Daddy Poly-tunnel, Mummy poly-tunnel and baby poly-tunnel !!!

Big apologies as for several days I have forgotten to welcome new followers and thank everyone for comments they make, they are much appreciated and I do read every one.  I've noticed the the more out spoken and controversial someone is in blogland the more followers they get, but I shall  continue with this little ol' diary, just  as it is. No controversies at all.
We were expecting rain today but so far only a tiny shower, not enough to do any good. This shower arrived at the very moment that I and a friend had climbed on the back of the potato planter  to put in 6 rows of spuds on the field. After a disastrous year in 2012 when we had a really poor crop, we were debating if it was worth the bother to grow any maincrop this year. Then when we ran out of spuds in February and bought a sack full which cost £12 !!!( NEVER EVER has a sack of potatoes cost that much in the past) we decided we would grow some main crop after all. Our early and second early go in the garden beds and are cosseted with fleece over them, but maincrop go out on the field along with pumpkins and squash that all take up too much space in the garden.
After a deserved cup of coffee and whilst the sun was still behind the clouds we got all the tomatoes  and peppers (chilli and sweet) planted into the new poly-tunnel. So now everything is out except for a few late sown tomatoes.
So here we have the three tunnels. The " Baby" was bought when we first came here 21 years ago, the frame for "Mummy" was purchased for £10 from a cousin of a sister about 16 years ago and now "Daddy" - with the frame given us by a friend who just wanted it out of their way.

 Aubergines and cucumbers in Baby ( and lots of self sown garlic chives)

 Tomatoes, salad stuff and peppers in mummy

Tomatoes and peppers in Daddy.
 Baby has been re-covered twice. Mummy has only needed re-covering once so plastic will last way longer than the manufactures say if it's in a sheltered position.
The two oldest have earned their keep a dozen times over with the stuff we've grown, sold and eaten from them and I expect  the new one (plastic plus hot spot tape was £174) will pay for itself in just this one year.
All the sticks in Daddy poly are broom handles salvaged from amongst a whole load of broken pallets chucked out by a  company that we are allowed to clear to use on our woodburner and Rayburn. Him Outside knew they would come in handy for something!

Busy day as usual

Back to normal today after the Bank Holiday weekend so after getting the washing out,  spent the morning baking 2 loaves of bread and 5 pastry-cases, 4 to put in the freezer, and one to make an asparagus quiche for dinner tonight. Those put in the freezer will be used  for quiches or to rustle up a lemon meringue pie at short notice. Then quick bike ride ( 3 mile round trip) down to village for milk and fruit from the nursery. More expensive than Tesco or Co-op but as that was all we needed works out cheaper than driving anywhere. Then back to do big clean up with the hoover and a stiff brush on the mats.  Him Outside was doing some garden maintenance work for our neighbour this morning and then getting the poly-tunnel door frames covered in plastic and hung. The rhubarb is growing well so picked a huge bundle today - some for us for dinner(rhubarb fool) and the rest to sell to another neighbour.
Then 8 dozen eggs to collect and box up, washing to get in and sort, dinner to finish preparing. Oh, I also did a bit of hoeing of weeds in the raspberry, asparagus and daffodil beds. They were like CONCRETE! We've had almost no rain for 6 weeks, farmers are getting their huge irrigators ready for the carrot and onion crops on the light soils down the road.
This is our asparagus - not as thin or as straight as you would buy, but extremely delicious.

I hope your evening meal is as tasty and  as ours!

Polytunnel cover on.

It's almost done! We took advantage of having our son and his girlfriend here and a sunny day to get the plastic cover over the polytunnel frame. We've backfilled the trenches with the dirt taken out, poured several cans of water over, and then it was all stamped down which then holds the plastic in place. We have the wooden door frames to cover with more plastic and  they will be fixed at each end tomorrow. It's so much easier to pull the plastic over and hold onto it with 4 pairs of hands. Just hope we don't get gales overnight before it's properly finished!

 Our carboot outing this morning was a disappointment as most of the booters were the same as those there yesterday, so we had a quick dash round at Friday Street and then a even quicker look at the mini boot fair in our nearest village. My only purchases were a big red and white spotty mug for 25p  and a few more Beatrix Potter books which I have been collecting (as long as they are only pence each) I missed out on reading these as a child and also never really enjoyed reading them to our 3 when they were little. Preferred Shirley Hughes' lovely books.
Did manage an hour sitting in the conservatory between jobs- thankfully - feet up and good book!

