Whisper

Another commissioned illustration, this time the wedding had an Indian theme. I thought it was also suitable for illustration friday this week - 'whisper'.© 2013 nicky linzey

healthy

We've been eating meat free meals for a couple of weeks and there are many delicious vegetarian recipes around. This one is from years ago and I'd forgotten how tasty it is.

Lentil Loaf
225g red split lentils
2 bay leaves
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 onion finely chopped
100g cheddar cheese grated
150ml tomato juice/passata
2 eggs beaten
fresh or dried mixed herbs
salt and pepper to taste

Put lentils in a pan and cover with water, add bay leaves and garlic and boil until tender (approx 15 mins). Drain very well and remove the bay leaves. Chop the onion finely and mix with lentils and grated cheese. Add the tomato juice and well beaten eggs, season heavily with herbs and add salt and pepper to your taste. Mix well and put in a loaf tin which has been lightly oiled and lined with baking parchment. Bake for an hour at gas mark 4/350F/180C. Cool slightly before turning out and serve at room temperature.
We ate the loaf with a vegetable slaw. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it.

Return

I love this time of year and it's a welcome return of warmth in the sun. Having said that the forecast is for snow before Easter in the UK! AND if that wasn't bad enough, a hosepipe ban because we've had no rain for ages. My vegetables will be few and far between this summer.
© 2012 nicky linzey
For Illustration Friday

Cultivate

Sadly I've given up my allotment as I was not getting enough time to devote to it. I actually feel a great sense of relief rather than sadness and I'm ploughing all my energies this year into cultivating fruit and vegetables in my garden instead. I'll let you know how I get on.
© 2011 nicky linzey for illustration friday.

Harvest

We harvested the butternut squash from the allotment this weekend. Much better than last year, we harvested 30 HUGE squash. They will keep us in soup supplies all Winter.

Numbers

I needed some leeks for a recipe and remembered that there were still some on my allotment, so I went down there this morning. That was a joke - I couldn't even get one prong of my fork into the ground - it was as hard as concrete! I should have realised seeing as it's one of the coldest days this winter. So I took some pictures instead.

Great value

It's difficult to imagine that Spring is around the corner when there is week after week of cold wind and rain. I was in my local garden centre at the weekend and spied a display of seed potatoes - it seems too early as I can't plant them until March but I had to buy a sack as I nearly missed out last year.

I've also had a reminder to renew my allotment rent for the grand total of £17 a year. Isn't that wonderful value?

Home grown pleasure

A corner of my allotment

The last few meals we've eaten have been almost entirely produced by us, in that the ingredients have been grown from seed, planted, tended, weeded, watered, cropped and cooked. This gives me such pleasure as I eat - I remember the cold January day planting the onions, watering the courgettes, warding off the pigeons from my peas, pulling the carrots from the earth, uncovering the little white potatoes, the gorgeous smell of Gray's freshly baked bread straight from the oven, mmm...

Simple ideas?

I've just finished reading The Permaculture Way by Graham Bell and found it extremely interesting - although not easy to suddenly change your life to this way of living - I think any change for me will be gradual. I know that I would lose my allotment if I didn't keep it neat & tidy and free from weeds - although the idea of no weeding is very appealing - they seem to grow so quickly, if only my vegetables would do as well! One idea that has stuck in my mind though is why do parks authorities plant ornamental trees rather than fruit trees? Apparently they say people will take the fruit - isn't that the idea?

It's nearly time

© 2007 Nicky Linzey

I'm getting excited as the time is coming to start planting out my vegetables - anyone who does this will know how I feel. I'd always wanted a vegetable garden since seeing the beautiful ones in almost every garden in France and I thought 'one day when I have a bigger garden I'll have one of those'. Time went on - still no vegetable garden. I woke up one day and realised how ridiculous this was and by lunchtime had dug up half of my lawn to plant vegetables. I haven't looked back and now am in the third year of owning an allotment. It's fantastic to grow, pick & eat your own produce and this year I'm growing garlic, shallots, potatoes, tomatoes, radish, carrots, beans, courgettes, beetroot, salad leaves, butternut squash, raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries. I recently went out for lunch with someone who asked me 'what was the most exciting thing that happened to you last year?', when I replied that I had cropped 34 butternut squash in the Autumn he looked at me as if I was mad. Growing things also inspires me so much creatively and if I have a mental block then a couple of hours digging & tending my plants sorts me out and there's always something to draw. Just think - 5 years later - I could still be waiting for that bigger garden . . .

My first vegetable patch