Rye, Pecan and Apricot Loaf recipe

Inspired by Jordon Bourke's Healthy Baking, and his Rye, Pecan and Date Loaf, I followed his technique but changed the ingredients slightly

380ml warm water

7g fast action yeast

1 tbsp maple syrup

100g wholemeal rye

300g strong white flour

150g wholegrain spelt flour

10g salt

75g pecans gently roasted

75g dried apricots chopped and steeped in some boiling water

2tbsps sesame seeds.

We like this type of bread with cheese or pate, or toasted with honey, so I don't make a sweet loaf , so although fruit and nut, this is not a sweet tea bread. The mixture was shaped free form without the proving baskets, with one round one and two oblong.  A nice size for two people each sufficient for two meals.

I borrowed this book from our library, and it does contain a number of recipes which I have tried or will try.  

In a Vase on Monday - Miniature Daffodils

What a  small daffodil! Isn't it just perfect for a very small arrangement.  With its yellow petals which sweep back cyclamen like,  from the narrow frilly-edged trumpet, this daffodil blooms appears twice as long. The whole plant is around 12 cm high, so finding a small enough vase made me veer towards the small vases I have for snowdrops. 

Narcissus cyclamineus is a delightful new addition to the garden this year.  I remember years ago walking up in the countryside in Spain and spotting some of the smallest cyclamen I had ever seen.  At the time I thought they were so small due to their situation on the mountain path in poor gritty soil, little did I know then that these were amongst several of the different  wild narcissi which grown in Portugal and Spain.

This year I can spare but a small piece of  Corylus avellana Scooter, so needing only a small piece was an ideal opportunity to try it in a vase.  Just to balance it is the smallest of leaves from the winter green fern Fern Polypodium cambricum Richard Kayse.

I'm joining with Cathy as do several to share material from their gardens each Monday.

Six on Saturday - March's First

 One day of sunshine this Friday has lifted me.  After a week suffering from some dreaded lurgy, a gentle walk round the garden is just the thing to slowly appreciate some of what makes my Spring garden special to me. I picked up a few leaves which could have been protecting small slugs or small snails from around the spring beauties, but that is all for now, tomorrow I may sow a few seeds.

I had to tidy up a too large pile of magazines and send them on their way but tore out some amusing straplines, altering them a little and scattering them through my Six this Saturday, for my own amusement of course.  If you want to view practical, amusing or just seasonal items in the garden, the place to meet at is Jon's, whether you are contributing or just earsdropping.

1. Within a hour of the sun coming out the bees were out and the two latest varieties of crocus are now out and open ready for visitors. 

Crocus vernus Pickwick.

It is perfectly matched by Crocus tommasianus Ruby Giant . 

Groupings of both are scattered around the garden.  To think that these various clumps all came from perhaps three or four bulbs which hitched a lift in a pot along with another little shrub.

2.  The Shrub in question is a small Forsythia. I think this may well be it final resting point in the garden. 

"We've tweaked and edited and added, remoulding it a little more every year. That's the joy of it."

This shrub is at least 10 years old now. 

3. Standing at the study window looking down onto the gravel area there is a little gem of a creeping plant that has stood out all winter. It is very dark, but a good contrast against the cream stones.  Its tiny leaves are a deep metallic purple which reflect the light and unlike some of the silvery leaves or other preciouses have remained in pristine condition whatever the weather has thrown at it. None of the pictures where this plant is for sale shows the deep dark shiny winter foliage, and I would grow this never mind the flowers, for the foliage alone.

4. The red primula has survived another winter. Though I think it is loosing its vigour.  Perhaps I will try rejuvenating and moving it after it has flowered. I think they just flower so much it weakens the plant.  Is it flowering itself to death?

"We don't need the same plants in the same spot every year: we're always corralling them."

5.  I'm not sure that I find a daisy with so many petals quite as charming as one with a centre.  

6. The corydalis are starting to emerge in the conservatory bed, but just on the other side of the path, I am establishing a little clump of Galanthus Marjorie Brown just behind the Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens', a planting combination of snowdrop and this black grass that I picked on from the snowdrop weekend.  The plants arrived earlier this week from Lyn Miles, along with G. Pat Mason and G. Augustus.  However poorly I was I was not going to have snowdrops unplanted!  I think going out in the cold and rain set me back, but the bulbs have picked up very nicely.

