'Blue Bayou' Tomato

This is a 'black' cherry tomato that's well worth growing outdoors in the UK. It's  sweet and when cooked has a superb rich flavour.

However, it's tricky to harvest at the right time so I've written this guide to make it easier.

Most tomatoes start green and stay that way for quite a few weeks as they grow towards harvest size. Not this one! It quickly turns from green into a very dark blue/black cherry. An easy mistake is to harvest at this stage. It's still really a green tomato. 

Here's three pictures of the same (unripe) tomato 

A casual view

Underside shows some green

Inside is green and not nice

Here's a truly ripe fruit

Has a red patch and no green

Inside, red and delicious 

Fuchsia "TriColour" - an amazing plant!

 This hardy* Fuchsia isn't rare - lots of garden centres have them. At fist sight, they look quite good with cream/grey/green leaves and decent red flowers but in late May/early June, they have a lot of red on the leaves like this! 

Catch it even earlier and the new shoots are a dark chocolate red.

So, to summarise, it offers the standard hardy Fuchsia characteristics,  in leaf and flower from around June to December plus a couple of months of  chocolate, red and purple foliage before that.

*Yes, it is hardy in Gloucestershire, UK but not quite as hardy as some. I lost one out of three plants last Winter.

Life with a Broken Ankle

 I don’t have a broken ankle, but my partner recently broke hers. Most of my experience before this was at school where there always seemed to be someone who’d broken something and had a nice white cast which we gathered around to autograph. It seemed like a trivial rite of passage for the unfortunate few.

Turns out that a broken ankle is quite a big deal. To start with, you can’t put any weight on it for about 6 weeks.  If you have a job that requires you to be walking around, it’s just about impossible for several months. The NHS doesn’t provide you with a wheelchair and in any case, one wouldn’t be particularly useful if you have a substantial number of steps to reach your front door. You’re not totally immobile, the NHS does give you crutches and for the first 6 weeks or so, you can make some progress relying on your good leg to bear a lot of the weight.

A major irritation with crutches is what to do with them when you’re NOT using them. Wherever you “park” them, they are very likely to fall over. All the surfaces are rounded so if you lean them against a wall or table, the slightest knock will send them crashing to the floor. For a short video on the issue and a possible solution, see https://youtube.com/shorts/n5cous0aNL8?feature=share 

All weight is taken on the crutches and your good leg. Yoiur  arms get very tired.

Even if you can move around with crutches, it’s very hard to carry anything at all because your hands are fully occupied with the crutches. You might be able to make a cup of tea but you can’t carry it away to another table. Shopping is almost impossible because you can’t operate a basket or trolley. Taking rubbish out or positioning a wheelie bin is out of the question.

You can move some items by throwing them across the room or even up or down stairs.

One of the things we discovered is that empty space is the enemy of the crutch-user. It forces you to use both crutches all the time. My house is quite spacious so this was hard work. Her flat is much smaller, and she could stand and move about in the kitchen area without using the crutches – relying on the worksurfaces for support. Related to this, my staircase doesn’t have any bannisters, so she had to get up and down sat on her rear  (It’s actually quite difficult to manage stairs of any sort with crutches and there’s a lot of potential for falls). Transferring to crutches again at the top of the stairs was made much easier by placing a chair within reach.

Another issue was that it was all very tiring. Partly this was the laborious process of moving around but also the process of the body doing repairs takes it out of you.

With so many tasks impossible or at least very difficult, people living on their own have a very hard time of it. Even for those with a willing carer, it probably means an enormous adjustment of roles. Fortunately, I had the time and inclination to help and she was willing to accept it. I think it’s brought us closer but it’s not just a simple matter of asking a carer to do the things you’d usually do – you could find that  they don’t do it the way you want or are insufficiently pernickety.

Eight months after the accident, it’s largely healed and she returned tp her physical job about 2 months ago. We have also returned to dancing but there is still some pain and going down steps is difficult. 

And we never had a nice white cast suitable for autographs.

How to control Fuchsia flowering?

This is a one off gardening "discovery".  Take a look at these two Fuchsia 'Genii" plants photographed today...

