Igenlode Wordsmith

The wind has swung round from its prevailing southwesterly direction (about 80-90% of the time) to blow pretty much dead east. Which may mean a welcome change in the weather, although the forecast is for more stiflingly hot days, but unfortunately means that there are now low-flying aircraft making their final landing approach every two to three minutes, which is sufficient to render spoken Russian at least completely unintelligible -- I simply can't fill in the 'missing bits' the way that I automatically do with English. And I can't very well shut the windows, because it's boiling hot indoors and I'm desperately trying to flush the day's accumulated heat out now that the sun has at last gone down outside.

It gives you an insight into the level of educational disruption proverbially experienced by pupils of schools under a regular flightpath :-(

I sowed some more coriander (I did manage to use some, although of course most of it has just run to seed) and some more rocket a couple of days ago. To my astonishment, in this current heatwave the rocket has germinated already!

Encouraged by this, I have also sowed some of the seed I have been attempting to collect from the 'pink Linaria', which I didn't actually plant at all this year since the original flowers had continued all through the winter and on into the next spring. (The Gypsophila elegans and Gypsophila vaccaria that I did sow are now both in full bloom, and indeed setting their first seed!) The old Linaria is finally starting to go over, so I investigated the bottom of the envelope in which I had been accumulating dried seed-heads, and there did seem to be some little black dust-like specks collected there that clung to my sweaty palm when I tipped out the debris, so I have tried sowing some.

The sweet peas, successful as they are, are the one flower that I have actually been dead-heading; I seem to remember that the saved seed tends to revert to a boring grey unscented variety. Or maybe that was Nicotiana... Anyway, I shall probably let a few pods set at the end of the season, and/or a few will slip through in any case, but for the moment I am taking them off in the hopes of more flowers, rather than, as normal, encouraging the plant to set seed in order to have a fresh generation next year!

I have one more flower on the eating peas, but to be honest they have been a bit disappointing in terms of crop/yield, and I would probably have done better to have grown them all for peashoots. The few pods that I did get were undoubtedly very tasty, but, as has been my past experience with peas, it always seems like a lot of plant and a lot of effort for a very small annual crop.

Ten pints of water used this morning -- that's all my three water carriers emptied at once. (And since I can only carry two at a time, it's going to mean several replenishment trips!)

I repotted the smaller towel-tomatoes and the self-sown marigolds (which are in flower) into somewhat larger pots, simply in order to give them larger water reservoirs.( Read more... )

( Flax )

( Poppies )

I potted up the rocket from its eggbox six-pack, and abandoned the pak choi from that same attempt, which didn't seem to germinate at all, or only badly (wizened seedlings that came up the wrong way and died). The coriander has produced one or maybe two (one, again, seems to be upside down, waving its root fruitlessly in the air) seedlings; the chives, none at all. The seed must be too old now, I think.

The only good thing about working for five hours in temperatures of 98F is that it makes returning home to temperatures of 'only' 80+ degrees feel pleasantly cool... According to the thermometer strip in my bathroom, my body temperature is currently 102, which under any other circumstances would count as running a fever!

The first thing I had to do was fill and carry all my water carriers out to the plants. The basil and pak choi had collapsed, as had the heritage tomatoes, ( Read more... )

( Heat symptoms )

Actually, it turns out that I had more than one tomato ;-)
As well as the tiny little nubs on the heritage tomatoes, there are some quite large (~1 inch) fruits on the towel-tomatoes in the front, hidden away amongst the calendula seed-heads in the same area. They are flowering prolifically, so provided this heatwave doesn't put an end to the flowers setting as it did last July we should have a heavy crop.

I split up the heritage tomatoes, with two put back into one medium pot and the largest put into the last of my medium pots on its own; that will have to be their final home, as I don't have any more pots or any more space to put them in. I am already having considerable difficulty getting near the washing-line or hanging anything on it!

