Day Two Hundred and Ninety Two + 4

I thought further about the idea of simply extending this blog to cover my sudden and strange desire to write about a small patch of land and the vegetables it may produce, and decided after a glass of Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz last night that it makes more sense to start on a new page.

This blog was about Emily and I realising an originally sketchy plan to build our own office. That it happened is, to me, remarkable; but then I am of little faith.

The new blog will be about my trials and, undoubtedly, many tears of frustration in trying to understand how to cultivate a small and rather unkempt piece of land and grow a vegetable - any vegetable.

A single edible pea will be more rewarding to me than those 20 years in advertising; a single pea, grown by me.

So, this blog has reached its final day.

A parting word. For your future health avoid any wine called Jip Jip Rocks - I should have known. I spent the day with a New Orleans brass band marching out of step and out of tune over every cell (there are a couple left) in my admittedly small brain.

http://thesmallgreenpatch.blogspot.com/

Day Two Hundred and Ninety Two + 2

Emily went into the new office today to put more of the files in order - she enjoys it, honestly.

Me, I stayed in the apartment, researched vegetables and soil types (honestly), cooked and watched Anthony Bourdain in Boston.

Emily returned with this very fragrant pot of herbs...

It arrived too late to be added to tonight's chicken saag.

Wilted spinach blitzed with garlic, green chilli, ginger and a little chicken stock.

The dish is more spinach than chicken, which is good, but I think a handful of cannellini beans will add more substance.

Day Two Hundred and Ninety Two + 1

This blog officially ended yesterday.

Emily's video of the fireworks outside the White House was the clue.

So there is no obligation whatsoever to read further, especially as from now on this blog will be about vegetables.

Let us begin.

Plotting the plot.

The inspiration.

First thoughts.

Remember the cauliflower?

I opened Tender at random, read this and thought "Why not?"


'If any vegetable was made to sit under a blanket of smooth cheese sauce, then this is it. As you pour your creamy bechamel mornay or hollandaise over its chaste white curds it will stay there, caught amongst the gentle bumps, clouds and hollows of this, the pinnacle of the brassica family. You know, for once, that this is a recipe that was always meant to be.'

I have never grown a single vegetable. I've never grown anything actually, aside from a middle age paunch, but the beauty of Nigel Slater's writing in Tender is that it makes me want to grow stuff, and eat the stuff that I have planted, watered and nurtured.

And then this, which is on page 20, under the heading 'Kit and why it matters'.

'My gardening tools mean as much to me as my kitchen equipment. It matters to me that something feels good in the hand, that it has a certain patina and that it does the job well. Most of my stuff is second hand and much loved. Yes, my copper spade and Japanese pruning sheers cost a bob or two but, like a decent kitchen knife, they make each job all the more pleasurable.'

What more did I need to read?

It can't be that hard, can it?

Day Two Hundred and Ninety Two

.

.

Day Two Hundred and Ninety One

That was some trip - it needs Hunter S. Thompson, or preferably Byron, to make sense of the last 9.7 months.

Does this pass muster?

I hope so.

Day Two Hundred and Ninety

The first collection of photos are from Washington D.C. where we spent the weekend for the 4th of July festivities - most of these are of art, because there is so much great art in the city and so few people in the museums.

And two in memory of Cy Twombly, who died yesterday in Rome.

Two buildings.

...and back to the real white house, the one where decisions as momentous as, "Do we really need parking bumpers?", are made in a split second (a split second in our case being roughly four and a half weeks). 

It's very neat, tidy and clean inside because we are moving in tomorrow.

The deck had a final coat of lacquer this afternoon.

A video of the fireworks in D.C. may be added to this post - that depends on the editing skills of the cinematographer...

Day Two Hundred and Eighty Five