15 September 2024
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I’m playing in Southfield Park a bit later this afternoon with the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra… hopefully. After lovely weather yesterday and its equal expected today, the forecast has changed and rain has come with it. I’ll head down in a minute but I won’t be completely surprised if we either end up not playing or playing to an empty, damp field. Never mind – that’s UK weather for you. 5pm is our allocated slot if it does go to plan.
14 September 2024
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I expected to see dragonflies when I took the dog out for her morning walk round Dishley Pool. These majestic insects, with their ability to move and manoeuvre seeming almost like teleportation are made all the more intriguing by being so hard to get a good look at and, as far as I know, posing no threat to humans (or dogs) at all.
What I hadn’t expected to see was a Muntjac deer bounding across the path. They aren’t particularly rare in the UK but it is the first time I have seen one with in a shortish walk from home. Perhaps a little less fascinating than dragonflies but still not the kind of creature to stop and let you have a good look at it.
13 September 2024
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Today I did a bit of tidying of the various bits of wood I’ve got in the shed, partly to make it easier to find what I need when I need it but also to allow me to get close enough to the back wall to add another length to my French cleat system.
In particular, I recently purchased a new storage tray for screws which I wanted to stick up on the wall where I can easily see it but I’ve created a few additional hangers as well – mainly for hanging hooks which were previously directly on the cleats themselves. Onwards and upwards with the organisation.
12 September 2024
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With a long-running blog, like this one, there is an inevitable messiness if you don’t want to throw old posts away. For example, I’ve got a category called Twitterings, which I last used over 14 years ago. Technically, Twitter doesn’t exist any more and perhaps I ought to call it Xings but the original name is still often used either with or instead of the new branding. I’m not sure how long Twi…, sorry, X is going to persist. Perhaps Exings would be a better category title.
As far as I can see, I used it for short posts that also went onto my Twitter feed. It might even have been set so that I could post a tweet and have it echoed to the blog. This post isn’t one of those but I wonder if, in 10-15 years, I’ll look back and find it is the last in that category?
11 September 2024
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With the change in season, daytime temperatures are dropping to the mid to high teens. That means I can get back to homebrewing. I can’t cool the fermenting wort if it gets too hot but I can heat it if it gets too cool. I’m trying a new recipe from the Graham Wheeler Brew Your Own British Real Ale book, based on Exmoor Ale. I’ve done the Exmoor Gold a few times but, looking in my stock cupboard, this was a recipe that made good use of what I had in, including using up my Challenger hop pellets (unopened, nice and fresh) and Styrian Goldings (a bit old now but still reasonably bright looking; I doubled the quantity and threw the last few grams away). The name I’ve given is in honour of a canine guest we’re looking after for a few days while friends are away.
I got the wort cooked up yesterday and set it fermenting today. I’d squeezed a bit more gravity than expected out of the ingredients: 1.048 rather than 1.039. That means it will be a bit stronger than the recipe suggested. If it turns out well, I’ll give it another go time sometime and perhaps reduce the amount of malt compared to the water. I like strong beer but I also enjoy lighter versions.
Full fermentation should kick off in a day or so and we might be done within a week although I’ll probably wait until our temporary pet is returned as I don’t need any extra help with the bottling!
10 September 2024
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The raspberry shrub I started off last month has been quietly sitting in a jar in the fridge, with the raspberries leaching their goodness into the wine vinegar I covered them with. I probably could have finished it off a week or two ago but, at the low temperatures of the fridge, that very acidic mixture will keep quite well.
Today, I’ve mixed the liquid to taste with sugar. I ended up with a ratio of about 5:4, to take the edge of the tartness but not hide all the fruit flavour. The first sample was not only pleasing but had a gorgeous red colour – certainly the equal of beetroot’s cerise.
What next? I wonder if a herb like rosemary or sage would do well? Those are strong flavours so I wouldn’t expect to use much at a time (… or perhaps thyme) but it might be a way of imparting the character of the herb to drinks or even dishes.
9 September 2024
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Our tomatoes are running later than I’d expect again this year, despite having got them off to an earlier start. I think the combination of light levels and temperature have contributed. Possibly we’ve also had the polytunnel too well sealed. There have only been a few days when we’ve had it open for pollinators to get in; fewer bees to rescue at the end of the day but perhaps a delay in harvest too?
No matter… we are now coming into harvest season. Over the next week, I expect to be harvesting a few every few days and, at some point, that will probably take off for a period when I’ll be struggling to keep up with them!
8 September 2024
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Looking back, I see it was mid-July that I picked my first broccoli, having planted them out in mid-April and got the seeds started at least a month before that. Today I took out the remaining plants from the bed at home, which was the last of the Broccoli ‘Atlantic’ that came from the much-missed Wilko, and there are two or three plants of Broccoli ‘Monclano F1’ at the allotment that were from Suttons Seeds. We got enough today from about 10 plants to put greens on the plate for Sunday lunch and I’m not sure there will be enough good material to make it worth bringing back anything from the allotment.
I think this is the first year I’ve tried growing broccoli, certainly for a long time. I don’t yet have the data online so I can’t calculate the total yield but I think it has probably given a reasonable return on investment. I’m sure it has done us more than ten meals although probably not more than twenty and that’s over a spread of ground about 3m². We haven’t had many of the fat, closely bunched heads we’re used to from the supermarket but, on the other hand, a lot of what we’ve harvested has been more like what is sold as “tenderstem broccoli”, which is a bit more expensive. Regular broccoli is presently just under £1 at Lidl and, searching back through the digital receipts since I started using their app (2021), it appears to have risen in price by about 33% over that period. I estimate that I’ve probably had at least £10 worth of crop and, if I take into account that it has been organic with known provenance, low food miles and often tenderstem, I could add a multiplier to the economic value (although I also have to remember that I would typically just buy the regular type from the supermarket).
I might well try it again in future but I would make some changes. Firstly, I’d probably devote less space to it. Both varieties proved very reliable (and the cheaper Wilko one was just as good as the more expensive Suttons variety) and I think I could get enough for our needs from about half the ground (using more intensely and wasting less). I would also plan to sow it later. My plants spent longer than they needed held in pots while I waited for other crops to finish. The allotment one went in first, interplanted around onions and garlic, and I think that didn’t help the yield on those two crops. The home one, held until about mid-May seemed to quickly catch up. I think I could have reduced the amount of pots I was tending and stretched the harvesting season but not starting too much too early.
Finally (and this applies across the garden), I think I need to be more diligent about watering. We’ve had a decent crop but I reckon it would have been plumper if I hadn’t let them wait for so long during some of the drier patches of the growing season. Water supply is not an issue at either growing location so that is a variable to keep in mind in future.
7 September 2024
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Three songs for me at today’s singaround (on double bass):
So, an imperfect set of contributions but fun all the same.
6 September 2024
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My banjo student had a wonderful breakthrough moment today. His fingers aren’t quite as flexible as mine and he was struggling with a particular part of an arrangement I’d worked out for the tune Barlow Knife. It’s been quite a few weeks now, in between other things, but today I suggested a different way of playing it. Particularly due to the way the 5 string banjo is tune, there are choices about which combination of string and fret to use for each note. You get that on guitar, bass and similar instruments but the ones with ‘re-entrant’ tuning, like banjo and ukulele have even more options, with the same note being available on both sides of the neck.
I’m looking forward to seeing how he has got on working with the new fingering when we meet again next week. We’ll also have a look for other songs where a few changes can turn what is unnecessarily difficult into something within easier reach.