Saturday 30th October 2021 - Tofu, Another Butt and Poppy Appeal

The tofu experiment worked fine but we decided the vegetables in the recipe were unnecessary. The tofu, vegetable curry sauce and rice were enough. Tofu only keeps for forty eight hours and with still half of the block left, I used some in a sandwich which was basically like coronation chicken but with tofu and no chicken, Barney had some in his dinner and now it has gone over the forty eight hours, the local gulls are having the rest. There are several more recipes in the Tofu Tasty book that look interesting which I’ll cook over the coming months.

Peter has purchased another water butt which he has installed in the back garden; this brings the total in our garden to seven. The new butt replaces a smaller one, which has been moved to the front and now links with another three of the same size. With autumn being a damp season the garden no longer needs regular watering but the pots outside and those in the greenhouse still do. There is no way we will use all the water in the seven butts over the colder months, especially as their levels will be continually replenished with rain, but with additional storage we are well prepared ahead of next summer. The recent winds have brought down most of the leaves from our greengage and the walnut and fig are fast losing theirs. I have set up the hedgehog feeding station, Peter made earlier this year, at the bottom of the garden and plan to fill it with leaves, making it a possible place for hibernation. I missed my opportunity the other day, to gather some dry walnut leaves; they are soggy now after this morning’s rain and with hibernation not far away, it may be all too late. We do have half of a large broken terracotta pot already at the end of the garden, complete with leaves, but this has never attracted a hedgehog. Thinking back to the early summer when a hedgehog was caught on camera as the culprit behind the nibbled French bean seedlings, maybe we shouldn’t be providing a hedgehog with a potential winter home!

After consulting with villagers, who have kindly collected from houses for many years for the annual Poppy Appeal, who have in turn gauged residents feelings, it has been decided that with Covid 19 still very much a risk we will not be collecting from homes this year. However, the businesses in the village have agreed to have poppy trays and collecting tins. To make people aware as to where they can get a poppy, I am putting up posters in the village, along with information on how to donate cashless by texting or using a QR code. So, today’s photo is of the poster.