This probably isn't the most fun you can have for under £15 on a Bank Holiday Sunday but we enjoyed it.

As I said yesterday, Bank Holiday weekends are always working weekends for us. Looking after our campers and making sure the toilets are clean and bins emptied etc means that we stay at home. Luckily we can always fit in a trip up the road to the local car boot sale and be back in time to do the campsite and smallholding jobs.
This morning there were dozens of booters there and we  actually I found several things that will make Christmas presents and other useful stuff all for a total of £14.20p. ( Him Outside only spent 50p on 2 paintbrushes.)This is our haul
 

The table football game was Just £1, another thing for the campsite Recreation Room - What a bargain!  3 plates matching our everyday stuff. 4 Square candles and a Habitat Candle plate, Christmas tag making craft set,Huge Cup and saucer, Gift pack of orange and ginger smellies,2 cushion covers,a book of Sudoku puzzles, handbag,marble pestle and mortar, Pack of peppermint tea bags, new jar of cinnamon, oil drizzle bottle, cross stitch kit and a paperback and a brand new hardback book by Elly Griffiths ( modern crime) which I have had on order from the library for months and I'm still about 10th on the list and last but not least 3 brand new T shirts with  Past Times labels. Nothing was  over £2 and as I said the total was £14.20p.( How many Christmas gifts can you buy for under £2 each?- There are 4 here)
I've filled in several more spaces in my Christmas book, which has spread the cost of Christmas and saved a lot of money.
 And now for something completely different.
This is something I heard early this morning on the radio. When I looked at this site there were already over 400 comments. It makes interesting and worrying reading.
Millions are borrowing money from friends or family or using credit cards to buy food. This is the findings of a Which Report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22417334.
Now I must get busy as we have our son and girlfriend staying here and I'm doing a family dinner for 6 as our youngest daughter and her boyfriend will be coming around to join us. I found a recipe for a triple chocolate baked cheesecake - and have altered it by using all basics and value ingredients, we shall see what it is like.(Value bourbons,tubs of cream cheese and chocolate + our own free eggs of course ( we use the ones that we can't sell) The main course includes our own purple sprouting broccolli and home made vegetable pasties.

The start of a Holiday weekend ( but not for us!)

There is one problem with earning a living in the tourist/growing things business - when everyone else is enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend and the better weather of May, we are running around in circles trying to catch up with jobs and looking after our visitors. BUT as I have no wish to work for someone else, self employment is really the best thing.
 Today apart from cleaning the campsite loos, collecting and sorting 8 dozen eggs and the usual house jobs, I've been potting up pumpkin, squash and tomato plants and planting out courgette plants into the garden. Him Outside put the red cabbage, calabrese and white cabbage plants out and planted the aubergines into the polytunnel.
Earlier this morning we zoomed to a car boot sale slightly further away than usual. It is only held on the first Saturday of the month from May to September and has different people there to our usual local booters. Him Outside got the best bargain again when he found a big set of screwdriver bits for the rechargeable drill/screwdriver thingy for 50p. Our conversation goes like this - Me -" haven't you got some of them already?" Him Outside - " Yes but they get lost/lose their points and I'm always needing them". Me - " I bet if you tidied up the workshop you would find some you didn't know you had" Him Outside - " I know where Everything is in there ". Me " Mmmmm Yes Dear". ( I can't understand how he finds anything in his muddle, so this is an oft repeated conversation!)

