Boing boing boing....

Yes, Spring has sprung again! And I know I always rhapsodise over Spring, but I just can't help it.  Especially this year, after a good 6 months of Winter... The garden is looking a bit tired and I clearly need to get out there with some fertiliser and a good watering in. But you can smell that smell of things growing.

Last weekend I beggered myself  assembling a new arch for the corner plot, stripping out the greenhouse, cleaning it, boosting up the pots and planting tomatoes/chillies/cucumbers. I also disassembled my strimmer and figured out how to change the cord, and gave the lawn a good mow.  Waiting for a bit of rain so I can weed and feed it too.

But I'm tinged by a little sadness this year.  I may be moving on to pastures new within the year (and a new gardening challenge perhaps). But it's hard to leave the old garden that you have nurtured for so long.  It is far from the grubby, bramble and nettle filled lot that it was when I moved in.

Let's face it, I am not an apartment living kind of gal. I'm sitting here typing with dirt under my nails from the spot of watering and weeding I did this afternoon, and I'll be going back out this eveing to plant up the trays of seedlings, clematis and jasmine I bought at the garden centre on Sunday. Bliss....  I might just grab a cup of tea and soak up some watery vitamin D in my back yard.

Barrow of Glory

In celebration and commemoration of my significant birthday last month, I decided to donate a barrow to the Wandle Trust river clean up crew. 

However, I felt that it needed some appropriate personalisation and thusly, found myself on the day before it's inaugural launch at the April cleanup, nipping in and out of the garage in the cold and wet, painting red kiwis along one side and blue swirly water along the other. All in completely inappropriate paint that seemed to need 4 coats and will probably get scraped off within the first 3 outings. 

But it was good to see it in action for the first time yesterday - a cleanup on the river in Wandsworth, on the first really Springlike day we have experienced this year. How lovely was it sitting in the sun without a coat or scarf! How blue was the sky? How yellow were the daffs and forsythia out of my garden?

I had an enthusiatic surge of baking for the crew. 55 people, 40 slices of brown sugar rhubarb cake, 4 dozen freshly baked muffins - strawberry/cinnamon and apricot/oat/honey, and 4 dozen fruity/seedy flapjacks. and not one piece of anything was left at the end of the day. I came home with half a flask of cooling coffee. Better for the hips I suppose....

Master Tea Blend

I've always struggled to find a tea that I feel is completely 'me'. Builders tea has too much tannin, Earl Grey is lovely but ubiquitous these days, and then there's a raft of teas that are too bitter, astringent, dishwater etc.

I thought I would have a stab at blending one just for me - my signature blend so to speak.  For a start, I did't realise how difficult it would be to find leaf tea (instead of bags) and I have had to resort to a couple of delis and specialist tea shops. Ouch, not cheap....

I decided I was looking for something I could drink as an alternative to coffee in the morning (i.e. a distinctive and smoky pick-me-up). So I thought I would keep it simple and find a good, fragrant bergamot Earl Grey as a base and hit it with an overtone of smoke - Lapsang Souchong seemd to be a good choice, roasted as it is over fragrant pine needles.

Some trial and error was involved.  I had to get the proportions right (I really didn't like Lapsang on its own - my mouth tasted like an ashtray afterwards.) But I finally hit on a good blend for me - 80% Earl Grey to 20% Lapsang.  A fragrant mix with a smoky overtone. Since I happened across this, I have been drinking it several times a day.  The good thing about tea leaves and an infuser, is that you can use one load to make 2-3 cups of tea through the day, so it works out pretty economically.

I might try replacing the Earl Grey with a more citrussy Lady Grey and see how that goes. And perhaps design a pretty, personalised jar to put it in....