Plantlife

Warning: this is a filler, in more ways than one....

This is Pasta with greens, garlic and chilli, from the River Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook. The green is the case was cavolo nero - very good for you. It was delicious and a big hit, scoring highly from all of famille L. I said I thought it was nonethess better with spring greens, but was told not to be rude.

In the same vein, another veggie recipe that we tried last week. This is Green Bean Courgette and Bean salad with Tahini Dressing, also from the River Cottage recipe book. In case anyone is wondering, the bowl in both dishes is made by a danish company called Broste, and the range is called Nordic Sea. It is very wide and quite shallow and works very well for dishes like this. In the absence of birds I am moving into lifestyle blogging.

Here is one of my tomatos. It is only about 2cm wide at the moment but give it time. The variety is Costoluto Fiorentino, a beefsteak tomato. I grew these from seed, starting them off in the greenhouse in about February, and I have high hopes. Expect to see them in danish crockery soon.... 

And while we're on the topic of plants, here is a flowering Plumeria, otherwise known as Frangipani. I cut a small branch off a tree on Madeira about 18 months ago and brought it home in a suitcase. It rooted quite easily and doubled in size last summer, and then I managed to keep it alive throughout the winter which was the hard part. It is now rewarding us with vibrant flowers and wonderful scent. This along with Philodendron vines which I also grow in profusion ensures I regularly think I'm in a tropical paradise rather than in the bowels of east London suburbia.