Deblyn

That made me laugh out loud - just the tonic for a Monday morning!!! What did she tell the police?

That's a really interesting site there. I'll have to have a scout about and see if there is a UK equivalent I'm sure there is. I love the wartime recipe books and have managed to find several, and I use some of the recipes occasionally. I also have anumber of books which are printed "to wartime standards" - thin paper, small print! But usually useful! I like the wartime gardening books etc. Did you get the series The Wartime Kitchen and Garden over there? (on TV)

I'm a lemon meringue!!! Made me laugh!

Course you can , Joan - go for it!

Hello Ginger! Needless to say, no exact recipe - I saw a picture in a magazine that was titled "Italian Bean Soup" and just made something that looked like it! My cooking tends to be like that - if I were a trendy show-off I would call myself "an intuitive cook", which is one of the "in" phrases of the moment! But - this is how I make it; the veg and type of bean varies according to what I have and what needs to be used up, so it really is a moveable feast. Heat some butter in a large pan; add say 3 finely chopped onions and a couple of cloves of garlic, chopped. Cook gently until soft, but not coloured. Add in vegetables, chopped to approximately the same size pieces - carrot, parsnip, turnip, leek, courgette, squash, peppers, anything that you have - the more the merrier. Add in the beans; if dried beans are used, then I soak them the previous night and cook until almost done before adding to the pot - the cooking liquid from the beans can be used as stock for the soup. When all the veg is in, add tomatoes - fresh or tinned tomatoes, again chopped. Next the stock goes in - bean liquid, veg stock (or chicken etc), or just plain water. A good dollop of tomato puree (paste), salt and pepper, small dollop of some type of mustard. Put on lid and simmer until all vegetables are tender. Towards the end of cooking, add in a good amount of chopped green cabbage - if it's left over and already cooked, it won't take long to cook, but if added raw, extra cooking time is needed for this. The finished soup should more resemble a stew -type dish. Bacon bits could be added if you like. A big bowlful of this is great on a winter's day after being out in the garden - it seems to heat you right through to the bone, and really fills you up - a meal in a bowl. It also freezes well. Hope that is OK, sorry there's no exact recipe, but it's quite handy to toss everything in and use it up. As long as it has tomatoes and beans in it, you can call it Italian Bean Soup I should think!

Hope you feel better soon - I can imagine how frustrating it is!

Nicely and tactfully put Snowmom! Count me in again.........!

I have inherited my granny's love of making and eating home made soup, especially in autumn and winter - cheap, nutritious, easy and the children will eat it. Mr Lowie never really ate soup until he met me (but I suppose he didn't do a lot of things until he met me!) as his mother did not do a lot of cooking. He now eats it by the bucketful! One of my favourites is Italian bean soup - really thick with veg and beans in - lovely on a cold day after you've been out in the garden! Any more soup fans here?

The area of England where I live never gets seriously cold, so it is possible to grow quite a few things outside over the winter, as well as in the greenhouses. I have lots of leeks planted out (they make great soup!) and brussels sprouts growing away well. Over the weekend and yesterday I sowed spinach, purple and white sprouting broccoli, swiss chard, parsley and quick maturing cabbage. These will be ready to transplant soon and should take us through the winter and some of the "hungry gap" on the other side. I still have the corn salad and winter lettuce to sow for inside the greenhouse. It's so nice to be able to go out and pick something fresh and green everyday over the winter. Another job for this week sometime is to plant out the overwintering onions and garlic. This all sounds as if I'm ahead and organised, but I'm not really!!

I was very good yesterday and sat down and sorted through all my seed boxes - five of them! I thought I could manage it in the space of a cup of coffee but it tookk over an hour! Out went the empty packets, unlabelled things, old seed, very old seed, etc. It was then sorted into flowers, herbs and veg each with their own box, and a big boxful of spares and extras which will get posted in my seed trade page for a garden swap on the net. I was awful for hoarding seeds, but last year had a couple of disappointments with older seed, so this year I have taken the bull by the horns and thoroughly de-junked the seed boxes. Ofcourse, this does mean I have more room now for new seeds! (but don't tell Mr Lowie!)

Autumn seems to be an inspring time for a lot of poets an artists, doesn't it? You only need go outside to understand why."season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.............."

Love and congratulations from me too!

I told you no-one would fit in with mine!!! Here in the UK most folk would probably concur with the seasons as you have all put them; it's just me sticking to a more ancient "time- scale". But that's the way I like it..........!

