Ahoy, Hoy, as they used to say. What's happened to the Summer? We had a few nice weeks in June, and since then it seems to have been either blowing a hooley (whatever one of them is) or damp and miserable. I'm not complaining too much mind you, (although actually I am), because whilst it's not been the best weather for getting out and about, I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. Plus it's doing wonders for the allotment, and I'm not lugging loads of watering cans full of water about! Saturday morning I ventured out into the gale for a few miles on the bike, nothing to strenuous, just a quick 50 mile blast around the local area, but there's a couple of things of the back of that that are worthy of mention. First and most impressively, I ventured out early in the hope that I would miss the worst of the rain that was forecast for most of the day. I got back home just after 11 and just as I walked up the garden path it started spitting with rain. By the time I'd taken my shoes off, it was throwing it down, and 12 hours later, when I went to bed, it was still raining. Now, I don't seem to have been having much luck recently, but maybe this is a sign that my lucks on the change? The other thing from Saturdays ride is the time of year. Now it's nearly the end of July, and as I slogged along with my head down into the howling head wind, I noticed that lots of the fields alongside my route were still filled with unripe cereal crops, and it occurred to me that none of the farmers have started harvesting yet. Now, this seems to back up my theory that we are a couple of weeks behind on the allotment, and so it would seem are the farmers. In fact checking back through the old blog posts for July 2021 and 2022, shows pictures with harvested fields and straw bales for this very same week. So what does that tell us? Well I don't know, but it does seem to confirm that the summer so far has been pretty miserable, and that my previous ramblings about the growing season being a few weeks behind are probably about right. Taking advantage of the wet afternoon I spent the rest of Saturday making jam. That Redcurrant bush I mentioned last week on the Allotment was absolutely laden with ripe currents, just waiting for picking, which is exactly what I did Friday evening. A couple of hours on the plot in the evening sunshine, yielded just over 3KG of Redcurrants from my single bush. Which I think is pretty impressive, and is certainly the most its ever produced. While I was there, there was plenty of other Veg for the picking too, and I returned triumphantly, with a nice haul to see us through the weekend, including the first of the Tomatoes. I've got to add that homegrown Tomatoes are the best thing ever. They're head and shoulders above those tasteless things you buy in the shops. I'll admit that the skins tend to be a bit tougher, but that's a small price to pay for something that actually tastes like it should do, and if you've only got space to grow one thing, I'd say Tomatoes would be the one, probably followed closely behind by Cucumbers. The next question is what to do with 3KG of Redcurrants? "The Emma" came in from work whilst I was sat in the garden destalking them and said "Oh, Redcurrants, yummy" before grabbing a handful and shovelling them into her mouth. I don't know if you've ever tried Redcurrants but they're up there with the sharpest tasting things on the planet, and it only took a few seconds before the look on her face turned from one of joy at having managed to steal some of my treasure, to a look of horror as the sharpness hit her taste buds. That'll teach her! Currents destalked, washed and cleaned, it was into the pot with a couple of spare apples to extract the valuable juice, as step one of the jam making process (Currents have annoying little pips that don't go well in jam, so the best bet is to get rid of them, and just use the juice, I find raspberries and blackberries to be the same). Apart from an accompaniment to roast meats and a tasty addition to the gravy boat, I never really know what to use Redcurrant jelly for. It's a still a bit too sharp for my tastes to spread on toast, and it doesn't really work in the morning porridge, so as a bit of an experiment I've tried Rhubarb and Redcurrant jam this year, alongside the normal plain Redcurrant jelly. I've no idea what it'll be like, but the initial tastes as I was making it seemed promising, and at the end of the day, what's the worst that will happen? Even if it's horrible I've only wasted a bag of sugar and some time (the most valuable commodity of them all), but even if it's too sharp to eat on toast I'm sure it'll add a bit of taste to the Sunday gravy. Watch this space, and if you never hear from me again, it's probably because the Rhubarb and Redcurrant Jam has been the end of me, I'll be sure to report back either way! Despite managing to hide some of it in the jam, I still had a load of Rhubarb left over and no idea what to do with it. I love it simply stewed with a bit of sugar. The only problem with that being that I'll keep dipping in for another spoonful out of the fridge and come dinner time I'm full of Rhubarb. Casting round for other ideas for using it up, I wondered if it could be dried and preserved? A quick Google, seemed to suggest that it could be, but no one seemed to have any use for it once it had been dried out. There wasn't much point in just dehydrating it so the fun of it, so I wondered what would happen if I added loads of sugar to it prior to dehydrating it? There was only one way to find out, and as before what's the worst that will happen? So Rhubarb finely sliced, covered in a good handful of caster sugar and allowed to stew for a few minutes and then into the dehydrator for 18 hours. "What's the worst that will happen"? In this case nothing. It's a taste sensation is what it is! I don't know how well it'll keep, because it's still quite moist, and being covered in sugar it's a bit sticky, but I don't think that's going to be a problem because I can't keep my fingers out of the jar. The best way I can describe it is like those chewy sugar coated sour sweets you get. It's chewy, with a sweet start from the sugar, then the tartness as the Rhubarb kicks in and floods your mouth with sharpness. If I was trying to replicate chewy, sour sweets from home made ingredients, then this would be as close to perfection as you could get. Beautiful! Right, just before I go. I came home from work one day in the week, to be hit by the most beautiful aroma of flowers as I walked through the gate. Sitting in the garden having a post work brew, it was almost overpowering.
