Sustainable Summer, Fish

I have twisted my chair so I can glimpse the garden from where I am sitting. To be honest I should have written this garden update a couple of weeks ago. When things were in full bloom. Its glory has gone off the boil. But worth recording for future years. Late June and early July was my garden at its peak. The roses were all out, the bind weed looked deliberate, I harvested plenty of perpetual spinach (a definite recommendation, grown in a pot). The honeysuckle with its beautiful yellow was complimented so well by the lavender on either side. The foxglove and the thistle at the end of the garden looked ok. And there is a delightful yellow shrub, which gets orange berries which then turn brown for winter, with such seasonal interest that it may be my favourite plant of the garden. Even the wisteria flowered, briefly.

There were (dare I say the word? ) the inevitable failures. My sixth acer started to die off. The slugs and birds appear to have eaten even the remnants of courgettes. The potatoes were not worth the hassle: I planted three kitchen bins full of soil (costing about ten pounds) and managed to get twenty pence worth of potatoes. The onions I planted too late and look like old shoe laces. The tomatoes: ditto. However, it is still early days I think.

I went to see an old friend who I hadn't seen for eighteen years at the weekend and it was like no time had passed. Of course things had occured, bad and good, for both of us, but it was so lovely hearing her tinkling laughter and reminding her of what a caring genius she was and still is.

We have been on a low fat diet. A meal last night, from a 1970s Weight-watchers cookery book which I picked up from Oxfam a few years ago, turned out to be a winner. Sustainable cod, bunged in an oven dish with some fried onion and garlic, two peppers, half a pint of skimmed milk, parsley, tomatoes and mushrooms , cooked for 25 minutes sounded dreadfully dull and too easy on paper, but tasted good. It's going on the blog I thought.

Soup

Today's blog is still five minutes. Soup recipes. Fry an onion for five minutes, add garlic after three. Then depending on what type of soup you want follow these recipes:
1) leek and celery potatoes (add with stock)
2) carrot, coriander, cumin and cardomon seeds (1lb of carrots) with juice of one orange and some zest with green marigold stock)
3) parsnip.

I still have four minutes quick amazing. We have bought a pressure cooker and you literally just add whatever of those three combinations you want for fifteen minutes and a pint and a half of water. Freeze the leftovers. I'm sure there was something else in the parsnip, but can't remember. It's on here somewhere. Anyway we are eating low fat after our high fat Norfolk glamping extravanga. Husband is away, I am busy doing the MA and trying not to buy a Roomba. Labour saving device. And with Lakeland it's a lifetime guarantee. Listened to Alan Carr on Radio 2. Definitely that demographic now. 35-44. Great. Loving it. Still can't twitter or tweet, got some messages that were six months old.