It is recommended in the UK that oily fish (such as those stated above) be eaten to keep the brain healthy, and may help to guard against diseases such as alzheimers. Mr Lowie read this somewhere and has started eating fish again! I don't as I am vegetarian, but I take flax oil when I remember (I find this difficult to remember, as I've never taken vitamins, etc; a bottle lasts a long time, although it's not meant to!). If I did eat fish, I wouldn't eat tuna because of the dolphine effect, and I would be extremely reluctant to eat anything that came out of the sea at all, to tell the truth. And as for farmed fish................. (bring on the carrots, that's what I say!)

I shall cry I think, if we get a virus now I've got back!

Hi Becca- Anne! I was missing you and just about to post a thread asking where you were - and you've popped up just like that! Ididn't know you were moving, I've been offline for 8 weeks or so - very tortuous, but I,m back now. Glad the move went smoothly and you are enjoying your new place so far. It was lovely to hear from you. All best wishes from me to you and yours.

I am enjoying the variety of my/our/the birds that we are getting at the tables at the moent; the chaffinches especially are beautiful, there is a pair that visits here. I have to be honest and say I've never thought of them as MY birds, but just enjoyed whenever they have come. I anjoyed the story, though. I'm sure there are enough birds to go round really!

The weather man had just said that autumn will be with us on Sunday; funny. My year goes like this ( but I fully expect that no-one else's does!): Autumn: August, September, October Winter: November, December, January Spring: February, March April Summer: May June, July. Obviously the weather does not, could not and should not tie in with man-made dates and calendars, but these are roughly how I see it as happening. Is it different where you live?

Bottling (canning) salsa is a good idea, and I'll give it a go when I have spare tomeatoes etc. I love the stuff.

I just typed Bob Flowerdew into Google search - both the web and image searches and they should bring up the info.

Nice to see the real you again!!

Yes he is there in all his plaited glory and with pictures of his books. Take a look at one of my heroes!!

No, he doesn't have a web site of his own; he's quite a private person, and has stopped having groups visit his garden in Norfolk now as it was getting too intrusive. There is some info on him if you type in bob Flowerdew into the google search thingy. I do however have his home address, but then I would, wouldn't I?!! This bit of Bobinfo always makes me smile. One of his top tips is to strew the floor of the car on the driver's side with lavender flowers; when you are stressed when driving and put your foot to the floor, the aroma of lavender gently wafts up and de-stressed you! A friend of mine runs the Bring Back Bob Campaign (yes, I've joined!), to try and get the BBC to get him back on our Tv screens or give him his own programme. I'm now going to look on Google image search - I'm sure there will be a picture or two of him on there - I'll be back in a jiffy and let you know.

When the Irish navvies came over to England to dig the canals, they wer all obviously dug by hand. Each man had his own spade, and looked after it well. The most essential bit of equipment he used was his "man". This is a scraper, made of metal or wood, which was used to scrape the dirt and muck off his spade and keep it clean. The cleaner the spade was kept, the more efficient and effective the spade was. So much so, that they reckoned the effect of the little tool was the equivalent to the work of one man, hence the name "man". I picked up a beautifully made one at the tip yesterday - metal, with a little wooden handle. So now I have my own man; up till now I had been using a plastic scraper which had been something to do with the washing machine (i never discovered what!), which was OK, but not too effective. There should be some efficient spadework in my garden from now on...............hhmmmmm...........

Mr Lowie asked what I would like to do, so I said I would like to make another attempt at finding the grave of William Barnes, a famous Dorset poet. We tried earlier in the year, but failed. No-one told me the village I was looking for had been abandoned in the 15th and 16th centuries to make way for extensive sheep farming! Today, the little church sits down a tiny leafy lane in the grounds of a palladial mansion built in the 17th century. We found it after a couple of false turnings, but the church itself is absolutely charming, and dates back to the 14th century. Although no longer used as a place of regular worship, it is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust which preserves and restores churches for future generations. I took some photos of the church and his grave, which is a beautiful celtic cross engraved with dragons and animals. The setting is just wonderful, and very very peaceful. On the way home, we stopped at the recycling centre to see if there was anything about and came away with a handful of bargains as usual! I got a dozen seed trays (flats), an electric typewriter (just needs a new ribbon) for B, a good Italian made garlic press, a new man ( I will explain that one in The Orchard as it is garden-related), and a gorgeous Indian silver anklet, really heavy and ornate, which I am going to make into a necklace. Mr Lowie got a pile of metal brackets and bits and pieces for his "stock". We just pottered around when we got home and Mr L finished painting the window catches for B's room. All in all, a good day.