Very peased

Not updated things for a while. I've been busy! We got real peas, that actually look like real peas this year so I was pleased.

Autumn raspberries are doing really well. They seem to be always a lot better than the summer ones so I'm glad I planted both types.

Here are the remains of our raspberry ice cream. It went down very well! Half a pint of double cream, a pound of raspberries, juice of a lemon and 4 oz sugar, puree all the fruit then bung it in the ice cream maker, very nice.

Here are the visitors that we had for a week, courtesy of the school to look after. Thank goodness they survived the week with us.

I picked my lavender and had some bunches of it in the hall to combat the stinky guinea pig visitors, worked a treat. They needed cleaning out every day. They were quite cute though, for a week anyway....

Fruit

Look at our apples. I'm pretty chuffed with these, it's a dwarf tree but we only planted it last year so it's done pretty well. There are lots of apples on it this year.

Look, real apples! This one has even got droplets of morning rain on it.

The blueberries are really fat as well this year. Must be all the recent rain that has swelled them up. Since we got the hosepipe ban here it hasn't stopped raining.

I've grown teasel this year, we have got them all along the back fence. They are lethal, really spiky, probably not the best plant to put in a garden with children but they are pretty and are attracting lots of bees and hoverflies. The seeds should attract goldfinches too later on, we'll see. So if you are thinking of scaling my back fence be prepared to get spiked. Ouch! Serves you right.

Recipe for raspberry and white chocolate muffins

Hi Rob the recipe for the muffins is:

150g (5 oz) self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
100g (4 oz) soft brown sugar
50g (2 oz) melted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
125 ml (4fl oz) milk
half teaspoon vanilla essence
100g (4 oz) raspberries
50g (2 oz) white chocolate chips
half teaspoon demerera sugar

oven gas 4, 180 degrees C

Mix the dry ingredients, lifting with fingers to incorporate air. Melt butter, beat together egg, milk, vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients to wet mixture (don't beat).

Fold in the raspberries and chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin cases. Sprinkle sugar over the muffins. Bake 25 mins until well risen and just firm.

Eat them!

Raspberry muffins

If you've got a glut of raspberries and you've done jam and crumbles, I recommend making some raspberry and chocolate muffins. The raspberry melts inside the cake and goes all gooey. Delicious.

Ooo matron what a lovely pear

Don't know if you remember my pear tree last year. The leaves had some wierd stuff growing on them. I moved it down the side of the house for its final chance. There have been a couple of yellow leaves this year that I have had to pluck off but it has managed to grow a pear on it.

It will probably be like the poisoned witches apple from snow white so I'm not sure about eating it though.

Tip of the day, please try drunken gardening. It is a good experience. Get out the watering can and a cold beer and enjoy. No pruning though please.

Poor Tina

Tina Turner is going to be so upset, she can't stand the rain against her window but I am very pleased with this weeks showers. Sorry Tina but my plants need a good soaking but it makes it super easy to pull out the shocking number of weeds that I 've cultivated.

I am on a mission to get things back on track weed wise despite the rain. On Sunday I had planned to weed my brassica bed but was shamed into doing the raspberry bed instead as the man in the plot next to ours was glancing over at my weed jungle. The wet ground made it an easy job and I came home all covered in mud.

This is the first crop from the allotment, I've had lettuce and salad leaves from the plants at the house but it's nice to pull something up from the ground, even if it is a radish.