Summer Updates

33 weeks old & still smiling...

So, as the summer has passed by I realise that I have been delinquent in my responsibilities to provide you with regular updates. Such are the pressures of fatherhood.

I will leave the stories of superb sweetcorn, brilliant beans, and the mystery of how butterflies and caterpillars penetrated my hermetically sealed cabbage beds for a later date.

Below are some 'milestone' pictures from the summer. Check out the October archive for the full listing.

Shout at daddy!

Summer visitors - David

"Carrot (eating) and Raspberries (blowing) - my favourite combination"

Solids have their problems - A distraction is needed!

New experiences - first solids (organic courgette, of course!)

"I like my silly hat!"

New experiences - Mummy in a bottle.

Summer visitors - Rachel, Paul, Emily & Daisy

Summer visitors - Pete, Paula, Cameron & Louis (and Pauline)

Summer visitors - John, Julia & Ellie

Suspended animation

Coal What?

Our recent trip to Glasgow highlighted the need for me to expand my blog to educate you readers in the way of the vegetable. Conversations and comments over the past few weeks have clearly indicated that you are confused by anything more unusual that a potato, so I'm planning to include a seasonal report on the 'Vegetable of the Month' for your benefit.


Kohl Rabi

Kohl Rabi (or Kohlrabi), Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L.
A brassica of northern Europe originating in the 15th century, popular in Germany and latterly the Indian sub-continent. Kohl (German for Cabbage) and Rabi (as in Turnip - check your Latin dictionaries), it's perhaps not surprising to find that Kohl Rabi is also known as the 'Cabbage Turnip'.

Unlike many other brassicas, Kohl Rabi is grown primarily for its swollen stem, and not its leaves (although the fast growing nature of the plant mean the leaves can be used in a similar way to spring greens, if you like that kind of thing). A fast growing vegetable, Kohl Rabi is often grown as a catch crop and can take as little as 8 weeks from sowing to be ready for the dinner table. A hardy crop that is tolerant of drought, Kohl Rabi has a long growing season. Traditionally green varieties are grown in spring and summer and purple varieties in autumn, although there is no real reason for this to be the case.

Kohl Rabi should be harvested at a size no larger than a tennis ball for the best flavour and texture. If harvested when smaller than this it doesn't need to be peeled. Kohl Rabi has a fine crunchy texture, similar to that of turnip, but a delicate yet distinctive flavour more akin to mild broccoli. This mild flavour and excellent texture lends raw Kohl Rabi as an excellent addition to a salad or as part of a stir-fry. Alternatively it can be used to create an excellent soup or a general vegetable dish. I would say that to retain the best flavour and texture, Kohl Rabi probably shouldn't be boiled, but then again that's my advice for most fresh vegetables. Try steaming or oven baking for a healthier option. Older Kohl Rabi have a more starch texture and a less refined flavour, and need the fibrous skin peeling before use. Often growing as big as a grapefruit, the older vegetables are best used in stews and casseroles. Ideally pick the vegetables earlier than this, par-boil and freeze.

This year I am making success ional sowings of a green variety 'Olivia'. The first sowing in late February started its harvest in mid-May, and should run through to the middle of June. It is currently yielding a high quality crop with little surplus, so if you want to try some of mine, tough luck!

Kohl Rabi Gratin (serves 2)
5-6 Kohl Rabi
2 Onions, sliced
Handful of fresh green herbs (parsley, oregano, chives)
2 oz Butter
2 tbsp flour
10 floz Milk
4 oz Cheese, grated
Breadcrumbs



Remove Kohl Rabi leaves and cut off the root. Peel if large and rinse. Slice into 1/4" thick rings.



Grease a pyrex dish with a little butter and fill with alternate layers of the Kohl Rabi, Onions and herbs seasoning lightly with black pepper.
Create a cheese sauce from the butter, flour, milk and cheese and pour over the top.


Cover and place in a pre-heated over, 190c for 1 hour


Remove the cover and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Return to the oven for 10 minutes to brown off.



Serve with a green salad or try the Kohl Rabi greens (NB:- note that the greens are green, and not a khaki grey colour! They have been dropped into boiling slightly salted water for 2-3 minutes only. Ensure that any thick stalks are removed before cooking. These greens are quite tough and bitter, and are well suited to a dish such as colcannon)

This dish can be 'stretched' with layers of potato, turnip or other root vegetables. Cooking time can be accelerated by par-boiling the Kohl Rabi.

Organic Principles

I’ve never claimed to be an organic gardener, although I do claim to follow organic principles. This means I follow a strict organic regime, up to a point. Organic fertilisers, peat-free composts, organic pest control. However, gardening requires a degree of pragmatism and you need to recognise when the organic methods just won’t work. This is why I’m still spraying areas of my garden with glyphosate instead of weeding the entire plot by hand (although all of the cultivate areas are weeded by hand). This is also the reason why, when my gooseberry’s are invaded by their annual nemesis, the Gooseberry Sawfly, I ignore the advice of picking them off by hand or spraying with a soap solution, and reach for the organo-phosphates.


My favourite Gooseberries with visitors (but not for long!)