I have managed to give away some more marigold and calendula seedlings and a basil, plus the California poppies. (I'd actually intended to keep some of the latter, but oh well...)
When I get rid of the six-pack of pak choi (where I put my thinnings) I shall have a little more space, but then I badly need to split up the remaining larger plants. I picked a few leaves for a salad tonight; interestingly, they are already beginning to crispen up.

The blinds seem to be working, in that when you open the doors you can feel the fierce heat striking in which is otherwise reflected back from the glass. But after several days of heatwave the temperature is still building up and up with each passing day :-(

It has been hot -- I had to use my six-pint water carrier (a.k.a. a supermarket milk container with convenient built-in handle). I have also been testing out my blinds,although of course the heat isn't nearly so intense at this time of year (the sun takes longer to rise, the rays are less direct, and the temperature falls back overnight).

Embarrassingly, triggered by the heat more magazine-tomatoes have started coming up enthusiastically in the mini-greenhouse, the seeds in question having been in there since February without any activity. Now that I have successful germination in the other varieties I really don't need those at all any more, so I created another six-pack and transplanted them all into it ( Read more... ) I then realised that I had probably buried/accidentally dug up all the basil seed I had planted in there a couple of days ago! So I have planted yet more, since basil is always very hard to germinate anyway. Possibly it will actually benefit from having been forcibly put down deeper and/or turned up -- I suspect that some of the renewed tomato germination might have been a side-effect of my having removed other things from the tray and disturbed the surrounding soil...

The heatwave basically stopped the tomatoes dead in their tracks; all the trusses abruptly ceased setting halfway along. ( Tomatoes )

( Chillies )

( Transplant success )


( Herb seed )

( California poppies )

( other plants )

( Chrysanthemums )

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At the weekend I made a cycling trip to pick wild plums -- which really are cherry-sized, considerably smaller than my supposed cherry tomatoes! Fifteen miles out and twelve miles back (thanks to not getting lost so much on the return journey); two hours versus ninety minutes' cycling respectively. [Edit: mileage 2832.6] Ten miles an hour average is dependent on going well over 10mph much of the time down flat roads and a well-known route, I'm afraid... and not being tired, having a head-wind, or carrying an additional load of plums in your panniers :-p It may be 'just down the road' by motor vehicle or a brief sprint on the Tour de France, but it just underlines how completely unrealistic it is to do two forty-mile coach journeys in a day, even if using different teams of horses. Modern transport schedules completely iron out the amount of time and effort it takes to get anywhere by ordinary labour.

( travel to Beauvais, redux )

( plums )

( Russian air pie )

I've discovered that cold potato duff eaten in slices direct from the fridge is very much more appetising than the same dish served hot with custard ;-)
In fact so much more appetising that it might be worth making again for that specific purpose; it becomes much more solid, with the texture and flavour rather reminiscent of Russian cheesecake, with the lemon (which becomes detectable) and peel dominating, and the jam just discernable as an added delicacy. Very more-ish.

I wonder if the original recipe was intended to be chilled before serving. It really doesn't sound as if it was! http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/Potato_Duff.htm

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( cold-weather clothes )

( mesembryanthemums )

(The last of the putative yellow poppies that were growing over the winter have come into flower... and are also red! But I have had a brave display of red ones as a result; they are very ephemeral, and only two still remain this evening of the half-dozen or so that were in bloom this morning.)

The rose and elderflower cordial was a complete success (even though I wondered if I ought really to leave it at 'room temperature' for a whole 36 hours when room temperature was about eighty degrees!). It worked perfectly. It tastes delicious, and exactly as it should.



I wonder what on earth went wrong with the first batch? I've never had any trouble with that other recipe before.

Went out for a quick seven-mile spin in the cool of the evening, achieved by heading for all the hills I normally avoid and delberately choosing to cycle up them. I'm definitely getting fitter... or else the wind was behind me :-p
Cycle computer mileage: 1766.4 — 72 miles in two and a half weeks.

If this weather goes on, it might even be worth making some ice-cubes. The balcony is painfully hot to stand on; I'm afraid my poor plants are going to get frizzled from beneath.