The Year Round Nigel Slater Discussion thread

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello, all.

The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles readalong usually takes place here between November and February each year (the Christmas Chronicles being a book written by Nigel Slater full of winter recipes and anecdotes) It's been running for a few years, and the contributors have collectively decided it would be nice to have it running all year round.

So here it is. It is a place to appreciate all things Nigel-esque. Think seasonal food and recipes, enjoyment of nature, sharing of news and small moments of joy. It's a calm, cosy space for gentle chat and merriment so pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

@Confusedmeanderings I have image of hedgehog lying in wait for you to leave door open so it can sneak in for warm snooze.

Good morning all and happy Friday!

@Confusedmeanderings that sounds so cute, but I'm sure as you say a non house trained hedgehog isn't terribly practical. I used to have a local cat that did that and I'd get up in the summer months to find him curled up on the spare bed. He obviously liked to sneak in when I was watering the garden late at night.

Your candles sound lovely @Seasidebubbles I've not burned anything for over two weeks, but now that my sense of smell is finally back, I'm going to get out a fresh selection of candles and melts. I'm also going to get my nose into some cookery books. I've lived off some utter crap this past two weeks as I've been too exhausted to cook and nowt tasted of owt anyway. I usually check all of Nigel's kitchen diaries daily.

I'll be preparing a continuation thread in the next couple of days as we are on our last couple of pages.

Meant to mention seeds. My sweet peas were a disaster this year, with only 3 germinating. I started again and sowed some more which I think are coming through, but I also did that thing of chucking in a few other seeds then telling myself I'd remember what they were. Nope. I can see one lot are definite nasturtiums, some are antirrhinum, but I've forgotten entirely what the rest were. Sunflowers and something else. I'll check where I put the empty packets. No idea why I'm so lucky with radishes, but it always makes me feel bit better anyway. Diasca have come up trumps too, but my lobelia are still pathetic. Im still partly blaming sub standard compost. I'm going to sow some lambs lettuce, greek basil and candy tuft today as that's my childhood favourite and absolutely foolproof too.

Morning! Glad to hear things are improving @RainbowZebraWarrior

I’m having coffee in the garden as the house is all over the place - new carpet to front today so everything that has built up in the last 27 years is all over the house …

That looks like darn good coffee @Bimblesalong

I've finally planted my russet apple tree and under planted it with two varieties of aubreitia. DD was a great help, and some SR Verbena Rigida jumbo plugs arrived as we were in the garden, so she's potted those all on for me. I've also put some very late Allums in which likely won't come to owt this year. Went to the plant nursery and bought some Armenia, four different salvias, and some more dianthus jumped into my trolley. We sowed more radishes and got some cat grass seeds, which we are going to sow tomorrow. Still in the market for some wallflowers which looks like I'll get from SR. There's a plant sale at the allotment in two weeks time, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can pick up there.

I'm now shattered after just getting in from a hobble around the farmland with the dog.

Hope everyone is well.

Wow you've been busy @RainbowZebraWarrior !

Did anyone watch Gardeners World tonight? Great feature about compost from a very dedicated compost maker, I have a dalek compost bin that is easy to fill but really hard to empty and am wondering if I should investigate different ways and start using it as seed compost. Most of my seeds have germinated well and some are potted on but french beans and sweetcorn are not doing well, I might start some
more tomorrow I think. We get late frosts so no real rush to plant out, I tend to do it around half term.

Wasn’t it interesting! I had in my head not to use home made compost for seeds - not sure why or where I got that from - but his made such a difference I might give it a go. My courgettes have been so slow to germinate this year (even on a heated propagator) I sowed some more yesterday. Probably I should just be more patient

I haven't caught up with GW yet, @EarlierDistraction but likely will tonight. Although I've learned that having watched it since I was a kid, there's a lot of same old same old (certainly with the jobs this week part, which is why I stopped subscribing to the magazine) Anyway I'm waffling. I have a dalek compost bin and it's useless. Had to stop putting eggshells in as it was attracting rats then I stopped using it completely as it blew around the garden every time we had a storm. My dad has a proper Compost heap at the allotment and has been successfully composting for 40 years. I think it's a combination action of time, patience and the right methods. I do still conpost leaves in bags for leaf mould though.

Don't know if anyone saw this new limited edition of Nigel's toast, but I've just pre ordered it for myself as an early / late birthday present - birthday will have been and gone by time it's out - It's the only book of Nigel's I don't have except on Audible

www.instagram.com/nigelslater/p/DI3guvVI_zT/?hl=en

The compost feature was interesting. But my take away from the episode is I now want a wisteria tree

My local nursery is currently selling some very healthy looking small wisteria trees at £27.50 each. I'm having to sit on my hands as I don't really have anywhere to plant it (the back of my bungalow faces south, but has hard standing directly outside so it couldn't go in the ground) They are stunning though and I think the same every year.

Do it, @CrushingOnRubies! Mine is looking glorious even against today’s grey sky. And smells wonderful. I’ve got a white one over my front door, too, but it is less well behaved 😂 tries to come in the bedroom windows and so forth.
i agree that GW is very repetitive @RainbowZebraWarrior, and I don’t like the way they don’t follow stuff up (we assume Monty’s seeds all germinate precisely on schedule but we never see them) but I just find it very soothing.