Every year the sawfly larvae hit my gooseberries, but usually not as early as the first week in May. They must be one of the most devastating pests of the fruit gardener. They have no predators which can pick them off fast enough (at least, not in my garden), and can completely defoliate a gooseberry bush in less than 2 days. So rapid is their attack, by the time you realise what’s happening, it’s too late. However, this year much to my amazement, I caught the buggers just as they hatched out and nuked them with my favourite carcinogen. Hopefully this will mean a healthy crop of berries later I the year, and a healthy bush for next season.

Amazingly, fan mail continues to pour in inquiring as to the state of my Broad Beans. Well, most beans survived and flourished and I can now announce our first bean harvest of the season. Last year’s harvest was taken too late. Beans were too big and consequently both tough and bitter. This year I’m taking them earlier. As well as harvesting the podded beans, Broad Beans are very tasty if taken young and eaten whole, like Runner or French beans, in their pods.


Broad Beans - They survived!

Very tasty indeed. Even Alex gives her seal of approval!




Broad Beans - My favourite!

Broad Bean and Butternut Squash Risotto (serves 3)

You may notice a bit of a theme developing here. My repertoire does extend to dishes other than risotto – honest! However, when it comes to cooking vegetables with distinctive or delicate flavours then a couple of basic rules apply – make it simple and cook it fast. Risottos work well to bring the best out of vegetables, and also satisfy my 2 new cooking criteria, which have been developed since Alex’s arrival –
• You should be able to eat your meal with one hand
• Your meal must taste good when cold

Look out for my “New Dad’s Cookbook – How to beat malnutrition” – in all good bookstores for Christmas.

One other thing I should point out. Like my previous recipe, this one states that it serves 3. In fact, Kath and I get through this between the 2 of us. You should bare in mind that she is still eating for 2, and I don’t eat breakfast or a large lunch – (this is how I keep my trim figure), so this tends to be my ‘meal of the day’.

Anyone on an Atkins diet can look away now. This is recipe is high carb, low protein. Ideally, prepare the squash in advance and allow to cool before skinning to speed up the cooking process. Serve with a green salad and a bottle of dry white wine.


Broad Bean & Butternut Squash Risotto


1 Butternut squash, deseeded and cut into 6 wedges, lengthwise
2 tsp sugar
olive oil
1 oz butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
fresh thyme & oregano, bruised and chopped
1 glass white wine
9 oz Arboria rice
1 ½ pints Vegetable stock
4 oz podded Broad Beans
1 small yellow pepper, chopped
fresh flat leaved parsley, chopped.
Black pepper to taste

• Place the squash in a baking tray and drizzle with the oil. Season with salt & pepper and sprinkle with sugar.
• Place in a hot preheated oven to roast. When the flesh starts to brown, turn over the wedges, sprinkle with a little more sugar and return to the oven. When the flesh starts to caramelise, the squash is cooked. This may take 1 – 1 ½ hours.
• Remove the skin from the squash without damaging the flesh. This is easiest to do when the squash is cold. Chop the flesh into cubes and set aside.
• Melt the butter in a large pan with a drop of oil, to prevent burning.
• Add all of the onion and half of the red onion and sweat off until translucent.
• Add the garlic and sweat for a further 2 minutes.
• Add the mushrooms, thyme and oregano and stir well into the onions. Season with some ground black pepper. Continue to cook for a few minutes with the lid on, until the mushrooms are soft.
• Remove the lid and stir in the rice. Ensure that is it coated with the buttery mushroom liquor and cook gently for 2 minutes.
• Add the white wine and boil hard for 1 minute until all the alcohol has evaporated.
• Add about 1/3rd of the stock, bring to the boil stirring regularly, then turn down to a simmer.
• Regularly stir the rice, adding additional stock as necessary. Do not let the rice stick to the base of the pan.
• The rice will be almost cooked after approx 15-20 minutes. Add the broad beans, yellow pepper and remaining red onion. Add a little more stock, stir again and replace the lid. The beans will cook in 3 – 5 minutes. Stir once or twice to prevent sticking.
• After 3 minutes, stir in the parsley and carefully fold in the squash. Do not stir vigorously – you don’t want to mash up the flesh.
• Once cooked, the rice will retain a little bite – it shouldn’t be soft and fluffy. The risotto should be creamy in texture, but not wet. There should be no excess liquid in the pan.
• Season with ground black pepper and serve.

Alex In May

Just a brief entry this time. The jury's still out on who Alex actually looks like. However, the latest picture is in. Pretty conclusive, I think:-


Spot the resemblance?

I mentioned last month that we moved away from the disposable nappies and on to something a little more 'environmentally friendly'. The 'MotherEase' reusables have proven remarkable easy, although not quite as brainless as the disposables. Now I have poppers to contend with on the nappy as well as the clothing. Sometimes this is just far too much for me to cope with. Anyway, these nappies come as a 'one size fits all'. Consequently Alex currently resembles a weeble (you remember - they wobble but they don't fall down? Except this one does fall down, sometimes) I thought you'd like to see the evidence....


