Hot Chutney

I was thinking about this blog the other day and remembering when I had exciting, big things to write about - knocking holes through walls, slating the roof, underpinning, new doors or stairs.  Now it seems to just be cushions and chutney!  Don't get me wrong, from our point of view it is wonderful to be at this stage, but I do find I'm rambling on about not very much just now, so I do apologise.

I had a couple of days off together at the beginning of last week and we had a lovely time doing bits and pieces.  We went to a woodyard at a farm in the hills not far from here that we haven't been to before and it was such a relief to find it.  Where we used to live we were quite spoilt for good woodyards which kept interesting pieces of native timber, often very locally grown too.  They knew the sort of thing we wanted and would bear us in mind when they were chopping up a tree.  Here they seem to deal mainly with fairly plain foreign timber.  We had to use French Oak for the kitchen timbers and American Ash for the staircase!  A real shame we didn't know about the farm woodyard back then.  Anyway this looks promising for timber for furniture and most of it seems fairly local.  We also did some garden jobs that we've been meaning to do for ages, but have been putting off because they're not that much fun - like weeding the hedge!  Do you know I pulled one nettle out that was as tall as me with leaves the size of my hand!  A real monster.  Anyway that was a good job done and after tea we went for a walk up the hills to a trig point where you can see all around.  On the way back we passed the village pub and, as I needed a wee, we went in for a pint.  I actually forgot to go to the loo and so, having chatted to several sets of neighbours on the way home, I was absolutely cross-legged when we got back!

The next day I made some chutney with our rhubarb (see, chutney and cushions!).  It was actually Rhubarb, Apricot and Ginger Chutney and I think it may do very well as a substitute for mango chutney with a curry the bought version of which is always way too sweet.  This has chilli flakes in and as usual I was tweeking the recipe and thought 1 teaspoon didn't seem like much so doubled the amount.  I think it might now be quite spicey-hot!  I'll let you know in a month when it is ready to try.

I did use my willow trug to go gathering produce . . . didn't
go as far as the flowery skirt and straw hat though!

Ta da!  Nine jars of chutney in next to no time.  I hope we like -
it made more than I expected!







The second, open doorway is the chicken's run.  We're
on the lookout for a little patio set and deckchairs for them!

The chickens now have their own patio which is rather posh isn't it?   I cleared the last of the logs from our early woodpile against the wall of the top barn.  We now have our new woodpile the other side of the path there and so wanted to clear this space.  Underneath was completely covered with soil, leaves, weeds and grass and so I swept up the soil and leaves and put that as a mulch on one of the borders which is almost pure clay and so needs a good bit of organic matter to loosen it up.  Then I started shovelling away at the grass and weeds to reveal the limestone pavers underneath.  At that point Bob came to help because it is quite exciting unearthing what was there before.  We had uncovered a bit of it before, but not all of it.  There is a brick gulley curving round from the doorway which I guess was useful when they were swilling out the barn.  The chickens also thought it was quite exciting because we uncovered loads of bugs and worms.  The stones are still quite muddy and it'll look better when it's cleaner, so we either need it to absolutely pash down with rain to wash them or for it to be dry and sunny and we can then sweep them clean . . . the rain would be easier, but I think I'd rather have the sun! 



So, after nice times doing stuff at home, it's been quite hard to drag myself into work.  Especially hard this weekend as I had to work until 9.30pm last night because they were doing a stocktake (well, what else would you want to do on a Saturday night?) and then in again early this morning.  Still, I have next weekend off which I'm really looking forward to, especially if Andy Murray makes it to the final at Wimbledon.

 

Time for a beer and a bit of a relax before we make tea I think - cheers!