It’s all happening indoors

Posted on by January 10, 2021

Just counted my house plants (and a number of winter visitors! 2c is the high today and frosty!) AND I have 54 plants in pots. Not counting cuttings and seeds yet to peep out.

I know it’s not the season for seeds but I’m giving it a try. Plus I received a mango last week and have to try germinating it. It should be very similar to avocadoes in what it needs, and at least 10 of those 54 plants are avos. They germinate so easily for me that I have to stop myself from planting more.

Of course this isn’t the climate for them, and in feb of last year the green house blew down and killed most of them along with a pineapple top I’d had going for almost 4 years.

One of my christmas gifts was a nice plant shelf that fits in my study window. I am much happier with the distribution of plants now. I have a grow light on them and several different designs for self watering pots in use thanks to my other nifty gift, a 3d printer.

I might be able to finally delve into hydroponics or at least set up a drip watering system.

Watch this space.

purple poppy?

Posted on by June 9, 2020

Is it unusual for a poppy to be this colour? This one came up gratis in JJ’s easter lilly box. We’ve had poppies in our garden before but not one in this shade. I checked around and I think it’s a Patty’s Plum, variety. I will try to save seeds, and maybe make a start from the root stock when it’s had it’s time in the sun, so to speak.

Montgomery Rose

Posted on by June 8, 2020

That’s what I’ve dubbed the minature rose I brought with us from JJ’s house when we moved from the other side of Salisbury. I nearly decapitated it this spring when a sudden and alarming sound came out of my weed whacker and I turned it to look at what was going on. Which sent it buzzing across 2/3rds of the rose bush!

I saved most of it as you can see and tried to make cuttings out of the other bits. Jury’s still out on that one but we’ll see.


Ground’s eye view

Second Cider experiment

Posted on by June 8, 2020

We have a lovely lady who stops by every now and then for a bite of homecooked food (social distancing of course) and she gives us bottles of Bramley apple juice as a thank you. I put the first one into the ongoing batch of Grimstead Green since I didn’t have any actual apples from Grimmers to put in( last year’s harvest was very limited and I hadn’t been making cider all year so it went into pies and stuff .)

Anyway, I had three more bottles and decided to make another short batch in my demiJohn. I could have used that fourth bottle to make an average-sized batch but instead, I had about 150 grams of honey that was getting hard and needed using up. So I added that to some warm water to make up another bottle and added in the yeast that SHOULD have gone into the main batch months ago. I couldn’t find it at the time, and it only reappeared after the primary fermentation! It’s my preferred yeast LC-118. That and some ‘nutrient’ from the John Bull kit and some of the generic yeast that came with it.

I needn’t have worried, once those little beasties got added to the pure apple juice it took off within minutes! I know this would have been a good oppurtunity to test another flavor or even add pears to it but I just couldn’t. I had to go with what I know and avoid turning my back on all the years of snubbing flavored cider. 🙂

That is a lot more honey than what usually ends up in my batches (proportionally speaking) so I’ll be interested in seeing how it tastes and maybe scaling up the amount of honey in my next full-size batch.

Hydroponic Rose

Posted on by June 8, 2020

I haven’t mentioned it much but I have converted an old fish tank into a hydroponics tank and have several cuttings on the go. The pink briarose I posted about last week has decided to bloom. Hopefully, that means it will form roots afterward and I’ll be able to start some along the fence. I noticed on the ‘wild’ side of our back garden fence there are some wild roses in amongst the blackberries and nettles. Some over 6 feet tall. I have to go out there and cut more of it back before it completely obscures my gardening table and shed.

Chalk Thing

Posted on by June 10, 2020

Several truck loads of chalk arrived while I was out detecting the other day and the drivers weren’t that bothered about getting it all in one pile. I scanned various small piles of chalk as I wandered just like I would a mole hole or other pile of earth, not really expecting any of it to ring up you know?

Well one of them did and I found this chalky round thing. It’s just shy of 2cm in diameter and has a bit of weight to it:

After rinsing it off I could see some ornate diamond-shaped depressions on one side and a rough, almost stone-like reverse with no sign of button or pin attachments.  It does not appear to be magnetic. The flakes in the left hand ‘diamond’ are reddish when you turn it in the light.

(A lime green post-it note was probably not the best background to use but I was a bit rushed. 🙂
I asked where the chalk was being shipped from and was told ‘The Lark Hill area.’ I have no idea what I have here but  I think its probably part of an larger decorative lead/tin alloy object, c. 1850+.

Also from the same trip was this smashing medieval buckle, complete with the metal strike plate still attached. I’ll be glad to get that identified when this is all over but my best guess is 17th century.

I forgot to mention I’d also found this gear from something. A bit large for a pocketwatch but perhaps some sort of clockwork.

a wicked wind blows

Posted on by May 11, 2020

The low for this time of year in Salisbury is 8c. Tonight it will drop to 4. The overnight lows for the next week are all below that. A couple of times it will be 1 or 2c. I feel like I just took my plants outside to get some sun and now I’ve got to bring the less hardy ones back in for several days… The wind is crazy cold already and gusting like a winter storm was on the way. I think I can blame Norway for this one. 🙂

My First Cider in a while…

Posted on by May 10, 2020

The first bottles of Grimstead Green to be bottled in over a year. Maybe two. Don’t get too excited though, this is just the side project I mentioned in the previous post. It tastes very ‘citrusy’ at this point. I put in a tiny bit of honey and stashed them away for a month or so.

The main batch will probably stay in the secondary fermenter for another month unless the weather gets really hot. In that case, I’ll bottle it and take it to my inLaw’s garage which is the coolest place I can find. No one I know here has AC or a basement. My Shed is already reaching 30-40c when it’s all closed up, which was exactly why I lost the batch last time. I might have to invest in a cheap secondhand fridge someplace if I can find room for it. 🙂

first bottles of 2020

A litre Cider hustle

Posted on by April 21, 2020

This weekend I took advantage of the rainy day to transfer my cider from the primary fermentor to the second one. The foam had pretty much died down and the burps were coming few and far between so the signs were right.

I wanted to add some apples from grimstead but due to the wet fall we had last year there werent any apples left from granda’s garden. I had prepped some back then but they somehow got into apple pie instead (yum!)

So this batch, my first for over a year, will be basic fare straight from the kit to the glass. I did vary my method a bit by putting honey into the secondary fermenter instead of waiting to add it to each bottle. I Might still do that, or I might not bottle it at all, depends on what I get in two month’s time.

However, I couldn’t resist doing a little experimenting while I was at it. You’ll remember that I had drained off about a liter and a half of cider from the Primary into a carboy to ease the pressure on the Primary. When it came time to put that into the Secondary I just looked at it and thought I might try something a bit different. I rummaged for something to flavour it with and debated on ginger or cinnamon, and eventually came across two cans of ‘Appletiser’ that the Mrs had bought and didn’t like. She really LIKES Appletiser but these were ‘Apple and Lime’ flavour and she didn’t get on well with the extra citrus. I liked it though so and since it only contains apple juice and a squeeze of lime I put them both into the carboy to bring the level up to about an inch or so of the neck and resealed the airlock on it. It didn’t immediately fizz or kill the yeast so fingers crossed eh?

The airlock is still burping every 30 seconds or so and I’ll leave it cooking away over there till it quiets down. Then I’ll give it a taste. Something to look forward to before the main batch is ready for bottling.