Would you eat beyond rotten fruit?

We bought a medlar tree about three years or so ago and planted it in the garden. Must admit that we liked the sound of it as an ornamental tree rather than as a fruit supply.

It flowers in May/June and has large shiny leaves.

It has good autumn colour ...

and interesting fruits.

The tree is still only very small but has produced a few fruits each year. Before the fruits can be eaten they have to blet. Bletting is a polite way of saying that the fruit has to go beyond ripe and have started to decay and ferment. Doesn't that sound appetising? It doesn't look very appealing either.

Last year after bletting we made apple and medlar jelly.

Although this tasted quite nice we don't really eat much jelly or jam so this year as the fruits were larger we decided to try eating them raw.

According to what I have read and as seen on TV, (apparently medlars are one of the old-fashioned fruits making a come-back so we are inadvertent trend-setters), once the fruit is bletted the flesh can be spooned out to eat. It is supposed to taste of dry applesauce with a hint of cinnamon. I decided that would probably taste quite good in yoghurt. On breaking it apart the inside of the fruit looked a bit like bread.

Thankfully Martyn and I tried a taster first and agreed that it wouldn't be going into the yoghurt. Maybe it's an acquired taste but we didn't like it - it tasted more yeasty than cinnamony no doubt the product of fermentation.

I know I picked them a little early as they should be left until after the first frost - but I forgot that - and maybe I left them to blet for too long - but we won't be eating any this year. Next year we'll try again - perhaps.

If you want to read more about our medlar and how we made the apple and medlar jelly then visit this page of my website

So what draws you into a blog?

Due to inactivity in the garden and on the plot I am deviating from my usual topics.

Weather has trapped me indoors so I've been visiting quite a few blogs recently and have been trying to analyse why particular blogs appeal to me. It's strange that I can often tell almost as soon as I open a blog if I am likely to become a regular visitor.

Even before I read any of the posts I am making a subconscious judgement so what is it that draws me in?

The first thing is the overall look of the blog. Do I feel comfortable with the colour scheme and the size and style of the font? I don’t want to have to squint to be able to read the posts. Sometimes the choice of background and font colour makes the text hard to read. It's not so much a matter of do I like the colours - it's more do they annoy me enough to make me not want to read the blog?

Then I like a balance of text and images? I don't tend to be drawn to huge blocks of text or postings with no images at all - I guess that I am a picture person. I'm the same with non-fiction books I like them to be well illustrated. On the other hand I don’t tend to be drawn to blogs that are just photographs even if they are really beautiful photographs. I get a bit bored just browsing a whole host of photos – a bit like having to look at loads and loads of someone’s holiday photo. I am also attracted by larger photos rather than tiny ones that seem to get lost in the text.

If a post is quite long then the way that it is written will determine whether I stay to read to the end or not. Personal commentary often adds to the interest as it makes me feel that I am getting to know the author a little - they become real people unlike when reading a book or website which is just intended to give information. A touch of humour helps too – it’s good to know that people don’t take themselves too seriously and get some fun from what they do.

Then there is the content – I guess like everyone else I enjoy reading posts that strike a chord with me personally - things that echo my outlook on gardening. I’m not a specialist gardener so don’t tend to be drawn to specialist blogs that concentrate on one particular type of plant.

We all make personal choices when visiting blogs - nothing to do with the quality of the blog – some very highly acclaimed blogs may not appeal to me personally whereas often there is a little known gem just waiting to be stumbled on which will become a firm favourite. If you have a blog that I haven't found and think I would like then please let me know about it.

So what is it that draws and keeps your attention blogwise? Do you use those sites that promote blogs to find a new blog to follow - if so which are the best?

By the way I've probably broken all my own preferences in this post but then I don't have to read it do I?

Well we have now!

I kept visiting other people's blogs and seeing photos of deep snow and commenting that we had only a sprinkling and feeling rather smug and cosy. Well I'm not feeling very smug now as we are now covered in the cold stuff.

A TV repair man arrived on foot on Monday. He had left his van on a nearby cleared road not wanting to risk our snow packed road as access to our house is quite steep. He ended up carrying our broken TV back to his van.

Fortunately for the birds a delivery of seed managed to get through this afternoon so at least the garden birds shouldn't run out of food.

I've braved the cold to take a few photos of the garden to share - although many were taken from a bedroom window. You may be able to spot our poor tree fern. If you click on the album you can view the larger version.

If you have visited Martyn's weather blog you will see that the snow may cause him to be in a bit of trouble if our mini cyclamen don't survive being piled with snow! Martyn also has a webcam pointing out of our window which updates the photo on his blog sidebar fairly frequently - a case of men and their toys eh?

I do hope it warms up soon as we are having all our heating replaced next week - four days without heating - HELP!! Keep warm everyone!