Catchup time

Since Wednesday's swim,  time seems to have just disappeared and I've not been in again.  Thursday our neighbours had a problem with their fridge freezer,  it  had stopped working in the night and he came down to see if we could help out in any way.  Luckily our small chest freezer was empty  so we lent it to them,  we don't use it very often,  but it's useful for when Antonio goes hunting and brings some wild boar for us.  Although they only live a couple of hundred metres away by road,  closer across the terraces,  we don't see a lot of each other,  so had a catch up chat.  Then as I was digging up the horseradish for cleaning and freezing and replanting the small off shoots,  I took them up same cuttings.

Remember these?  I wrote a while back about some seeds we'd got amongst which were electric daisies.

Ours have grown really well,   each one has spread and is now covered with blooms,  but what a surprising taste!  Remember sherbet?  Sort of like that,  a bit numbing - one name for them is the toothache plant - really zingy in your mouth.  Not sure how many we'll eat but we've put some to dry and then to grind - maybe to sprinkle on salads or something,  although I think I read that you can also use it in a drink.  Anyway because we have so many flowers I took some of those up with the horseradish,  she was more cautious than him,  he ate a whole flower while she just nibbled the edges.  Certainly different was the verdict and so I've promised them some seeds next year.

The first planting of broad beans and peas are done,  stakes and string round the outside for support and  to discourage wandering cats.  More strawberries again too,  600 grams to add to the 400 of a few days ago,  another crumble made last night with second helpings for tomorrow.  Don't remember ever picking this amount this late in the year,  normally I think they fizzle out in September,  with a few ripening over Christmas time.  We do keep a gardening diary so there is probably some note in there as to last year's yield.

Yesterday afternoon we were wining - siphoning the most recent black and white fig brews,  then cleaning out the bottles for the soon to be picked grape harvest.  We currently have 80 litres on the shelves which is a good start to the year,  hopefully the grapes will produce much more.  Fingers crossed.