Please Don't Die (at last an update)

Happy New Year to you all. This update may be bit long winded due to the fact that I havent bothered updating since last July!!!!!. I think Patsy ansd Dave have given up checking back to see if Ive updated (they can now pick themselves up off the floor).
Oh my god where do I start?

SUMMER

The veggie patch was all in all a succsess dispite the fact my second crop of potatoes and all of the tomatos were destroyed by blight!!!. This was ashame as I had great plans for the tomatoes.
In early summer my thoughts turned towards christmas, as most of you will know I love to make things myself, so I thought I'd try my hand at making my own jam & chutney with what we grew in the garden and make up small hampers as presents for family and friends.

As I mentioned before an attack of blight set me back some what, but on the plus side if you can call it that, all my neighbours were also effected so I couldn't let all those green tomatos go to waste. The result was some very tasty green tomato chutney. I have since made many many jams and chutneys (well a lot more than many!!!), with produce from my local farm shop. Friends, family and neihbours have all been guiniepigs for me ( Nigel & Karen our next door neighbours being chief tasters).

Another of my neihbours Nicky also took a basket of my produce with her on her gardening rounds and sold quite a few jars to her customers as well.

The 1st September we held our Hillbillie BBQ.A night that I shall remember (or not) for quite some time due to the fact that I got very very drunk and was very ill. Everyone made a great effort do look the part. I think all the kids enjoyed playing apple bobing and harrassing Paddy as he got more intoxicated, I think he played his part too well (drinking moonshine in large amounts). I will say the Paddy and Simon gave a very good demonstration of how they thought Hillbillies should dance!!!!!. (see below)

At this point I feel it only fair to mention Nicky (she is going to kill me) like myself she got herself in to a bit of a state if I can call it that. Both of us hit the shots rather hard, this Nicky anticipated as she place a bucket in her car for the journey home. Poor nicky colapsed on the decking before leaving and then again on her front lawn after Mike her partner finally got her home, he informed me that he left her there while he unloaded the car and went in and saw to the dog before going back out for her.

Long Over Due - UPDATE

Where does the time go???

We have done soooooooooooooooo much since my last post, but so little in the garden due to the weather.

Remember that lovley picture of my cabbages - they didn't remain lovley for long. Some thing ate their way through most of them we only managed to eat 2 of them. But we have managed to eat our way through a few runners, french beans, tomatos and courgettes (we have had many of these, so many I made chutney with them, more of this later). To my horror quite a few of my sweed have split this is due to the amount of rain we have had!!!! Yesterday morning I had another shock when inspecting the vegggie patch, my tomato plants have started to turn brown!! (BLIGHT)I have discovered that we are not the only ones to be suffering the effects of the bad weather. My very very good friends Patsy & Dave have also been hit hard on the veggie front - they live in suffolk and due to the land beeing very flat and heavy clay it has been really awful for them.

Take a look at Patsy's blog, I would kill to live like them.http://2007goodlife.blogspot.com/ .

The kids briefly got the chance to enjoy the pool, Ronan spent most of the time teasing his friends about not getting in even though he wouldn't get in either!!!! Pot Kettle and Black spring to mind.