MICKEY’S BLOG
In the days before Instagram, Mickey kept a regular blog of snippets from Glenmore House.
You may enjoy looking back through them!
Flower workshop….
Good heavens....what a day! Filled with activity, smiles and breathtaking beauty. As last time, it all kicked off with lovely Jardine Hansen hauling buckets of flowers....(this time the ones that herald the spring season) into the Dairy, on an astonishingly bright...
Herbal garden know-how….
I'm rather sorry to say that I took hardly any photos at our lovely Herbal Garden Workshop.....and it wasn't that there weren't pretty pictures aplenty to take....more that there was an awful lot going on - a frenzy of activity from day's beginning to end! With...
Productive winter….
It's true, for the Kitchen Garden never rests and it's been producing well. As we steadily build towards peak spring harvest, there are some sights that are only to be captured at this time of year. Like the cauliflower leaves pegged together to keep sunlight at...
Windowsill delights…
I inadvertently picked a long stem of tiny pea pods last weekend & was so cross with myself - peas are just SO fragile. So I brought the stem inside & popped it into a tall jar of water on the windowsill. To my great delight, the peas have continued to...
Loads of lemons….
Just look at what the morning's pruning yielded!! They're about to come inside for a big bowl on the kitchen bench....the smell should be intoxicating!
Herbs and petals for lunch….
I do so love to pick bouquets of herbs, leaves & flowers to add to a salad or for some tantalising interest...in my sandwich at lunch time! I rather chuckled to myself the other day when I made the yummiest sandwich of chicken, mint and calendula petal for...
Stefano Manfredi at Glenmore…
Early on what was a VERY chilly Saturday morning, the delightful Stefano Manfredi took to my kitchen garden with baskets, a colander and a knife. And so the preparation for the day's activities began... The last of this season's Clementines were plucked from the...
Do your peas squeak…?
I do hope so!! I always forget til there are more than a couple to harvest at once (those are eaten on the spot!)....but as soon as you are holding a handful, you will discover that FRESH PEAS SQUEAK! Try it!! If ever there was a reason to grow your own, this is...
Delicious shoots of broccoli….
Looks like its broccoli for dinner! So thrilling: on plants where we've already plucked the main head from the centre, there are now loads of side shoots to harvest. But remember when preparing your own - it takes only moments to cook (and there's nothing worse...
Making cakes today….
Ready......steady..... Bake!! What a fantastic bunch of very good-humoured girls were here for our Cake Making Day today!! We had the best fun - despite a power cut which threatened to call a halt to our efforts. In the end, all five cakes were baked. A cracking...
Spring is in the air…..!!
I just knew it - yesterday....you could just sense it....smell it...and hear we have the first sign!! The very first almond blossom has opened today, and since I spotted it, there are about four - who knows how many by this afternoon! I gather we're expecting a...
More discussion on peas….
I do hope you won't tire of me and my peas....I just think they are so exquisitely beautiful, delicate, fragile. The tallest are now in heavy flower and each day or so I'm picking a couple of pods more than the previous one - mostly sugar snap (SO sweet), but the...
Brassica time…
Here at Glenmore, August is the month the brassicas begin. The white cabbage moth has finally been chased off by the cold; the days are sunny and so finally this rich group of leafy greens has the opportunity to come into its own.We have mountains of...
Roses and thyme…
And still we have roses.....Last week it was the last Abraham Darby. This week it's the last of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose peculiar musk smell I've grown to enjoy over the years. It's nothing like the deep perfume of some, and comes as...
Pruning path….
Each year I do this....and each and every year, I wonder if it will, once again, become this (below) in the spring? But right now it looks like the top image and so once again I almost hold my breath! But I really love pruning the garden - taking away the old...
Sweet parsnips…
Am I thrilled or am I thrilled???? Root veg and I have a real love/hate relationship - they just don't always work for me! But it would seem that this time around, gardening on a wing and a prayer (see blog post 14 December) has actually worked!I know I won't...
Winter delights….
A couple of roses, sprigs of red elk mustard, some good green salad leaves & a bunch of cavolo nero. I have to laugh when it comes to men and cavolo nero - so visually beautiful, they seem (on the whole) to loathe eating it, so I keep tossing small...
Pea shoots begin….
Now - I admit I took this photo about 4 weeks ago...but things still progress slowly on the pea front. We are enjoying the odd pea shoot - tossed into a salad, wilted into pasta, or munched in the garden, straight from the spiralling plant (the best!). We have the...
Fennel, fennel everywhere….
Three of my favourite ingredients.....fennel, lemons & mint.... While the lemons & fennel are in abundance, mint at this time of the year is a little bit more difficult to find, and every sprig is treasured. It's so thrilling to have this kind of quantity...
Potatoes on the way…
NOW we're getting back into the swing of things!! Such great excitement - the potatoes arrived at the end of last week - a cardboard box in the post, packed full of paper bags of potatoes! I ordered 7 different varieties this year and will look forward to the end...