Does my bum look big in this?

Busy Garden in Spring

Busy in the Greenhouse...

March and April are always busy times in the greenhouse. With 47 planned sowings over an 8 week period, all requiring protection from the weather, every available space soon starts to be utilised. In addition, our propensity towards more delicate produce, such as tomatoes, peppers and sweetcorn, all of which require some heat to aid germination mean that the conservatory also fills up very fast.


... and in the Conservatory


In fact, for the first time ever, I’ve even got 2 pots germinating in the fridge (these, of course, don’t need heat to germinate, and ironically, it’s not cold enough outside…). Many of these plants have to remain inside until the risk of frost has passed. Some will be hardened off for a couple of weeks in the coldframe, and some, such as the runner beans will be risked for a planting in mid-May and protected with fleece. But for most of the tender plants, they will spend their first months being shuffled around the greenhouse, potted up along the way. Of course this is the price I have to pay when I insist on sowing the majority of crops in pots and modules. It’s not that they won’t grow satisfactorily if sown directly outdoors, but the crop is later, germination is less predicable and is subject to greater risk from pests.

Last year’s sowings were really chaotic. I made the mistake of sowing every crop as early as possible hoping to get an extended growing season, which meant that my busy sowing period ran from the middle of February. Many plants had to endure an extra month in pots before they could be planted out. I always thought that it was a little ambitious, but as I kept telling myself, last year was just an experiment to test the boundaries and see what we could do.

This backfired big-time when a late and unexpected frost hit in the middle of April, just 2 days after I had transferred my 60 tomato plants from the conservatory. They were 12” tall and quite leggy due to the lack of quality light and just couldn’t survive any longer indoors without permanent damage. So, along with my peppers, chillis and courgettes, they were transferred to the Greenhouse. Surprisingly, the peppers and chillis survived the frost attack, but failed to thrive when they finally fruited in the summer. The tomatoes and courgettes were decimated. I managed to save just a token number, which were carefully nursed back to health, bearing permanent scars of the unforgiving weather for all to see. I immediately made another sowing, but it was now very late in the season for tomatoes, and my crop would be badly affected. I resorted to buying 3 Sungold plants from the garden centre, just enough for a single growbag, to give me that early harvest until my own crop was ready.

For a number of reasons, I have been spacing my sowing out this season. Obviously, I didn’t want to be caught out like that again, but there were other crops that were sown early that just didn’t thrive or had to be re-sown, all contributing to the uncertainty and clutter in the greenhouse. For those that did thrive, I found I had regular gluts of produce, even with the minor concession I had made to successional sowing. Of course, this really is something that is difficult to predict, reliant on many things such as weather, variety and knowledge of your own plot, so I wasn’t at all surprised, but this year I’m taking the successional sowing more seriously with fewer plants, a greater number of plantings and timed further apart hopefully this problem can be resolved. But of course the primary driver for this ‘little and often’ approach was due to Alex’s arrival, and the uncertainty that lay around it. To be honest, I didn’t know if I would have any time at all to spend in the garden this year, but as it happens, it all seems to be slotting together quite nicely.

This ‘little and often’ approach has had an unexpected and beneficial side effect. As it provides what is effectively an extended sowing season, hardy plants such as beetroot, spinach, kohl rabi and turnip are leaving the greenhouse just as tender crops are being sown, thus freeing up much needed space.

Now I’m just off to transplant my peas…

Out with the old...

In February I reviewed the Purple Sprouting Broccoli. It looked sad and weak as the wind battered stems lay across the ground. The plants looked worse because the pigeons had started to strip off the old leaves a few weeks before hand and they were now shielded underneath a force field of netting. However, I couldn’t help think that this was yet another brassica crop that was doomed to fail. After all, I was due to start harvesting it in a couple of weeks but there was nothing but old leaf. I gave it a late feed of poultry manure and let it be. I checked my planting schedule for ‘bed 21’ to find that the broccoli was to be replaced by Garlic at the end of March. Well, I’d give it as long as I could, but I wasn’t expecting much. By early March new leaf growth had started. Probably stimulated by the additional feeding and the milder weather the young greens where quite prolific in the centre and small broccoli heads were starting to develop. I didn’t really have time to let them develop any further. Once the central head is cut, the broccoli would start to produce side shoots and more greens. I cut the heads there and then, hoping that the few weeks remaining would be enough for another crop.


Purple Sprouting Broccoli

The young heads were very small, and not purple at all, but a pale creamy green. From the half dozen plants that I had harvested, I had enough for a meal for 3, plus enough greens for the same again. I walked down towards the house with my harvest – the last crop of 2004. Always one for trying my produce, I popped a leaf into my mouth. ‘No, this can’t be right!’ I thought as I chewed away, ‘ Spring greens are tough and bitter, but these are tender and sweet – like the heart of a good Savoy.’ I immediately tried one of the broccoli spears – ‘Unbelievable – sweet, creamy, subtle. Almost like.. asparagus!’. I couldn’t believe it – just a couple of weeks before hand I was considering consigning these to the compost heap as a bad bet. But now, after 11 months of cultivation I would have been satisfied if I didn’t get another harvest from them, this one cut had made it all worth while.

