More Rhubarb!

Rhubarb wine.  Here goes!

3kg Rhubarb

2.6kg sugar

Left to soak for 3days

Strained to separate out the syrup. 

Smells deliciously fruity!

Then the remaining sugar is flushed out with cooled boiled water (hot water releases the pectin, which we don't want). The liquor is made up to 10 litres (and some more because the specific gravity was too high).

Camden tablets added to kill off any wild yeast.  Then, two days later (yesterday), I added the white wine yeast.

Now there is very little fruity smell. The last time I made this (probably 20 years ago), the liquor was a beautiful pink colour. Not this time. Still, let's hope the flavour will emerge from all of this pummeling and dilution. 

I'm supposed to leave it alone, apart from a daily stir, for five days while the yeast grows aerobically.  I might give it a little longer because this is double-quantity.

The airlock is there so I can see if anaerobic digestion has started - I don't think is necessary at this stage. Thank you to my neighbour, Rob for spurring me on with some old demijohns and bits & bobs.

Disclaimer: if you start following this recipe before we know the results, you're a bigger fool than me.

Less Honesty

I trimmed back the honesty bush at the weekend. Knocked out of shape by an overshadowing evergreen, I've pruned it to about half the size.  The evergreen is on borrowed time. For now, I've just removed some lower branches.

Oh dear oh dear!

It was windy, but not that windy.

I must have bought an indoor greencupboard by mistake.  Fortunately I have four cheapo-balsa-frame-repair-brackets and some glue.

Will it blow off again? No chance - with four little brackets it weighs twice as much!

Impromptu Barbequ

A warm evening, so we had a BBQ for the first time this year.  It was as easy as 'cooking' when it was unfussy and just for Genie and me.  

Stunted Growth

The little basil seedlings are just not growing.  I'll re-pot. So this is for reference.

Tangoed Green!

The back lawn, in my fantasy "The Bowling Green" is looking very poor.  Scarified and raked, the moss is reduced, but the grass needs more encouragement with feeding and watering.  So first and establishing shot on the phone:

Hmm... You can see the bald bits, but the grass looks too green in the photo.  I suspect I'm the victim of Silicon Valley assuming that everyone lives in the Californian sunshine, and has corrected accordingly.  Bill Bryson described the overcast skies of Yorkshire as like living in Tupperware.  Very apt.  And that was Yorkshire - the sunny side of the watershed, not dribbly Lancashire, mild and wet as a Gogglebox commentary.  How can I show improvement in the lawn if it's already lurid green?  I want the Charles Atlas 'before' picture, first.  So here's a desaturated photo - fiddled about with until it looks convincingly like Reality, not some spray-painted Mohave desert golf course (they do that, you know.  Monty Don said so: it must be true).

That's better.  Ugh!

Speaking of 'The Don', he was on telly on Friday, telling us how to propagate cuttings.  So Genie and I set to with penknife and potting compost on Saturday, and had a go.  These are cuttings from sage, lavender and rosemary bushes, now ensconced in the greenhouse.  (It's too small to call a greenhouse. I'll name it... The Greencupboard.)

Honesty

Time to take stock of a minor natural disaster and man-made disappointment, and to consider some plant repair work.

I've been watering at the wrong time, spraying the bean seedlings in the evening. Consequently, they have stayed wet overnight and now have mildew.  Silly me.  Lesson learnt.  

We have some bean seeds left over, so there's still time to get some more plants germinated.

We had a hard frost BB (before blog), which caught some plants.  In particular, a forest flame by the arbour was badly hit. Also, an honesty bush, which looks very scruffy and misshapen.  I need to look at chopping it back.

Which brings me on to the next problem: this 'rose bed' in which two tall evergreens have outgrown the space.  The roses are still there, but some look very sad (the honesty, too).

The trees do provide some privacy from neighbouring gardens, at least as much for the neighbours because this garden is elevated compared to them.  Decisions.  I'm minded to cut the trees down and try to recover the roses.

It's not all bad news. Genie and I cleared part of the path border and planted some rockery plants which we had bought from the local garden centre on Wednesday (the first day we were allowed to visit under lockdown rules).  Being a skinflint, I split the large plants.

Campanula next to the fern. Delosperma, the little pink flowers at the top, closed up for the evening in this picture.

Sedum, the blue-green succulent, top right.  

The bushy herb is lemon balm - it makes a slightly lemony tea which, though a little bland, is genuinely calming and relaxing.  Great as a bedtime drink apart from being somewhat 'windy' (they say), ahem.  The other bit:

Genie and I did a little casual weeding this evening:

(The wheelie is already full.)

Tool of the Day:

Use with caution.

Frostproofing

The weatherman says there's an air frost on the way.  So now, the St Paul's Cathedral Bean Wigwam is wrapped, along with the onions and salad seelings. Also the blackcurrant bushes, which are in flower.  This has used three windbreakers, two builders rubble bags, two parasols, a table cover, a dozen hoops made from water pipe, and a large tarpaulin.

Bring it on, Frosty.

(It had better be cold.)

Rubarb Cake in Under One Minute!

This was made to a recipe from my colleague, Aneta, from Poland
The music is the Minute Waltz by Frédéric Chopin (geddit???!??), also from Poland

But played by Matt Nickle, from the USA, which sort of ruins the symmetry, but never mind.

Music:  Matt Nickle

Some Jobs Can Wait

This is an ivy overgrowing the outhouse.  My best excuse for not tackling it is the blackbirds nest just above the door.

Anyway, it's too nice a day. 

Pots

Washed pots.

Genie took the initiative, and started weeding yesterday.  Well, that's where we started.  We removed the ancient and crumbling lid from the old compost bin, though 'bin' hardly describes it: a stone and brick edifice built to last.  I got halfway through removing a low front wall a couple of years ago.  Pippy wanted to build a summer house at the back of the garden, and this was the first step in demolition.  I didn't quite see the logic of having a summer house looking onto the veg plot.  Now I understand that this is a good place to escape the domestic environment, away from the house, a sun-trap and the part of the garden that gets the most attention.  During our coronavirus lockdown I've appreciated this hideaway too.  But I don't think I'll be building a summer house here now.

More flowers, are coming into bloom.  Peony:

A standard rhododendron. This is looking a little worse for wear, and maybe suffering from too much competition.  I'll try to remember to water it more.

A large fern is just getting going:

A Plan with No Plan

A Sunny Sunday

Lawn mowed, croquet set-up.  I would love to say I beat Genie with a cup of tea in hand, but I could only manage an honourable draw.

The Rake's Progress

After two days of showers, the veg plot is mainly weeded, and seedlings started. So looking for something to do, I tackled the 'Shagmonster' a much neglected 'ornamental' grass. The middle of this bush is it's own mini compost heap, and harbours brambles .  Since most of the dead leaves were in the centre, the end result of extracting a wheelie bin's worth was somewhat underwhelming.  

Shagmonster Before:

Shagmonster After:

Tool of the Day:

Mum-Monica's Rake. Still in good condition after at least 60 years of use, and unlike Trigger's brush, it's still on its first head and first handle.  The end tines are bent inwards from decades of Monica knocking it on its ends to clear rakings.  Would I straighten it? No chance!