The love of a good shed

I bought this as part of David's Christmas present last year (just gone, that is) as I thought it would appeal to his love of a good workshop. I guess it was kind of one of those presents that you buy for someone, but would equally quite like to keep it for yourself too.

It's a beautiful book, filled with Nigel Peake's illustrations and drawings of assorted sheds, shacks and workshops, along with the odd poem and essay. He also has some lovely prints and things for sale here, although I actually got the book from here.

Bread of distinction

I am a very lucky girl. Not only do I live within 2 minutes walk of the awesome bakery Stones, but today they gave me some starter for sourdough bread. For free. Because they're nice like that.

And, it's not just any starter either, as theirs was originally given to them in 1983, by none other than the peeps of Moro. I figure that means that my new starter (or Mother, if you're rather) has aristocratic heritage. I will continue to feed it using this recipe from St John. Will post details of first loaf in a few days...

Today I saw

I've blogged about Today I Saw before, and rightly so, it's a lovely little project. This is different though, as this postcard, pictured above, arrived in the post for me the other day. Big thank you Jill, I love it.

Grow Your Own - Update

Growing in my garden right now: Broad Beans, Peas, Rainbow Chard, Lettuce, Garlic, French Tarragon, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Ruby Pak Choi, Chives, Thyme, Rosemary and Sage.

Seeds that arrived from the Heritage Seed Library yesterday: Carrot (Beta III), Pea (Clarke's Beltony Blue), Leek (Coloma), Pepper (Nardello), Lettuce (Bronze Arrow - particularly resistant to slugs, I'm told), Tomato (Auntie Madge's), and last but not least, my lucky dip packet: Tomato (Salt Spring Sunrise).

I'm hoping we'll eat very well this summer

Cubelight Lamp

Loving this little fella, 'Cubelight' by Fagerström & Abrahamsson.

Found on emma's designblog

advice

Have signed up to become a 'compost mentor'. If you are in Cornwall or online and have a question - let me know. I will try my best.

Broccoli from Trafalgar Square, anyone?

Really excellent to hear about this idea from Clitheroe in Lancashire. I've been wondering for a while why the open space surrounding the estates of East London are not better used to service areas which are sometimes recognised as food deserts. So good to see someone finally putting it into practice...

I've been thinking for a while that this would be a particularly beneficial way of re-engaging the community in areas of socio-economic deprivation. One such project already in existence is the 'friends of arnold circus', where they have taken control of council-owned areas in the estate to grow food and veg. Find out more about volunteering.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping a close eye on this project. It could work well as a model for other areas of the country.

Thanks Lynn for the link.

The Real Seed Catalogue

You may have heard of these chaps before, I hadn't. Anyhoo... have been turning my mind to thinking about what I'm going to grow in the garden this year. Last year was a bit of a warm-up, we only really got here at the beginning of August, and I'd misplaced my best gardening book (which, I can't recommend enough, by the way). So, I've listed out all of the seeds that I've bought and collected over the years, which seemed to be a lot more than I'd thought, but had some real holes in it, as I've recently discovered. Plentiful are the summer sunshine-loving regulars such as tomatoes, peppers and herbs; non-existent are the winter stalwarts such as broccoli or cabbage. How on earth I thought we'd survive on a couple of mizuna and rocket plants, I have no idea, but next (read: this) year we should now be able to look forward to a more productive year - all year.

Sadly then, I just came across the Real Seed Catalogue this morning, having ordered all other things last night (via Garden Organic and Suffolk Herbs). Based in Wales, they have been collecting rare and heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs since 1990, and actively promote the saving of your own seeds - supplying a 'how to' with each packet of seeds bought. Don't know about you, but I quite fancy trying some of their chilli peppers...

Sorry about size of pic above by the way... all their pics are tiny.