How best to show off this wonderful crop… Not really a difficult question. With Pauline around I was on for cooking a vegetarian dish anyway, and the best way to promote these would be in a broccoli and mushroom risotto.

I’ve taken 2 subsequent harvests from the sideshoots. These were purple and much more abundant. Although the flavour was nothing to rival that first cut, but still better than you can get from the supermarket. The bed has since been fed with a high nitrogen fertiliser and the plan changed to plant the garlic in a new location. The broccoli has been given a reprieve – potentially until the middle of May when it will be replaced with Celeriac, although I’ll be surprised if I get any more cropping past the end of April.


Broad Beans Flowering in April

My Broad Beans have obviously developed something of a cult following. As you can see, they are flowering away quite merrily and the majority have survived the mixed winter weather with a tolerable attrition rate. Hopefully, we should be on for a good crop in a couple of months.




Mushroom & Broccoli Risotto (serves 3)

This is an excellent way to use up those old mushrooms left over in the fridge – they have an excellent full flavour, but a dreadful texture. Alternatively, replace them with a packet of dried porcini, finely chopped and soaked for 15 mins in boiling water. Retain the liquid to use instead of some of the stock. Fresh broccoli only requires a minimum of cooking to retain the flavour and texture. When cooked, it should be dark green in colour and retain a degree of crunch.

1 onion, chopped
1 oz butter
1 leek, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
6-8 oz old mushrooms, cleaned
4 oz fresh mushrooms with a good flavour, e.g. shitake or brown chestnut, sliced
mixed herbs, bruised & chopped
9 oz Arborio Rice
1 glass dry white wine
1 ½ pt hot vegetable stock
8 oz fresh sprouting Broccoli spears
freshly ground black pepper to season


· Melt the butter in a large pan with a drop of oil, to prevent burning.
· Add the onions and sweat off until translucent.
· Add the garlic & leeks and cover, continuing to sweat gently.
· Place the old mushrooms in a food processor and chop very finely. Stir into the onion mix, along with the sliced shitake mushrooms and herbs. Season with some ground black pepper. Continue to cook for a couple of minutes with the lid on.
· Remove the lid and stir in the rice. Ensure that is it coated with the buttery mushroom liquor and cook gently for 2 minutes.
· Add the white wine and boil hard for 1 minute until all the alcohol has evaporated.
· Add about 1/3rd of the stock, bring to the boil stirring regularly, then turn down to a simmer.
· Regularly stir the rice, adding additional stock as necessary. Do not let the rice stick to the base of the pan.
· The rice will be almost cooked after approx 20 minutes. Add a little more stock and stir again. Place the broccoli on top of the rice and replace the lid. The broccoli will cook in 3 – 5 minutes in the steam. Stir once or twice to prevent sticking.


Add the Broccoli to the risotto

· Once cooked, the rice will retain a little bite – it shouldn’t be soft and fluffy. The risotto should be creamy in texture, but not wet. There should be no excess liquid in the pan.
· Season with ground black pepper and serve with a strong grated cheese.

By Special Request

Alex

Nag, Nag, Nag…

Since Alex was born, all I seem to get from certain people (yes, you know who you are,) is whinging. “What’s happening? What’s she been doing? Where are the photos? Why haven’t you updated your blog?”

Advanced data mining techniques have determined the demographic profile of these people to be single white females who have no children, working in the Finance sector, named Michelle.

My response to these questions is quite straightforward, although the uncensored version is probably not publishable. I had committed to maintain this blog on a monthly basis, and this I have continued to do. We appreciate everyone’s interest in Alex’s progress, but over the past few weeks we have been concentrating on more pressing things, all baby related, and have struggled with such luxuries as sleeping and remembering to eat. Consequently maintaining this blog on a more frequent basis hasn’t really rated. However, as things are starting to settle down into something of a routine I finally find myself with time to provide an update on what’s been happening over the last few weeks.

We couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital. We had planned to come home a day earlier, but overnight complications with the breastfeeding highlighted another day would be beneficial to all parties. Unfortunately our plan for an early get-away on the Wednesday was scuppered by the fact that half the hospital wanted to be discharged at the same time, so we didn’t leave before 5:00pm. This is, of course, just a money spinning trick of the local hospital, encouraging you to pump extortionate amounts of money the ‘pay and display’ in order that they can subsidise their inadequately funded health services.


Coming Home

As we left the hospital, I was struck by 2 surprises. I had anticipated feelings of fear & trepidation – how could they just let you walk out of the maternity ward after a couple of days with a real live baby? But no, I was overcome with a feeling that everything was OK, and how natural it all felt. This was very unexpected. The second surprise was just how heavy a car seat is to carry, even for a short distance and with no baby. Obviously a gap in the market here to be exploited.


The first couple of weeks were, well let’s just say ‘up and down’. You really are thrown in at the deep end of a very reactive situation, and boy, is that learning curve steep! 20 minutes to change that first nappy, 30 minutes to get her properly dressed, every minute of the day (and night) is spent focused on the baby, and you have no time for anything else. You’ll do anything to stop her from crying, and are so grateful when she finally falls asleep.