The one on the left has been planted in a sunny bed for several years.  The other one was in a pot in a fairly shady location for a similar period - until about a month ago when I moved the container into the sun.

As one might expect, the "shady" plant has mainly green leaves rather than the yellow-green in the sun.  It didn't have many flowers either. 

Now that the previously shaded plant is in the sun, this seems to have triggered lots of flowering.

This suggests that the way to get a great floral display from a Fuchsia is to keep it fairly shady and then expose it to bright sunshine when you want a display? Of course, the display may be short-lived!

Let them eat Turnips

 I've been amused by a recent news item, "Eat turnips during vegetable shortage, suggests Therese Coffey"  as I've been eating very nice turnips for years. Sure, the standard turnip, often sold as part of a "stew pack" in supermarkets can be pretty ordinary. Growing a similar crop in your garden may get you a better standard of vegetable but going a bit further can get you something fantastic!

Two sorts of Turnips

Maincrop/Winter Turnips

This is the standard turnip. Fairly large and capable of being stored, the flavour is fairly mild. Typical colours are yellow and green. You sow seeds July/August and harvest in October or later. They're decent eating.

But instead, consider (drum roll)

Early/Spring Turnips

These varieties are far less commonly seen. Ideally you  pull them out of the garden at golf-ball size and  eat them raw or lightly boiled. They're typically cream/purple. You sow seed February - June and harvest May - September. They have much more flavour.

The classic variety is "Purple Top Milan" and I've grown them on and off for years. This season, I even tried sowing seed in November under cloches and it's a bit soon to tell how well this will work - but they have germinated and seem to be growing well. As well as getting some more seed in the ground this month, I'm going to try a new-to-me variety, "Tokyo Cross" in April

So, if you're any sort of vegetable gardener, go buy a packet of turnip seeds and give them a whirl!

Covid Recovery: Oxfolk Ceilidh at Kennington, Oxford, 12 February 2022

In 2019 and for over 30 years before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Saturday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in January was cancelled.

In years gone by, entry was usually by cash on the door and numbers could go over 100 although occasionally they were much lower. This event was limited to 80  tickets bought online in advance. All 80 tickets were sold and I know at least two people who missed out. 

Quite a few of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 but there were a lot of first timers - and that wouldn't have been so unusual prior to the pandemic.

The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe",  all stewards were masked-up and there was guidance on the website:

Covid-19 Safety Guidance

We know that we need to keep everyone who wants to come to our dances as safe as possible. Our safety guidance for everyone attending is this:

• If you have Covid symptoms please don’t come. If you have bought a ticket, we will refund you, no questions asked.
• All of Oxfolk’s volunteers will have done lateral flow tests before the ceilidh to keep you safe, and we ask you to do the same. Ideally, do your test in the hour before you leave for the ceilidh, and certainly not more than 48 hours beforehand. Home-test kits are free, and available here (also available to collect from many pharmacies).
• We are restricting the number of tickets we sell.
• The hall will be ventilated.
• Sanitizer and hand washing facilities will be available

I saw one dancer (who looked to be early teenage) masked up. Instead of draft beer at the bar, it was offered in bottles. There were a few old signs urging 2m social distance. 

Overall, it was almost completely back to 2019-style.

Covid Recovery: "Knees Up" English Ceilidh at Cecil Sharp House 21 January 2022

 In 2019 and for several decades before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Friday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in December was cancelled.

We certainly had 16 people on the floor quite often and it might have occasionally got up to 20.  In normal times, numbers could go over 100 although occasionally it's much less.  Most of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 although I did spot at least one completely novice couple.

The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe" and advertised

• Compulsory Covid Pass checking
• Compulsory LFT before attending
• Compulsory Green/Yellow/Red ribbons for 2019-style/distancing/own partners only choices.

These were enforced with the possible exception of the LTF (If the NHS checker App was set to only show "pass" if the vaccination and test were both in order, then it was enforced) 

Nearly everyone chose a green ribbon. I've noticed before that after the summer, most people seem to either go dancing like it's 2019, stay away and just a very small minority actually go dancing but want restrictions.

 English Ceilidh is fairly athletic and although  dancers tried hard, they were perhaps not as fit as they would have been in 2019 so there were quite a few rest breaks and the dance finished a little early.