Soup and Surprises

I love the fresh pages of a new diary in January. I always have two. One is for general day-to-day events and the other is for my gardening notes. I’m not a “dear diary” type of person. Mine would be boring for anyone else to read (Windows cleaned, paid! etc) but they are so useful as a reminder when I need to look back for when something happened.

My gardening diary helps me to remember when I sowed seeds, planted out, and the names of vegetable varieties I’ve chosen to grow. My head is like a sieve, so I value this information. I also record the weather and sightings of birds or other wildlife in the garden. Nice to read back on a wintry night.

I like these plain black ones because the layout is good and they look neat on the bookshelf.

Each year our daughter has a calendar made for me using my photos of food, vegetables and kitchen tools. It’s such a lovely idea and I really appreciate it.

The weather has been kinder since the severe frosts of last month. Blackened leaves have been hiding fresh new buds and pretty flowers to brighten up a bedraggled garden.

I actually saw a bee buzzing around the flowers on my winter clematis! That seems very early. I know bumble bees often emerge from their nests in February on sunny days but I don’t think I ever saw one in January before.

I did a bit of tidying around my hellebore border, removing damaged leaves and debris which had blown over emerging shoots. I was annoyed with myself when I found I had snipped off a little flower. I brought it in with some snowdrops to make a tiny arrangement in a small wine glass, so all was not lost after all.

Hellebores are such wonderful flowers, so welcome in the Winter when little else is flourishing. Only a few have opened up yet but the buds are steadily increasing.

While I was clearing the border, I found a little hidey-hole at the back underneath leaves and tree roots. I hope it’s keeping a small hedgehog snug for the Winter.

In the vegetable garden, new plants are slowly growing. The greenhouse is protecting my Winter lettuces which I grew from seed a few months back. The heavy frost didn’t damage them despite having no extra protection. Only small yet but gaining and will take off in February when the days lengthen.

I have sworn not to buy any more mail-order plants after many disappointments but my weakness kicked in when I thought about growing cauliflowers. So, again, against my better judgement, I splashed out on six little plants. When I say little, I mean little! When they arrived they were barely beyond the seedling stage. I planted them immediately in one of the polytunnels with fingers crossed that they might grow. I will keep you posted.

Indoors I have some stored squashes, which I grew last Summer. I thought it was time to use a small one, but I only needed a quarter of it for one of my one-pan meals. To use the rest I made soup. Very simple and nice to have on a cold day.

Here is my recipe for four servings.

Squash and Cashew Soup
1 small Onion
approximately 350g Squash, prepared weight
2 Vegetable Stock cubes
1 stick Celery
50g Cashew Nuts
1 litre Water
Soured Cream or Creme Fraiche

Roughly chop the onion and celery. Cube the squash.
Put ingredients, including cashew nuts, into a large pan, add water and crumbled stock cubes. Bring to the boil and stir to dissolve stock cubes.
Turn down the heat and simmer for twenty-five to thirty minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Liquidise in a food processor jug or use a hand blender. 
Just before serving stir in a spoonful of soured cream or creme fraiche.

Indoors, my Christmas cactus is looking lovely with it’s deep pink flowers. Big tiered blossoms with a silky sheen hang off the ends of rough old stems. It’s an ancient plant but still produces a few pretty blooms every year.

My knitting is coming along nicely. I shall soon have another warm jumper to wear but I haven’t had the time to paint anything since before Christmas. Here’s an old picture reminding me of Spring when the ladybirds will be active again.

With you again next week. Stay warm and find lots of enjoyable pastimes to while away the Winter. Bye for now.