A day at home...

It was another lovely day today and John's recent biking injuries had healed sufficiently for him to go out with Richard and Pete.

I did a bit of cleaning, a bit of washing and then decided to try and complete the decoupaged tray that I have been making.  We had some boat varnish in the shed which I was going to use to seal the tray and try and make it waterproof.  Yacht varnish was perfect because it is slightly yellow so it would help with the 'aged' finish I was trying to create.

Fortunately John returned home without incident today.  He is planning the postponed ride to Lara for Saturday - fingers crossed that the weather will stay fine and they will complete it without incident.

I had waited for his return to grab a shower - thinking that by then the sun would have heated the water.  I had taken some sausages out of the freezer so we had a brunch sausage sandwich and were just getting the bathroom ready when the electricity started going on and off like something out of a séance and then it went off and didn't come back on for over two hours which was a bit of a bummer because we are almost completely reliant on electricity.

The warmest place to be was out in the garden and we couldn't do much inside so I decided to continue with my tidying up for winter.  A couple of weeks ago I chopped back our Hadge memorial rose - it was looking a bit bedraggled and I am aware that there is a massive problem with mealy bug on the island.  It thrives where it can find warm humid conditions so in the middle of dense plants.  The lovely miniature pin Chrysanthemum that Gail gave me was absolutely full of it right in the middle so that got cut back and the cuttings thrown over into the field.  The rose has started to come back, it looks fresh and healthy and as yet no sign of the dreaded bug.  Out the front I chopped the Plumbago right back - that was also looking past its best and as this is the second year I have had it in the garden I know it will come back.

I had the end of some coriander, Cyprus rocket and a sad old carrot in the veggie box and and empty container with some good compost which I was going to use to grow lettuce but thought I had left it too late so shoved the roots of greens and the top of the carrot into it so see what it would do.  All are growing - they may not come to much but I like the challenge of seeing what I can get to grow.  

When I cut back the Hydrangeas last week I shoved some bits into a pot and see that three of them have produced some new leaves.  Hydrangea do well in this garden if they are planted in the shade and if I can get these to grow there are areas in the garden that would benefit from a bit of colour.  I have also planted up all the Gaura that I grew from seed - they didn't seem to be getting any bigger in the pots and the roots were showing through so I timed it just right that they went in and then we had a load of rain followed by some warm sunshine.  They add frothy arches of flowers which will be quite taller than the other plants in the border.

There is still quite a lot of colour in the garden.  It is hard to think that it is only about six weeks until Christmas Day proper and I have another one to do before that when my sister comes.

Sonia called around this afternoon just as our electricity returned and was stable.  She had a sage plant for me - I had a huge one in the garden for years but made the mistake of giving it too hard a haircut one winter and it never returned.  I didn't think I used it much but recently there have been plenty of recipes which calls for it.  She isn't sure that there is much in the way of root system so I will have to give it plenty of TLC.

Our supper tonight was a triumph of what you can do with seemingly very little to hand and a husband who found a recipe on tintyweb that he thought we should try.

We had some kalamata olives in the fridge that needed eating up so they were baked in the oven with olive oil, oregano, lemon zest and rosemary.  John never used to eat olives but tried some black ones hot one day and liked them.  Now he only really likes the green because he finds the darker ones a bit mushy but even he had to agree that these were lovely.

The main part of the meal was a pasta dish where you made the sauce by baking fetta, cherry tomatoes, red peppers and pesto with olive oil, honey and white wine which you mushed up and then coated the pasta.  It was absolutely delicious and used up four things in the fridge which were past their best.  It was all very tasty and colourful and I shall definitely make it again.