Show Time

I went to Cockermouth Country Show last Saturday.This is a traditional English show with livestock competitions, terrier racing, gymkhana, Cumberland wrestling, transport displays and a craft and industrial competition tent. This included homemade cakes, decorated buns, sponge cakes, flower arranging, and children's competitions.

Ayrshire cows are a traditional breed and the amount of brown on their hides varies.

Ayrshire cow

Jersey cattle with their big eyes are always appealing. 

Jersey cow waiting to be milked

There was a cacophony of crowing in the poultry tent. You could not believe how loud some birds could crow. The birds on display had some beautiful plumage and there was one breed that could only just fit into the cage.

Beautiful feathers

I loved the white duck doing his stretching exercises.

Think big

There is a big variation in sheep breeds.

A Herdwick ewe

Jacob's sheep

Swaledales

Hello everyone I'm a Zwartbles. Check out my white socks, only one pair on my back legs

There was a sheep shearing demonstration that attracted a large crowd.

Before shearing

The shearing process

A number 1 cut

It only take a few weeks for the fleece to regrow

There was a Cumberland wresting competition.The traditional outfit is white long johns with shorts embroidered on the back by the mother or sweetheart of the competitor.

It's all about balance

Various old vehicles were on display.

How many Oxo cubes could you get into this van?

Look at the number plate

This James Bond, car shaken not stirred.

Is that James looking at the car?

These petrol cans have seen some mileage.

Petrol heads

Butchery deliveries in times gone by.

 Cumberland sausage anyone?

This old stationary engine was made in Carlisle.

These engines were used to drive farm equipment

This is an example of a basket used to broadcast seed.

This process would take a long time

An early seed drill.

This replaced hand broadcasting

The monkshood in in shades of blue and white.

Monkshood with dragonfly

The borage has bonny blue flowers that are edible.

Star shaped flowers

The laurel is in full flower and is attracting the butterflies.

A butterfly magnet

I have started to harvest fruit and veg. 

Homegrown onions and garlic

Carrots grown in a growbag in the greenhouse to avoid carrot root fly and sweet homegrown peas.

Black Bute blackberries- scrumptious

A very tasty pickle

I made piccalilli using all my garden produce, except for the peppers which are not yet ready to harvest.

Piccalilli Recipe

Recipe taken from 'Preserves' by Pam Corbin ISBN 978074759532810987, published in  2008 (part of the River Cottage Handbook series.

1kg of washed/peeled vegetables - select 5 or 6 from the following:
cauliflower, green beans, cucumber, courgettes, tomatoes,  carrots, small silverskin onions or shallots, peppers, shallots, nasturtium seed pods

500g fine salt
30g cornflour
10 g ground tumermic
10 g English mustard powder
15 g yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp crushed cumin seeds
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
600 ml cider vinegar
150 g granulated sugar
50 g honey

Cut the vegetable into small even sized pieces (so they will fit onto a serving spoon.) Place in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Mix well, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a cool place for 24 hours, then rinse the veg with ice cold water and drain thoroughly.

Blend the cornflour, turmeric, mustard powder mustard seeds, cumin and coriander to a smooth paste with a little of the vinegar. Put the rest of the vinegar in a saucepan with the sugar and honey and bring to the boil. Pour a little of the hot vinegar over the blended spice paste, stir well and return to the pan. Bring gently to the boil. Boil for 3 - 4 minutes to allow the spices to release their flavours into the thickening sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and carefully fold the well drained vegetables into the hot spicy sauce. Pack the pickle into hot sterilised jars and seal immediately with vinegar- proof lids. Leave for 4 - 6 weeks before opening and eat within a year.
Very tasty.


At the end of a dull dark day there was this lovely rainbow.

A complete arc

Bottle Boys, Blooms and Bounty

What a wet week, torrential rain most days usually at night which has helped the plants grow but at the same time destroyed some of the petals of the more fragile plants. I am busy weeding and also harvesting.This week I harvested my first cauliflower, very tasty and I used a second one in my homemade piccalilli, the recipe to follow next week.

Cauliflower variety All year Round 

This is my crop of potatoes that I grew in a florist bucket. This is a very successful method and very useful and productive if you are limited for space.

A bountiful harvest

The apples on all the trees are beginning to swell with the rain.

Crab Apples make excellent crab apple jelly

The courgette plants that I put in the centre of the raspberry bed look as if they have been on steroids as they are 1 metre tall, the plants not the courgettes!

Giant courgettes

In the hedgerows the floating rosebay willowherb is all beginning to fade but the pretty pink flowers brighten up the countryside.

Pretty in pink

The cow parsley is pretty in the hedgerow and also the flower heads can be dried.

Found in the verge

I found a beautiful field of phacelia which must be being grown as a green manure.

A stunning sight

This giant thistle was in the walled garden at Hutton in the Forest, it must have been 5 meters high! The Scotsman standing next to me said he had never seen a thistle so big. 

Och what a whopper

Various plants have now produced seed. This is a lovely allium seed head looks as though it should be in outer space.

You can dry these flowerheads

Poppy seedheads are very good to use as print blocks, the star shape on the tip of the head. They can also be dried, but be careful not to split the seed pod as lots of little black poppy seeds will scatter everywhere.

Poppy stars

Some great big prickly teasels are growing on the railway bank. 

Bonny bands of purple flowers

The red and white grape vine in my front garden is thriving and I keep tying it back to the wall. I am not planning to make any wine but the leaves are very pretty.

Grape vines

I have grown a lot of cosmos it is such a jolly flower. I have different varieties in various shades but the white looks very regal and fresh.

 The bumblebees love the white cosmos

The Japanese anemones are now beginning to flower. The blooms do not last long but the plant continuously flowers.

Japanese anemones ans veronica spikes

The pink flox is now in full bloom.

Shades of pink blossom

The fuchsia and blue lobelia look pretty together.

Some of my garden planters

This pretty little flower is called swan river daisy and is very easy to grow.

Bonny blue buttons

This is my first sunflower, a modest specimen.

A little bit short of sunny petals

There is a coffee shop in Carlisle called Watts that has an amazing collection of old grocery equipment downstairs on route to the toilet.

Wonderful old grocery exhibits

Weighing scales and coffee grinder

Crazy Maisie has found a pair of sunglasses. I am not sure they are very flattering but Maisie does like to be noticed.

Some glasses

Stop Press

The Bottle Boys have arrived in the Artful Garden. They are all looking rather dapper and have already started to chat up the Bottle Babes. By the look of them they like a few bevvies.

Bottle Boys

Bottle Boys and Bottle Babes

Check out the moustache

Cool dude