The March winds doth blow

Last week, March certainly lived up to its reputation of being a windy month. It was a week for hunkering down, so gardening was once more on hold. We can only hope that the winds played their part in drying out the soil on the plot, although as the wind was often accompanied by some quite heavy rain showers the drying effect may have been cancelled out.

The only gardening activity was, Martyn erecting some trellis to hide the garage wall.

The trellis has been waiting patiently, as it was a job that had been earmarked  for completion over winter. Now we just need to renovate the border in front of it which will necessitate the purchase of more plants - oh dear!

Elsewhere in the garden more miniature daffodils are adding to the spring display.

More hellebore flowers are adding colour too but in the windy conditions it's tricky taking a decent photo.

I find the centre of the flowers really fascinating.

Our bird donated daphne is covered with fragrant flowers. I'm glad that I didn't weed out the unidentified 'weed' when I first spotted it several years ago.

Once they form, I'll need to make sure that I gather up the poisonous berries before Ruby is allowed near. Everything that can possibly go in her mouth is fair game. She is even likely to pull the berries off the plant before they fall to the ground.

I'll also be keeping a close eye on the aucuba berries, although they are not as toxic as daphne berries, they can cause an upset tummy.

It's quite scary, just how many of our garden plants are poisonous which is why Ruby isn't allowed in the garden unaccompanied.

She's had a go at a tub of wallflowers on the patio but at least one individual, that is out of reach, is determined to thwart her. 

I'm afraid that there is no allotment activity to report on and we have no harvest to show you, but we did use plenty of vegetables in last week's meals.

On Monday I made some spicy tuna fishcakes. A small amount of our potatoes went into the fishcakes which were accompanied by sauteed potatoes, savoy cabbage and our first picking of broccoli.

Thursday's meal used more of our potatoes and some carrots. As we don't seem to be able to grow swedes, I had to buy one and I also used some of our frozen peas to make a sort of turkey cottage pie with a twist.

Friday I made a vegetable biryani based on this recipe. I used onion, carrot, frozen peas and French beans along with bought red pepper and mushrooms. This was served with one of, Martyn's homemade naans

Sunday, I made an orzo dish that used some onion and carrot. I didn't follow the recipe exactly as the amounts given for ingredients weren't helpful. How much exactly is a packet of cherry tomatoes? Then it used a mixture of cups and ounces. As a basic recipe it could be adapted using a range of different ingredients.

There were a couple of visits that we had to make last week.

Wednesday, it was back to the vet for Ruby, for her booster injection and annual examination

She was ready and looking forward to a walk until she realised where we were heading. I had to carry her through the door as she refused to go into the porch and wasn't at all happy when I left her there to be collected by the vet. She couldn't get out and into the car quickly enough when I collected her. About an hour after the injection, she worried us as she just wasn't interested in anything and just wanted to curl up and sleep which is most unRubylike at that time of day. She looked generally unhappy. I rang the vet to check whether this was normal as it seemed a rather extreme reaction. I was told to give it four or five hours and keep an eye on her. A good sign was she perked up when food was on offer but just long enough to eat it. She wasn't really back to normal until later that night.

I also had an unwelcome appointment, mine was with the opticians which I hate. Give me the dentist any day. Being so short sighted, I hate doing eye tests as I panic and then feel so stupid when I can't read the letters on the screen. I can't have a scan either as the machine can't cope with my prescription. It makes me feel freakish. Fortunately, I always see the same optometrist who understands me. Happily, there was no change in my eyes. Hospital appointments are far worse as I am dealing with strangers.  I have a hospital appointed just over a week from now but it's a telephone appointment which to be honest seems to be a waste of time when they can't actually examine my eyes or do pressure tests. I guess this is the world that we live in these days. At least I now have something to report back to the consultant

Anyway, let's hope for some better weather this week and as always stay healthy and safe.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett