Last week we didn’t have any weather. I don’t suppose that is scientifically possible but that would be my description. There was no rain, no wind, no sun, no frost nor any other weather condition you could name. Instead, we woke every morning to gloom and dullness. It hardly managed to become light throughout the day.
Despite the dreariness, we had a couple of visits to the allotment. We usually lift the dahlias once they have been frosted but this hasn’t happened yet and we didn’t want to leave them much longer so we cut them down and lifted some tubers, The first lot to be lifted were the dahlias that were grown from seed. These had formed tubers and will be stored over winter in the garden greenhouse.
We did a lot of clearing in the fruit area. This involved fighting brambles which had colonised the area. No doubt they will be back but for now, we are on the winning side. The battle is won but not the constant war.
All the clearing left us with several huge piles of debris. The photo below shows about a quarter of it.
The only option was to have our annual bonfire. After about three-quarters of an hour, there wasn’t much left.
We decided to lift our first parsnips – always a tense moment. They had produced healthy tops but what had happened below ground? The first two were rather small but the third was a more average size. We had some for dinner and didn’t think the flavour had fully developed. They really need some frost to sweeten them so we will wait a bit longer before lifting any more.
Of course, Ruby needed her walks. Last week we stayed local and one walk was at Nostell where we saw some impressive fungi.
The ground was thickly carpeted with fallen leaves. Plenty of sniffing opportunities for Ruby.
With the temperature falling it was time to get out Ruby’s coats.
Finally, some of last week’s meals.
I used some of our cabbage, onion and garlic in a chicken dish that also used mushrooms and green pepper.
More peppers and carrots were used in a turkey stir fry.
I made a vegetable biryani using, our onion, carrot, frozen peas and frozen green beans. I also added red and green peppers and mushrooms.
That’s all for this week so as always stay safe and stay well.
There’s a lot of fungi around just now. Yes, it’s got much cooler now, Archie was wearing his coat at the weekend too.
As soon as I saw first parsnips I thought ohh, you’ve had frost already, but apparently not. However, I do not like strong parsnips so they would have suited me well.
Those are super looking fungi!
I’ve often thought that particular weather conditions would be what no weather is like, so for better or worse I understand you!