This weekend was quiet cool - we went to the Witcomb village fete where I managed to pick up two Terry Pratchettes I didnt already have and an audio cassette of Truckers 🙂 There was also a skunk there - a real one, I assume it had had its scent glands removed! It seemed content and happy and wasnt in a cage though was on a lead. There were also ferrets and weasles - Live weasles, in one whole piece unlike the poor baby one Babara brought in at breakfast last weekend that Tim had got to 🙁
We did general household stuff and also went to Cranham Priase to see if it was the sort of service we wanted at the Christening and meet lots more people from the village who we have never even seen before!
Jean's official first words were hurrah, hurrah, hurrah - in direct imitation of Al shouting this this morning!!! 🙂
Unfortunatly mum got abit over excited and flew her hands in the air whooping and saying well done which scared poor Jean!
The weekend of the 26th and 27th of August is the one to put in your diaries!
On the Saturday will be Jean's 1st Birthday party and our official house warming - that is Sat the 26th of August! This will be an all day event, with nibbles and an all day BBQ - bring your own drink though - sorry guys, we're running on a bit of a budget here! Rmember we have a bubble machine, paddling pool, chocolate fondue, candy floss maker, popcorn maker, doughnut maker - so be prepared for a sugar high!
Saturday starts from 11 am into the evening 🙂
Sunday sees the chistening at St James The Great, Cranham. Service starts at 11 am. There will be 'little drinks and biccies' in the churchyard followed by Tea and cakes here and another barbeque. There will also be a Tree Planting in Jean's honour (a lovely little walnut). We will be providing some wine for this occasion!
We're really sorry but we can't put people up, both space wise and money wise (there is limited floor space, only recommended for the young and hardy) but we will be posting a list of nearby campsites and B&B's.
Mysterious olives keep turning up every where - I know I collected them as a child as thought they were brillient along with the tap fittings off of stop cocks and those ball bearing mount things, but this is rediculous! Today we found another one in the stable near the washing machine! Are they teleporting in just to confuse us?
Randomly popping into existance? Like the paper clip at the biginning of time?
Maybe they are my collection from when I was little - I have been unpacking the boxes from mum and dads house which they packed up whilst I was at uni! It is conceeivable I just didnt notice them and have some how scattered them everywhere? These are mostly uncrushed olives some in brass and some in copper! Oh well perhapse I can make them into some funky sculpture or something?
The salsify are beginning to seed! When in flower they are a lovely purple dandilion type flower that only seems to open in the morning. Their name is supposed to be the corruption of the latin for 'follows the sun' I dont know if that is true but it sounds fesible. Anyway we like the to eat the roots which are tasty - basically thanks to the constriction of British tastes with all the rationing and stuff.
Unfortunatly the roots are only tender enough to eat the first year and becuase they have tended to seed themselves its not obvious which ones are old roots and which are new. Some of the roots are huge and ancient and as tough as old nials - I run on the supersition that if I cant get the knife to cut the roots easily from the roots then they are old tough ones that need discarding.
Now this plant is also could purple goats beard and the oster plant (as the root is supposed to taste like oster I dont think so as I dont like osters but I like this plant!). The seed heads are giant brown fluffy dandilion clocks - this is what I have been haversting.
The reason? Why not let them seed themselves?
We are fed up with digging up the old nails! Therefore we pull all the plants this year after they finish seeding and sow the seed ourselves insuring that we have all new plants and therefore yummy tender roots for us to consume. I am also sure that we are going to have far to many seeds - so if anyone whats them they are 50p for hundred seeds whilst stocks last! (erm p&p extra but hopefully you'll be visiting us! or we'll be visiting you!).
Even if you dont want to eat it its a lovely plant - with pretty purple flowers 🙂 Bring on the purple!!!! Also these plants were rare in the 70's so probably still are - I havent checked mind! Now these are cultivated plants not wild ones we've dug up or anything so we are not depriving the wild but if people like this type of old English rareness then this is the way to go. (this isnt ment to be a sales pitch I just love my veggies!)
The Family | sarah | 
Tue 27th Jun 2006 8:57 am | 
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