tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71638072604981596722024-02-02T04:27:46.677+00:00Cash and CarrotsRead on for my thoughts about growing your own and saving money!
Bit of nature and environmental stuff too!
Now with a list of local markets in the Links section!Cashandcarrotshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05905320173806494989noreply@blogger.comBlogger301125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-7077552409171923562023-12-31T17:36:00.003+00:002023-12-31T17:38:44.412+00:00End of 2023 blogWell, another year ticked off the calendar! And, despite many online casting doom around instead of joy, we've had a lot of reasons to enjoy this year!In January, as well a three Great White Egrets at Lin Dyke at Fairburn Ings one day, we saw another interesting sight on another day a cycle ride to Wetherby. If any reader recalls watching Bagpuss, one will be familiar with the story involving theMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-62997661145980961052023-05-08T17:44:00.001+01:002023-05-08T17:44:10.326+01:00Wildflowers near where I liveFor the past couple of years we have been getting more interested in identifying wildflowers when out and about on walks and cycle rides. There's so much to learn and so much that we think we overlooked before!In order, these picture are of Bugle, Cowslips, Bluebells and Lesser Celandines and Wood Anemone. The Lesser Celandines in particular have been all over the place this year, big areas Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-53756570959914824642023-05-08T17:06:00.004+01:002023-05-08T17:08:05.545+01:00Allotment UpdateIt has been some time since the last blog, I really ought to keep up to it! One of the things I have been doing quite a bit of recently is recording sightings of various species on iRecord which is a fantastic resource, like iNaturalist and BirdForum for recording sightings. Another app I have been using is PictureThis which, although not perfect, does get most things right or at least Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-38394593944806156262023-01-01T16:20:00.003+00:002023-01-01T16:20:42.614+00:00Winter Protection in the Allotment Many of the plants in the allotment are winter hardy - the fruit trees and bushes shut down for winter and vegetables like parsnips and leeks will be fine in cold weather. However, a few of our plants do need a little bit of extra protection at this time of year. This is our Mayer Lemon tree. It used to live in our house but was always getting plagued by scale insect but we found that Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-45363122736712382252022-11-10T20:27:00.003+00:002022-11-10T20:27:52.478+00:00Little Asby Common - Part 2 - insects, birds and frogs In Part 1 of this blog series I looked at some of the plant life on Little Asby Common, Cumbria which we saw when we were staying in the village. In this blog I share some of the wildlife we saw up there. Like many uplands in the UK, you can hear curlew with their bubbling call, though we were too late in the season to see some of the other waders that nest in the area and too Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-38371874521223505022022-11-10T07:35:00.004+00:002022-11-10T20:28:37.037+00:00Little Asby Common - sheep wrecked?? Part 1Whilst on holiday in the tiny village of Little Asby, near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, we were able to take several walks up onto Little Asby Common which is a limestone pavement moorland and common land. This extends over towards Sunbiggin Tarn, which is a small lake a few miles away, of which more later. There is a lot of archaeology up there, going back thousands of years and beyond Sunbiggin Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-8464248933684813802022-11-06T20:05:00.003+00:002022-11-06T20:05:54.142+00:00Autumn in the AllotmentGosh, it has been a while since I have posted on the blog! Have been pretty active on Twitter and been spending a lot of time sorting through photographs taken whilst on holiday in Cumbria, near Kirkby Stephen, of which more another time. I also have been doing some website and social media volunteering for https://futureoftheamazon.org/ , a non-profit foundation helping indigenousMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-41877446318876036852022-04-24T15:19:00.005+01:002022-04-24T15:19:46.430+01:00Cassoulet - ishI enjoy cooking but have, I suppose like many people, a fairly limited selection of dishes that I can actually cook! I find recipes in books and online often way too complicated for me, not that I can't understand them given time but that I just want to get on with throwing things into a pan, wok or dish, frying or bubbling or oven-cooking it up. However, having gone round my usual list of Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-91826172930876114562022-02-13T19:57:00.006+00:002022-02-13T20:00:34.649+00:00More local dinner!It has been some time since I blogged although I have been active on Twitter on many topics (@cashandcarrots). One of these is local food. I live in an area with many local livestock farmers and the beef, pork and lamb in my local butchers is raised on a farm three miles away. The chicken is from a couple of farms, around thirty miles away in different directions, and more on one of these later. Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-32254563123709592262021-11-09T20:34:00.001+00:002021-11-09T20:34:08.988+00:00Local dinner!First of all, for all those reading in the North of England, no I haven't gone posh and decided to call my evening meal 'dinner'! But a headline of 'local tea' would be confusing in other ways, so 'dinner' it is, even though it wasn't at lunchtime!When I got home from work, light was fading fast so it was a quick trip up to the allotment to pick some carrots and a turnip. As I have mentionedMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-25288722347658994712021-10-16T20:07:00.002+01:002021-10-16T20:07:36.796+01:00Wheldrake IngsIt is some time since I have visited Wheldrake but had a trip out with family earlier this week. For those who don't know, Wheldrake Ings is managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in partnership with other land managers and is part of the Lower Derwent Valley National Nature Reserve which extends all the way down the River Derwent to Bubwith. This area floods extensively in winter (and can at Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-92214177585414355662021-08-29T15:08:00.000+01:002021-08-29T15:08:00.729+01:00Allotment Update - late August 2021 Guess what I have spent a fair bit of time doing in the allotment?! We've been eating home grown potatoes for the past month or so but a couple of weeks ago, the haulms of the many remaining potato plants got the first signs of blight, so I chopped off the leaves, with just stalks remaining above ground to mark where the plants were. I've given the skins of the potatoes a little time to Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-41614415980275210892021-08-22T19:23:00.001+01:002021-08-22T19:23:11.890+01:00Gymnastics in the Wasp Olympics!This wasp was busy performing gymnasics on a piece of fruit as it cleaned itself in the composting bag in the yard! Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-26773304510815278512021-08-01T08:12:00.003+01:002021-08-01T08:16:31.376+01:00MulleinOver the past few months, we've been spending a bit of time trying to identify wildflowers. In fact, this has opened our eyes to quite a number of plants that we probably overlooked before and indeed some that we don't recall seeing. There's a new cycle route opened recently along the long-retired railway line from Tadcaster to Wetherby. Some of the route, from the Thorp Arch Trading Estate Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-17157186884069550882021-07-29T21:13:00.003+01:002021-07-29T21:13:59.504+01:00Context and Accuracy in Climate Change ConversationI have recently been in conversation online with two individuals about the way in which incidents are described in relation to climate change. Of course, very few sensible people now doubt the science of climate change and that it is happening. There are online troll and bot accounts, and indeed individuals linked to some of the known lobby groups and polluting industries that do sow doubt Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-27879437860710803332021-07-28T21:14:00.002+01:002021-07-28T21:14:22.491+01:00Grazing meadow biodiversityI took this picture this week, near where I live. I was going for a walk anyway with my family, but having had a rather frustrating conversation with a fundamentalist vegan online I wanted to illustrate the point of how this landscape differs from one which is monoculture crops. This blog is based on my Twitter thread. (note - everyone makes their own choices as to their own ethical Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-19498509605596349212021-07-28T19:41:00.002+01:002021-07-28T19:41:15.121+01:00Fledgling blackbird in the allotmentToday I went up to the allotment before the heavy showers came, the two jobs being to pick more blackcurrants and to thin out grape bunches on the vine we have trained along the fence at the back of the plot. However, I noticed that in the hedge were the noises of young blackbirds and shortly afterwards found one sitting in the Falstaff apple tree. Can you spot the blackbird? He was Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-19379458007299966072021-07-07T19:28:00.000+01:002021-07-07T19:28:00.513+01:00Leafcutter BeeIn this post I talked about the Leafcutter Bee that came to visit our back yard the other day. In one of the pots we haven't used this year have been some weeds that I have left to grow to see whether they were any good for pollinators. Discovered that the Leafcutter bee(s) have been busy! In the photograph there's the semicircular holes where the bee(s) have cut out sections of leaf toMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-5711092996031712652021-07-03T19:18:00.004+01:002021-07-03T19:22:25.026+01:00A New NormalIncreasingly, the narrative in the media and spoken from the mouths of political and business representatives is of, "Going back to normal". In the UK, the date has been set for this 'normality' as being July 19th. Negotiations with the virus appear to have failed or maybe never got going in the first place. Of course, who wouldn't want to be able to go out to the shops or a restaurant or Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-76314379756003720922021-06-28T18:33:00.005+01:002021-06-28T18:33:59.722+01:00Allotment update - 28th June 2021Well, it has just been Midsummer and the weather has decided that it is late September. Whilst the rain is welcome, in that we don't have to do much watering, it does mean that the local slugs and snails have some exciting meals out....The allotment is divided into five main sections, four rotational beds and one permanent bed, although at the sides of each rotational patch are some permanent Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-46661595843451735632021-06-25T16:57:00.003+01:002021-06-25T16:57:56.801+01:00Local BeesWe spend quite a bit of time making our garden, yard and allotment a pollinator-friendly oasis. Quite apart from the benefits to the local insects, another motivation is that over the past few years many gardens in our street have been paved or tarmac-ed over and some of the other nearby allotment owners still cling to the weedkillers and other chemicals or insist on mowing and strimming Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-19241063884123154562021-06-06T19:29:00.001+01:002021-06-25T16:06:06.458+01:00Allotment Update - 6th June 2020Finally, over the past week or two, the weather has improved and there's been some warm sunshine! The garden and allotment have responded and it now looks like we actually grow things!Today, these were the first of the broad beans to have with Sunday lunch, the plants being overwintered with protection on the coldest nights in winter and early Spring.They have grown a bit sideways rather than up Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-42599917283571485822021-05-12T17:06:00.065+01:002023-01-24T17:19:36.326+00:00List of UK Independent Wool Spinners, Dyers and Suppliers
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-11315585762064420872021-05-02T19:57:00.000+01:002021-05-02T19:57:13.117+01:00Allotment UpdateIt is a very slow start to Spring at the moment. Unduly cold, lots of overnight frosts and, it is said, the frostiest April in sixty years here in England. On many evenings we have had to go and cover seedlings and the fruit trees to protect them. The little lean-to greenhouse in the front garden has been getting full!I think the damson tree hasn't appreciated the cold nights and there's Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163807260498159672.post-44213642701926382272021-04-11T15:45:00.001+01:002021-04-11T15:45:25.507+01:00Wildflowers at Hetchell Wood - Yorkshire Wildlife TrustEarlier in the week, we took advantage of a sunny day, albeit not that warm, to take a walk in Hetchell Wood, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust site a few miles away from where we live. We visited briefly a few weeks ago and it was really muddy but after a week of dry weather all the paths were clear and passable. Theres areas of old quarrying now with impressive beech trees growing, some of which Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00881349100243638001noreply@blogger.com0