"Using different layers of plantings, designer Ula Maria has created the space with soul her clients desired, full of contrast and character".

With such a small space, contrasts in colour, texture, changing plants throughout the season, or having ones so close together but with their different seasons, I work towards creating a garden that is seldom not able to give me something lovely to look at.

When resting I am  reading" A thing in Disguise: the visionary life of Joseph Paxton" by Kate Colquhoun. It is witty and interesting to hear about everything he got up to: visits to other gardens, nurseries and moving large trees etc. He was the right man at the right time, full of energy and with a very wealthy employer.  I am less than a fifth through, and am enjoying reading about his work. My interest was piqued only yesterday evening, by the first banana to fruit in the stoves at Chatsworth, and its connection to Mauritius.  I have looked into this further and found that Telfair sent two plants to the UK.  The story of how it came to be in Paxton's hands and what he paid for it, is further explained  in an article by The Tenerife News. There were two or three distinct types of banana available to buy and indeed my parents grew a couple of these in our garden, the smallest variety being the most sought after and sweetest.  I am not about to try and grow them here in my garden!

The Newt - First year of Membership

 After visiting The Newt early summer with our Wells WI gardening group, I decided it would be lovely to join up and so Mr S and I treated ourselves to a year's membership. Ouch!  But it has been well worth it, and we have now visited several time, including having lunches, teas and cake at the Gardening History complex and nibbles from the outside bar.  Not all on the same occasion.

At every turn there is something to enthral from the smallest details such as the paving, which varies around the many walkways

In the Parobola is this maze of apples, the concept being inspired by gardens of the Baroque Period.  When seating and sculpture celebrate the apple.

The apple trees are arranged and named, and themselves with skill and patience have been pressed into service into many forms and structures such as this Open Urn shape from just the one tree.

And will Eve the Duck be chased from the gardens for having tasted the 'forbidden fruit'?

The Parobola is not just about apple trees, carefully trimmed hedges and water features add a formality with a great sense of scale with differing views all around.

There are several ways of approaching The Story of Gardening.  This sinuous walkway built high amongst the tree tops is my favourite.

The first of our visits was merely exploratory and it wasn't until the third visit that we had time to visit The Story of Gardening, and then only half of it! Built into the hill side, or at least the earth may have been moved to cover the roof completely it is not visible from many of the paths.

We visited in August and looking back on that sun drenched day now you can see the gardens in peak summer growth. The Colour gardens separated with by woven fences through which the path meanders still have a sense of fun with peep holes...

In the  red garden movement of seed heads and grasses separate out yet enhance the strong reds.

In the Cottage Garden there is a quaint thatched cottage surrounded by beds all planted up with interesting shrubs and plants.

This has become one of our favourite places to sit and rest or even better enjoy a delicious ice cream from the gelateria where you can see the ice cream being freshly made.

This is the back entrance to the Greenhouse 

The entrance on this side leads you through a good collection of well grown cacti and succulents 

With seating in the glass house you can enjoy the climbers and maybe have a rest or enjoy a snack on cloudier or cooler days.

Inside the Greenhouse even the grill on the drainage channel has enchanting apple details.

Within the woodland areas are stumperies and fine tree specimens

We decided to leave our first visit to the Japanese garden for a later visit

There are sun-drenched beds and cooling ponds

More details of the gardens on further posts as and when.

These are the most enchanting of gardens, and really sufficient for several visits, it would be exhausting to cover the whole lot in one go, indeed this is a garden in which to linger and enjoy small areas, making the return visits something very much to be looked for to.

In a Vase on Monday - 28 February 2022

 A tiny small offering of a vase filled with Cyclamen coum.  A couple of sprigs of Hebe Topiaria accompanies flowers from different cyclamen plants which again have different leaves: some pewter, some patterned.  The colouring of the cyclamen varies too mainly around the auricle. 

There is plain white one , and pale pink ones.  Yesterday afternoon I was gardening and I was drawn to one of the silver leaved forms in which the colour varied across the petal: pale pink with a darker shading around the edges.

The light was failing, so I had to use flash, but the flowers show up well against the black background.  Today I shall be scrabbling around in two quarries looking at the complex stone structures but will be back later and hope to read everyone else's posts as they link into Cathy's anchoring post.  

Will any of you be at tonight's Zoom webinar hosted by the HPS Galanthus Group when Brian Ellis will be talking?  See you there.