The greenest green smoothie.

The green all came from the garden; spinach and swiss chard.  Plus an apple, frozen banana, linseeds and almond milk.  Apple and spinach in a smoothie goes really well together.

Another morning spent happily in the garden, preparing the raised beds and sowing more seeds.  Harvey came to help me and weeded and dug over one of the beds.

and he sowed some sunflower seeds.

Having dug over the empty sections of the raised beds,  I sowed rows of 2 types of lettuce, beetroot, a broccoli that you pick when it has small heads and a red veined spinach.  I also sowed a row of Komatsuna which is a Japanese green leaved vegetable.  My sister Lucy sent me a package of unusual oriental seeds and this is one of them.  I am most intrigued.

It was so relaxing being outside today.  I find it incredibly therapeutic being in the sunshine, looking at what has grown and thinking about what is to come.  It was perfect gardening weather today – bright and sunny but not too hot so I felt energised by the sun, not over heated by it.

Then something really exciting happened.  We have all been worrying that our tortoise, William, had not survived the winter as we had not seem him.  He had self-hibernated so we weren’t sure where he was.  Today we found him!  And he is fine.

William had a little soak in some shallow water and then something to eat.  We gave him his favourite – a dandelion flower and he ate which is a good sign.

We are all very happy to have him back.

Salad for lunch ………from the garden! Lettuce, rocket and spinach.  Amazingly a lettuce and lots of rocket survived our winter so I enjoyed a plateful.  So good to be picking it and eating it again.

Along with 3 tomatoes, none of which were red.

The yellow was a bit mushy but the orange and brown were excellent as they were full of flavour and sweet.

I added some cucumber to the tomato mix which I dressed with some olive oil and white wine vinegar.  Topped with a small tin of sardines in tomato sauce mixed with some mayonnaise.  A really healthy and delicious lunch.

Which we ate outside.  First lunch, of many I hope, eaten outside this year.  The boys had pasta, in case you are curious.

This weekend, I have sown so many seeds.

Aubergine – Black Beauty
Beetroot – Boltardy
Broccoli – Wok Brocc
Celeriac – Prinz
Celery – Solid Pink
French Bean (climbing) – Fasold
French Bean (climbing) – Neckar Gold
French Bean (dwarf) – Aiguillon
French Bean (dwarf) – Royalty
Japanese Green – Komatsuna
Lettuce – Mixed Leaves
Lettuce –  Oakleaf
Okra – Burgundy Red
Okra – Clemsons Spineless
Pepper – Bendigo F1
Spinach – Reddy
Sweetcorn – Lark F1
Tomato – Gardener’s Delight
Tomato – Harbinger
Tomato – Lily of the Valley
Tomato – Tumbling Tom

Flowers:

Cosmos – Mixed
Marigold – Disco
Nicotiana – Mixed
Sunflower – Tall Single

There are many more to go but I made a fantastic start to my vegetable growing this weekend.

I treated myself to a little relax this afternoon that involved an ice-cold pear cider, a good read on my Kindle and a reclining chair set up in the sunshine.  Bliss.

The dogs always keep me company in the garden.  The black dog, Milton,  always sits very close

but the yellow dog, Dylan, keeps more of a distance.  Dogs have distinctly unique characters just like people do.

James cooked supper which was wonderful. Roast pork, green beans, broccoli and purple carrots with roast potatoes,

followed by meringue with whipped vanilla cream and Aplphonso mango.  It looks like carrot but it really was mango.  Alphonso is a very deep orange and quite an intense flavour.  This is half of one of those massive meringues I bought in the market.  Half was enough for each of us.

A simple but satisfying weekend, with lots achieved and plenty of time to relax too.  Lara is home and we are snuggled up on the sofa looking forward to a top evenings telly as Silent Witness and Mad Men, two of my favourites, are back.  Have a good time yourself.