Great When She's Asleep

Of course, this kind of existence is not sustainable, and you must ‘Evolve or Die’.


Not so good when she's awake...

Fortunately for all concerned, the former prevailed, thanks to the assistance of friends & relatives.


Help from Grandad

When things were at their lowest, we were forced to do the one thing that we had been dreading – go out. For 2 weeks we had been shut away inside, but now needs must (we had run out of milk), we must face the outside world. Of course, in a way I had been looking forward to this moment for 9 months - at last I could legitimately claim my ‘Parent & Child’ premium parking space at the supermarket. But how were we going to cope? Alex wouldn’t stay quiet for more than a few minutes and needed feeding and changing so often we should have put her on a conveyor belt. This was one of those situations when your fears are totally unfounded, and ‘problems’ that you foresee are blown totally out of proportion. This happened to be the most relaxing day we had had for 2 weeks. As soon as she got into the car, Alex was fast asleep. She was paraded around Tescos, collecting comments from admirers on the way, waking up every now and then for a few seconds just to fall asleep again. That evening she fell asleep at 9:30 and slept solidly until 3:00am – a record which she still hasn’t broken.


We Like Shopping

We were quite surprised to find that Alex actually liked her bath times. Our research had indicated that she would scream her head off until she realised that bath time was an opportunity to splash water all over Daddy, and only then would it be fun.


And We Like Bath Time

With all the skill of a finely honed Formula One pit crew, nappy changes are now happening in seconds. Unfortunately (and to continue the F1 analogy), the FIA are about to change the rules again, doing away with the high-cost disposables and bringing in the reusable ‘cloth’ option, sacrificing speed and race predictability in favour of environmentally friendly option with the long term cost savings. Unlike the FIA changes, this will introduce greater downforce and make Alex look like a diminutive sumo wrestler.


New Surroundings

In the last week things have definitely moved on a pace. Alex is now rapidly approaching 8lb and has outgrown her first sets of clothing. Some of the screaming has been replaced by cooing, and she starts to take interest in things around her. However, she has already indicated that she is fed up with the electioneering and retains some of her best screams for the evening news.

As of Tuesday, she was officially registered as Alexandra Elizabeth Bonfield – in ASDA, of all places. I mean, I know that supermarkets are branching out, but this is ridiculous!


Dressed To Go Out

A Month In...

I remember my first driving lesson as though it were yesterday (…this is, of course, an exaggeration – over the past few weeks, time has become somewhat blurred, especially the night time, and I no longer know when yesterday really was…).

I was sitting in a red Metro with my AA driving instructor. He had collected me from my house and we had taken a quiet back road into Harden. We exchanged a few pleasantries on the way, talking about the weather, my previous driving experience, etc, and after a few miles, he pulled over. “Do you know what a clutch is?” he said. It was clear from his tone that I needed to show some degree of rudimentary automotive knowledge before he would let me behind the wheel.

For the next 10 minutes I lectured him on the fundamentals of the manual clutch operation, including my opinions on its inefficiencies, particularly in relation to the ‘human element’, and my surprise that after all these years of improvement in other areas of torque transfer and control mechanisms, such as differentials and viscous couplings, that a more appropriate solution hadn’t yet been adopted as a standard for everyday driving. I followed this up with my opinions on the benefits of automatic transmission and my lack of comprehension over its adoption in the UK, unlike in the States, where manuals are virtually unheard of. (A naïve view this may have been with the additional cost implications of an auto, but a view that I back to this day. After all, I’m currently driving 18,000 miles a year, mostly on a combination of dual carriageway and inner city roads at rush hour. Although I love to drive, this constant stop-start motoring isn’t exactly relaxing, but switching to an auto made the trip an absolute dream, and the benefits far outweighed the additional running costs. After all, is there really a point to driving a manual unless you have a performance car? I really don’t think so. Give yourself a break & trade it in for an auto next time. You’ll be glad you did. I digress.)

After I had finished answering that one question, my instructor, looking rather shell-shocked, decided that he didn’t need to ask me any more of his questions, put down his clipboard and indicated that it was time to start driving. We swapped seats and I carefully followed his instructions. I had been practising with Kath for several weeks – cruising around quiet car parks on Sunday mornings, random pop quizzes on the Highway code, that kind of thing. But somehow, this was different. I was driving in a different car, on a road, with an instructor. Somehow this made everything more real, and more scary.

I was focusing hard. Remembering everything that I had previously learned and read. I was so pleased that I had pulled away so smoothly – no bunny hopping down the road for me, oh no! My instructor would quickly recognise that I had potential. I was zipping down the road at 15 mph and constantly making steering adjustments. I thought I was doing quite well, but it was like driving a dodgem.

“We are going to speed up in a moment” said the instructor. Speed up? I was struggling to keep the car on the right side of the road at this speed. This was all a lot harder than I had expected. I was doing fine practising in the car parks, but somehow this was very different.