Morning all.

I’m at my wits end with my garden. The tulips I carefully chose have come up and none of the colours are right - it’s a gaudy horror show!! It needs a total overhaul but I can’t do it alone and DH not keen. I also need him to finish the office if I’m honest.

Anyone have any thoughts on palm trees? I’ve got a couple, and a tree fern, as we have a nice microclimate here. Am I mad if I cut one of the palms back that is dominating the garden? I do love it but it’s so imposing I think it’s what’s ruining the raised beds. I shall snap a photo later.

I hope everyone is well - I’m off to dust the house and sort out all the bits that got neglected when I was ill.

Half price wisteria at Gardening Express atm (was just browsing for potted alliums) They are good, I've used them before.

www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/c10808-wisteria-sinensis-prolific-blue?ff=9&fp=12481&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8vspLf1jAMV3oBQBh29yyfBEAQYASABEgIidPD_BwE

The edition of Toast looks lovely. What a thing to treasure. I have it on kindle and am trying really hard not to bring too much new stuff into the house.

We have guests next week, 2 of ds2’s friends from the States and are busy readying the house. This coincided with the new carpet for the front room and we used that as motivation to get more stuff cleared out. Managed to clear a few boxes of sheet music, books and cds, although DH’s “do you want to keep these Joni Mitchell CDs?” didn’t go down well! it’s been very pleasant going through my sheet music (about 5 feet of books side to side), with some sessions of piano playing to break up the tidying. Main spare bedroom is looking good (turned it round after ds1 left home). Wish me strength for encouraging dh with clearing the other one, which he has used as a dumping ground similar to Monica’s cupboard in “Friends”.

argh at @AgathaMystery ’s tulips. You’ll just have to embrace your inner Percy Thrower. I have no views on Palms.

Well done with the clearing @Bimblesalong and hope you're pleased with the new carpet. I'm a bit of a hoarder so trying to be sensible. I do allow myself a nice book each birthday and something else to treasure. I was going to buy a Spella candle from Trudon's website, but it annoys me that it's €110 or £110. It really should be more like £95. It's also free delivery over €110 but only free delivery over £120. I'm a sod for splitting hairs.

Anyway, I had to go to Sainsbury's and this lovely wisteria jumped into my trolley. I figured I need to start spending the hundreds of pounds of Nectar points.

Just had DDs Ed Psych assessment. Drained. She managed about half and I had to do the rest on her behalf. All these assessments make her relive and put into words her worst struggles and entirely overwhelm her. She's decompressing now with headphones on amd crackers and cheese.

I'm peed off with my tulips too, @AgathaMystery although they were only Wilko cheapies just before they shut down. I'll be having a reshuffle. I don't really have much advice on palms either, but I must admit I do love to see them in people's gardens.

Finally, we had a walk around our lovely local biodiversity park earlier and were just admiring the 'what you can see here' sign and cooing over the possibility of roe deer and hares, when the biggest rat I've ever seen ran out from underneath it. DD just hmphed and went "Yeah, beautiful wildlife"

Oh, and I have some dahlias starting to peep through. Hurrah! 🌱

Sooo tempting!!!

Your wisteria is beautiful.

I agree GW is very soothing but I don’t like how Monty just does the nice bits and I wonder how many gardeners are needed full time as long meadow looks really big and needs a lot of work. It’s not an easy maintenance garden.

Two full time gardeners I believe - who he doesn't mention - and there was a picture doing the rounds a while back of 'the team', which was huge!
Edit to add link https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1589860/Monty-Don-instagram-divides-fans-longmeadow-garden-team-gardeners-world-latest-news-update/amp sorry it's the express

@RainbowZebraWarrior - rats 🤣🤣🤣
I was spotting a different kind of wildlife today. My commute to the antiques shop takes me across the Quantocks where there are wild ponies. They are wild in the way New Forest ponies are - they are owned and managed by commoners but range freely over the hills. I love seeing them!

EMERGENCY KLAXON

Agh! DD has scorched one of my le creuset! Does anyone own Nancy Birtwhistle’s ‘Clean and Green’ ?? Apparently she has the solution to fixing them on page 128ish.

PLEASE and thank you.

PS love the ponies x

I don't Agatha, but according to this thread the answer is green bleach!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/4713032-le-creuset-burnt

And her insta seems to confirm it: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLmKKjDF_75/?img_index=6

@AgathaMystery ive always lobbed some
bleach in, topped up with water and left to soak. Will be doing the same today as dh made a paella yesterday and the socarrat is part adhered to the big LeC that recently fell on my leg.

I had another middle class accident this week as I twinged my back carrying my double bass up to the Bloomsbury room (spare room). I will ask ds2 to carry it down now the carpet is in.

Ouch @Bimblesalong MC-ness notwithstanding, that sounds painful.

I agree about Gardeners World being more easy watching than actual instruction, but have followed on from Friday by re-sowing sweetcorn and French beans in both home-made and shop bought compost, we will see what happens!

I must admit I’m not into gardening but as my local supply of tarragon has stopped if anyone has any tips or recommendations for growing some myself please let me know.
On a different subject I do like the look of the lemon trifle in today’s kitchen diaries.