My Tiny Plot

Here’s a little idea for your Christmas mantelpiece. It’s really simple, just some old wine bottles filled with twigs that have been sprayed silver. With alternate silver candlesticks and tea lights to give everything a nice Christmassy twinkle.

And… this idea was totally stolen, as all the best ideas are :)

In our house, as soon as it turns 1st December it’s pretty much time to put up the Christmas tree. So this being the nearest weekend we brought our tree home. A nice 7ft Norway spruce (the bluish looking ones with thick bushy branches). I tried to get my husband to go for a Scots pine but he dug his Coloradan heels in so we went for the fir tree look.

I was reading in Which? this month that there is a shortage of big trees (some sort of planting error eight years ago!). And therefore large trees are at a premium this year. They reckon you should be paying no more than £35 for a 6ft Norway. Umm… but hey, we got free delivery and a fancy net…

The vegetable ornaments are in there, somewhere. Top middle is my London bus ornament, and on the left is a new crown one that says Bath 2011. My favourite is still the empire state building one which is just below the bus and the banana split always makes me laugh. While the most quirky one is still the little red fire hydrant. I love my Christmas tree!

This ornament was a present from a friend but I’ve decided to make it the basis for a Scandinavian theme tree made from a fallen branch that I found in the woods near my house. Once it’s all done I’ll post a photo here.

Believe it or not this weekend saw our first Thanksgiving celebration at home. Despite 50 per cent of our family being American. Umm…

Usually if we celebrate it’s because we happen to be visiting family on one of our very well timed visits.

But this year we thought it was high time that we bit the bullet and admitted that actually we should really do something. So we did.

And here is evidence of Parsnip peeling.

We even brought in the wood, invited friends around and assembled the cheese board. The boat was pushed out.

We also thought it was high time that the children started to learn about American history, those pilgrims and native Americans, that feast and naturally how to make silly hats.

Candles were lit.

And the smelly one too.

The children were allowed to watch football. And we ate and drank and were thankful for every last minute of it. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving.

If I’m obsessed with two things it’s vegetables and Christmas, in that order. So, to be given a gift that is both wrapped up in one is well… my new favourite thing.

It was my birthday last week and these little, let’s call them Christmas trinkets, popped through the letterbox having travelled all the way from sunny Denver (thanks Jess and Marta).

Now I do love a bauble or two and I have been known to erm… collect unusual Christmas ornaments, collaring anyone I know to be travelling through, or near, New York to visit Saks 5th Avenue Christmas department and buy me something for the tree! But, strange as it may seem, I do not own any vegetable tree ornaments. Until now that is.

Now I’m now the proud owner of three culinary tree hangings, one Tomato, one floret of Broccoli and one, probably chantenay, Carrot.

With a little research I found that Inge-Glas of Germany are the makers of many more miniature glass vegetables. Infact, they have the market somewhat covered. And you can get all kinds of vegetables for your tree from Onions, Asparagus to the plain but functional Potato ornament.

Oh dear, I can feel a collecting obsession coming on.

Just a few photos from our Royal Wedding Street party yesterday.

Here is the table before the guests arrived. We did a pot-luck style food arrangement where everyone brought a dish.

We cooked some Pie Minister Wills & Kate pies! They were yum.

We had Strawberries, lots of Strawberries!

And the children waved their flags like crazy. And yes, this mummy cried at least once during the wedding. It’s simply not a wedding without tears.

What did you do for the Royal Wedding?

Today, I finally dug up my Christmas Potatoes! I know, I’m a bit late but unfortunately I fell into the very trap that I warned against when I planted them back in August. Back then I said, “Just remember to dig up your Potatoes ‘before’ Christmas Day if there is frost forecast. You wouldn’t want to put in all that effort only to be foiled by a solid, unworkable soil on the big day!”

What with the snows the week before Christmas and the freezing temperatures to keep the snow on the ground, when the big day did come around there was no chance of home-grown Potatoes for us.

But today, I thought, I wonder what the crop is like under there and so I dug them up. The yield and size of Potatoes was disappointing. Only a tiny trough-full from a row about 2.5 metres long. And about a third of them were invaded by wire-worm or rotten. But the ones that did make it onto the plate were, if I might say so, rather yummy.

It may have been that tasting something out of season made me feel like I was indulging in some kind of forbidden luxury, or that they actually did taste amazing! I don’t know. All I know is that I couldn’t eat them quickly enough.

That said, I’m not sure I’ll be growing them again. The time, effort, garden space and brain space that they took up for what were meagre pickings at the end of it was not worth it. Maybe, if I had a larger garden, or a greenhouse… but until then these will be my last Christmas Potatoes.

We’re staying at a cottage for New Year with some friends. The house was built probably in the 1920s or 30s and is lovely but it’s the garden that has really stolen my heart. There isn’t a vegetable or fruit tree in sight so it’s odd that I should be so taken with it. But there is the ‘potential’ for a kitchen garden, and that’s good enough for me.

It looks like the garden was heavily landscaped some time ago as most of it is covered in lush, green moss. But it makes it look like a wild moor and like it’s been here forever.

Some parts of the garden, near the house are clearly for entertaining. There are patio areas in semi-circle shapes with fantastic views.

And I particularly like the matching stone steps. There is even what looks like an old stone plunge pool!

Then the decorative merges into the wild…

With a woodland waterfall…

and huge outsized boulders that look like the landscaping was fitted around them.

The smaller stones finally subside into a lawned area that is perfect for kids to play on.

And right here would be the entrance to my vegetable garden, complete with orchard, greenhouse and potting shed.

And a Merry Christmas to all. So…. has Father Christmas been? What did he bring you? Something yummy, something to read and something to plant I hope! Let everyone know what your very favourite present was. And… what you’ll be up to for the rest of the day? Are the family coming round? Are you eating Turkey and pulling crackers? We’ll be playing with toys, eating and calling our Anglo-American family all around the world and wishing them Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.