Surprise Spuds

Yesterday I made it out into the garden for the first time this year. It was a little grey and blustery but surprisingly warm so I thought I'd make the most of the lack of rain and make a start on my little patch of mud. It's a very small garden and a slightly odd shape, getting wider as it runs the width of the cottage. I have no back garden at all so any veg I grow is right out there for all to see.

I didn't have much luck with veg last year having started quite late in the season, and fighting a losing battle with slugs, but I did have a few tubs of salad stuff and planted runner beans and potatoes in between the flowers. I got a few meals out of it and there is nothing nicer than home grown, so all things considered I was happy.

Fast forward to yesterday and I decided to do a bit of weeding and digging. A mild, wet winter means weeds that would normally have died off have flourished and it was back breaking work. Finally I was ready to begin turning over the soggy soil in anticipation of a rich harvest this year and look what I found...

Several spuds I'd missed last year! 

Better Late Than Never

I had the funniest conversation with my step daughter at the weekend. She had called me about something else but repeatedly kept telling me she was going into town later to buy vegetables. We talked about babies and holidays and dogs and kayaking but through it all those veggies kept rearing their heads to say hello. I was starting to wonder if it was some sort of code, was there someone else listening? Was there something she wanted to tell me but couldn't? Was she being held against her will by some crazed, long haired nutter? ....Oh wait, that's her husband. lol

 

Whatever it was I couldn't understand this sudden obsession with vegetables. She doesn't even like cooking, and will send her husband to the supermarket whenever she can get away with it. Shopping she excells at, but food shopping really isn't her thing!

 

In the end I just had to ask.

 

*Fanfare* Yes, lets have a fanfare here, it deserves it.

 

Thanks to the horsemeat scandal which made her rethink her habits, my step daughter has finally worked out that shopping at the local market is cheaper than Sainsburys.

 

I have never heard such excitement in her voice before. She joyously listed all the veg she'd bought the previous week and squeeled 'I saved £20!' followed quickly by 'and I bought meat too, loads of it, from the meat market, and it was so cheap'.

 

Yes dear, I know.

 

On a roll from her successes she even ventured into Poundland. (Believe me, if you knew my step daughter you'd know just how funny this is).

 

'I usually spend £100 a week in the supermarket' she said.

 

HOW MUCH? 

 

'By going to the market I only spent £50'

 

I hadn't the heart to tell her I don't usually spend that much in a month, I didn't want to burst her bubble. The girl has to start somewhere. lol

 

Of course she blew all her savings on new clothes, but hey, she's young and she works hard, I don't begrudge her that.