Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Letter from lockdown

I have three further things to say about the carrot cake.

Firstly, the person for whom I made it (who is recovering very slowly from Covid19) thinks it's yummy.

Secondly, I agree that on the third day it's delicious and it might even supplant my own recipe. I just need to ditch the baking soda.

Thirdly, although my sisters had no problem with the idea of my using mascarpone that was 8 years past it's sell by date when I hawked it out of the freezer, a younger member of the family read my blog post and responded thus:





Such a person did not have outside earth closets at their village primary school, and did not have no bathroom, no hot water and a loo at the bottom of the garden when they first got married. More importantly, they weren't brought up by my mother.

Anyway....I did not use the fossilised mascarpone, so we can all rest easy, and you can be assured that this was the oldest foodstuff in the house by 7 years, so if you ever come here, you won't need to worry about food poisoning.

The exciting news this morning is that Zoë has made us two stylish and, more importantly, two very effective masks, for when the over 70s are allowed out in public:




And now to gardening...My potato plants were looking perky and robust yesterday afternoon when I watered them and piled on more compost, but we have woken up to frost and I have not yet ventured out to see if they have survived. 

This is the first time in twenty years I've tried vegetable gardening, and this kind of thing - the need to listen to the weather forecast and take appropriate action - is one of the reasons why. It's tedious. The only worthy reason for checking the weather, to my mind, is to see if it's worth doing the washing (so I can hang it out) or to check when the best time is to fit in a bike ride. I can't be doing with namby pamby plants. Yes, I harden off my sweet peas, but once they're hardened off that's it. They're on their own. 

The next thing I'll have to consider is the slugs eating my lettuce, as if I didn't already have my cosmos seedlings to worry about.

Enough of these horticultural ramblings...there are books to be read. I've just started Anna Karenina. The last time I read it I was breast feeding Zoë. Decades ago. I am so old.

Here's a photo from Monday's bike ride and walk:




4 comments:

Anon said...

The younger member of the family remembers digging through your mother's cupboards to find worryingly expired food stuffs.

Fruit pastels from twelve years prior that had become miniature rainbow toned hockey pucks, or tiny slices of colourful petrified trees - harder than a nail with a reputation for picking fights with the neighbourhood hammers.

You are absolutely your mother's daughter!

x

Sue Hepworth said...

I shall take that as a compliment! xx

Anonymous said...

As I am about to go out (at 10.30pm) to dispatch slugs and snails with intentions on my juvenile bean plants, with a pointy stick and a torch, I look forward to more updates including photos about your vegetable growing. So many people are growing their own in lockdown. I have been so excited to see my pea plants grab onto the sticks I have provided - its almost like they have become family. Jenetta

Sue Hepworth said...

Veg pics coming up, Jenetta.