“How far in front of the car are you focusing?” he asked. This was not something that I had actually considered. I thought about what he had said and then realised that I was staring down the bonnet on the car and focusing on the road about 5 yards ahead.
“Try and focus a little further down the road. In a short time you’ll automatically focus 30 yards in front of the car. You need to loosen your grip on the steering wheel” I looked at my grip on the wheel – my knuckles were white. I tried to relax my grip and continued on.

Down the road was a sign for a sharp turn to the right, and painted on the road was the word ‘SLOW’. As a law-abiding learner driver, I duly applied the brakes. “You really don’t have to slow down for this corner – I know that’s what the sign says, but it’s aimed at drivers travelling faster than 10 mph. I know there’s a lot to think about, but you are trying too hard. What you need to do is relax. Take one hand off the wheel”

My instructor spent the next 10 minutes getting me to relax. If I focus on things further down the road, I have more time to respond and have a much smoother driving experience. I don’t need to worry about what’s happening immediately in front of the car – those minor speed and steering corrections become second nature. In that instant of realisation, my driving lesson changed. All of a sudden everything became more relaxed and easier. Everything just flowed.

No doubt you are wondering why I’m recalling these experiences, Ronnie Corbett style, as I sit here in my armchair, wearing my golf sweater and big glasses.

These memories hadn’t crossed my mind for years. But after Alex was born, all of a sudden there they were. To me, a clear parallel (to others, maybe not so clear, but after all, they’re my memories…). You know bringing up a baby for the first time is going to be hard. Everybody says so. You’ve read it in all the books. You’ve ‘practised’ on other children. You know what to expect – the sleep deprivation, the lack of routine, the anguish, the stress, the disruption, the change. You’ve done everything that you can - you are as prepared as you can be. But you can never be prepared. It doesn’t matter what people say or how much support they give, you’re there all alone, staring down the bonnet, trundling along at 15 mph, holding on to the wheel as tightly as you can. You know you need to go faster, but you just can’t do any more without losing control. Fortunately, as with the driving, all of this starts to pass when you feel that you can start to relax. Start to accept some of the change and loss of control. Only then can you move on.

Alex is now a month old. Over the past week things have begun to turn. A pattern of behaviour is starting to emerge, and with that the opportunity to plan and get on with the day-to-day things in life, all the things that were taken for granted only a few weeks ago. The support that we have received over the past few weeks has been unparalleled, and without it things would have been harder. But the new realisation of parenthood is something that you’ve got to adapt to yourself in your own time, and anybody who tells you that bringing up your first child in those early weeks isn’t going to be that bad really doesn’t know what they’re talking about!

Who's The Daddy?

Alex Bonfield

We are finally pleased to announce the arrival of our Baby girl, Alex.

Born just after 11:00pm on Sunday, 6th March 2005 (yes, Mother's Day) weighing 6lb 9oz


Mother & Baby doing well

Kath is recovering well from an eventful labour which, from waters breaking to final delivery lasted 19 hours.

Alex is feeding well, and already starting to show the predictable traights of a combined Bonfield - Evans gene pool.


I am Environmentally Friendly

It is apparent that Alex shares many of her parent's characteristics, such as her father's lack of hair and dodgy complexion, and her mother's impressive lung capacity & loud voice.

Go! Go! Go!

The immortal words of Murray Walker. Not exactly Formula 1. Probably closer to Formula milk. But Cunning Plan no. 365 was invoked last night with surprising success. After the number of failed attempts to induce labour this week, any success was going to be surprising.

The first week of the Formula 1 calendar. A weekend's motor racing at Albert Park, Melbourne. The early and late season races are so annoying -you can't seem them live because of the time difference and you end up overhearing the results on the news the following day before you've had a chance to watch the re-runs. The new qualifying rules and mixed weather had thrown the grid into turmoil with Schumacher at the back, and the first couple of races always throw a few upsets with new cars and new drivers. If only I had an excuse to be up at 3:00am....

After a couple of false alerts towards the end of last week, I had concluded that dog walks and curry alone just weren't cutting it. But combined? I'd planned an afternoon's walk, followed by a trip to B&Q. Pushing a trolley up and down the aisles was bound to have an effect. All followed up with another curry. Surely this must do the job. So the plan was set. Kath would finish the Murgh Haleem and roll around in fits of ginger induced contractions. By 3:00am, she'd be in full swing and I could watch the Australian Grand Prix, whilst fetching extra pillows and making cups of tea.

However, I was overruled and Kath weighed in with a plan so subtle, that it would never have crossed my mind. So cunning, that Baldric would have pinned a tail on it and called it a fox. Having said this, she still wanted the curry.

"What we need to do", she said in a matter of fact sort of way, "is change the bedding". This went completely over my head. I couldn't under stand - was is it the colour or the pattern that the labour objected to? Or maybe it was the smell....

"Psychology" she said. "If we put on clean bedding, my waters will break and make a horrible mess. The clean bedding will have to go straight in the washing machine. It's obvious!"

Inspired. I was speechless. Although I did adapt the plan slightly by allowing her to change the bedding herself. The extra stretching could only help, after all.

