Sunday 16 August 2015

Sunday

See the little runner beans - they should be dinner by Friday!

Good morning, everyone!  As yesterday, it's cool and a bit dull this morning but maybe it will warm up as it did yesterday when we had some lovely, warm, sunny spells throughout the whole day.  It looks OK but who knows!

The main event of yesterday was E coming round to start building up my new PC.  It takes for ever when one is an awkward type who wants all ones old stuff put onto the new machine.  So E spent the time getting some of the hardware set up and running (for example, I am now looking as a lovely large screen) and making a file for transfer.  It did take ages so we agreed to stop at a convenient point and continue another day.  Before he went, he showed me some stuff on the new laptop and we got Photoshop installed: a very old version now but it is the one I am used to working with and I was relieved to find it in the cupboard I was tidying up!

Yes, I did do a bit of sorting out as I wanted to create a clear area for E as well as finding any relevant software.  As a result, I spent the next half hour or so thoroughly destroying some floppy disks with school info, long out of date now but nonetheless confidential.  It was sad thinking of the months of work some of those disks represented, now obsolete and useless, years and years of long, medium and short term planning, resources, etc.  It was hard to get rid of them but necessary.  I didn't feel any sense of release when they were gone, just sadness at the futility of it all really, not necessarily at the time, but now.

So now I have Photoshop on my laptop!  Once My Cloud is all set up, my laptop and my PC should be able to talk to each other!

After all the wet weather I was confidently expecting an alert from Blightwatch and, sure enough, one pinged into my mailbox yesterday.  So today the main job is to spray, spray, spray!  Must remember the accidental hundreds and thousands plant at the bottom of the garden.  It's doing very well, plenty of flowers but no fruit yet - and that reminds me, I forgot to feed it.  Another job on the list.
The accidental tomato plant looking extremely healthy and happy in its run-down shack!  It should have all been chucked out earlier in the year but once the shoot emerged it was given a reprieve!

Dinner was nice and, I think, pretty healthy too.  I defrosted a chicken leg portion.  While that was thawing, I halved some mini tomatoes including some from the garden, chunked half a red pepper and some mushrooms and cut an onion into wedges.  These I mixed in a bowl with some oregano and thyme from the garden, some olive oil and some lemon zest.  I covered the mix and just let it all flavour-mingle together.  In the evening I tipped the lot into a roasting dish, added some salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar, topped it with the chicken joint, covered it with foil and baked it all in the oven for an hour, taking the foil off for the last 15 minutes.  I did mean to add some olives but I forgot until I was halfway through eating it and I would have used garlic but, would you believe, I am right out of it - how did that happen?
Anyway, it was jolly nice and very filling..

Today I need to continue with the cupboard and them move some stuff over from the other cupboard so that there is more room for all our sewing things.  I have a bit of washing to do and then I think I will do some sewing.  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  No Beth and Alex today as they are otherwise engaged

Food:
Breakfast:  tomatoes on toast, melon slices
Lunch:  some kind of salad, maybe with corned beef.  Then yogurt or fruit
Dinner:  steamed salmon, new potatoes, salad, fruit or yogurt





6 comments:

  1. Morning Joy! What is this blight watch you speak of? Do I need to be worrying?

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  2. Blight is a nasty fungal infection that can destroy tomatoes in a couple of days. it thrives in damper conditions. Blight watch is a web site that monitors outbreaks of blight and sends a warning when weather conditions are such as will enable blight to spread. remember learning about the potato famine in Ireland - that was blight.
    It mneans you can get out the old Bordeaux mixture and spray against it. Here's a couple of links:
    http://www.tesco.com/direct/vitax-bordeaux-mixture-1-x-vitax-bordeaux-mixture-175g-pack/113-7375.prd
    (where you can get the mixture online)

    http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp
    (the Blightwatch site)

    J x

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    Replies
    1. Cheers for that info :-) I had heard of the blight and the potatoes but didn't realise it was so prevalent now! I'm going to check the website!

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  3. If you ever get to the Chichester area there is the lovely Westdean Garden (ornamental and fruit and vegetable), which is attached to Westdean Art College (open for various adult residential art courses) The gardens hold a tomato festival every year and I once went on the guided tour with the tomato grower. The one thing that remains in my memory is that they water the tomatoes around 15.00 pm every day to ensure that the water on the leaves dries before the cool of the evening so they don't remain damp during the night.

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  4. Interesting. I tend to do them early morning and then again in the evening. I've removed most of the lower leaves now and the upper leaves don;t get wet, but it's an interesting idea and I think I will take it on board. The tomato festival sounds fantastic.
    J x

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  5. I gather what I always spray with is now no longer being sold so I asked my dad and he's trying to find out what we can use when our bordeaux mixture runs out.
    J x

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