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Category Archives: Food

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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Pin Cushion, Baking and A Song

I’ve been working on the new curtain today. It always pleases me to use my Mum’s patchwork pin cushion. Look carefully, you can see her  tiny hand stitches.

This afternoon I made our favourite cheesecake and made it into individual servings. You may know the delicious puds you can buy in individual dishes…..I’ve been collecting the little glass pots and today made a dozen cheese cakes. We ate two to test them! .

I used this recipe.

And a song, a most important song, from Bruce Springsteen.

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2026 in family, Food, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized

 

A Very Big Birthday

Just home from the best birthday ever. Here are a couple of photos.

Our 3 generation birthday Brownie Mountain

Flowers left on the doorstep

Purple , white and green flowers from my wonderful daughters, son and their families

Cards

More tomorrow……

 

Three Gifts – A Snowflake, Cookies and A Poem

A snowflake arrived in today’s post, beautifully crocheted and a gift from a follower. It has gone straight onto our tree.

Thank you very much Judith

Another gift came today, one we were instructed not to keep until Christmas but to consume soon.  So this evening we have each had a delicious Raspberry and White Choc Chip Cookie for dessert.

Thank you S and E, absolutely gorgeous!

A fellow Humanist has written the following poem which touched me and she kindly gave me permission to share it with you.

It’s Our Christmas Too’ by Mary Fletcher
Christmas comes just at the darkest time of year
flashing lights
a twinkling tree
some time for lovely food
for friends and family
for children to be given too much stuff
for those of us with no children
to realise what we lack.
We look forward to the New Year
warm sunshine and green shoots will come back.
Those of us that do not believe in god
and worship no one
but put our faith in hope,
In folk to do their best,
we do not go to church.
we do not believe we’ll live after we die,
But we can light a candle,
share in singing,
pass some treats around.
Its our Christmas too,
Our Solstice,
Our Midwinter,
Our humanist joy,
That celebrates and treasures
Every baby girl and boy.
Thank you, Mary.
 

Colouring, Cake and Christmas Lights

We bought a delightful Advent calendar for one of our LiveWires, the Wild Advent Colouring Book – British Wildlife Edition, and she has been sending us the pictures as she colours them in. We love her precision and care.

 

Tomorrow’s cake for the volunteers is a lemon sponge in the shape of a Christmas tree.

I’m loving the effect of my trying to take Christmas lights from a moving car, being driven by my lovely Mr S.

 

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Dawn, Colours and Cake

Another beautiful dawn sky, paint charts to choose from and another fabulous birthday cake!

Our morning was spent choosing paint and then starting the job. A couple of weeks ago we had a new window fitted and now the repair plaster is dry, we can begin the re-decoration.

My very dear choir buddy had another birthday party this afternoon and another beautiful cake, this one covered in handmade sugar flowers, absolutely gorgeous.

Fabulous 90th birthday cake made by the very skilled Kathryn

 

Winter Trees, Puddle and Christmas Lights

After a delicious Christmas lunch at Trennick Mill with our friends, we drove home beside the Truro River and the winter trees stood out against the wintering sky..

Reflected in a puddle

On the Trafalgar roundabout there is a lights model of Truro Cathedral.

Nearly home, we saw a lovely nativity scene in lights.

 

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Gracie Briney, Mince Pie and Flowers

It was  a Victorian Market Day today with lots of stall holders – and some shoppers – dressed up and there was a special blast from the past in the shape of Gracie Briney, portrayed by Sue Hill, a Redruth resident born in 1773 about whom you can read  more here., 

 We had our first mince pies of the season today and they were the best! They were home baked at HomeGround, our favourite coffee shop in town.

Last week, you may have seen, I made a birthday cake for a friend and today, a beautiful bunch of thank you flowers was brought round, much appreciated.