added curry powder, fresh ginger, garam masala, tinned tomato and stock.
We have a video here showing how our storage method for carrots and beetroot worked out.
That’s all for this week so as always until next time stay safe and well
By the way, Martyn is now resurrecting his weather blog which will be found here
Tasty looking meals. Ruby looks baffled by the snow. I quite like snowfall as long as it doesn’t stick around for too long.xxx
Ruby was really wanting us to go out with her, Dina. I was inside at the patio window when I took the photo.
Aah, Ruby’s little paw prints are cute.
Bulbs are a nice little early surprise, it’s always hit or miss whether ours will flower before they get eaten (by slugs I presume)
At least the slugs seem to leave the bulbs alone, Belinda