Shades of Green and Blue

The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur.  Since leaving the 9-5 and going it alone I’ve found myself busier than ever and this has been reflected in a serious lack of time to blog, tweet and garden (shock horror).   I’ve found myself writing and blogging for several other sources, which is great fun as well as bringing in an income, but this blog, where it all began, has been neglected somewhat.  I’m now in a place where the dust has started to settle a bit and I can see that boundaries need to be drawn so that I can manage things a bit better.  This means that I can also find time to do the things that I love once more.
It hasn’t been all work and no play though.  I’ve been able to sow a few seeds and repot the tomatoes, chillies and cut flowers.  I’ve also started to put the hazel obelisks in to place at the allotment ahead of planting the beans and peas and I have plans to create hazel sweet pea supports too.  Hazel always looks so much nicer than bamboo, I think, and as it’s locally sourced (from the private wood at our stables) you can’t really go wrong.
Harvests have also been quite good lately.  The chickens are now in full lay and over the past week even Edna my Lavender Araucana, who I wrote about in Operation Araucana, has also started to lay.  This news is a sure sign that she is well on her way to being fully accepted in to the flock.  Her gorgeous blue/green eggs are always a favorite and certainly improve the look of the egg-skelter.
The Rhubarb has also been producing well and we’ve enjoyed the first crumble of the year.  Rhubarb is a big favorite of mine and I can foresee many more cake, crumble and other desserts and dishes to come.  The purple sprouting broccoli has produced well but in an effort to clean up the plot and with a large slosh of optimism, I left it uncovered.  This has resulted in several well-fed pigeons and slightly less well-fed humans.
In other news, the latest competition winner, winning two gorgeous solid granite table torches from Garden Items, is @ericahughes.  Congratulations!  But it doesn’t end there!  Our next competition will launch soon and this time it’s in association with the fabulous Sarah Raven.  Keep your eyes peeled!