What an incredibly gorgeously sunny and hot day.  I was out there first thing today, deciding what to do about my vegetables.  I decided to chuck the lot.  I had so many caterpillars, that even overnight, they had decimated my broccoli and were well on track to eat all the kale too.  I was very disappointed to lose the purple stemmed and veined kale.  I will grow it again next year and make a point of going out with my glasses on more often to check for caterpillars!  Thanks to Laura and Stella for your advice on how to prevent the pests.

Harvey came out to help as the garden was full of caterpillars.  It was like a Hammer House of Horrors out there!! We pulled the brassicas and put them in the recycling bin.  It really was a horror film – they kept on coming!

The marigolds I planted didn’t do much to repel the caterpillar laying butterflies!

Thank you by the way, to those of you who tried to identify my lovely pink flowers.  According to James they are lobelias!

As it was such  lovely day, the boys decided to go to the beach.  Very unusually for me, I declined.  I actually turned down 2 beach invitations this weekend, because I am overwhelmingly exhausted.  I have worked very hard lately and been away for the past few weekends so I just wanted to be at home.

Before heading off to London for the day, Lara made pancakes and bacon for breakfast :-).  I may have had more pancakes than this…. and more bacon and maple syrup 😦

So back to the garden.  Having removed all the brassicae,  the onions and shallots were more apparent.  I knew the onions were ready but I couldn’t really see the shallots under all the kale.  Now I can !

These onions look amazing and I am looking forward to cooking with them.

I had such a lovely day.  I usually hate it when I am not with my children but today I needed some peace and quiet and an opportunity to do what I wanted, when I wanted, without doing it for other people or how and when others wanted it.  I am never alone at home and today, I do confess I enjoyed it.

I picked and brushed the mud off the onions.  I have never grown them before and am really chuffed with these.

Then the shallots.

These took ages.   But I piled them up and sat in one of my favourite parts of the garden, and gently brushed off the mud and laid them in the trug.  I enjoyed the scent of the magnolia and sweet was and the sound of birdsong.  The beer was cold and refreshing and there was no time schedule to stick to.  There are definitely worse chores!

Ta daa!

Check out my vegetable baskets 🙂

I was full all day from those pancakes and didn’t eat anything else until early evening.  For supper I decided to have a juice I had seen on  Choosing Raw.  I have dabbled with many ways of eating healthily. There is so much advice and information available and it can be confusing.  But it does seem logical to me to eat raw food and I always feel so good when I do eat raw food.  I need to have more.

Thank you Gena for this delicious Beetroot and Berry Smoothie.  (This colour has not been enhanced at all!).

This tasted so much better than I was expecting.  I picked 4 baby beetroots from the garden, plus raspberries, an orange, 4 dates and almond milk.  I cut the stems and root from the beetroots and peeled the hard bits of peel but left the rest.  I put in all the raspberries and the peeled orange with the pitted dates and milk.  Blitzed until smooth.

I recommend you try this – it is surprisingly good.  I could have eaten/drunk it over and over again.  The balance of sharp and sweet, earthiness and lightness was perfect.  I will be having this many times over.  It even matches my favourite flower of the moment 🙂

Having consumed all this nutrition, I popped down to the George with Jane for a couple of glasses of wine and have come home and scoffed lots of chocolate.  Oh well, I am not perfect.  I had a lovely time though  – thanks Jane 🙂