I was awoken with a sudden gush. Well, not exactly. The plan had worked! As the waters cascading across the bedroom floor, I checked my alarm clock. It was 4:00am. An hour late. Ah well, I suppose you can't have everything. I can always catch the Grand Prix in the afternoon's rerun.

Kath phoned the hospital. "Oh yes, come in as soon as you can and we'll check you over". At 5:45am we arrived at the maternity ward. The midwife confirmed the events of the morning, and that Bump was well. "We'll keep an eye on how things progress over the next couple of hours. Just lie back and watch the TV". The TV was duly switched on, only to display the final Grand Prix results on the News.

After a period of monitoring, it was decided that Bump was in no hurry to make an appearance, and the best thing to do would be to wait it out at home. "If nothing happens, come back in at 9:00am tomorrow and we'll induce you", the midwife said.

Now the clock really is ticking. Here starteth the longest day....

The Time Is Nigh!!!

The Changing Shape of Dr B.

Somehow I think this may be my last log before ‘the big event’. Kath is definitely changing shape – and I mean visibly before my very eyes. Bump has dropped in a dramatic plummet over the past few days and now, it’s just a matter of time.

I know I was ranting before about not rushing nature, but at the end of the day, I’m a very impatient person. Not only that, but I've finally run out of space in bed. It's like sleeping in a very well padded coffin. For those of you running a sweepstake on the maximum number of pillows in the bed, we're up to 8!

Only a week to go – what can I do? Psychology! Obvious. So I planned a trip to Glasgow overnight, during some of the worst snowy weather we’ve experienced for some years. 300 miles away, the chance of being snowed in. It had everything. But on my return, bump was still there waiting.

I was however met with an order for a take away curry. Umm – Aagrah – my favourite. With Pauline being up, Kath had ordered a selection of Vegetarian dishes for a change. But instead of the usual mild and mediums, she had gone for a range of Extra Hot chilli dishes. An old wives tale, I know, but what the hell – lets give it ago. Not that I’m complaining – I love hot curries, even if they are vegetarian. In this instance, of course, vegetarian means replace the chicken with extra chillies. And this did have an effect – but not the one that I desired.

Later on in the week, and in a similar vein I cooked a Chilli and ginger Chickpea Daal. Something of a two-pronged attack, you could say. For some hours I was convinced that this had done the trick. At last, had I beaten nature? No. In the end it just turned out to be indigestion.

Running out of options – only a couple of days to go. More psychology. I arranged to play a game of Poker with friends on Sunday evening. But the only effect that this had was to loose me $2.

Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to accept the inevitable. Tomorrow’s the big day. Will she be on time? Women’s prerogative and all that, but I suppose there’s always a first time.
Watch this space…



Kath & Dune

February Visitors

Meg on Holiday


February has been a busy time for visitors. People popping in to see us, or just Kath, before the addition arrives and our time is no longer our own. Many thanks to all of those who have ‘donated to the cause’. Contributions are always greatly appreciated.

Pauline has just left for home after a few days making curtains. No doubt hoping to catch an early drop, I imagine it must have been more like stitching mail bags. Anyway, it was not to be and she returns to Southampton with Meg for a few days of rest and recuperation before she has to turn around and do it all again. Billy and Dune are always pleased to see Meg. We still see this as part of their therapy – Meg is their mentor, showing them how good dogs interact (although we could do without the barking at the postman).



Ellie & Dune


It was good to see John, Julia & Ellie again as well. And Julia - thanks for the essential purchase advice - I'm still struggling to convince Kath that I need a digital camcorder, but I'm working on it. This is also part of the dog’s continued tuition, providing contact with children of all ages has proven to be very successful over the past couple of years (and just as well…). Despite attempts to pull their tails, ears, legs, neck, etc, they just take it all in their stride. Oh, and thanks for the travel cot – I’m sure I’ll have worked out how to take it down before it’s too late.

In fact the only person we didn’t see was David. Due to a sprained wrist and a broken toilet, a planned visit was postponed until after the birth. He’s had to go off to Kenya to recuperate, but David – you can’t put it off forever. There’s a flowerbed waiting to be dug, and it’s still got your name on it.

Spring Arrives In The Garden

Spring arrives


And finally it arrives. Spring is here. The gardening year can start again in earnest. Well, I’ve been caught out like this before. One bunch of snowdrops does not a springtide make. I know full well that there’s every likelihood by the end of the month we’ll be covered in snow and sub zero temperatures, so I’ll be sticking to my carefully developed plan and not jumping into a knee-jerk gardening mode like some of my neighbours. Just because the sun is out doesn’t mean that it’s a good time to sow your tomatoes. Just because the ground is dry, it isn’t a good enough reason to shave your lawn to within a millimetre of its life. Getting the jump on nature is a very dangerous game, and one that you rarely win. Don’t even try.

But even so, it is nice to see the snowdrops out, and the bluebells and daffs pushing through.

There’s a limited amount to do around the garden at the moment. Things are starting to move, albeit very slowly. Most of the activities are the tidy up and preparation exercises that were not carried out at the end of last season. Cut back the vegetation in the pond. Dig over and compost the vegetable beds. Sterilise the Greenhouse. But it’s not all mundane housekeeping.


