A little more re the garden.....

Vee's comment yesterday about sharing the bounty made me grin. The book club girls went out into the garden to view the monstrosity behind the fence, and eyed the abundance of lettuce. Thankfully, none of them have planted theirs yet. Good. My distribution is fixed then! In a couple of weeks the lettuce will be spread far and wide.

And the apples - well, the year before last we had so many apples I ran out of freezer space. They are cookers, so I cooked them, and froze them ready for crumbles, or to serve hot with custard, like Mum likes them. The rhubarb was also frozen. Rhubarb crumble is divine. Apple and rhubarb together is even better!

Last year, the apples were poor. I don't think we had more than a couple of dozen - nothing like the mountains of them the year before. but this year I think is going to be good again, so the freezer will be bursting at the seams. I think I actually need a bigger one. In fact I know I need a bigger one. But there we go back to the lack of space thing again!

We all share what we grow. Jean grows peppers and chilies in her conservatory, but I can't grow them here - they need to be really hot. So she grows them and shares. She also has a big garden, so will plant all the onions this year. I had them growing among the plants in the beds last year, and while that was good, I need the space for the lilies this year!

I think I mentioned last year that I plant herbs in my hanging baskets too. One has parsley in it, one rosemary etc, and I also pop in a couple of lettuces, and then fill the remaining space with annuals like a fuschia, geranium, lobelia, etc. It works really well, especially in the stand with 4 hanging baskets outside the patio doors. And there is mint growing in a trough on the wall, and chives in a pot at the back door. Sage and thyme in the beds, with the lilies and lavender. And lemon balm is running wild around the edges of the garden. I love growing things which smell great, and there are about 26 roses in the garden too. It may be small, but it is very full. See the moan post yesterday!

Today has been a day of form-filling, and I cannot tell you what it does to me. Glynis went home after 4+ hours with a headache, and Jean was wiped out too. And they were here helping me fill in the forms after our long ago visit to the lawyers. So much has happened since then. Jean, bless her, baked scones and brought them round to sustain us. Believe me, we needed them. Delicious too.

The worst of it is that I spent the entire day focussing on what I CAN'T do, instead of the way I live normally, where I focus on what I CAN do. And that in itself is enough to tip one over the edge. I do not need reminders.

Last night, I flicked through some of the old posts I have written in April over the years. It is always fun to see how things change, or if they do. How life keeps moving on, sometimes dragging its heels and sometimes as fast as light. The importance of the garden is there through each of the years!

The sameness, though, is reassuring, in a comfortable way. So much has happened over the years and there have been times when the dependabilty of routine things like the garden have taken on a much greater importance in a shifting and uncertain world for me. And so it goes, this rhythm of my life. The good the bad and the totally indifferent.

And the pesky form-filling. Sigh. Sometimes humour is the only way to sustain yourself. But as long as I retain the ability to grin, it will all be fine. I am all out of culinary inspiration tonight. I have just slapped a tray of croissants (crescent rolls) wrapped round cheese in the oven. That will have to do. There is salad in the fridge.

A rambling post. No apologies there - at least the garden is a great joy. I love watching it grow.