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Category Archives: growing

Allotment, Leeks and A Good Read

We’ve had lots of fun and lots of delicious food from our allotment over the years but the time has come to move on. We have four raised beds for veg in our garden and can get fresh veg from Community Roots so at the end of the month we will hand over the plot to a lovely and very enthusiastic young family.
This morning we dug up a lot of our leeks and have spent the day processing them all. At £1 each from the shops, they are a very valuable crop! We now have some pots of leeks in white sauce as a ‘ready’ veg, prepped leeks for the base of a risotto and four bottles of leek and potato soup – a very productive and pretty tiring day.

The current book from The ShelterBox Book Group is ‘Scattered’ by Aamna Modhin.  This is a powerful and gripping story told by a journalist who visited Calais as she was reporting on the refugee crisis and here begins to come to terms with being a refugee herself. It is a wonderful mix of personal history and journalistic detail, all told in a very readable style. I really cared about Aamna and her family and I learned a great deal about the whole refugee situation which the media doesn’t really show. There’s an excellent glossary, notes section and bibliography. It seems a perfect choice for the ShelterBox book group and I’m looking forward to the Q&A with the author next week.

 

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Seedlings, Ingenuity and A Mantra

We have hundreds of onion seedlings at Roots and they will be ready for transplanting next week.

Today we transplanted 200+ baby lettuce and pak choi plants and they are now in one of the big  poly tunnels as there is no room in the smaller prop  tunnel where the propagating takes place. The ingenuity comes in the suspended racks to create more room for the baby plants.

We are ten days into February so it’s a bit late to share this month’s mantra from The 2026 Almanac but I like it so here it is:

 

 

 

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Salad Crops, Daffodils and A Jigsaw

In between jobs at Community Roots today, I walked around all the poly tunnels to see what was growing.

I love seeing random daffodils growing on the verges.

We have just finished  one of the jigsaws given to us for Christmas. It was quite a challenge and very satisfying to complete.

 

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Amber, Yellow and Green

There is just one leaf left on the Amanagowa Cherry tree.

The roses we were given two weeks ago are still gorgeous!

We have Rocket and Lolo Blondi growing in the greenhouse.

 
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Posted by on November 30, 2025 in garden, growing, nature, Postaday2025

 

Cabbages, Waves and Thimble Cases

Another busy day for Roots with lots of volunteers working in the field. Cabbages are looking good.

Forgetting it is half term, we went down to Porthtowan to go to the Blue Bar but it was absolutely stuffed. The sea looked good though, of course.

Porthtowan

I inherited thimbles and thimble cases from my Mum. The thimbles have mostly gone to family but I kept the cases. Somehow they no longer give me joy so I’m thinking they need to move on too.

 

Community Roots and Penzance

Another busy morning at Roots for us both. The wonderful pumpkin harvest is in the store room, a gorgeous baby came with his Mum and was entertained by various volunteers and we had Roots soup for our lunch.

After a visit to Penzance hospital for a scan on my ankle in preparation possibly for a new ankle (If I decide to go ahead, they’ll 3D print the parts using the CT scan as a guide!) we took a walk along the front.

A poppy in the car park at the hospital

Looking across to St Michael’s Mount, past the sun lit Jubilee Pool

Birds on the spires

 

Eggs, Seedlings and A Posy

Every week we get eggs from friends’ chickens, all carefully dated and seeing the new dozen in the rack always makes us smile, especially when they are such varying sizes.

The winter salad seedlings are being planted out today, all on the grid so that they are equally spaced.

There was an event in the Big Shed at Roots last weekend and this is one of the vases of gathered flowers, seed heads and chard leaves used to decorate the tables.

 

 

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Dew Drops, Planting and A Good Read

Sparkly dew drops on the California Poppies leaves caught my eye this morning.

I planted up lots of winter salad leaves today, out of the mizzle and inside our new greenhouse!

I finished a very good read this afternoon, Hunger by S L Rosewarne. At its heart is a teenager with anorexia but that isn’t the half of it. It is a tale set in Cornwall  and tells of teenage troubles and family tensions but above all it’s a tale of love in all its forms, I read the opening chapters online and had to order it straightaway. It’s one of those stories where you really care about the characters and their trials and triumphs and I loved it.

 
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Posted by on October 8, 2025 in garden, growing, nature, Postaday2025

 

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Seedlings, Bulbs and A Poem

There were countless more seedings potted on today at Community Roots by an enthusiastic team of volunteers.

Meanwhile, my lovely Mr S got some tulip bulbs planted in a lovely big pot, some beautiful white ones called White Valley and some very dark ones called Paul Scherer. We need to get some other colours for a different plot, more hope for a pretty Spring..

The following poem by Kim Ridgeon came to me this morning and I absolutely loved it – its subject matter, its rhythm, its humour and its poignancy. I love the ‘book cathedral’ and the way the image is echoed throughout and I love that the ‘unboxing’ is for Kim, and for me and for his many readers, ‘a small consolation in threatening times.’  Thank you, Kim,  for giving me permission to share.
I have just received my new book from the ShelterBox Book Club which is the best of book clubs and gives me some small consolation. 

 

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Cake, Seedlings and Squash

I decorated the cake with lemon icing and we all sang Happy Birthday to our esteemed leader!

Lemon and Chocolate Marble Cake

There were very many seedlings, brassicas and salad leaves,  to pot on today and we had a team of eight volunteers on the job.

The squash harvest is in. Thanks to Amy for the beautiful photos.

 

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