Christmas is coming and our Brussel sprouts are shaping up nicely. They are doing very well in the brassica cage, which has successfully kept the butterflies out this year. Keeping the butterflies at bay meant there wasn’t a caterpillar party  chomping through the plants, which gave them a much better […]

We’re just in the door from a trip to Greece. It wasn’t our usual island hopping, we were on the mainland this time. We started off visiting the Acropolis in Athens and then drove through the plains where the wheat had been harvested leaving a golden stubble in the sunshine, […]

If apples truly were the food of love we would be in business. Our garden walls are surrounded by espaliered apple trees of many different varieties. Some are ancient and gnarly but they are all flavoursome with an enormous range of sweet/sour. The stormy weather has brought a lot of […]

July seems to be the month that summer takes a break. All the cloudy weather is very frustrating but at least there’s what I call the five o’clock phenomenon when the sun seems to make an appearance and shines like it’s been out all day. We have a couple of […]

Travelling in India is always an adventure. This time we are in Kerala, in the very south, which the people proudly call ‘God’s own country’. Previously the Portuguese, Dutch and English laid claim here, and the Catholic church is very established. There’s quite a mish-mash of religions but everyone lives […]

I’m often stumped as to what to write when I begin this column but this time I really don’t know where to begin. Rustling up Christmas jollity when the people of the Gaza strip are being corralled from one corner to the other whilst their families and homes are  being […]