Taming the jungle

We have had quite  strange and different weather patterns this year, going from blistering heat to gota frias and this week we have been having high winds, luckily without too much damage.

Thursday the wind dropped, the sun was warm and I managed to get out to tidy up a tiny bit of the garden, 

This part is just above the lounge and although we put weed suppressing membrane down and gravel, the weeds still germinate at a fast rate of knots.

I´m not sure of the name of the small tree sprouting  in the foreground, all I know is that its parent tree, just behind, grows so much during the season that we have to lop it back to get more light into the lounge. It also produces long seed pods that suddenly dry and release thousands of seeds. This area gets covered in tiny seedlings with a huge root making it difficult to pull them out if they are left too long. We were a bit slow in lopping this year so it was quite a big clean up job.

Bit of a jungle

Got there in the end, although there were a couple of casualties including a large lavender bush

Now we just need to go to the town hall for our burning license before we tackle some of the other shrubs.

Sometimes I catch the programme Eat well for Less where they have some good recipe ideas

One was for veggie Cumberland Lentil pie, store cupboard ingredients with carrots and celery, I substituted red peppers for the celery, which I didn´t have and added garlic too. The addition of a dollop of marmite really brought out the flavours.

It was very tasty and had a nice texture, not powdery as sometimes lentils can be.

I used it as a base rather than potatoes along with fresh veggies.

Well worth doing again.

The sky is blue, the sun is out but the wind is very chilly today, the log burner is lit, so I think a little chill out with the knitting is called for, after I rescue it after a little accident!

take care

xcx