Monthly Archives: December 2014

Ghost rider, Squashes, success

Bruno 2014: It’s all over

4 Comments

Here we have it, Bruno has finally met his maker. Yesterday morning, I got up and and with Ma’s help sacrificed Bruno. Bruno the Ghostrider has been sat in the kitchen since mid summer. From green to turning orange, has just been biding his time. Time then arrived for me to actually do something with him.

This is by far the biggest pumpkin that I have grown. Topped the scale at over 6lb’s. I had planned to soup the whole thing. However, there was no way I was going to be able to roast all of that, unless I split the amounts and hogged the oven. The plan fell as thus. Some of it would be curried, the remainder would be souped.

The curried pumpkin:

Sautee some onion, ginger, cumin and carom seeds in oil til the onions are transparent. I added some fresh tomatoes as well. Add squash, add garam masala, turmeric, salt, powdered coriander, chopped chillies and cumin if you wish. Coat all the squash. The pumpkin is quite fibrous, so add some water. Cover, and cook through so that the pumpkin softens. Then, remove lid and cook away some of the water. Can leave some if you want to have a sauce.

Bruno was also souped. I used a handful of homegrown mussleberg leeks for the base, as well as a small onion, ginger and garlic. Bruno in chunks, was roasted in a tin, a gas mark 7 for 40 minutes. In the oil, i had put cumin, chilli flakes, carom seeds,dried homegrown rosemary and a couple of sweet peppers. Once roasted, this was all added into the pan with the base. I then added garam masala, turmeric, a little paprika, lots of salt. I used a lot of salt, as I have previously found that this soup doesn’t otherwise taste of anything. As well as three small red chillies. Only as I didn’t put lots of chilli flakes in the roasting tin. The whole thing was then simmered til the squash was softened and squishy. Once softened and squishy, this was blitzed with a blender. I did have to return to hob to season though. Additional garam masala was added, and salt. You will of course have to taste to test. The seeds incidently, will be saved, dried, and saved for growers next year.

Uncategorized

Psychology Teachers of the world, Unite!

1 Comment

20140302-112416-am.jpg  brain

I am a green fingered teacher of Psychology. There are quite a few of us. Psychology teachers, that is, not sure about the green fingered variety. Though there are quite a few green fingered teachers out there.

Psychology has over the years become increasingly more popular, particularly at a pre-tertiary level. Not many places teach Psychology at GCSE/Level 2, so students only encounter it at AS/A Level/Level 3. This can often make things challenging for teachers of Psychology. Especially in terms of resources, CPD and just knowing what direction to go in. I have personally found the ATP really useful. The association of Teachers of Psychology is a voluntary organisation that supports the work of Psychology teachers. I have found them fabulously supportive over the last five years. They offer cracking low cost value for money CPD that really enriches teaching and learning. Having been to two of their last conferences, I cannot recommend them enough. The conferences that I have been to, have been informative, well resourced, and an invaluable opportune to meet fellow Psychology teachers. You can have a look at past conferences at this site. I am hoping to go next year, and perhaps share the green fingered love of all things horticultural. Once upon a time, I used to grow seedlings in a classroom. Plus the swelling idea that horticulture and mental health go hand in hand is something I find very interesting and would love to share with colleagues. As well see how many psychology teachers can grow sunflowers and how big. That might also feature in the Spring.

With budget constraints, the future of pre-tertiary Psychology all over the shop the ATP are working hard so that myself and colleagues have support. Compared to other associations, the membership price is really good value. £25, I think. Student membership is even less. So if you are a teacher of Psychology, and I don’t think it matters from which part of the globe you are in, I would certainly have a look at The ATP. The issues in Psychology are global, after all.

The brain that you see above, was commissioned from a lovely lady named Ali Campbell and you can find all the details for it here I use it in class for plenaries and questioning. It’s termed the brain of doom, but students actually ask to catch it. So I highly recommend it. For all details about Ali Campbell’s creations have a look at gethookedoncrochet website.

Squashes

Patty pan spaceship thingies

2 Comments

 

Last year small pumpkins and patty pan courgettes were grown on the plot. Didn’t try this them this year. Firstly as the seeds failed, and second I wasn’t convinced about the small pumpkins and little gem squashes.

They all grew well, nestled amonst eight stalks of sweetcorn. The sweetcorn didn’t do so well. Grew tall, but the cobs weren’t that brilliant in the least.

So was I too quick to judge these squashes? I think I might try the space ship patty pan things again. Little gem didn’t quite have the flavour, and were beaten in the taste test by roasted sweet potatoes.

Will have to check the seed stasher and see what seeds i do have. The space ship shaped courgettes were certainly a good cropper. Except when you really don’t want to see another courgette.

Ghost rider, Squashes

Belated Bruno Sacrifice imminent

All hallow’s eve has come and go. Yet Bruno the Ghost rider pumplkin is still loitering in the kitchen. Whilst squashes such as these do last for sometime, there will soon come a time where the pumpkin might have to meet it’s maker.

In the coming week, I shall try and soup the thing. Not that I am particularly looking forward to chopping it up. Takes a while, since the pumpkin is about 6lbs, with tough leathery skin. The seeds will be saved and hopefully donated to loving homes for the next generation of Bruno Babies.

