It was sunny today !!!!!

Lara was heading back to Durham at Midday and we decided it would be fun to go out to brunch.  We went to Frankie’s in Staplehurst which I have previously blogged about here.

I have not been here for ages and since my last visit the shop section of the building is reduced in size and the cafe has grown.  The breakfast menu was really limited to toast, eggs and bacon which was a bit disappointing.  I think this is a better place to come for lunch.  However, the poached eggs on toast and bacon I had were fine and this is a lovely space to sit in.  The staff are friendly and helpful, the coffee was ok and there was a lovely busyness about the place so the ambience was good. We also had coffee and cake as we were all very hungry. I am not sure it was warm enough to sit outside today but it was glorious to be in the sunshine.  Harvey enjoyed looking at the geese and goats and playing on the zip wire while we browsed the garden centre and farm shop. To cheer myself up after saying au revoir to Lara for a couple of months (this just does not get easier!), I went to my favourite local plant nursery, The Walled Nursery in Hawkhurst. If you have never been to this charming place, pop along and enjoy pottering about in their collection of Victorian glasshouses.   The owners are so enthusiastic and friendly it makes choosing plants, most of which are grown on site, a real pleasure.  A little bit of shopping therapy began to cheer me up. I then spent all afternoon, until 6pm, in the garden.  It was wonderful to be outside, planting again.  The little fella came out to help.  He did dig in 3 plants but in the process trampled another plant but I enjoyed his interest in the garden and his lovely company. This time last year I had lots growing in the vegetable beds, such as chard and kale.  This year though, I only have a few beetroot, which have gone woody but are ok in smoothies.  Plus some parsnips.  I want the space for this years planting so I pulled a few up for supper. I am way behind growing seeds this year so I bought some vegetable plants from the Walled Nursery.  I planted them all today so now my vegetable beds contain little plants for peas, spinach, purple sprouting broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and globe artichoke.  I feel so happy that I have started growing veggies again.  I also planted flowers in pots, plus bought some herbs (coriander, flat leaf parsley, lemon verbena, thyme and oregano) and strawberries.  All planted put and hopefully growing well and of no interest to the 2 huge rabbits who have recently taken up residence in our garden! For supper I made a parsnip, halloumi and orange salad which I previously blogged about here which I served with a small baked potato and juicy tomatoes sprinkled with thyme.  The parsnips were still delicious and I really enjoy the combination of the salty halloumi with the sweet parsnips and caramelised orange.  Delicious.Grow veggies, grow!