Flowers for the house

Tulips, daffodils and irises in vases in our sitting room - that is what I have missed during the last few months.  I love cut flowers and although I don't always have them, I would tend to buy them once every one or two months.  I didn't feel I could justify cut flowers as an essential this year - so no flowers unless they're a gift or I grow them myself!

So my next mission: to grow my own cut flowers!  This is something I have been thinking of doing for a few years now, but I guess it involved too much effort to actually act on my idea.  Now I have an incentive - grow my own or I'll have no flowers!  I have started by sowing some sweet-pea seeds and have bulbs growing which are now beginning to flower (tulips and daffodils).  We have some lovely roses in the garden for later in the year, so I think I will concentrate on growing flowers which are easy to grow.  Sunflower seeds collected from France will go nicely with the poppies and alliums that we already have growing in the garden.  I am also going to have a go at Dahlias this year.  They come in such gorgeous colours and remind me of my childhood garden in Bahrain.  The other two I am going to have a go at - simply because I love the colours and shape of these flowers - are some varieties of cosmos and the tobacco plant.

I was going to take a photo of the greenhouse - but there's not much to see at the moment apart from seed trays!  I will post a photo soon.

An update on food instead - here is a picture of some home-made goodies!

My muffins and soup!

As well as having a healthier bank balance, I seem much more inspired now to make my own things.  Nigella Lawson is a favourite food writer of mine and these banana and chocolate chip muffins from her 'Express' book were delicious and really easy to make.  Soup I do make from time to time, when I open the fridge and see lonely vegetables there from our organic delivery that we haven't managed to use yet in a meal.  This one is brocolli soup which I made on Monday at lunch time while my daughter played outside in her wellies with the dog.  Simply brocolli, onion, potato and vegetable stock with some cream stirred in at the end - yum yum!  The oranges and lemon will hopefully become Seville Orange marmalade in a day or two - I must admit that I am a bit intimidated by embarking on this challenge of making marmalade, but I will pluck up the courage - just need a little bit of uninterrupted time to concentrate on setting points!

Bye for now.