Live life outdoors

Oh I do love a Bank Holiday weekend. Just the pure joy of a long weekend so full of potential! So much to do and all the time in the world to do it! Saturday was an absolute cracker. We, Mary and I, headed off to the Garden Centre to get some replacement tomato plants. We had planted some out at the beginning of the month and lost the lot. We think it was a combination of weak plants (we left them in a heated propagator too long and they bolted) and sun scold. Anyway, regardless of what it was we lost the lot. We had some other plants that are doing OK hanging on the fence; even have a couple of fruit on them. I had also bought on some giant plum tomato seeds which I had brought on slowly and had been given a few plants by our friend Emma. We now have 24 plants so fingers crossed we will have a good crop of toms again this year. In the afternoon it was time to go and play pirates with my brother, Paul. As our alter egos, The Wessex Wyverns, we had arranged a Splash Mob – a Ge...

Good morning you lovely people Apparently May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so to get the ball rolling I just want to say my name is Phil and I suffer from Endogenous Depression. Most of the time like everyone else I’m OK, but every so often I need to take a break and reset my clock and this happened recently and my GP suggested changing my prescription which I was happy about. The only problem is the transition period which I’m in now. It’s horrible; swathing mood swings, ennui, headaches, pressure and apathy. It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks. I’ve had this for the past couple of days. I went into work yesterday and finished off a job I had promised someone and then came home as I could feel myself sinking fast. To try and alleviate that feeling this morning I thought I would cut and split a cord of pine for use with the fire pit and brazier; exercise is brilliant for helping my mood. It’s even better when the sun is shining! I got everything asse...

After the high winds/gales of yesterday today seemed a perfect day for a backyard cookout. I had popped out yesterday to pick up a joint of beef from our local butchers (remember everyone shop local!) and brought it home and seasoned it with some Cajun spice. I then left it resting in the fridge for 24 hours. After a morning's gardening, sorting out sweetcorn, brassicas, and six different varieties of tomatoes it was time to send out the Bat Signal and request assistance from my partner-in-crime; my big brother. Whilst Bruv was sorting out the fire I set to prepping the beef in the Dutch oven - a few onions and some Hobgoblin Beer. It was at this point I realised that the joint I had bought was too big for the pot. So a quick bit of butchery and I had a nice sized joint in the Dutch oven and one in the freezer for next week. By now the senior partner had a good fire going so we got the tripod ready and also the charcoal starter so that we had some coals well unde...