On a Summer morning.

After a short break when we had lots of much needed rain it seems that Summer is back. Yesterday we had 15 hours of sunshine…unheard of for Ireland. I went out just before 8 this morning to open the polytunnels…already serious heat had built up in there. On the mountain the wind turbines are still. There’s not a breeze of wind to move them. The valley looks so lush at the moment. Grass is plentiful for the animals and they are enjoying the sunshine. I love how the farmers here have left lots of trees. On large intensive farms one often sees all the trees and hedgerows removed to maximise grazing land. Electric fences are used to strip graze the land. This makes for a very boring landscape, no wildlife habitats and of course no shelter for the animals.

The Irises are in full bloom right now…it’s amazing how much these have spread. They were planted only last year. One to watch methinks in case it takes over.

I just love their colour…purple being a fave of mine…and form…the beauty and perfection of Nature. Don’t know the variety of these…the label has long disappeared. On another blog…can’t remember whose…there was a suggestion that rather than sticking the label in the ground by the plant that they were stored in the house or shed. A good idea I think as I can’t remember most of the names…and the labels blow away or disintegrate or the dogs chew them.

 

The perennial Geraniums have also come into flower. Deadheading regularly will keep these flowering for many weeks.

Foxgloves survived the wind and rain remarkably well. I thought they would be flattened. Plants are a lot more resilient than we give them credit for.

Swiss Chard seems to have become huge overnight. I just noticed this morning that this is ready for harvesting. I really love the leaves with the red ribs. Don’t they look fab…tasty too!

All pics taken this morning around 8am.

Musings from a Smallholding…Spring is here!

As Spring proceeds the animals sense the change in season, they are full of the joys of it. They are playful with each other and us. Bella loves to head-butt but does’nt realise her own strength so one has to be careful.

Once one goat starts friskin about they all join in. Enid, the hornless one, is usually pretty quiet but even she got caught up in the joy of it all.

The dogs get excited when they see the goats jumping about. They bark and chase after them which adds to the general chaos. Enid has her ears back in this pic. She does this when she’s not sure about something. Lettie just stands there barking away until I shout at her. She just loves barking. Right, that’s enough of that!

Time to do some chores. Vegetables to be harvested for the evening meal. The carrots and parsnips, together with onions, garlic and butternut squash will make a tasty, nourishing soup. The Beetroot will be juiced. There’s still quite a bit of beetroot in the polytunnel. It will have to be pulled soon before it starts to grow again. The parsnips are almost finished. They were all doubles this year, don’t know why. Still a good number of carrots growing in the polytunnel. They too need to be harvested soon. We always grow carrots in the polytunnel as they don’t get the carrot root fly in there.

 Walking past the flowerbeds on the way to the house with the produce I notice the little Sedum (sorry, Saxifrage, thanks Alberto,) is ready to burst into flower soon. This has spread to create quite a big patch  so it will make a good impact. Spring is here! Hurrah!!

Back in the house the stove is ticking over. Freddie fells the cold more than the other dogs, probably because he’s so small and has a short coat. He likes to sit as close as possible to the heat. Aw! poor little poochie!

Beetroot Mania!

 

Since reading up on the benefits of Beetroot we have decided to juice some and have a shot of it every day for the next week. Interesting that it’s so good for the blood and  being the same colour too. I listed all the vitamins and minerals in the previous post if you’re interested. Looks a bit like a bloodbath when you’re juicing it plus my juicer has developed a leak too so twas a bit messy. Luckily I have another juicer so this one is going to the recycling centre.

 

 

Andy mixed his shot with some Grapefruit juice. I mixed mine with a Banana, Strawberries and soya milk to make a smoothie. Delicious…kept me going for the day. I’m working up to drinking it neat!

Being in a beetrooty frame of mind I decided to make the Beetroot and Chocolate Cake I mentioned in my last post.

To make it you need: 8ozs self-raising flour, 1 oz cocoa powder, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 4 ozs caster sugar, 4 ozs raw beetroot, peeled and grated, 3 ozs dark chocolate, melted, 3 ozs butter, melted, 2 eggs, beaten.

Set the oven to Gas 4, 180 c. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Stir in the sugar, beetroot, melted chocolate and melted butter. Turn into tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

 

 

After I had started to mix the cake I realised did’nt have any chocolate…I went ahead anyway and used an extra egg and a bit more butter which worked fine.

 

It’s amazing how someone always turns up when you’ve baked a cake. This one was cooling when our neighbours called in. Kettle on…tea and coffee…chat…and a freshly baked cake. It was still slightly warm but it was devoured anyway. No one could guess the secret ingredient…even with knowing it was hard to tell the cake contained beetroot. There’s still lots more Beetroot in the polytunnel  so I’m off to seek out a few more recipes!