Well some folks call them "bare naked ladies" because the leaves die off in the summer zo that when the bloom stem rises up, it is"bare"; however, I just call them "Colchicum's" (Colchicum autumnale 'album'), or autumn crocus...which is also a slight misnomer as they are not really crocuses, but rather "related" to them. Any way you look at these lovely plants, they are starkly white and absolutely beautiful in a dark and browning area of your garden. I am starting off with the ladies, but they were about the only bright spot out at the allotments. Check out these gardens: ...and this one ! : The lumps that you see are balls of manure that the gardener spread before the inundation came. It has just been one wet wave after another. You can see that this person has not been adding enough compost to their garden to raise the beds up each year. I worry about those leeks, leeks that stand in water will rot. What the heck was I doing out in this weather, well, I had an appointment with a chap that promised to come and donate some veg for the Food Bank. I showed-up but he did not. I was a bit miffed, you could say. Mif, mif. Right then, I was off home...on the way, we thought we'd stop by the other allotment complex (our club has two sites). The secretary did not send round the announcement that we were stopping with pick-ups for the season, so we went there to have a look "just in case". Yeah, someone had indeed brought some things--a couple of veggies and a bunch of canned veg and boxes of tea--all still before the sell-by date. Hooray!!. We had to get back home on time though. because we had ordered food and they would deliver in the afternoon. Once back home, we had a light lunch and took up our tablets to read the news and play a game or two. It was pleasant sitting there at the table looking out on the harbour tower and the boats, but over to the north-west a shocking low-pressure front was approaching at a rate of knots: It instantly became dark and we lost our interest in the world's news. Just then, the security bell downstairs rang and it was the food dude. It took a while to unload and place the food in all the proper places but finally it was dome and time for tea 'n bikkies. It was these big boxes and some smaller brown boxes with the cold items in them. BTW--we don't eat like this every week, this mass of provisions will have to do us a couple of months. Well then mates, we drug out the tea break as long as we could, but then it was time to deal with the last of the bushel of apples that have been sitting there since that last trial crumble that we made. Of course I wrote about the trial crumble and got some answers on the thread including tips from Mart--what a jewel she is. We had decided to make some crumble topping and filling and freeze it in as she suggested.... I got to work preparing the apples, and then my Bride said outta the blue--"Shall we just make another crumble now instead of waiting"? I was taken aback. Surprised. I said "Sure, because it is only a question of apple chip size." I got to work making smaller dices for her, and she began with the crumble exercise and as she was dealing with that preparation, I went back to chipping the apples for the 'sauce'. She sort of talked to herself (and me) and I could follow how things were going over there as I peeled, whittled and chopped. So then in went the crumble into the oven and the apples onto the fire and I went and selected some glass pots to begin sterilizing. Here are the results: You may notice that this crumble is lighter than the other one. This one used light brown sugar and the other one used the darker brown sugar. My Bride prefers this one. I like them both. The evidence of success: This rain is all well and good...and typical fall weather here in the Low Countries, but we have to get our parsnips out of the ground, or they will rot...that's for sure. We had so many apples this year that we hung a bag of 'em on one of the neighbour's door, as he was interested in making an apple pie. Sometimes you just forget how many apples are in a bushel. All this bad weather and the Virus has meant that we have been watching more Telly at night. Old films, talk shows, garden shows as well as nature and Discovery topics. A couple of films that we watched were, "Searching", and "Stranger Than Fiction". A "philosopher" once said, "In every disadvantage there is an advantage".
I like your philosophy SJ. This is different but your comment reminds me of it:. There is a Jewish saying that if a group of people sitting around put all their problems in the middle of the circle, when it was time to leave, each person would take their own problems back. I love the look of your apple crumble and spoke sauce! Busy bees! And I can't believe how much rain you all are getting now. And of course your title of this post is priceless!
I had peaches done the same way as the apples and decided to make a peach cobbler today ! This was a quickie one with the flour,baking powder, milk and sugar as topping instead of the crust type ! Hubby said it was good so I am taking his word for that !
I just remembered that I was given some bulbs this summer, for Autumn Crocus, that I have not yet planted!!! Sjoerd, if I plant them now, do you think they will they survive and bloom next year? The apple crisp looks delicious!
Oh dear Netty, I don't know about that. If you try it, I would say only plant some of the bulbs and save the rest. I shall have to look that up. Glad you liked the looks of the crumble.
The Naked Ladies are lovely. The excess rain is like, Enough already! The Crumble looks delicious and I think I shall search for a recipe. I admire the way you and your Bride work together.
Thanks so much, GP. You are so right that there has been enough rain. Good luck with making a crumble. Maybe I can’t have some of yours, but I’d like to see a piccy or two please.
About a week ago, I wrote a thread called, “Crumbling Dreams” and I included a recipe of sorts. You could have a look. Good luck. Thanks Cayu too for your nice comments. I appreciated the saying. I always like little philosophical remarks. It comes from the time that I was in uni. I had a double major and one was philosophy. A great major but one cannot really earn a living with it, unless one wants to teach. I took the courses hoping that it would help me develop a balanced way of thinking. Glad you liked the title. Chuckle.
The title fooled me for a while as I remember visiting a garden and there was some naked ladies there, I have just found the photo I took.
Kildale, I am so glad. you showed this foto. It is great art work. It seems that threesomes are a typical art form in gardens, as I have seen three frogs and three rabbits as well as three monkeys of course. This one fits right in except they are not doing the “hear no, see no and speak no”, or are they. I can’t see their eyes. The sequence may be wrong though.
Yes I saw that...and some of those hands are enormous. They are holding hands in an interesting way. Does it mean something or is it just for the art, I wonder.
