Garden Grub (not the good kind)

While I have started putting in the raised beds I blogged about last time they aren’t full off top spoil yet. I got them built quick enough but the weather wasn’t great so I didn’t  move them from the garage till Tuesday, I was going to do a blow by blow picture blog of putting them together but being that I was winging it I decided that instead I’d just concentrate on the building.

While preparing the area that the beds were going I turn find a few creatures lurking beneath the surface hiding form the cold, the award for ugliest goes to this guy.

Vegetable Garden action plan part 1

Phase 1 of my plan to build a couple of raised vegetable patches is almost complete.  Rather than spending my Friday night in a pub or something equally sensible I borrowed a friends truck and went to a super sized hardware store to buy supplies.  I also went to a few garden centres and tried to by top soil but it turns out I’m early, and no where has any yet.

Do these people not know the early bird catches the worm?  I think they do but they also know that while the temperature is still dropping below freezing not many people are as stupid as me and want to play in the dirt.

I did manage to get in touch with a local farm who has horses, they are giving me some manure to spread across the bottom of the beds once I have dug out the area. This isn’t in place of compost, in probably won’t even get near the roots of whatever I plant, its more to encourage the local worms to come on mass to my garden.

I opted for cedar planks for the frame, they were more expensive that I expected and I spent more than I really wanted to, but I’m against using treated wood when I’m going to growing food in there (leaching of chemicals etc) and I don’t want to use a cheaper untreated wood other wise it wont last more than a couple of years at best.  Cedar seemed to be the wood that fitted the bill, rot pest and somewhat weather resistant.

When put together it should look something like this (without the green shirted man or the matured garden in the background);

Nothing has actually been cut, sawed or dug yet but as this is just the start of the weekend, hopefully I’ll have 2 raised vegetable beds ready to go,  except for the lack of soil!

The times they are a changing

Anyone with an astute eye will notice that I haven’t yet managed to get my blog organised enough to have a tab for movies this year, or even post my top 5 movies from last year.  Its coming, I just decided that I want to change the look of the blog too, and I ont want to rush that.   The layout as it is was put together when I hadn’t posted a blog in my life, I liked this template and it worked well with a picture I had taken down in the woods overlooking the ocean on a particularly thoughtful day.  It tied in well with my blog name.

However I think like all brown leaves eventually do, its time for them to fall and a bit of a Spring shake up is on the way, complete with new pics and a new template.

Pulled Pork Pizza

I’m sitting here thinking what I may have for dinner, and wishing that I had the time to make another round of pulled pork pizzas like I did a few weeks ago.  It dawned on me that I never actually uploaded a picture of what was by all accounts the single greatest pizza ever crafted (by me anyway).

So here one is;

I know what you’re thinking.  You feel cheated, its not quite the image you had in mind after the intro I gave it, but bear in mind that I couldn’t be bothered taking pics with style I just wanted to eat, and like with all good food, the proof was in the tasting.

I do feel proud of myself in that each of the main parts were all made from scratch, from making pizza dough for the first time, to create a pizza sauce that was amazing, to using the left over pulled pork meat that I had slow cooked the day before.   Hopefully I’ll find the time to whip up some more soon.

The pulled pork recipe I used I blogged about here

Spiders getting an early start

Although Winter doesn’t officially end until the weekend my morning dog walk through the woods had me scrapping a number of spiders webs from my face.  It seems that they’re eager to get Spring started this year.  While I don’t mind spiders, I don’t like the fact their nights work leaves me looking like a weirdo dodging a web assault course that only I can see.  Anyone more than 2ft away would just presume I’m from the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks.

Spring cleaning takes on a whole new meaning

Although I still feel winter every time I go outside, its fair to say that it’s on its way out.  The sight of a few bulbs popping up shoots highlight that warmer, lighter days are on their way.  Normally I take the concept of ‘Spring cleaning’ with a pinch of salt, I’ve lived in apartments for that many years that shy of finding a semi finished bottle of booze tucked in the back of a cupboard, forgotten from some long since past Christmas party there isn’t a lot more to do than any other day of the week.

Not this year.

Last summer I became a home owner for the first time, and I have to find the time to sort my garden too. Simple in theory but having never had a garden before it’s a lot of planning and not a lot of action so far.  The main aspect I want to tackle?  Veg patch. With nothing in the store as good as home-grown for taste and current news reports constantly telling me that food prices will take a sharp rise this year, it seems now is the time to start producing some of my own.  I have cleared part of the area, and I have my plans drawn up and whats pictured below should become a hotspot of vegetable goodness in the weeks to come.

 

 

Mini Whistler

A great wee vid (even better tune)

If you have ever spent time in Whistler you’ll be hard pressed not to have a smile.

Xbox dead again

3 days past warranty and the Xbox has died again.  Don’t think I’ll bother replacing it this time, the world of kinect will be lost on me. Although in fairness I don’t really have time anyway….

 

Caribbean Caterpillar

Absolutely loved my week in the sunshine, I actually thought I may blog a bit while I was there but rum punch and lying on a beach got in the way. I did spot and photograph this monster Caribbean caterpillar in the garden of where I was staying though.