And where was this amazing scent coming from? Well, it didn't take long to track it down to a couple of Lilly's that have just bloomed (although that should probably be "had" by now, as they won't have survived Saturdays rain). It's the little moments and things like that, which make gardening and growing things in general so special in my opinion. It's a years worth of nurturing, tending and growing, but when the flowers come out, or the veg is ready for picking, the rewards, smells, tastes and sights, are just so rewarding. And on that note, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the garden, and sign off for the time being. I'm off to Cardiff tomorrow for "The Boys'" university graduation. That's another one that took a lot of nurturing, tending and growing, but he got there in the end, and as with the flowers, it's just so rewarding to see the finished product!
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Well, here we are again. Hopefully, you'll all be pleased to know that I'm still alive, just, (quiet at the back!). Unfortunately though, it's going to be another rather dull update in this episode of "What's Paul been up to". Hopefully, you will be pleased to know that whilst I'm still not running, things do seem to be improving, and my Knee and Achilles tendons which have been giving me loads of problems are starting to feel a bit better. This has been the first week in a long time that I've actually been able to run up and down the stairs, and instead of getting out of bed in the morning and hobbling round the house like some sort of stiff legged donkey, I've been out of bed and on my feet with no problems. To that end, I've ventured back to lunchtime circuits at the gym a couple of times this week, and whilst my knees feel no where near strong enough to run on, they do feel like things are moving in the right direction, which is a positive and has done wonders for my mental health. I still think there's another couple of months ahead of me before I get anywhere near running again, but even that's better than nothing. The problem now is not pushing too fast and ending up back at square one! Whilst I haven't been running, I have still been keeping up the work commute on the bike, so the bike miles are steadily creeping up, and although I've been struggling a bit for motivation on the bike front, I think that things are improving and unlike this time last month, when even the bike felt like a slog, I'm enjoying the morning and afternoon rides into work and back again, and I'm quite enthusiastic about getting out on some longer stuff in the coming weeks. So I suppose the big question on everyone's lips is "What has he been up to then while he's not been adventuring"? Well, the main focus of attention for the last couple of weeks has been car related. I may have mentioned during my last update that "The Emma's" 206 GTI had failed it's MOT, and not just a little fail either. The main problems being the rear axle suspension arm bearings, and the fact that the fog lights switched themselves off at random. The rear axle bearings are a known issue on these cars, but not an easy DIY fix. The quickest and easiest solution being a reconditioned rear axle. But nothings ever that simple and to get the rear axle out, the brakes have to be stripped down, brake pipes removed, wheel hubs and bearings removed, and shock absorbers removed too, and then the fun of getting a heavy old lump of metal out from underneath the car begins. Never one to shy away from a challenge, it wasn't actually too bad a job, and while it was in bit's I took the opportunity to treat a few more rusty bits, clean up all the removed parts and replace all the rear suspension bits and wheel bearings etc, which should hopefully give it a few more years life. The Fog light issue, well that was another matter, mainly because I listened to "The Emma" instead of doing what I should have done and carried out some proper fault diagnosis. "The Emma" was adamant the the indicator stalk was the problem, so I duly found one on E bay and ordered it. Once it arrived a bit of delicate dismantling and reinstalling had the new one fitted and once back together, yes you guessed it, it was exactly the same. Doing what I should have done in the first place I eventually narrowed the problem down to the electronics unit behind the steering wheel and managed to find a reconditioned one for a reasonable price, which did fix the problem. Just creeping in within the 10 day MOT retest window, it's back on the road again for another year and in far better condition than it was before. Now all I need to do is sort the bodywork out, where it's starting to show a few initial signs of the dreaded tin-worm, and well be good to go for another few years. In other news, the allotments going great guns and after a slow start things are finally starting to come together. We've been eating Broad Beans and Peas for the last few weeks and tucked in to the first of the French Beans this week. There's lettuces ready to pick and I've had tucking in to home grown Cucumber, which is far superior to those tasteless shop bought ones, in my sandwiches for the last few weeks.