In the past, we have have a few bruno babies:

 

 

 

Books

Hitting the books as winter falls

1 Comment

As the wind chills, winter descends and advent becomes under way; the time spent on the allotment gets less and less. I might potter down then, and do the odd tidy. But with darkness after school, I spent the short amount of time I do use, on the weekends. That means the evenings after work comprise of box sets and reading books.Whilst I have a small library of books-it used to be bigger, but those books that i hadn’t read in five years were donated to a college-I know have an e-reader. This means mama h doesn’t complain about the space they take up, and I can have hundreds to choose forom.

Last night after counselling class last night, I finally got around to around to finishing off http://www.amazon.co.uk/Counselling-Toads-Psychological-Robert-Board-ebook/dp/B000FA622A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417629626&sr=1-1&keywords=counselling+for+toads I had started this last year, when the level 2 counselling class had spoken about Transactional Analysis. I was somewhat stumped about it, transactional analysis, at the time and was last night when the class covered it again. Serves me right,I should have perhaps read something about it. Anyway, last night, class finished early so I decided to try again, and went back to the beginning. I’m glad I did. I always find it difficult to resume from a stuck point. The book is a quick read, but then i do tend to quick read. Very simple, straight forward, and the mechanics of counselling, from a person centred approach were there. For instance, the contract setting and the theory were very familiar. I found that useful, a way of hanging my hat on something. It didn’t feel alien. Plus transactional analysis was explained really well. Having toad and the rest of the wind in the willows cast was really useful. Though I do dislike Ratty, and a lot.

But some books are just not that easy. I am stuck on ‘P for Peril’ by Sue Grafton. Half way, and perhaps it is just my brain not wanting to negotiate it. I like reading novels in a series. If Shardlake ever ends, I am likely to be heart broken. I started at ‘A for Alibi’ and would like to make it all the way through to the end. I am currently waiting for the e-reader to charge, and I am going to try and make it towards the end of the novel. Still have a couple of phillipa gregory’s ‘Cousin’s war’ series to go. I wasn’t particularly enamoured with that series, actually. Tudor court was much better in comparison. Failed miserably with ‘Wolf Hall/Bring up the bodies’. Not sure how that has won awards or become a huge theatre show.

Have yet to finish all Fleming’s Bond novels. Not too sure, if the non-canon books are going to make it onto my list of reads.

So much read on the e-reader, not a single gardening book though.

Uncategorized

Reader, Reprise

Is there anything that HH readers would like to know more about?

horticultural 'Obbit's avatarhorticultural 'obbit

20131101-071843 pm.jpg

As the dark dank dreary days of autumn arrive; it is time to reflect.

This out going growing season has probably been the best I have ever experienced. From being a container experimenter to what is now my third year of alotmenteering. This was my second year on the plot, and it really has been a continuing learning experience.

Whilst the blog started off life as a repository and record of what I had experienced; it has become heartening to see who reads it and when. It is always lovely to see which corner of the globe is reading. Thought quite how anything compares is beyond me. One of my aims was of course to share, but to also record as mentioned above. A lot of what is sown and grown is very much a pseudo scientific experiment. I try to add detail, make observations and take lessons from what…

View original post 96 more words

Uncategorized

#NaBloPoMo: The ‘Obbit Trug

Gallery

Reblogging with Gardening Leave having festive appeal plus the trug too 🙂

horticultural 'Obbit's avatarhorticultural 'obbit

No one year is the same as the next year that follows when it comes to growing. But you always need something to carry your crop home. If you have loads of supermarket plastic bags, you need something to put those in. And pumpkins as you can see can be quite cumbersome. So naturally, having a trug is useful. I didn’t want just any old trug, I wanted a Hobbit trug. Off I went and saw to asking the lovely people at https://www.facebook.com/Loldeantimber?fref=ts

Having spotted @loldeantimber on the twitterverse, figured that they would have just the trug I wanted. I started out wanting a racing green one, or just plain green. To make it look prettier, wanted some flowers on it. I left it with @loldeantimber, and lo and behold, I got a fabulous handmade trug. Supporting British Business too! There were no air miles involved here. Though they might…

View original post 187 more words

Taking stock

Hello Advent! Christmas at the hobbit household

It’s the first of December, advent arrives in the hobbit house!

Dad retrieves the tree and accoutrements from the shed. I get chastised for having stuffed things into the shed, so he couldn’t find the stuff so easily. He then spends time constructing the six foot synthetic spruce that we have had ten years this year. It’s predecessor has disappeared into Christmas tree heaven. If it was still around, it would be same age as me. And that ‘faerie’ is actually the same age as me, a nice round thirty years old.

All the colour coded limbs are attached, slowly and with precision. Having all been bundled together with metal ties last year. Then the family tradition occurs, with pops putting the lights on. And trying not to get dizzy, as we form a chain. One threads the lights out the box, the next person goes clockwise, the third anti clockwise. Lights are then switched on, and the decorations added. We have amassed so many, but we are now down the select few baubles. The red one’s remain, from years and years. Crocheted snow flakes, pine cones, tie bows. Lots of assorted ones. But only the one faerie.

Then comes the tinsel, and never on tree. That’s for decking the halls. Or krishna and Shiva as you see. The tree itself is sat next to the home mandir.

Britian at it’s multicultural best! The season for peace, goodwill, and sharing.