Wet brambles shambles!

Buying a house that had a ‘garden with potential’ seemed like a good idea at the time. We sought and received advice from family and friends who saw the garden. Initial responses were characterised by an intake of breath, similar to that you get when a plumber or electrician is quoting for certain jobs to be done…. the pursed lips and sucked-in breath that mean: ‘this is going to be expensive’. However, the most common response, and the one that played very nicely thank you was the: ‘you need to live with it for a year, to see what grows where and what works’ – a tailor-made excuse for pottering and doing ‘a bit of weeding’ here and there, rather than anything more significant.

Priority #1 was to start a herb garden. I say garden, more really just the flower bed that was closest to the back door and kitchen. Sage has flourished, as has rosemary. Oregano and thyme are holding their own. Mint started well but has since struggled, whilst parsley did the opposite. Chives have survived the winter, whilst the dill has disappeared. All in all, though, a relatively successful start – box ticked!

Priority #2 was to try a few veg to see where might be a good spot to develop over time. New potatoes were underwhelming, whilst the kale and lettuce was surprisingly successful….And all I’ll say about the tomatoes is that I was able to make more than one batch of green tomato chutney….So more trialling this year, which is probably just a ‘get out’ to potter more and procrastinate further before serious upheaval.

My current battles, are with brambles. Flourishing isn’t a strong enough word to describe their success. Having benefitted from blackberries galore last autumn, I am loathe to ‘lose’ them completely, but their ability to thrive in all the wrong places is uncanny, as it their ability to hide their roots in the hardest to reach places. I started by judiciously cutting back, but the lack of seeming progress in their ‘management’, coupled with the incorrigible thorns in fingers and hands, ripped gardening gloves and garden rubbish bags, is beginning to get me down. I console myself with the thought that, in the war against them, I am currently winning a few skirmishes.

Eating: Desserts are less of ‘my thing’, so I tried a recipe forwarded to me by child #2 for Little tahini and molten chocolate mousse tarts with mascarpone, from Sweet, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh. They were delicious!

Drinking: Lovely alternative to Sav blanc. Very versatile and went well with a roast hake, fennel and orange with almond aïoli recipe from Clare Lattin and Tom Hill, featured in the Guardian May 2018. Sourced from Naked Wines.

Listening to: You know that moment when, at the end of the playlist you have put on, Spotify starts playing you music that it thinks you might like? I generally start a discussion with the service berating its poor choices for me. However, recently, Spotify played a song by an artist called Eileen Jewell, an American singer/songwriter from Idaho and, despite myself, I found that her music really stuck in my mind. Current favourites are ‘Mess Around‘ from an early album called Boundary County, ‘High Shelf Booze’ from Letters to Sinners and Strangers and ‘I Remember You’ from Queen of the Minor Key.