The soft fruit is starting to ripen up nicely too. Whilst the Strawberry crop was a massive let down, the Loganberries have been very productive, producing more than enough for a breakfast treat with my cereals every day, whilst leaving plenty left over for jam making. I'd hope that the Runner beans and Tomatoes will be in fruit by next weekend and the Redcurrant bush is groaning under the weight of fruit on it too, so hopefully there's plenty more still to come in the next few weeks. Right, where were we? I’ve been a bit remiss and missed a few of my normal weekly updates recently, and unfortunately, I think that may continue to be the case for a while.
It’s not that I’ve fallen out of love with the blog thing, it’s just that things still aren’t going quite right, I’ve had nothing to tell you about, and if I’m being brutally honest, I seem to have lost my way a bit. I think that the last time I updated these pages, things were looking up. After my problems with my left knee, I was back doing some gentle running, with a view to slowly pushing the miles back up, and although I’d had a few motivation issues on the cycling front, I was still getting out and about. Well, things rapidly took a turn for the worse again on the running front and having managed a couple of 7-mile runs, my right knee decided that it was going to get in on the action, followed swiftly by my Achilles tendons. The strange thing is, I’ve never had any problems with my right knee before and although my Achilles have been sore on occasion, this time we seem to have gone straight into full blown tendonitis with no warning, no slow build up to problems, and seemingly no swift recovery. So, I’m back to square one, but even more unhappy about it than before! On the positive side, both my Achilles and Knee are getting better. A couple of weeks ago, I was struggling to get down the stairs (especially first thing in the morning) but that’s improving now, and I am hopeful that at some point I will get back running. But it’s been 3 and a half months now and realistically I can see it being 6 months before things are right and I can start another slow and gradual build up, so I’m not in a good position. Plus, the longer this goes on the harder it will be to get back full stop, and the less inclined I am to even try! I suspect that kicking the backside out of the cycling isn’t helping on the knee front either and as I mentioned previously, I’ve really not had the desire or mental stamina recently to even try. I think that my last update covered a short 100K that I extended slightly by riding to the start and back, and I’ve since done another ride in a similar vein, plus an overnight trip, but that’s it. To be honest, I’m finding the whole injury thing incredibly frustrating and whilst I fully realise that I’m in an extremely lucky position to have the health that I have got, having gone from ultra-running and cycling, to nothing, in the space of a couple of months has really knocked me mentally. I need to do something to stop me going mad though, so to that end I’ve been throwing my efforts into a multitude of other little projects, from the allotment, to working on the van, and more recently “The Emma’s” Peugeot, which has had a few issues recently. So, there it is, probably not the update we all wanted, but an update none the less. One thing is for certain though, I’m not going to sit around moping and feeling sorry for myself any longer, I’ve done enough of that already this year. If I can’t run for the time being, then so be it, and if I have to cut back the cycling miles for a few months to allow my legs to fully recover, then so be that too, I’ll just have to find something else to do instead. There’s lots of other things that interest me and that I enjoy doing, many of which have been neglected due to the ever-increasing running and cycling interests, so maybe I’ll just go back to doing other things instead for a while, and I’m sure that when my body is ready, I’ll get back running. Because at the end of the day I love it. I love the freedom, the endorphin release from exercising, and the feeling of traversing the world under your own power, so I will get back to running and cycling, even if it kills me! But for now, it’s going to have to be other things. To that end, I’m not going to rabbit on anymore. I’m not promising anything, but I’ll try and keep the regular posts coming over the next few months and see how we get on, but for now I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the past few weeks and we’ll go from there. |
Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
March 2024
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