Ice lollies in the garden

It's been another lovely sunny weekend.  On Saturday we sunbathed in the garden and listened to the radio, had ice lollies, played with the cat and generally chilled out and made the most of the nice weather.

On Sunday we went to a local car boot sale.  I bought a Ladybird book that I owned as a child, called 'The Night Sky', which inspired my interest in astronomy.

I also bought some more owls and 2 fishermen ornaments for the shed at the allotment.  

After the car boot we popped to a pub called the 'Swan with Two Necks' for some lunch and a quick bevvie.  Then we drove up Pendle Hill, stopped to look at the view, and called in at a garden centre before heading home.  It was a fun trip out. 

On Thursday night I went to the shop's annual general meeting which was held at our local library.  Quite a few members attended.  All the directors had to address the group and say their name.  Luckily this is the only time I was put on the spot as I hate talking in front of groups of people!

On Saturday night my friend had a summer garden party.  I baked some brownies to take with me.  We drank mojitos and ate some delicious African stew and pilaf which my friend had made.  She got the recipe from an ace African cookbook that I recommended to her.  We had a bonfire and music outside, and most of us borrowed a poncho to keep us warm.

I booked Monday off work.  I spent most of the day at the allotment tidying around and weeding and trying to keep on top of things.  Blackfly has attacked the broad beans - it's my fault for not nipping the tips off once the first beans appeared.  I've taken the tips off now, but it's probably a bit late as the blackflies have already made themselves at home.  Whiteflies were also on the beetroots, as well as whiteflies/greenflies on the marigolds in the greenhouse, as long as they stay on the marigolds and off the tomatoes then that's fine by me.  Maybe all this hot weather has woken them up.

I picked the first new potatoes, some beetroot, lettuce, rhubarb, spring onions and gooseberries.  I got home and made a gooseberry, rhubarb and cinnamon crumble.  I followed the recipe in the 'Garden to Kitchen Expert', which is an ace crumble topping, it's a bit flapjacky and it tasted delicious served hot with cream.  Mmmmm.  For tea we had new potatoes and fresh mint, (tinned) garden peas (the allotment ones aren't quite ready yet), roasted beetroot with thyme, and fish fingers (because there was nothing else in!). 

The greenhouse at home is becoming more like a jungle - I always try to fit too much in!

I finished the 'one ball wonder' gloves in the purple/green Patons eco wool chunky.  I wish I'd have taken my Noro leg warmers to the garden party because my ankles were freezing by the end of the night.

I ordered Scott Kelby's digital photography books v1 v2 v3 - they're great, and I'm making my way through them pretty quickly.  I also got his digital photographer's guide to Adobe Photoshop CS5.

The fridge has arrived in the shop and takings have doubled!  I bought some scrummy smelling houmous which I can't wait to try.

I've been getting into BBC Radio 4's food programme.  I listened to an interesting show about sustainable fishing, as well as one on milk.  We're trying to find a milk supplier for the shop, but we've only found a raw milk supplier so far.  I'm off to visit a local cheese dairy with the shop manager next Friday, which I'm really looking forward to.  We need to source a good egg supplier too.

I watched the film Neds, it was pretty good, a bit harsh in parts, but worth a watch.