This morning CJ and I were watching the weather forecast. Given that the weather today was totally pish (a technical term meaning less than clement - by a very very big margin) I'm not sure we needed to be told. Carol Kirkwood (a Scottish weather presenter, employed by the Met Office and best known for forecasting the weather for BBC Breakfast and various other programmes) ended by saying that there was a caveat in relation to today's national weather: The Western Isles.
I know I'm beginning to sound obsessed by the weather but if you have for the first time in decades started growing vegetables and so on this early summer has been very intimidating and rather disheartening. However today I did harvest my first vegetable: a radish. CJ and I had half each at lunchtime.Now all I have to do is remember why I am growing curly kale. I had some last year and I must have liked it enough to grow some. Ah well that's the advantage of the internet.
Anyway the weather does give me the opportunity to show you some of the rather splendid haar photos.
These are beautiful. The first is perfect.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adrian.
DeleteAgree with Adrian; they are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: What are all the "fence posts" running around on the lower ground?
Jill, they breed fences on Lewis. When they have enough they will start an export business.
DeleteAdrian's correct, of course, Jill. Crofting is known as the farming of fences. The reason is that most crofts are very long strips of land with a road running across them with a house near the road.
DeleteI've officially given up on growing vegetables....and we don't have the bad weather you have! But I have tried for the last twenty years to grow vegetables here...so I think I have given it a good shot, and on a whole I am always disappointed. I do still continue to harvest fruit though and will be picking the gooseberries tomorrow to make gooseberry jam.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photographs.
Thank you Serenata. I love gooseberries but they are not that easy to get anywhere now. I managed to get them in Napier but they were grown in South Island. Raspberries are a good crop in Scotland and I love them but they would need shelter here. To be hones I'm growing the vegetables just because I want the satisfaction of seeing them crop. I may be a bit disappointed.
DeleteBeautiful! Re: Kale - it's supposed to be very good for you, so you must have been in a healthy mood when you planted it! xoxox
ReplyDeleteDeeDee I shall just eat it and enjoy. It's very popular now although I had never eaten it until last year although I can't recall the occasion.
DeleteI love growing kale in the Peace Thyme Garden and Weather Station greenhouse. One of the few things that grows to proper size up here. Get a bowl full of washed and clipped kale (without stems), add silvered parmesan cheese, a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes and maybe a little cooked quinoa. Make a little dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar and a little balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Mix with greens very well and let sit for half hour before serving. In my opinion, the best use of kale.
ReplyDeleteIn these parts, as I guess at your place, gardening is really a hobby. It never pays for itself. By the way, have you ever read the book, "The $50 Tomato"?
Thank you Mrs Thyme. I shall try that. I haven't read the book but I can guess its content. I certainly won't be saving any money with my efforts but I might get some fresh unadulterated food as a bonus.
DeleteI can almost hear Paul MC Cartney singing "oh mists rolling in from the sea". Beautiful mystical (mist-ical?) images. I developed an addiction for kale chips last summer. Just lay the leaves out on a baking tray, add a little bit of olive oil , and bung in the over. Yummy. I've saved a recipe for chilled cucumber and kale soup that I want to try next summer. I'll email it to you to test it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me Pauline. Someone gave me kale chips done as you had described and I thought they were wonderful. I shall try that this afternoon when you will be wrapped up in your downy with your eyes peeping through watching the Wimbledon Men's Final.
DeleteI don't have to tell you that you've got some very dismal weather.
ReplyDeleteNo Red. AT least we don't have to contend with your snow in the winter.
DeleteYour first home-grown radish of the year, hooray :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look up kale, I have no idea what it is.
Great pictures, but then I say that nearly every time I comment on your blog... (because it's true).
Thank you Meike. You always have the ability to make me smile. Kale has only recently become popular in the UK (so far as I am aware anyway) but now it appears everywhere. I shall try cooking some this coming week.
DeleteSo, a Haar is a sea fog? Or is it what sea captains say when, not knowing where they were because of the fog, bang into a bit of land and so can say 'ahaar! That's where we aar!'
ReplyDeleteOh Kate you are so funny. Yes. Haar is a sea fog.
DeleteIt is difficult enough growing vegetables in Sheffield but with the weather on Lewis it must be very challenging indeed. I hope you enjoyed that radish - it looked fat and juicy.
ReplyDeleteYP the radish was a wonderful assault on the senses thanks. As for growing things on Lewis...I really am wondering why I'm trying.
DeleteI had to look up so many words here that it seems I forgot to comment in the process. I hope you both had something more for lunch than just one radish to share...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about that Monica. We did. The radish was just a wee taster.
DeleteI think weather is endlessly fascinating. Imagine how boring weather announcements would be in a place with blue skies and sunshine every day.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me ViioletSky I have lived in NZ where weeks on end would be blue skies every day and it's so so much more preferable to variations on wet, windy, cold, miserable, dull etc that have been our lot this 'summer'.
DeleteMy husband and I had a wonderful meal with his friends, Henry & Sarah when we last visited England, I remember they had radishes in the salad and Richard and I agreed that they were the best radishes ever! (Yes, we get excited over something like that, if they are very good!! I bet yours were too!)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos!
Well, Kay, CJ and I had radishes with home made bread and butter (not home made!) today and they were delicious.
DeleteGorgeous views!
ReplyDeleteThank you Terri.
DeleteHow beautiful. I have not heard the word haar before but I will look it up. I assume it means cloud rolling in on the sea. I've seen it in san Francisco too and it is a wonderful sight. Well, on second thoughts I suppose it's a kind of fog. All right, now I'll look it up!
ReplyDeleteJenny it is the Scots word for a sea fog (as you will by now know) and I have always thought it was a beautifully descriptive word.
DeleteCongrats on your first home grown radish of the season!
ReplyDeleteI love kale, I actually had some for lunch today steamed with other veggies and topped with a spicy tuna sauce.
Thanks Virginia. We've had lettuce and more radish and so on since then. I'm trying to figure out the kale more than anything at the moment.
Delete