Humpty Dumpty, Banoffee Pie and the Polytunnels

By Sue15cat

It's been a good weekend, stretched out longer than usual after Lovely Hubby's reverse Humpty Dumpty impression (falling off the wall backwards).   An afternoon and an evening spent lying on the sofa, medicated up to the eyeballs with Ibuprofen and a large glass of Port or two as a companion, his favorite way to self medicate!!  With me 'tutt tutting' at this and asking "are you sure you don't want to go to A&E"  every hour on the hour or whenever he moved and winced with the pain.   But by Sunday morning he was moving much better, we took the dogs for a gentle stroll along the prom in Llandudno, it got his knee and thigh loosened up nicely and when we got back we both got stuck in to some tidying up.  LH on his hands and knees freeing the new Laurel hedging from the long grass that had grown around it and me sorting out the front flower bed and transplanting herbs from the tin bath to the flower bed where there was a bit more room for the Sage, which has gone rampant.   It was a day of the sort of satisfying outside chores that you can see instant results from.      As he had some trouble driving LH decided on staying at home for an extra day instead of hopping in the car on Sunday night for the 250 mile trip to his digs in Berkshire.  So we spent Monday unpacking and sorting through the polytunnel delivery.  Some of the hoop tubes ends had been damaged during transit so they had to be knocked back into shape before they could be inserted into each other.  But eventually with a bit of persuasion they all fitted.   I don't know if you can tell from the photos, the old polytunnel hoops are at the top of the picture and the new ones lying below them on the hill, but we went for the 'Super Upgrade' with this polytunnel, for just an extra £54 you get steel tubing which is 35mm in diameter instead of the usual 25mm.  It will make it so much more secure and after seeing the difference between the two for the minimal extra cash I would recommend this every time, it is so much sturdier.   We got both our polytunnels from First Tunnels  and over the course of the next few weeks you will be able to watch our progress as they go up, changing the look of our hillside completely and finally getting us back into some serious home-grown food production.
  Of course my wounded farmer man needed some molly-coddling over the weekend, and rooting around in the cupboard I found all I need to produce this - a cheats Banoffee Pie.  It went down very well with cups of tea over the course of Sunday and Monday and brought the smile back to his face.   But it was my, no indeed our last splurge of anything of this type as today is the first day of my getting back to health on the Harcombe Diet and LH is joining in with some serious healthy eating.  I have taken weights and measures (and photos ... they will not to be published on here, I'm shocked!!) and I will track my progress over the next two weeks over on my other Blog '365 Days - £365' where today you can see how to make this Banoffee Pie.   Thanks for all the words of sympathy after Lovely Hubby's fall and for the suggestion of Arnica ... inspired, and something I will keep in the cupboard from now on.  I do like more natural remedies for accidents and ailments.  Although Lovely Hubby would argue strongly in favour of a large glass of Port for any occasion  ;-)   Sue xx