Thursday 28 October 2010

Looking ahead to 2011

I'm so sick of all the wild boar crap that's been occupying our lives of late that I can't face another blog entry about it all.

Instead I'm going to focus on the fun stuff, like the fact that I've just placed an order for some exciting and very very very VERY hot chilli seeds:



Nagaland Naga Morich Naga King (http://www.refiningfirechiles.com/nagamorich.html)







:D Happy days

Wednesday 20 October 2010

O.M.G. as they say...

Well, it's been somewhat dramatic here at Åslyckan. This is what our lawn looked like on Sunday morning...





We spent all day Sunday repairing it. Back-breaking, soul-destroying stuff. Anyway it looked OK. Until they came back again last night. The lawn wasn't too bad, but they attacked my new fruit garden and dug up my new baby blackcurrant bush... Sad photos to follow...

ENOUGH ALREADY!!! :'(

Thursday 14 October 2010

Foggy days followed by frosty mornings

The weather's been acting strange this week. Warm sunny days, followed by three days of thick fog, followed by freezing cold nights and frosty mornings.

Beautiful, warm autumn day
Fog transforms our garden into an enchanted woods

I can't see beyond our boundary wall

Busy day at the bird feeders

Spooky...

The field behind our letterbox

The house engulfed in fog

The garden is full to the brim of spider's webs

Then the fog lifted and it got very cold...

The whole garden was coated in a thick blanket of frost 

Particularly beautiful when covered in frost is my corkscrew hazel
We have a plethora of different types of moss and they are beautiful with a slight frosting

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Destructive little buggers

I really wouldn't have a problem with them (the wild boar for those of you who haven't read my blog before) if they didn't cause so much damage...


Monday 11 October 2010

Still growing in the kitchen garden...

My first attempt at radishes...
...and they're yummy!
Lots and lots of rocket left from the spring sowing and the summer sowing is just starting to appear.
These leeks should last us all winter.
I love mache salad leaves, but the packet said lamb's lettuce... Please tell me it's the same thing...?
Cut and come again cos lettuces sown in the summer, with spinach seedlings in front of them and half-eaten beetroot behind them.
Beautiful pak choi.
My half-eaten beetroots. I haven't the heart to chuck 'em so I'll give them a month or so and see if they get any fatter.
The strawberry x wild strawberry plant is still flowering!

Friday 8 October 2010

More boar...

Today was a busy day, work-wise so I haven't really had the time to ramble on about my life until now.

Yesterday was an interesting day, boar-wise. To start with, I'd dug the camera out, charged the batteries and made sure it was within reach. Just in case the pigs came back. And they did!

I'm not the world's best photographer unfortunately, and still haven't gotten round to buying a decent camera, so they're not the best. And they don't exactly pose for you... But they're slightly better than my phone photos:






And as if that wasn't enough... A few hours later I was in the kitchen brewing a cup of tea (like you do), gazing sleepily out the window and I saw something pale brown dash behind the Christmas tree (just seen in the last photo - it's a pine tree of course, but we cover it in fairy lights in December and call it a Christmas tree)...

I got my eyes back in focus and waited for whatever it was to come out the other side of the tree...

And Oh. My. Goood. did I get a shock! :) I don't think I have ever seen anything that cute.

Six of the tiniest teeniest cutest stripy little piglets came scurrying out from behind the tree, pausing cautiously under the bird feeder, and then proceeded to high jump over our dry stone wall and disappear into the woods. While I stood there with my chin on the kitchen counter...

Obviously I didn't get a photo of them, being frozen in awe, so I've borrowed this photo from Animal Planet to try and give you an idea just how cute they were:

Thursday 7 October 2010

Autum colours

It's hard to capture the glorious spectrum of autumnal colours on film, but here are some of them in my garden this week:







Wednesday 6 October 2010

The dahlia Angelica gave me

As promised, here are some photos of the gorgeous dahlia plant Angelica gave me.



Still growing in the greenhouse...

Alright, so the photos I posted in my last entry were a little misleading. I realise that now. Nothing is that pretty and colourful at this time of year... So I've just been down to the greenhouse to take stock of what's still growing and here are some photos taken today...

Pearl tomatoes from Spain, that's all I know about them unfortunately. I managed to dig out and dry some teeny tiny seeds from my favourite supermarket-bought tomatoes last winter and they rewarded me with hundreds of absolutely de-licious baby plum tomatoes. A definite on next year's list. Just have to remember to save some seeds....

Robson Angola - A variety I received from Angelica as a baby plant. Although tasty, they were a bit too mealy (mjölig) for me. Not going on next year's list, but it was fun to try and they are really dark and made an attractive addition to salads and other dishes.


Gardener's Delight, last year's favourite. Big disappointment this year. Probably because I was blown away by my pearl tomatoes. Tested growing them outside too, but they were attacked by what was presumably blight.

A really fun chilli, the Jamaican Bell capsicum baccatum. Although fabulously attractive and dead easy to grow, producing lots of fruit, it definitely wasn't worth growing for the Scoville factor. One or two had a bit of a kick in the seeds, but this is more of a sweet pepper than a chilli. Not going on next year's list.
The Hungarian Hot Wax capsicum annuum surprised me. Absolutely nothing happened for ages (my inconsistent fertilizing may have had something to do with it...), then it sprouted. And boy did it sprout. These babies are huge. I can see where they get their name too. They're really shiny!
These are a bit of mystery these ones. The seeds came from a seed chain I joined last winter through Odla and the (home-made) packet simply said '1cm chilies'. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but these are not 1cm long... Perhaps they meant 1cm wide...? Anyhoo, they tasted a bit kinda Thai chilli-like. Not decided if they're going on next year's list or not...
Again, probably due to my inconsistent fertilizing, my Serrano's (seeds kindly donated by Patrik) started sprouting again after more than a month of nothing. At the moment they're teeny tiny. Ever the optimist, I'm hoping to get something out of the plant before it dies. These were fantastic! Silly hot, particularly for their size. Definitely on the 2011 list.
Now, my Cayenne Long Slim capsicum annuum plant produced lots of really really mild (basically sweet peppers) fruit early on in the season, leading me to think I'd mixed my seeds up. Then all of a sudden a really hot one came along. It sprouted another bunch of peppers quite late on, which have just started turning red. Let's hope they have a little more heat in them...
This is a funny little one, another donation from Angelica - a Hot Scotch Bonnet capsicum chinense. It has grown reeeeeaaaaally slowly, and I mean reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally slowly. It can't be more than 15cm high - after a whole summer and almost a whole autumn in the greenhouse! And look! A pepper has appeared! Ok, I have zoomed in - in actual fact this teeeeny tiny fruit is no more than a cm wide...
Check out these twin Aji Colorados capsicum baccatum joined at the stalk. Another tongue-numbing favourite - definitely going on next year's list.
These two are the only fruits produced by the only Italian Red Pepper plant I grew this year. Not going to bother next year.

That's about all there is going on inside the greenhouse. I will be posting an update of what's growing in the kitchen garden outside the greenhouse when the risk of wild boar is over.

I was taking photos this morning when a bunch of them sauntered right by me (ok, well not right by me... but you know what I mean...), scaring the bejeesus out of me! Needless to say I scarpered quick as a flash and have been indoors ever since...