Saturday 15 August 2009

A day in my life


The 14th this month was a very ordinary day spent mostly at home. I had my early morning coffee at the allotment after dropping my son off at work for 7am. Almost every "day in my life" this year I have written that I drove my son to and from work but this will be the last month. He has given in his notice now and will finish in three weeks time. This gap year has gone really quickly and six weeks from today we will be taking him to University.

The rest of the morning I spent at home doing the usual things, a load of washing, making the bread, and a general tidy up.


I am trying to have a bit of a clear up and turn out at the moment. My eldest has been going through his stuff prior to leaving for Uni and it has inspired me to do the same. I find it difficult to get rid of stuff but at the end of the morning I had two small carrier bags to take to the charity shop.

I went to our nearest charity shop after lunch, best to get rid of the bags straight away, if I leave them hanging around I might start taking things back out again.

My youngest son came with me to browse the books so I took advantage of the extra manpower to take my Ecover containers to be refilled at the Organic shop. These aren't that heavy but they start to feel it by the time I've walked all the way back to the car park so I was glad of the help.

My son bought a book but I managed to come home without buying anything so at least we had a net decrease in things in the home.

After picking up my eldest from work we spoke to my husband in America. I am still amazed by the whole web-cam Skype thing, its so different from when he used to go away just a few years ago. Then we used to get two very short phone calls during the week, anything more would have been too expensive. The children were quite small and found it a long time between phone calls so he started faxing a letter to them each day. He would write a page early in the morning and then fax it from the hotel at breakfast time which meant it was waiting for them after school. I remember it being quite expensive but not as much as a phone call. Now of course we can talk and see each other over the Internet and it costs us nothing extra. Amazing how things have changed. I still have those faxed letters though, you have nothing lasting from a phone call.

Dinner was chilli beans with tortilla chips and grated cheese served with lots of veg from the allotment. The rain while we were away made everything grow well so there is lots to choose from.

I watered my pots on the patio in the evening. This is the very first aubergine I have grown and I'm very proud of it - quite an attractive plant as well, very good for growing in a pot.


While watering I noticed that my nasturtiums were covered with caterpillars determined to eat every scrap of green leaf. I had seen a cabbage white fluttering around so I suspect that was the culprit. I picked them off and was wondering how to get rid of them when I thought- chickens. Whenever I empty the compost bin or do any gardening I am always followed by Sage and Onion who seem to eat anything that wriggles. I was sure they'd like these juicy caterpillars, but no, they wouldn't even try them. They gave me this typical chicken look that seemed to say "humans can be so stupid!" and then they turned and walked away. So you learn something every day - hens don't eat caterpillars, well, mine don't anyway.


7 comments:

French Knots said...

Your aubergine looks great. I want to try growing some next year, is yours growing outside?

willow said...

Yes, the aubergine is outside. I have two plants in the same pot. I planted them when there was no risk of frost and the plant is on our patio right up against the brick wall of the house. It faces west so gets a lot of sun in the afternoon and the brick wall retains quite a lot of heat which probably provides a bit of extra warmth. There are a couple of small fruits on the way and many flowers so it looks as if it will be quite productive.

Anonymous said...

hi willow,
you are right to be proud of your aubergine... what will you make with it?
i like that you get your laundry liquids refilled... i must check that out locally to see if i can find a similar scheme and as for the caterpillars, my cats go after the cabbage white butterflies but not sure if they would eat the caterpillars either.
hope your weekend is good,
warm wishes
ginny x

The List Writer said...

Hens are so strange. I am looking after a friend's hens at the moment - and hers like such different food to mine!

Hers won't eat pasta or courgette ends, whereas mine go mental for both those things. Mine won't eat apple peel or carrots, but hers will. Mine will eat snails but not slugs. They do eat caterpillars though! Very odd.

willow said...

The aubergine will be sliced and baked with tomato sauce. The recipe I've found suggests baking aubergine slices sprinkled with rosemary for 10 minutes then layering them with a tomato sauce containing basil and lemon rind and cooking for about 30 minutes. It sounds a real mixture of flavours, I'll only post about it if its any good!

How strange that hens are so different. I remember reading somewhere about hens that loved dandelion leaves - well I have plenty of dandelions in my garden and I've never seen them take even a nibble. They do like pasta and courgettes though and left over mashed potato. They don't like carrot or any type of peelings. Still, it would be boring if all hens were the same wouldn't it?

libby said...

Sounds like a lovely day. I forgot all about a day in the life so I've done it today - only now I can't get my photos to download off my card so I have to wait for dh to come home.

Libby

Simply Authentic said...

Ha---what a fun day! Sounds like you definitely got a lot accomplished. Sorry to hear those caterpillars weren't gobbled up, as it's always frustrating to find bugs eating your produce! From the most recent posting it looks like things are growing wonderfully at the allotment too, and enjoy those blackberries. We had blackberries growing everywhere in Oregon, but here in Louisiana I don't see any! Hope you have a great week Willow!