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As you can see, the garlic was still drying on the kitchen floor when i took this photo. Thankfully, it is finally cleared and my kitchen floor is now basically free of crops, as I write my post! Below, is the shot of how I began to start plaiting the garlic, ready to hang.

As you can see, I am a novice and it is a total mess - not at all neat like it is supposed to be - BUT - it does the same job!

Next, an update on my geraniums. As you can see, the two cuttings I took that my late father threw to the ground saying they were useless are thriving - and these are after 2-3 cuttings have been removed from them! Below, my latest two cuttings, after transplanting some more 'pieces' into the garden.

Yes, the first batch of garlic was plaited and hung...on the hook I usually use to hang a wet coat on - so it drips on gloss/tile rather than matt/carpet while drying. It really does look a messy braid, but...

This is the rest of it - alas, just as untidy. This hangs over the kitchen worktable, where an empty pot plant holding basket -also in shot - formerly hung. If you think that is messy - take a look at my windowsill, though.

I now have onions, shallots, and broad beans drying there. Little pieces of onion stalk fly into the kitchen, but I have to open the windows when I am at home for fresh air is something I adore.

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Here are the garlic after 1-2 days drying. It is going to take around 1-2 weeks for the greenness to disappear, even though I bent the stems. Meanwhile, the goose berry and ginger jam was hopefully ready, so poured into 3 jars and lidded.

I made the labels ready, in the hope that it would actually become jam. I let it cool, then placed the jars in the fridge - as it didn't set. I will use it for pie fill or in milk shakes instead!

In the meantime, I hauled home another batch of crops - strawberries, raspberries and two types of gooseberry.

Regular readers may wonder how the fence down the yard in front of the kitchen window is going - I have been slowly turning it from broken old fence to bird-friendly hedge. Some of the roses have taken well, as have a few of the plants my friend Liz gave me, along with a yew or two, box-privet, jasmine...

Here you can see one of the roses has flowered, as have some of the nasturtiums. There is a hawthorn seedling under the yellowy-colored shrub and the lychnis behind the nasturtiums...

...sigh, and more crops! Rhubarb, gooseberries, raspberries, one radish and strawberries, this time. This is what they look like after they have been prepared - 2 bowls of fresh fruit, one crumble, rhubarb for the freezer and a radish for lunch. Although some of the strawberries may not look fully ripe, when grown by yourself, unlike the shop varieties that are grown for color, the almost ready ones taste as good as ripe and are less squishy.

INDOORS 37 including recipe

I recently tidied out my fridge, ready for cropping season to get underway. It is already beginning to stock my own produce rather than shop stuff, somewhat - spinach, chives, gooseberries, broad beans - all mine! Regular readers will not be amazed to see my pantry has yet again been tidied and reorganized...a favored chore.

Next, I will share a recipe made predominantly with crops from the allotment. I called it 'Cauliflower-potato 'lunch'' and here is how to make it, if you fancy some.

The first or second head of cauliflower was selected along with the first dug up potato plant of the year and once home, I had about

5 small potatoes and one medium - I chopped the latter. I also had a small-medium head of cauliflower and added a medium sized diced onion. I then added water and boiled, then simmered the vegetables. 

Meanwhile, I mixed a generous serve of ground chili and a tablespoon of dairy-free cheese sauce with a little rice milk and stirred it into a sloppy paste in a mug. I added the sauce mix to the simmering veggies after approximately 15 minutes simmering and stirred til the sauce thickened. The result: an easy, quick, healthy and tasty lunch from currently-cropping plot veg!

Next, a treat for my kitchen and hands - a new oven glove - along with evidence of why I needed it in the form of the old glove!

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Well, it is still a crop - but not one of my usual ones. This year was the first time I have grown cauliflowers - which are apparently difficult to grow. I have been successful, with only 2 problems occurring. The first being that ONE head got eaten into by some sort of bug and the other than some of my heads grew too fast, and grew beyond a nice shape before I harvested them. As you can see, it is sort of distorted - should have been picked 1-2 days before.