Rhubarb Triangle?


At last my new fruit arrived. Enough rhubarb to force, 20 new raspberry canes to replace the ones that mysteriously died last year, and 3 apple trees to train as Espaliers along the vegetable garden fence. The raspberries are still bugging me – I think they were my only unexplained failure last year. Before we started to renovate the garden, it was overrun with wandering raspberry canes. Raspberries are quite particular about their soil requirements. Not too wet, not acidic. The fact that we have an abundance of canes growing out of control across the garden implied that we had good raspberry conditions. I purchased 4 varieties – 2 summer and 2 autumn.

I had gone for relatively new varieties, with good yield and flavour, forgoing the more traditional varieties specifically because of increased disease resistance. They were planted in a newly prepared bed and cut back hard. Last spring, every cane sprouted and started to grow away vigorously. And then, without any kind of warning, 3 of the 4 varieties started to die back. With no obvious sign of infection, I had assumed some kind of pest attack, but nothing could be found. The ground was moist but not waterlogged, and the variety that survived completely, although a little more sheltered than the others by the greenhouse, was growing in identical conditions but appeared unaffected. One variety, ‘Tullameen’, was hit hard on the right hand side of the row, but the left side survived (so these were retained).

In the autumn I ripped out the affected plants. I’ve now replaced them with 3 all time classic varieties – Malling Jewel, Malling Admiral & Autumn Bliss. If these don’t survive, then I have a serious problem.


Broad Beans Survive!


I was amazed at the number of emails coming in on one specific topic. They would all say the same thing: “James, how are your Broad Beans? Did they survive?”. If you recall, they were planted a little too late in the autumn and struggled to germinate. I brought them indoors where they germinated very quickly and started to grow away. Then the weather closed in I was concerned that the green sappy growth wouldn’t be ably to withstand a frost attack, so they stayed inside until the cold spell had passed. By this time they were very lanky and there was no guarantee that they would last the distance in the greenhouse.

Well, with a bit of TLC they made it through. They were hardened off in the cold frame, and planted out into their final positions a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly, with all of the abuse they have suffered, I had less than 10% attrition rate. So we’re still on for the first crop of the season, probably sometime in mid May.


Potatoes Chitting

We’ve got potatoes chitting, Basil and early lettuce germinating, summer cabbage, Kohl Rabi and Beetroot sown, and early peas planted out in strips of guttering, as recommended by the Great Geoff.

With all of the February tasks completed, it really does feel like the gardening year has started to kick in again. Next month will be busier than ever. I continue to learn from previous years and made a conscious effort to gradually build up the sowing rather than forcing a lot of crops in as early as possible. Many early crops failed last year and had to be resowed, or just got stuck in the greenhouse for too long a time. As I say, you can't rush nature – but with one thing and another next month, I don’t know where I’ll find the time…

It's Getting Bigger!!!

I'm sure there are feet down there, somewhere


It just suddenly started to grow. After almost 8 months, bump put on a final spurt. I thought it was big enough. I thought it couldn’t get any bigger, but I was proved wrong.
And then we started the Antenatal classes, and I realised just how big these bumps could really get. Kath was one of 3 in class due in the same week. And these 3 were the ‘most advanced’. Kath was by far apparently the ‘smallest’, although one of the other ladies was having twins (I always liked the idea of twins, but the ‘blimpesque’ appearance and problems with the most basic of tasks, like how do you get close enough to the door handle to open the door? And once you’ve opened the door, how do you get through? Has put me off somewhat). However, I was pleased to hear Kath’s bump described by the Health Visitor as ‘Neat’. I like to think that this means bump is well packaged, rather than the Health Visitor being a drug crazed hippy from the seventies.

Antenatal classes were not as bad as I had expected. The images I had of a large group of couples sitting around on the floor, playing with dolls, practising breathing and pelvic floor exercises, whilst the fathers are systematically patronised by the midwife were all in my head. Of course, I didn’t make it easy for myself by missing the first class because of work commitments. According to the Midwife, being 300 miles away was no excuse, and next week she expected to see me at Kath’s side. That was me told – I didn’t miss another class.

We had our tour of the hospital’s maternity wing during there regular weekend ‘open hour’. It was Sunday, around midday, and a couple of dozen people turned up to look around. Couples, parents, children. Obviously a popular venue for a wet winter weekend’s free entertainment. The Facilities in York District Hospital appear to be very comprehensive, and security equivalent to what was in place in Alcatraz. The tour was only spoilt by period blood curdling screams from the labour ward. Very off-putting and so inconsiderate. What were they thinking of? It was Sunday lunchtime ant there was a tour on. They’ve been in labour for 24 hours – couldn’t they just wait another 10 minutes? Honestly, some people.


"It's getting bigger, missus"


I get the feeling the dogs are aware that ‘things they are a changin’. Not least because their routine is up in the air at the moment as we replan dog activities over the coming months, And probably because they now get shouted at by ‘Missus’ when Kath gets nosed in the bump. Ouch!