I found two cushions for £1 each virtually the same colours as one I had already which are the living room colours. I'm not sure that it's possible to make a new cushion for a pound? The one on the left is my original cushion that is the same as my curtains and on the right one of those bought today, - not a bad match at all. I also picked up another white pudding basin for 50p. I make several Christmas puddings which go into hampers for family members so pudding basins are always handy. We found a set of dominoes (50p) and a box of mixed board games (£1) to put in the campsite 'Recreation Room'. I'm really pleased with how it is looking in there. A really good place for groups or families to use if the weather is not to good. ( 5pm here and we have a huge downpour at the moment). I was also pleased with finding a brand new purse for £1.50  as mine is on its last legs, and I had been looking for one since the beginning of the car boot season.Finally I found a couple of paperbacks that look interesting for 20p each and a little notebook with space for inserting a small cross stitch picture for 10p This last one will be a present for a penfriend when I've done the cross stitch. So a good hour was spent and we were home in time for coffee.
We have an elderly friend who has been looking after the grass cutting at a second home close to us, but he now has to go into hospital for a new hip. So today Him Outside has been up to meet the home owners and will take over the grass cutting until Mr B is recovered enough although he is over 80 now so may not be able to tackle the work again. Seems awful to benefit from a friends hospitalisation.
That's me done for today. I hope your Bank Holiday Saturday has been just how you like it to be! Busy or restful?

I Don't usually buy these but......

I survived my long day sitting in a chilly village hall from 7am until 10pm. Election turn out was quite low, but of course as always someone arrived at 7am prompt and another couple arrived at 10 minutes to 10pm and dillied and dallied putting their crosses in the box. There are so many forms to fill in at the end and the Presiding officer then has to hurry with the box to the collection point. I only do polling clerk so just have to do the clearing up- taking down all the notices etc. and then thankfully home to bed.
Another lovely sunny day here but we can't shake off the cool wind. I expect it is warmer further inland.
The things that I don't usually buy are these -out of season plums flown here all the way from Chile. On the whole I try to eat things from this country in season, but this is the time of the year with so little fruit available that something is needed to add to tinned fruit for my daily fruit salad. There are only 5 plums in this punnet, but they are HUGE so I just need 1 a day, which is not too bad when chopped and added to half a tin of value mandarins, makes a good dish of fruit. I know an apple would be cheaper but after living on apples many years ago whilst being on a diet it put me right off them.

After taking this photo I then went around the garden taking some more pictures of things growing in the lovely sunny weather. First picture is some of our many gooseberry bushes. They are SO reliable and never let us down. Each year I pick and sell so many punnets - last year nearly 200! They are greening up nicely and soon I shall start checking for gooseberry sawfly , the tiny caterpillar things can decimate a gooseberry bush in no time.

This is our ancient Conference pear tree, always loaded with blossom, but doesn't have so many pears. Under the tree is our patch of Comfrey that we cut and soak to make liquid feed for the plants or we cut and add to the compost bins, where it acts as an accelerator.Below are the asparagus spears -such a delicious treat.Looks as if there are lots to cut for a meal tomorrow.

That's my lot for today, early night tonight, I never understand how sitting around all day makes a person so tired.

More about the Ash Tree Die Back Disease

This picture was taken  a few days ago and shows how the newest polytunnel is coming along.  Just some trenches for burying the plastic in and another path needed. The plastic has arrived so we await a hot,still day to get it fixed.
We have such incredibly blue skies here today - fantastic. Though I've been in the kitchen most of the morning for bread, cake making and cleaning.
Thank you to Karen,sft,Trudie and Pam for messages left and for the commiserations re the loss of all the Ash Trees. We planted them in Jan 2011 so that whoever lived here in 30 years time would have fuel. Ash are best for burning as the can be coppiced and they re-grow from the base, plus the wood can be used green in necessary. They were OK the first year then looked very sad last year, we thought at first it was just the weather. Then came the bombshell news that a disease had spread here from Eastern Europe and attacks both young and older trees. Being on the East coast we are straight in the firing line for the spores. There are a huge amount of large mature Ash trees in Suffolk and it is going to have a devastating effect on the countryside. Larger trees take longer to die so we are shall be keeping a watch on the mature trees we have in the boundary hedge.The young saplings will be pulled up and burnt. We have no idea what we will fill the empty spaces with. Thankfully the 25 Hazel and 25 Silver birch plus the mix of other trees we planted 10 years ago are all looking OK.
Now I must go and sort out what I need for tomorrow for my long day out  - 15 hours sitting in a village hall with someone I have never met ! not a busy village so I doubt we will see many people. I have letters to write, a puzzle book, book and papers to read so should survive the day but it always takes me about 3 days to recover. ( On my way to training yesterday I noticed a poster for another Car boot on Saturday morning - so we might get to 3 this weekend - that should keep us busy!)