This was called a 'bag of weeds' by my best friend when she first saw it - and I suppose that might be what it looks like. However as you can see in my next shot - it is a bag of crops! Garlic, spinach, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and nasturtiums.

The above shot shows what became of the garlic. I lined it up to dry on the kitchen floor on top of tea towels. This was a successful method of garlic drying and as soon as the stems go brown, I can plait them together then harvest the second haul. I had rather a lot of gooseberries and decided to make gooseberry jam with some - so tossed a heap in a pan once rinsed and de-strigged.

I covered them in water and began to simmer them, adding what I hoped was enough sugar to the mix...

...and let them simmer away for a few hours. I then added ginger and continued for another couple of hours.

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More crops on my next trip to the allotment crop - with beans, strawberries, gooseberries and spinach in abundance. One of my latest chores is to prepare the fruits. For example, with gooseberries, you need to take the top and bottom strigs off and rinse them - before cooking/freezing. This is a chore that means standing around fiddling about - but one can use the time to rest between more active chores, 'do something' before work, or meditate - so it is not wasted time.

Well, what a surprise - on my next trip there were even more gooseberries, strawberries, spinach and beans to deal with. Just to show an example of how many strawberries I have cropped this year - here is my fruit bowl filled with ONE days' cropping. I have had about 4 times this many - so far - at the close of the second week in June. The wine glass illustrates how big the fruit bowl is!

And, on my next trip to the plot - I brought home more crops - gooseberries galore, another stick rhubarb, more strawberries and the first half dozen raspberries! yes - the raspberries will soon be filling the freezer and my belly as are the gooseberries and strawberries now and was the rhubarb - which although dwindling still offers the odd stalk.

Even more crops... every 2-3 days I pop down to water/weed/crop - and seem to have a few bags to bring home with me. This time gooseberries, strawberries, spinach, broad beans and raspberries. Here we go again - another haul of crops - raspberries, gooseberries, garlic, strawberries and rhubarb this time.

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The old wooden seat was finally removed and dumped and I could then get on with putting the new seat in place. This was the first time I had ever changed a toilet seat, but it looked fairly straightforward.

The first task was to clean under the wooden seat area, where I had formerly been unable to clean, though! This done, assembling the new seat was fairly simple and I soon had a new looking loo. The room had only been painted last year, so it all looked quite smart now that the seat and paint trim were similar shades of 'almost white' - til I discovered my son had mucked up the toilet brush, sigh.

The new wind on hubs look much neater - and hopefully will not be squished to pieces when the next seat needs to go on!

Indoors, my 2 geraniums are doing well - despite having cuttings placed both into pots and outdoors. I have also used the freesias Liz gave me for my birthday to color up the kitchen sill - as they are drying but keeping their color.

This is my new washing up bowl. Formerly I used the sink. I did not want to use the dirty old laundry bowl for washing up, so invested £1.50p in a new bowl! I only paid £1.35p though, as I got it from Asda where my son works and he gets a 10% discount!

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Here we are in early May 2017 - with a shot of my recently restocked wine closet. When I recycle, I recycle a lot more than most people would. Here is one example -

- Liz gave me some flowers for my birthday and I snipped the stalks off before placing them in a vase, as most people do. Unlike most people however, I did not discard the chopped off stalks - but grew them! I now have 3-4 brand new rose bushes for the side fence!

This is the toilet seat I inherited. I was thinking of changing it soon after inheriting the house, asIi was not too keen on wood, but my son persuaded me not to as it was still in good condition. However, it did not stay in good condition - and the small crack on the underside became a big crack top and bottom...

So, off I trotted to Dunhelm Mill to grab a new toilet seat. I made sure it was a white one and plastic, and also not too flimsy and 'cheap' - and that it did come with all the bits and bots you need to fix it on properly.

I studied the pieces, instructions, and toilet...

...ew! The hardest part of replacing the toilet seat was in fact unscrewing the old one - that must have been in situ for some 15-20 years. The white plasticy hubs shown were almost worn out by the pliers in my effort - but I finally managed to take the old seat off!