Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Bigger is Better?

I've made the pictures in this post bigger than usual. Let me know if they work better for you.

I was quite tired after gardening yesterday and ended up have a (rare) bath then going to bed and sleeping for 10 hours!

This morning I cycled for 50 minutes at the gym. I quite enjoy doing cycling for cardio - it's a shame my gym doesn't do any RPM or cycle classes.

I was going to have some mandarins off our tree for the fruit part of my breakfast but when I opened the pantry door to get the Oatbrits out, the Craisins seemed more appealing

Mandarins made an appearance at lunch instead, in a smoked trout salad with green beans, mandarin and horseradish, which I had with a couple of pieces of toast (not pictured)

The afternoon was spent in the garden again. Rob dug out the plants that I pruned back yesterday. It appears that our house was white at one stage

I did some more weeding, reducing this

to this

I can see mulch (bark chips?) happening soon - must stop all those weeds springing back again!

Dinner tonight was a chicken and vegetable 'paella'. I got hungry waiting for all the liquid to evaporate and ended up dishing it up before it was ready, hence the 'soupy' appearance

See you tomorrow!

6 comments:

Liz@LastChanceTraining said...

Looks better Charlotte!

Kek said...

Re mulch: avoid the dyed mulches (especially that black stuff that's so popular at the moment) and any fine mulches. Go for something with uneven sized pieces; ideally tree-loppers mulch, sometimes called bush mulch.

Before winter hits, top up with a thick layer of straw and then re-mulch again for summer. Use organic fertilisers - manures, Seasol, molasses - and avoid the chemical-based ones. Before you know it, you'll have fantastic soil and your plants will be thriving.

Free advice...which I got from a very well-qualified horticulturalist. :)

Kerry W said...

That smoked trout salad with green beans looks amazingly scrumptious, Charlotte! The pics are great too - just like those recipe books! Good job with the weeding. It's a hell of a job, but satisfying when all is done. :)

Charlotte Orr said...

Great - thanks for the suggestion Liz!

Charlotte Orr said...

Awesome - thanks so much Kek!

Charlotte Orr said...

Thanks Kerry! Yes, weeding is tough work isn't it! Hopefully I'll be able to stay on top of it from now on. Cheers, C